The lingering influence of Burgermeister Meisterberger.
I could understand blocking the ports used for online games, but an entire site discussing the event their patrons are probably attending?
They wouldnāt want to create the impression that this is the kind of hostel people stay at to have āfun.ā
Unless itās the kind of fun that involves alcohol and exposed skin, anyway.
Games not allowed!
The irony is that patrons have to ask management for a copy of the āContent Blockedā certificate to determine the underlying reason as the hotel blocks patrons from reading it due to the use of the word āgamesā in the original.
I work for a state agency and we have a ābandwidth conservationā device by McAfee (donāt get me started about solutions worse than the problem) that works as a proxy we all have to pass through to get out to the web. A department that deals with homeless centers and meals for children couldnāt reach a soup kitchenās website because it was blocked due to āsports/gamblingā the reason they tripped up the system was they had a youtube video titled āLast summers softball fundraising tournamentā. It took months to get that changed through McAfeeās online submission site for problem web pages.
My college used an off-the-shelf webfilter that hadnāt been tailored at all. The first and last time I used the network sans VPN I was trying to research a paper on the rise of anti-imperial nationalist sentiment in China in the run-up to the Boxer Rebellion and it blocked 90% of the academic sites I was trying to view for āinciting racism.ā
Thanks, websense; Iām sure those long-dead British colonialists will be happy I couldnāt read any of those bad things about themā¦
Isnāt webfiltering and censorship kind of the perfect antithesis to academia? The colleges have become what they are meant to circumvent.
Itās sort of like this now:
Iām still baffled. I went to a community college and tech school for various quarters from 2009-2013, and I never encountered any filtering. Sure, the student manuals always said something like āplease refrain from looking at porn on the campus internetā, but aside from that, I could go where I wanted and do what I wanted as long as I wasnāt clogging up the system or anything illegal.
How the hell are you supposed to do good research and participate in the social discourse with a Fisher-Price Playskool internet connection designed to steer you clear of ācontroversialā, āinappropriateā (to whom? Consenting adults?) or āfrivolousā material.
TL;DR: Censorship is obscene.
Agreed!
Iām at a large research institute, and have yet to run into issues regarding filtering. That being said, when at school, Iām looking at a few news site (here, Gawker, a couple of others), and the library website to find articles or sources, usually through one of our databases and mail. but itās probably depends on the school, whether itās public or private, and who is running the schoolās network.
I donāt think Iāve seen that film, but Iām thinking that this might be relevant
if not, shame on me for not checking search by image first.
Youāve never seen Breakfast Club? Really?
Thanks for the link!
Iāve not seen it either, should I bother now that Iām in my 30s? I have however seen FEDs which was about two lady FBI trainees (one of them was Sabrina the teenage witchās teacher). I love that film.
Sidenote: I found plus berlin to be a really great hostel. They did fine a friend for urinating off the balcony in the middle of the night, but I canāt really fault them for that.
Surf Protection
heh
Iām posting this from a hotel room.
My first reaction was to assume that the hotel Iām staying in had blocked the page. Which was rather a āWTF?ā
Sophos/Astaro, thatās the firewall that we have at work ā some of itās categories are incredibly broad.
e.g. I think that it blocks all .org sites under the category āpersonal sitesā ā I am surprised that IT hasnāt eliminated that category since they get constant requests to whitelist sites (perhaps they are holding on to that one because it is the only category that I think our CEO lets them still block).
Edit: tried some popular .orgs and they were fine, perhaps it just defaults to block ones that are not well know ā I have had to request several whitelistings, including the most recent www.rrjournal.org Radiation Research: Official Journal of the Radiation Research Society
You should totally see the Breakfast Club. Itās a classic. However, my favorite teen film is without a doubt Heathers. Watch Heathers. Again and again and again. But the Breakfast Club is still quite watchable, even at 30.
