h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome back to the fold, dd.

Ach. I rather wish I did not have to deal with a car repair today. I hate working on cars, but taking it to a shop is sure to bankrupt me.

Newer cars are nice in that they less often need repair. But they sort of suck in that when something breaks, they cost a ton to fix.

Having a friend that is a libarian (other than Hypatia, of course ) I can understand the frustration on both sides of the porn filter issue. It tramples on the First Amendment, but I've heard plenty of stories about local weirdos looking up various sites and then masturbating in public at the library. However, I feel librarians shouldn't compromise their committment to our Constitution just to police the community.

Last night I went to see Russian Ark. If anyone else has seen this movie and is rather familiar with recent Russian history, please drop by my page. I have questions.

As Hypatia has said, there is no easy answer to the idea of porn filters on public terminals. A very large part of my screams that filtering the information is a Bad Thing. But there is also the fact that people who don't want to see that sort of thing should be protected as well. The only library that I have ever used for net access has no filtering for destination, but the stupid kiosk application they run is not compatible with a number of webpages. The library does not allow games, porn or chat programs. I guess that I can agree with that, it is easy to screw up computers if users have the ability to install programs. I applaud that they do not have filtering software installed, but wish they would use a different kiosk program.

But I don't expect that the libaray stocks porn magazines in the reference section either, so I'm not sure what the probelm is with blocking certain sites. I think if you look from a Utiliatarian aspest then allowing people to view porn sites, will make some people feel uncomfortable coming to the library, or certaining bringing children with them. So in the end the children will end up not reading books. I don't know if the library charges for access, to the internet, but it's free here, and no I don't want my council tax money paying for people to access porn, in teh same way i don't want it spent on buying porn magazines for the library.

Freedom of speech as I understand it is to stop something being published or obtained. Therefore it is illegal for a book to be banned, but it also isnt' the duty of the governement to provide people with free copies of every book that they may want, through a library they provide free copies of many books. But they can say, "No, we're not providing that" and I expect they do with a number of books.

People can always go to internet cafes adn access porn there for a small fee, or on there own computers at home.being allowed to access it doesn't mean that the government has to provdie you with free access. Esp if it means that some parents might not let their children go to the library, so children would suffer as a resutl.

I don't know how I feel about the whole library filtering issue. On the one hand, I've *seen* someone masturbating in public while checking out a porn site, but on the other, some of those filtering programs really do block access to legitimate info. I personally think that until they make filtering software that is able to discern between a breast cancer survivor site and a porn site, it shouldn't be used.

What's interesting is that university libraries are apparently exempt from this law.

Well there's unlikely to be children in univeristy libraries isn't there. Though you can always have a system simalar to the one that they have at the last hospital I was at, where a website cuold be added to an allowed list, so if a site you wanted to access was blocked and you thought that this was wrong you could ask for it to be unblocked.

The main library here has a fairly elegant solution. Kids under 18 using the internet have to go to the young adult or children's room, where there are filters. The normal sections are all upstairs and have their own set of internet computers. These are unfiltered.

While I still do not like filters, I think allowing libraries to block porn is a good idea. It would also be a good idea to have a librarian nearby who could unblock sites if they're actually legitimate, though I doubt many libraries are funded enough to do this.

Z--
No, but that's the point. If the public whackers can't find it on a public library site, they try for university libraries...

[{Courtesy}]

I have to do another tv interview this afternoon about filtering. This is about the 10th one I've done on the issue over the past 4 years. I don't know what I can say that I haven't already. Every time there is a change in the law - new law - overturned law - I get a call from one of the tv stations.

I HATE BEING ON TV! No matter what you say, they edit it so you sound like an idiot. And I'm having a bad hair day and am wearing a jacket that makes me look like a !

Marv, I put spybot on my PC and ran that. Then I tried to install the Ad-Aware, but it won't download. So I got po'd and tried experimenting with addresses. When I type in the IP #, I get a blank screen. When I leave the www off of the address, I get my homepage. When I add the www I get Liberty Mortgage. So I went into preferences and set the homepage for webbcitylibrary.com - with no www and it works. I have no idea why. That's on Netscape on Win 98. On IE you have to use the www. I have a dual boot so I can use my circulation statistics. When I tried Netscape on NT I get it with the www. This machine is deliberately mocking me!

I have thought for years that computers go out of their way to make my life difficult. I Think that they are secretly sentient and don't want us to know that.

I blame it on the hamster running around inside them.

Well but isn't a University libaray is technicallyin private isnt' it, only students are allowed access, and if someone is caught access naughty sites then the university will have proof of which student and can take appropriate measures.


I forgot to tell you all about this, two students in my old year, (from before I took a year out) http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,977142,00.html got arrested on the term abroad we get to do in our fourth year, I'm glad I'm planning on doing mine in Scotland!

We had a lecture on planning it today, with a dire warning about safety of course.

I think everyone should get arrested at least once just for the experience, Z. Though perhaps not in Israel . I've been arrested three times. Once in Italy, once in Dubai and once in Oxford. I hasten to add that I've never been charged... and that I hadn't actually done anything wrong on any of those occasions.

Amy, you need to design yourself a little convict ant smiley. One with a ball and chain, maybe. Or a prison suit.

Humm I think we need explanations it was the arrested that worried the medical school, more teh fact that they were imprisioned and arrested for 15 days on two seperate occasions! I've never been arrested..

Never arrested officially. Been held three or four times as a punk teenager, but never charged.

I got arrested once for protesting at Honeywell, back when nuclear weapons were more of an issue. I ended up on the front page of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, grinning like a fool (I'm very ticklish, and the policewoman had just done a waistband search!). My mom was none too happy.

Just got back from the doctor's. I have to go see the cardiologist, since they found a brand new heart murmur. Nothing life-threatening, just annoying. And a bit unnerving, when your heart just all of the sudden goes pounding out of your chest like a galloping horse.

[Munchkin]
Well, that little news article just put me off going to Israel for a good while.
Anyhoo, in my experience computers are out to get you, especially if it will make you look daft in front of someone. So I do my best to look unfazed arond them and then pull the power out every so often when they least expect it.

My favourite method of dealing with reluctant computers is to call for an axe. In my house, somone just might bring one to me.

The three tenats of computing are:
1. swear at them
2. bleed in to them
3. show them their fates....

I have broken computer parts at my house. I can show them what will happen to them when they are annoying.