I am currently in the Potential Juror waiting room in seminole county florida, waiting to see if I will be serving on a jury this week. But I'm not here to rant about jury duty.
I'm here to rant about web filters.
I was informed that the Courthouse had Wi-Fi, so I brought my laptop to keep me occupied. What I discovered upon logging in, however, was that Seminole County uses WebSense. I thought that was a shame, but that, if it was the same configuration used for schools or libraries, that it shouldn't be a problem.
Wrong. Here is a list of sites that I cannot access without a proxy:
wizards.com (Can't login to MTGO either.)
rptools.net
dilbertblog.typepad.com
cuteoverload.com
mtgsalvation.com
somethingawful.com
postsecret.com
gmail.com (but not google's homepage, with the mail preview panel)
mail.yahoo.com (once again, the homepage with the preview panel works)
ebay.com
Judging by this, the county acted in typical paranoid government fashion and just blocked all WebSense categories, including 'Hobby'. So, just to point out how incomplete WebSense is, these are sites I can access that should be banned IF the above are also banned.
theonion.com
avclub.com
paizo.com (But hey, at least I can post).
us.games-workshop.com
uk.games-workshop.com
In short, censorship is stupid. Even in cases where it MIGHT be considered appropriate (blocking NWS sites in an elementary school, for example), automated solutions are either woefully incomplete, painfully draconian, or both.
I am currently in the Potential Juror waiting room in seminole county florida, waiting to see if I will be serving on a jury this week. But I'm not here to rant about jury duty.
I'm here to rant about web filters.
I was informed that the Courthouse had Wi-Fi, so I brought my laptop to keep me occupied. What I discovered upon logging in, however, was that Seminole County uses WebSense. I thought that was a shame, but that, if it was the same configuration used for schools or libraries, that it shouldn't be a problem.
Wrong. Here is a list of sites that I cannot access without a proxy:
wizards.com (Can't login to MTGO either.)
rptools.net
dilbertblog.typepad.com
cuteoverload.com
mtgsalvation.com
somethingawful.com
postsecret.com
gmail.com (but not google's homepage, with the mail preview panel)
mail.yahoo.com (once again, the homepage with the preview panel works)
ebay.comJudging by this, the county acted in typical paranoid government fashion and just blocked all WebSense categories, including 'Hobby'. So, just to point out how incomplete WebSense is, these are sites I can access that should be banned IF the above are also banned.
theonion.com
avclub.com
paizo.com (But hey, at least I can post).
us.games-workshop.com
uk.games-workshop.comIn short, censorship is stupid. Even in cases where it MIGHT be considered appropriate (blocking NWS sites in an elementary school, for example), automated solutions are either woefully incomplete, painfully draconian, or both.
You should have brought a book. Those never get censored.
El Skootro
Heh. I had my last two Dungeons and my last Dfragon, as well as D0 and D1 with me. So I wasn't too badly off. I just was expecting internet access, not the great firewall of china.
You should have brought a book. Those never get censored.
Pah!