I’ve almost finished building my new computer.  When it’s done, it’s going to be blazingly fast.  Here are the current specs:

Case: ASUS Vento (Blue)
Motherboard: ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe (1Ghz FSB!)
HardDrive: Western Digital 250Gb 7200RPM (the MB can support at least 3 more of these, but the case doesn’t really appear to have room for that many)
Graphics Cards: nVidia 6800XT PCI-E 256MB (1 of 2, I haven’t bought the second one yet)
CD/DVD: ASUS 16×16 DVD+-R (8x Dual Layer) drive
Memory: 1Gb DDR Patriot Memory (1 0f 4 sticks to be installed)
Card Reader: 15 in 1 USB Internal Card Reader

Additional Unpurchased Items:
These items I still need to get.

Processor: AMD 64 X2 4800+ Toledo or AMD Athlon 64 FX-57
Power Supply: Still uncertain about this one.  I think it needs to have a 24 pin main connector and it definitely needs to support SLI since I plan to have 2 graphics cards running on this machine.
OS: Dual boot Windows XP 64 (eventually, Windows Vista) and SUSE 10.
3.5″ Drive: HA! I don’t think so.

There’s probably some other stuff as well, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

Photos

Here’s the case with the door off, you can see the large opening in the back of the case where the power supply is supposed to be.

Here’s a closer shot.  The book in the bottom right corner is “How To Succeed in Law School” by Professor Gary A.  Munneke, J.D.

Here’s the ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe Motherboard in all it’s glory.  Note how I have perfected the wiring technique known as “Rat Nesting.”

Ooohhh Look at all of the connections.

So, how much is a J.D. going to cost?  Well, ultimately, it depends upon the school that you obtain it from.  I’ve come up with the following statistics based upon the listed rates on the associated University websites.

Cost per credit hour:
$184.80/ch - Georgia State University*
$304.2/ch - University of Georgia*
$780/ch - John Marshall Law School
$1,150/ch - Mercer University ( decreases down to $979.17 by the 3rd year)
$1,446/ch - Emory University

*Value based on semester rate/15 credit hours.

Given the above rates for each university and that a J.D. will take ~90 credit hours, the following are the associated cost per university in total.

Total Cost:
$16,632 - Georgia State University
$27,378 - University of Georgia
$70,200 - John Marshall Law School
$103,500 - Mercer University
$130,140 - Emory University

As you can see, the two public universities (GSU and UGA) are substantially less than the three other private universities.  JMLS is substantially lower than it’s two companions, in my opinion, because it just recently obtained provisional-accreditation.

Of course, there are additional fees to take into consideration such as books and travel expenses.  Especially if you consider UGA or Mercer.  Neither have a campus in Atlanta.  UGA is located in Athens, GA and Mercer is located in Macon, GA.

John Marshall Law School is having an Open House this saturday from 9am-12pm. If you plan on attending, you’ll need to go ahead and reserve your seat. As for myself, I’m looking forward to the tour of the campus. The few online photos I’ve seen make it look very nice.

I also found out some interesting information about provisionally-accredited Law Schools (such as JMLS). Any student that attends a provisionally-accredited law school, and graduates, is treated the same as a student graduating from an accredited law school. It does not matter if the school loses it’s provisional-accreditation status while the student is still working towards their J.D. As long as the school is provisionally-accredited when the student starts, they will receive the same credit.

While I assume JMLS is going to work it’s hardest to complete the accreditation process, I had been worried about what would happen if I decided to go there and they were not able to. Fortunately, now I can set those worries aside and focus on which law school will best serve me.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.“
-The United States Constitution

Ever since 9/11, it seems that the blanket of privacy has been pulled away from Americans and wrapped around government.  Security is what the government thinks we want, and in part we do, but at the expense of privacy?  It’s unbelievable how quickly we can throw away our civil liberties in the face of terrorism.  Our Forefathers realized that you could not have freedom without fighting for it, what has changed now to make things any different from before?

Is a cloaked government something we want?  A government that can do as it wishes in the guise of national security? 

Already the Government has a system that can scour the internet, looking through blogs for potential terrorists. They have also begun the process of subpoenaing records from major internet companies (AOL, Yahoo, etc.). 

A recent article on Slashdot stated that using software such as Google Desktop, could be providing easy access to your files by the Government.  How?  Once the files are on another server, available for other users to search through, they can be subpoenaed by the Government without a warrant.  Nice, right?  Fortunately, Google is one of the few with the…pelotas, to stand up to this egregious government conduct.  But, I can’t imagine, in this day and age, that they, or any other company, will be able to stand up to Uncle Sam forever.

Privacy. Freedom. Liberty.  These are all things that should come before security.  If the Government can not provide security without taking away from those three items, then I think the problem lies not in us having a new enemy, but in the Government’s distrust of it’s own people. 

Well, I got a letter from Mercer University letting me know that I’m on the waiting list for the fall semester.  For those that don’t know, law schools (and…well, most universities) can do three things with an application: accept, reject, or place in the waiting list.  So, if not everybody who got accepted to Mercer, goes, then I’ll be one of those who get’s offered a seat.  How likely is that to happen?  I haven’t a clue, but getting on the waiting list was somewhat my fault for not applying to Mercer as soon as I could.  Nonetheless, it still bolsters my confidence that the revisions I made on my law school application are going over quite well.

The scorecard so far:
John Marshall Law School - Accepted
Mercer University - Waiting List
Georgia State University - Still Reviewing
University of Georgia - Still Reviewing
Emory University - Still Reviewing