Posted by TDot on Aug 15, 2010 in
Site Stats What do “nom nom nom”, “::headdesk::”, and “#fml” all have in common?
Lots of people looking for nom-ing bunnies...
They’re all internet memes I’ve been using here on law:/dev/null for months now… and they’ve turned into a real headache when it comes to site maintenance 
I first noticed something was amiss when the blog got hit by a massive wave of spam comments back on July 11th. The pageview spike was so massive I had to leave out that entire day when updating these bar charts, otherwise the “Pageviews per Day” bar would be about 50% higher than it is now.
To highlight the spike, I created a new chart below graphing the number of spam comments against the number of unique IP addresses we had in a given month (higher bars == more spam comments per capita).
As I spent the next couple weeks re-acquainting myself with .htaccess directives for this spam prevention entry, I noticed something else odd in the log files: we had a trio of referrer URLs showing megabytes upon megabytes of data being transferred but with -0- corresponding pageviews. After poking around I realized the bunny picture from this old Contracts entry was being hotlinked all over the place for reasons I couldn’t figure out.
So I logged in to Google’s Webmaster Tools for the first time in months, and figured out what was going on — over 15,000+ searches on 30 different variations of “om nom nom” 
July brought lots of spam...
Apparently when I switched how WordPress sets post URLs last month (from the old numeric “?p=1234″ to the current setup), the search index for that Contracts entry went up high enough that the bunny picture became the #1 result for anyone doing a Google search with “nom nom” in it.
Not the entire entry of course. Just the bunny pic.
Things have calmed down a bit now that I’ve started banning spambots and limiting the hotlinks. My guess is traffic will go back to a more-linear growth pattern for August. We’ll see what happens 
***
On the search query front, we had a bunch of duplicate searches but also some fresh ones. Here are 20 of the 100+ unique search terms that brought folks here in July:
- chazz clevinger: worked with me as the Vice President of Legislative & Public Affairs for UNCASG two years ago. I haven’t kept in touch with him much since law school started, but he did good work for the students of North Carolina.
- nc dmv 30 day tag for insurance lapse: cost me $63, and I didn’t even need one
- nccu lsat score evening program: for 2009-10, was 151 for the evening program, with the 25th percentile folks at 148 and the 75th percentile folks at 155 according to the class profile.
- blackberry messenger group nccu school of law ’11: exists, but I’m not a part of it since I’m in the Class of 2012
Hit up one of the 3Ls for more info.
- tdot surplus vehicles: HA! I wish I had surplus vehicles…
- does duquesne law school give midterms?: I don’t know about Duquesne Law, but NCCU Law does
- letter demanding payment from ex girlfriend: is probably not going to accomplish much of anything…
- negative things about nccu law: vary depending on who you ask. I’m a huge NCCU Law fan, and my only real complaint is that the wi-fi can be spotty in certain areas of the building (like the Great Hall and the Fishbowl). Hopefully they improved that over the summer.
- 2010 11 tuition north carolina: is unfortunately still going up by almost $1K at several universities, since state legislators decided to balance the budget on the backs of students
- nccu law fall 2010 class calendar: can be found on the Law School Registrar’s TWEN page, or downloaded from the NCCU Law “Academics” page.
- nccu school of law’s grading curve: follows a strict-C median, which I happen to enthusiastically support
- mary wright 1l advocacy competition: takes place every Spring semester for 1L students. You can watch the video of my 3rd place performance here.
- daryl wade unc: is probably not the same guy as Daryl Wade, the former Student Body President at UNC School of the Arts who served as Vice Chairman of the UNCASG Council of Student Body Presidents last year. I’m sure the other Daryl Wade is still cool though… even if he goes to UNCCH
- are 1l’s included in the 30 day delay for financial aid?: For the vast majority of 1Ls, no. This was actually one of the questions we had at my 1L Orientation last year, so you’re not alone in wondering
- what percentage of nccu law school are white law students?: roughly 35-40% each class year. Another 45-50% are black, and the remaining 10-20% are spread across other races. We’re routinely ranked among the most diverse student bodies in the country.
- nccu minority scholarships for white law students: “No, officer…”
- nccu law fall 2010 book list: can be found above the academic calendar on the NCCU Law “Academics” page.
- acpi:system state: could signal a dead motherboard
Take it to get looked at ASAP.
- which computer apple or pc for law students: Apple. Hands down. Trust me.
Definitely a different mix of search results getting here this month…
***
And finally, here are the Top 5 most-viewed posts for the month of July 2010, quite a bit different from past Top 5s due to the new indexing changes:
- On avoiding contract enforcement: Mmm Ks nom nom nom (02/16/10)
- On inexpensive résumé websites: Things TDot Likes: Persona Non Obscura (12/08/09)
- On post-1L class ranks: Learning what I already knew (07/12/10)
- On having a shadow: Spreading the (Law School) Gospel (02/17/10)
- On saving money: TDot’s Tips: Tips for the pre-L’s on $$$ (05/29/10)
*THANK YOU* as always to each of you for your continued support of us here at law:/dev/null! 
—===—
Past Site Stats entries:
Tags: #fml, 1L, 2L, ::headdesk::, Blawg Love, Damned Lies and Statistics, Duquesne Law, Exams, I ♥ Apple, Ks, Law Grades, Mary Wright 1L Closing Argument Competition, Money Money Money, NCCU Law, Tech Talk, Tips, Tuition & Fees, UNCASG
Posted by TDot on Aug 14, 2010 in
The 2L Life My alternate title for this post? “Things I will not be doing with my law degree #2″
Now folks I know it’s premature to write off a particular course before we even get to the first day of class. I know. Really. Trust me.
But if I were a gambling man, I’d say there are pretty good odds Decedents Estates will be the least-favorite class in my 2L Fall schedule.
I didn’t even discover the syllabus until a few minutes ago; turns out it’s one of maybe a dozen or so courses at NCCU Law that use the LexisNexis implementation of BlackBoard, as opposed to everyone else having a WestLaw TWEN page — including 100% of my 1L courses.
To give you an idea of how few courses at NCCU Law use LexisNexis’ BlackBoard, I didn’t know it even existed until a classmate told me earlier today
I’m all about faculty having the resources to teach a course in whatever manner they think will be most effective for me learning the material, but it would have been nice to have at least some kind of forewarning that I should check LexisNexis if I didn’t see my class in TWEN. So that was my first annoyance.
Then I perused the syllabus and some of the reading material for Monday, and from the looks of things it’s like PropLaw just for dead people I didn’t do bad in that course last year — I got the exact same grade both semesters — but it’s just not something I was particularly interested in thinking about.
Which is my euphemism for “it was really f*cking boring”
It’s also not exactly the most inspirational of legal topics. Back when I worked for the Wake County Clerk of Court’s Office, I was the Director of its “Division of Special Projects” so my office was at the edge of the suite for the Estates Division. Every day there was at least one person (often more) bawling because they recently lost a loved one and now had to deal with the government and distribution of the estate.
Not to be Pollyanna-ish about dying and all, but thinking about where my stuff is going when I croak isn’t really my thing. If you happen to think differently, more power to you — in fact I might even hire you one day to handle drafting my will. Just don’t expect me to enjoy it
Until then, I’m referring to DE as ZombieLaw so I can derive some kind of amusement out of this class…
Have a great night everybody!
Tags: 2L, NCCU Law, ZombieLaw
Posted by TDot on Aug 13, 2010 in
The 2L Life First reading of my 2L year got posted today: re-reading all of the United States’ core founding documents for Constitutional Law I.
And with that, the marathon race to final exams in December is officially afoot. Let the games begin
Tags: 2L, ConLaw
Posted by TDot on Aug 11, 2010 in
NotFail It was a year ago today — the first day of my 1L Orientation at NCCU Law — that law:/dev/null went live with this brief post welcoming any newcomers who happened to drop by.
And my gosh how much has happened in just a year!
Case in point: a year ago I fled the Turner Law Building as soon as Orientation was done because I felt so totally out of place… yet this week I’ve been at the law school daily helping out (voluntarily!) with 1L Orientation, offering whatever assistance and sage tidbits of almost-but-not-quite-wisdom that I can provide
In keeping with my personality, some numbers to commemorate law:/dev/null‘s 1st birthday:
- THEN: 1 published post — NOW: 291
- THEN: 178 total words written — NOW: ~141,268 (where’s this inspiration when I’m working on a brief??? )
- THEN: 1 [main] page — NOW: 4 total, including our About [TDot] page, the fellow-blawgers-inspired Disclaimer and finally instructions on Subscribing to the RSS feed
- THEN: 2 categories — NOW: 20
- THEN: 0 tags — NOW: 96
- THEN: ~10 fellow bloggers on the blogroll — NOW: 138. If I’m missing you, send me an email to TDot [at] lawdevnull.com!
- THEN: 29 new unique visitors a day, at least half of which were spambots — NOW: 170, of which only 4-6 are spambots thanks to .htaccess controls
- THEN: 0 comments — NOW: 417 comments and 661 pingbacks (and 2,130 attempted spam posts )
- THEN: 0 typos I saw — NOW: “Another one? @#$%. I’ll fix it later…”
I could go on with the shameless quasi-self-promotion but you get the idea
I’ve been blessed to do a lot of pretty cool stuff in my life, but getting law:/dev/null started — and more importantly, having y’all read it and at least pretend that you like it! — undoubtedly takes top honors.
Thanks for being such amazing people and giving me an added incentive to keep going! I’m looking forward to the year ahead, the opportunity to meet even more of y’all, and hopefully even convince a few more to join me at the N.C. Central University School of Law
Have a great night everybody!
Tags: About TDot, Blawg Love, NCCU Law
Posted by TDot on Aug 10, 2010 in
Tweet-sized Tuesdays 雅雅 moves 13hrs away tomorrow; #notafan of that transition Enjoyed seeing new+old faces @ 1L Orientation today tho. Ready for the year!
Tags: 雅雅, Orientation, Tweet Tweet
Posted by TDot on Aug 9, 2010 in
Randomness Not enough time to polish up a full entry for tonight, so I figured I’d go with bullet points of random things that crossed my mind today:
- I made some minor behind-the-scenes changes to the blog, mostly to correct bad coding practices I was too lazy to fix before now The only thing you might notice is the blog heading: instead of “law:/dev/null – Musings of a Computer Scientist turned Law Student” as one über-huge title string, it’s now just “law:/dev/null” with the second half as a lower-level heading underneath it. It should still visually look the same, but if it doesn’t hit refresh on your browser to make sure your computer isn’t using a cached version of the stylesheet.
- The spam problems that prompted this entry on .htaccess files also appear under control (fingers crossed). Spam comments are still annoyingly frequent, but at least with a fleshed-out .htaccess file I’m only averaging 4 a day instead of 50+
- I’ve met 3 incoming 1Ls over the past 4 days; two are folks I corresponded with through this blog before I knew they were coming to NCCU Law, and the 3rd today just happened to visit the SBA office while I was in there. It’s a lot of fun being able to answer their questions, but it also reminds me how little (translation: none) exploration I did before Orientation. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so nervous if I had?
- After that 2-mile run the other day my muscles were tighter than a Nancy Pelosi facelift. It was a remarkably unpleasant experience. Lots of stretching and untold milligrams of ibuprofen later, I knocked out another 2 miles today. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow… (fingers crossed again)
- Speaking of politicians — horrible segue, I know
— I’ve been really disappointed in this recent GOP talk of trying to amend the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship. I mentioned back on Cinco de Mayo that to me there was something fundamentally un-American in penalizing a child for the sins of his/her parent(s). In re-reading the Constitution for ConLaw I next week, I noticed in Article III Section 3 that it bans “corruption of blood”, an old British punishment where the offspring of a parent convicted of a high crime were themselves sanctioned by being disinherited by the government and often condemned to a life of poverty as a result. How sad that the Founding Fathers (who crafted the Constitution) and the ancient Republican Party (who crafted the Fourteenth Amendment) both agree with me on this principle, but the modern Republican Party (of which I’m a member) does not — and would advocate needless tinkering with the most effective and enduring governing document on God’s Earth for the sake of one election… 
- I’m also disappointed that “Pretty Boy Swag” ranks as high as it does on the iTunes Top 100. When did sh*t like this become mainstream rap?
- To close on a more upbeat note, while I was handing out those Orientation t-shirts I met a 3L who came in asking for one. My admittedly-untrained eye thought she looked like she needed a Small, so I apologized and told her we were out of the Smalls and a Medium would be the best I could do. That comment triggered a huge grin and a laugh that I mistook her for someone who needed a small t-shirt (turned out I was off a bit ). My face turned beet red — I don’t really know why in hindsight, I guess just embarrassment for sticking my foot in my mouth? — but I’m glad I brightened her day
That’s it from me y’all — I’m heading to bed so I can get up in the morning and head to the law school to help out with Orientation!
Have a great night!
Tags: "Real" world rants..., 2L, Blawg Love, NCCU Law, Orientation
Posted by TDot on Aug 8, 2010 in
The 2L Life Over the weekend I got an email from one of the long-time readers here at law:/dev/null — and a quick THANK YOU to all of you 
— reminding me that I still haven’t posted the Site Stats for July.
So I was going through the search terms to put that together, and saw “what to expect at nccu law orientation” among them. I figured that needs a bit more than the 1-line treatment I typically give the search queries each month
Before giving you my $.02, I need to stress that this is strictly 100% my own recollections and opinions taken from my three entries on Orientation last year. They are not in any way endorsed / vetted / reviewed / affirmed / or any other relevant verb’d by NCCU Law, the Student Bar Association, or anyone else. Your experience will likely be different — and hopefully less embarrassing than mine — so take all of this with the requisite grains of salt
Also, since I’m in the NCCU Law day program these recollections are day program-specific. If you’re in the evening program you’ll go through the same stuff, it’ll just be structured differently.
We’ll start with some preliminaries:
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PREREQUISITES
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Attire: Last year I came to the first day of Orientation in a suit… and was one of at most a half dozen others to do the same This will be the first impression you’ll make on your teachers and future colleagues so you don’t want to dress like a bum, but if you don’t want to do full business attire you can stick with your Sunday best.
Dennis Jansen (a 3L @ UMN Law) has this excellent post on Orientation fashion advice. And if you happen to be a lady, Huma Rashid (a 3L @ John Marshall Law) has an entire category of outfits just for you. Read them both. Trust me
Parking: Not sure if things will be different this year, but last year we had the same places to park during Orientation as we did during the school year: (i) on the strip alongside the law school, (ii) in the Education Building parking lot, (iii) in the parking lot in front of the gym, (iv) the newly-paved lot across from the Criminal Justice building, and (v) a handful of other places you’ll only need if you end up getting to class really really late. Go to the NCCU Campus Map for directions. Plan to arrive early and you’ll be fine parking-wise
Sections: You can figure out what section you’re in already by looking at your schedule in Banner, but if you haven’t accessed that yet you’ll know for certain when you check in at Orientation. You’ll be split into your sections for most of the sessions all week.
Technology: If you have a laptop and you’re planning on using it during the year, bring it with you on the first day. NCCU Law has a laptop loaner program where every 1L has the option to borrow an IBM ThinkPad from the school, but many of us prefer to use our own. Bringing it on Day One will give you a chance to get everything configured for use on the law school’s wifi network.
Timeline: Orientation is pretty much an all-day (or all-evening) thing each day. Plan to show up at 8-9am and plan to stay there until 5pm or later (more on the “or later” part for Day Two below).
====================
DAY ONE: WELCOME TO NCCU
====================
The first day of Orientation last year was the really basic nuts and bolts to life at NC Central University.
You’ll check in, hang out in the Fishbowl for a bit (and eat some of the breakfast items sponsored by your Student Bar Association ), then go to the classroom where you’ll spend your 1L year for the rest of the day’s activities.
The day is broken up into 30-45 minute segments on various issues. You’ll get introduced to the Chief (the Dean of the law school) as well as the high-level law school staff. You’ll hear from the Registrar about basic class registration and related items. There will be a Q&A session on financial aid, student loans, and other money-related issues. There will be a segment on your respective learning styles from Dr. Psych. And you’ll hear from the IT folks about how to navigate the various law school facilities available to you.
The really fun stuff happens at the end, when you’ll get your login/passwords for both LexisNexis and WestLaw, putting oodles and oodles of cases at your fingertips for whenever you’re bored. And you’ll be given a tour of the law school — which will hopefully include a trip down to the SBA office to say hi to me
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DAY TWO: WELCOME TO LAW SCHOOL
====================
If Day One were designed to introduce you to NCCU, Day Two introduces you to the NCCU School of Law… and the long hours law school can consume
In the morning your CivPro professor will give you an introduction to the legal system. After that you’ll hear a bit more detail about the various law school departments and how they can help you (career services, academic support, and so on).
At some point that day you’ll also get to hear from a panel of students about the rich legacy of NCCU Law, and then have a second law-related session where your Contracts professor will introduce you to briefing cases — and even assigning homework 
Once that’s done, you basically have a break to knock out the essential stuff you need to do. The Bookstore will have a “mobile store” set up in one of the courtrooms on the ground floor. You’ll be able to buy your parking permit on the 2nd floor. You’ll get your picture taken in the Fishbowl for the law school’s annual student profile thing. Etc etc etc.
Then that night there will be a reception in the Great Hall with NCCU Law alumni, followed by a session on professionalism with those alums and folks from the N.C. Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism. The reception and professionalism session combine both the day and evening programs, so it’s an excellent opportunity to get to know your fellow 1Ls from all over the school
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DAY THREE: NOW GET TO WORK
====================
I actually had to skip the last part of Orientation last year because of a conflict with a UNC Board of Governors meeting I had to attend as UNCASG President — so even though I remember what was supposed to take place, this section of the post is also part speculation.
In the morning you’ll have some group discussions on To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the books you were assigned to read over the summer. You’ll also have another session on briefing cases as well — and you still have to turn in that homework even if you skip like I did
You’ll also go over the Student Handbook and the Code of Conduct, as well as a session on avoiding plagiarism. And at some point you’ll be given a writing exercise.
The last event for the day will be a second panel with different students on it, that will basically be a Q&A for you to ask any lingering questions that didn’t get addressed during the rest of Orientation. I’m on that second panel, so if you want to try and stump me feel free to start thinking of your questions now
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TDOT’S ADVICE
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If I had a chance to do Orientation all over again, the only thing I’d change is that I’d be more relaxed.
Before law school several friends used to call me “the oldest and the coldest” in tribute to my unflappable personality (and balding scalp ). But for some reason I was ridiculously nervous during Orientation, and I didn’t enjoy myself nearly as much as I should have.
You’re getting ready to start an amazing experience at a truly unique law school, and you’re going to meet people who will be colleagues and friends for years to come. Go in with the mindset to soak in as much information as you can, to meet as many folks as you can, and to enjoy yourself as much as you can — do that and you’ll be in good shape
***
That’s it from me — if you have any questions between now and Orientation feel free to send me an email! Looking forward to meeting y’all this week!
—===—
Orientation-related items from the law:/dev/null archives:
Tags: 1L, 2L, Dr Psych, John Marshall Law, NCCU Law, Orientation, SBA, The Chief, UMN Law
Posted by TDot on Aug 7, 2010 in
Fail Among the various other things I’ve not been doing during my “too hot”-or-”too cold” summer: regular cardio exercise.
I didn’t pay attention to the effects of my slothfulness until my last day in court for the ADR Clinic… when I noticed my slacks were a bit more snug than usual 
So with the weekend here and most preparations for school already done, I decided to hit the American Tobacco Trail for a 2-mile run tonight.
How’d it go, you ask? Let’s just say it’s evident I haven’t run in months
Not only have I regressed way back to before even my failed USMC PFT run, I was panting like a dog and sweating worse than a politician under oath. And my muscles hhhuuuuurrrrrrtttt 
Lesson learned. Calisthenics tomorrow, then more running on Monday…
Until then, have a great night y’all!
Tags: #fml, ADR, USMC
Posted by TDot on Aug 6, 2010 in
The 2L Life Earlier today I bought my textbooks for the upcoming semester, including my book for ConLaw I — Chemerinsky’s Constitutional Law 3rd Edition casebook.
Lugging this thing to class is cruel and unusual punishment...
Now I’m not exactly as smart as our Founding Fathers, but I have to imagine even they would think this is a little excessive
On the left: my pocket Constitution, in 10pt font, roughly 3.25″ wide by 6.25″ tall, including a Foreword, the Declaration of Independence, an Index, and a list of “Dates to Remember” relating to the Constitution’s creation and ratification, spanning a svelte 46 pages.
On the right: Chemerinsky’s casebook, also in 10pt font, roughly 7.25″ wide by 10″ tall, without any of the pocket Constitution’s “extras” yet spanning… 1,825 pages
Can you picture how long it would have taken for the Founders to hand-write and then typeset something this huge back around 1788 when the Constitution took effect?
And how much bigger is this thing going to be 50ish years from now?
Tags: 2L, ConLaw
Posted by TDot on Aug 5, 2010 in
The 1L Life Last month I posted a pie chart for y’all with class rank info on the Class of 2012 at NCCU Law, except that there wasn’t really much class rank info actually in it. The only thing I knew for certain at the time was that my GPA was the cutoff for the 40th percentile… because I happened to be the guy at the 40th percentile
Fast forward a month, and several of my Legal Eagle colleagues were wondering if I had gathered any additional details given my penchant for graphs, tables and other data.
Slightly more 1L class rank data
And of course the answer is: of course
After talking with about a dozen folks about their own grades/ranks, I tweaked the class rank chart to what you see here.
I know the GPA cutoffs for the 15th and 25th percentiles are solid. The Top 10% minimum GPA is just an estimate though; I haven’t really mingled with the super-smart folks in law school, and the only one I know 100% for certain who’s in that group decided to be coy and would only say the chart data “might be pretty close”
I also added in my estimate of how many people fell below NCCU Law’s strict-C threshold and got academically dismissed at the end of the semester. It’s a very rough guess on my end, basically just taking the number of people I know personally who didn’t make it multiplied by the number of sections, taking a multi-year average of our historical 1L attrition data minus the folks who had already dropped, then weighting each of those two separate numbers and adding them together. I have -0- confidence that it’s an accurate count but I’m reasonably sure I’m ±5, so I included it anyway for informational purposes.
In the unlikely-but-possible scenario that my guess is a close approximation to the actual number of folks who will be gone, the attrition data highlights the challenge those of us in the middle of the pack academically are going to have trying to improve our class ranks this upcoming year. For example, being 62 of 157 puts me at the 40% mark now, but starting next week I’ll be 62 of ~139 (or less) — instantly dropping me down to 45%. It’s definitely a steep hill to climb.
Upside: at least I won’t have Contracts anymore
Have a great night y’all!
Tags: 1L, Law Grades, NCCU Law
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