Link please.

Somebody could create a mirror site that doesn't accept comments and bypass the categorization. Servicemen could then email friends or the original site owners to make comments. Not perfect but functional.

Hello, Sir John! I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your work at Mudville.

There was a time not all that long ago when Castle Argghhh! took about 5 minutes to load over a broadband connection. Just in case I wasn't the only one who quit coming by there daily because of that I want to make sure everyone knows whatever was wrong is fixed now. It's definitely a site that most of Mudville Gazette's readers will enjoy.

The problem was blogoperator headspace and timing.

I was forcing 1.5, 3 meg photos to fit the space in the clumsiest fashion possible, and not resizing and reducing size.

D-oh!

And Chris - link to what? The websense link is in Mrs. 'Hawks original post.

You know, I'm starting to think that AMC (Air Mobility Command) doesn't use Websense. Those categories aren't the same that I get when I get the wonderful blocked site message. I'll check what they are using tomorrow and get back to you.

I just sit at a desk all day waiting for the phone to ring, except for the 20 minutes I update the flying schedule and print out orders. It'd be nice to be able to browse blogs, but most of them are blocked as being either "personal" or "religious". Now, I know the computers are for official USAF use only, but come on...

Websense has an automated system that categorizez sites based on various user trends. It can easily be overridden. The company recommends to its customers that they spend some time learning the "policy" engine and be open to making changes to fit their organization. Try to compile a list of sites that you want unblocked and ask your sys admin to take care of it. None of those sites are harmful; they will probably free them up in no time. In fact, why not just ask for all those groups (Clubs, etc.) to be freed up.

I was under the tyranny of Websense when I was deployed to Iraq in '03/early '04. Here's the deal, as I understand it, from a discussion with the base's NIPR (internet) admin:

1) you have MWR NIPR access for email. anything else is more or less icing on the cake.

2) other people have to use NIPR for work.

3) the bandwith capabilities of the military in a field enviroment are both very limited and very expensive.

4) what Websense blocks depends on the base you're at (this i confirmed through a practical exercise on a couple convoys.) the less bandwith you have, the more stuff is gonna wind up blocked. the more people have to use NIPR for work (i.e. intel geeks like me), the more stuff is gonna get blocked on the MWR machines.

Because it's base-by-base, you *can* get stuff opened up, by talking to your admin. But he *can* say no, too. So walk softly, and carry a carton of smokes for a bribe ^_^.

Saw the post yesterday and didn't worry much about it - Air Combat Command, at least in the building I'm in, hadn't started blocking other than hotmail and yahoo mail (and similar, this was just last week). Then I checked Instapundit this morning....and half an hour later, when the coworker next to me tried, it was blocked.

I think part of the problem is that all the news sites right now are reporting on the election, so half of them come up as political sites. Looks like things are slightly different here, but maybe they're just blocking as I go.

Blocked so far:
Instapundit
Drudge Report
Michelle Malkin
Political Wire (I can understand this one)
Wizbang
Little Green Footballs
Command Post
Andrew Sullivan
Blackfive
Lucianne.com
Pravda

So they're blocking news sites, too. A couple of odd things - Winds of Change was blocked at one point and then wasn't; Sgt Hook, Chief Wiggles, and clearly Mudville Gazette aren't yet; Vodkapundit isn't. I mean, the URL has "vodka" in it. I expected it to be blocked a long time ago. Redstate.org isn't either, and that's pretty clearly political.

I don't understand what's going on. Half my time is spent doing open source analysis, and enough of my main sources are blocked that I'm pretty pissed off (to the point of chain smoking and actually shaking a bit). Hell, even if they unblock some of these, I won't be able to check half the links. If I may make a suggestion, the word could be spread to blogs to possibly be a bit more descriptive when linking rather than just "Heh," with no offense meant to Glenn Reynolds.

I mean, these people expect me to trust CNN?