Risks Digest 24.10] Risks of applying to law school

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 10:44:21 -0800
From: Tony Lima <tonylima2 () att net>
Subject: Risks of applying to law school

No, not the risks you're thinking of.

A friend is applying to law school.  He's young but knows something about
computers.  Law schools collaborate with the Law School Admissions Council
(http://www.lsac.org) to use a single application form.  This form is
created using OmniForm (published by Nuance, formerly known as ScanSoft).
OmniForm requires that you install an ActiveX control on your computer.
This control apparently only works on Windows computers.  Macs are not
welcome. (So much for "Legally Blonde.") Linux and other flavors of UNIX are
beyond the pale.

My friend was mumbling obscenities about installing this control.  The
computer he was working on apparently died during the process so I took a
deep breath and said he could work with my notebook computer.  He dug into
the application, got to the ActiveX installation screen and the control
refused to install.  At that point I took over (not wanting him messing with
my security settings).  I finally got the control to install after doing the
following:

- Disabling my anti-spyware software (ewido security suite).  I then tried
to install the control with no luck.

- Setting the privacy permission for lsac.org to "allow."  Again no luck
installing the control.

- Eliminating all security by making the security settings (Tools/Internet
Options/Security/Custom Level) completely open.  I enabled each and every
ActiveX and other control including unsigned controls and controls marked as
not safe.  The control then installed successfully.

Now perhaps I didn't have to go quite that far but a deadline was
approaching and I really didn't want to take the time to perform the trial
and error that would apparently be required to determine exactly how much
security to give up.

It occurs to me that this is truly THE law school admission test.  If you're
dumb enough to let this control install you're probably good law school
material.  OTOH if you don't let the control through then you're too smart
to be a lawyer.  (That's about all the humor I can manage after 1.5 hours
fighting with this stuff.  I've disconnected from the net and am running my
usual four scanning programs right now.)

Tony Lima, Prof. of Economics, California State University, East Bay
tony.lima () csueastbay edu  (510) 885-3889

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