From another thread (that didn't need to be further hi-jacked). I hate these filters. Not because they block porn, which they don't, but because they frequently block access to useful sites. The filters only keep honest people honest, but there are always ways to get around them. Vary the search words, catch new sites that haven't been flagged, etc. Nobody needs to worry about someone in the IT department checking the logs because they don't have time. However, some kid legitimately researching the planet Venus finds sites blocked. My IT dimwits have blocked google/images because they discovered that you could type in the word "tits" and get pictures of [result]tits[/result]. But you can still get to those "dirty" pictures using the normal google search (or so I'm told ). What they didn't understand is that you can set "safe search" on Google that will block the more prurient pictures. Their problem is that the "safe search" mode is cookies based and you can remove the cookies. Did I really have to tell them about Windows 2000 privelege levels? They still haven't decided to turn on access to google/images again.
To make this ironic, my uncle (now retired) had his students do a paper comparing smoking and anti-smoking ordances. Almost all of the anti-smoking websites were blocked!
Well, when I was in grad school, I had a couple of friends who worked for Information Services (or whatever we called our computer geeks). One of them reported having to deal with video-taped evidence from one of the all-night labs of a patron, ummm, having a good time with himself while looking at sites on the internet that, in all likelihood, are there for people who want to have a good time with themselves. It was pretty easy to figure out who it was just by figuring out who was logged in during the time the security footage depicted the aforementioned events. The warning letter was brief and too the point, telling the student to "refrain from abusing equipment in the public labs." And actually, now that I think about it, there was a homeless guy who used the computer terminal at a branch of the Chicago Public Library to set up a porno site: he was able to make enough money so that he ceased to be homeless. Not sure if that's the kind of economic empowerment a library can use in advertisements, but he was there at 9:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. to take care of business. Conversely, one of the libraries near where I live now in Western Pennsylvania had "netnanny." It made it impossible for kids to research breast cancer, for instance, and any number of other things. Things changed, however, a few years ago when a kid complained that he couldn't read about the Steelers' most recent superbowl appearance. Something about Superbowl XXX put the filtering mechanism in high gear.
At my school we had problems with "locals" coming in to use the computers and they would spend literally 10 hours straight at a terminal without getting up looking at porn. Our genious IT people never thought of having to login to get access. This however stopped when one our "neighbors" tried to sexually assault someone in the bathroom, now no-one not affiliated with the university can enter the library.
the filters at my school are more to keep us from playing games on the computer instead of looking at porn even though porn sites are blocked too. But if you go to google and for kicks just type in penis in the image search all the pictures will still come up so in a sense it's easier for us to look at random pictures in a google image search than it is for us to play games on the internet. They're very big on using the computers for educational purposes only
Our computers give us reasons for blocking. Examples: Games, Adult Content (even though it's not really adult), and Non-Traditional and Occult Religions, or something to that effect. That last one is ridicolous. Basically, anything that isn't Christianity is blocked. I once searched for something on Islam and got this message
That's OK. I teach night classes at an area college to make a little extra money while I'm in graduate school. I wanted to show my students a video clip that is on ifilm.com and that site is blocked. (!)
That is the funniest comment on here, a "break from learning". Man life is learning and it never stops, if you mean a break from "school" that's what going home is for! I have a son in high school and am dumbfounded by the "down time" that some students have: 2-3 study periods a day when they are never used as "study" just socializing. Home is for the "break" in school is for learning.
at my school it is currently break time and we're all up here, on the computer, socializing, and studying, it's how we work
The first two years I was in high school we had regular, quiet study hall. Then the last two years they put two big tvs in the cafeteria with cable tv and told us to take study hall there. The administration was in effect encouraging us not to do our work as all the noise and distractions made any attempt at schoolwork during school study hall hopeless. Although they did substantially increase their profit from vending machines as kids who would only be able to get access at lunch now splurged during their study hall period. It was nice though during the NCAA tournament when we were late for every class trying to watch as much bball as possible. High school is more for socializing than learning in the eyes of many students, but when it seems the administration takes the same approach.........
I must've been really tired or talking to someone when i wrote that cause generally we call them frees. Blocks of time where we have no class, we can use them for eating, studying, meeting with teachers, working out in the training room anything we want.
depends. We have shorter periods from 11:40 to 1:15, those are all 20 minutes. Like today I have 20 minutes to eat lunch but most days i have 2 20 minute periods free to eat. The rest of the day when people generally aren't eating lunch they last a whole class period (40 minutes) and then there's an art and music period that starts at 9:50 and ends at 10:50 so if you aren't taking an art or music you have an hour free