LiveJournal blocked at work

[fuzzygruf]

Bastards. As of this morning, Livejournal.com is now blocked at work. They haven't yet blocked the IP address (http://66.150.15.150), but that will probably soon follow. Instead of having relative addresses for most things, it appears LJ has the "livejournal.com" embedded into most links. I can't see most pics, icons, or buttons. I can't read "lj-cuts." I can't click on almost anything without getting the "blocked" message.

Sorry that I won't be able to keep up with all of you every day. I'll make fewer posts. For those that cheered at that, you should have already removed me from your friends list, DUH.

Comments

[bigreddee.livejournal.com]

That sucks. I'm crossing my fingers that doesn't happen here.

[armaroundyou.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could add the name/ip address to your local hosts file.

[supertanshemale.livejournal.com]

Why Fuzzy? Why?

make's me blue...

[michael-arnold.livejournal.com]

You are required reading in my daily routine Gary. I hope that you figure out a way around it. Big hugs.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Bastards!

The Hosts file trick will only work as long as they don't block the IP. Posting by email doesn't let you read. An anonymizer might work (slowly) but I don't know of a good one. If cost is no object, a cellular data plan and laptop would do the trick, but look odd in the office.

It's like you're in China, just with better pay.

[(Anonymous)]

Gary, Sorry to be a paranoid person, but in a recent posting you wrote about an evaluation. Do you think that maybe they are monitoring the use of the Internet by people in the office and making their decision on that? As in those who are on the net are obviously not doing work to benefit the corporation no matter how efficient they are at what they are doing. This thinking would punish the efficient ones over those who are less efficient and need the full work period to accomplish established goals. It probably is also an easier way to evaluate people than trying to compare people who are doing projects that are not easily comparable. Again I am sorry to be so paranoid or maybe it is a cynical view I have of management. Could this be the reason they are blocking Live Journal? Mark

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

The company uses an outside vendor to provide filtering, and they make updates all the time.

[(Anonymous)]

Gary, Do you think the outside vendor that provides filtering for your systems is doing a one size fits all program? In other words did the outside vendors other customers also lose access to Live Journal at the same time as did your company? It would seem to paranoid me that your company might request that the outside vendor evaluate the Internet use occurring at this site and tailor a filter that maybe eliminates maybe 25 % of the top 100 places that are being used by the employees. Since I am not a programmer I have no idea of the complexity in tailoring a program to reject access to certain Internet sites. If hard to do then I could see a one size fits all, if easy than the tailor made to your situation is the way to go. What do you think? Mark

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

No, that vendor has different categories for which its clients can pick and choose. LJ has been place under the "chat" category, as is "Yahoo Groups" and "Friendster." Some of the other categories are Sex, Adult, News, Anonymous Translater, Subversive, Email, etc. For example, most companies allow access to email. Mine does not, due to their inability to effectively block viruses. They figured it'd be easier/cheaper to shut off outside email.

Anyone can suggest sites to be blocked. This is where Ashcroft's KGB tactics work well. Also, anyone can request that a block be removed, but that goes through a more rigorous process.

[dacubsf.livejournal.com]

Remove? GASP!! you're part of my required daily reading