Naughty words

I'm in a class this week, learning Visual Basic for Microsoft's .NET platform. Unlike some other classrooms I've been in, the computers in this one are connected to the outside world. Usually, training facilities leave classroom computers on an isolated network, as the temptation to surf the web during a lecture that one finds a tad dry is pretty overwhelming. They provide some common-area PCs for folks who need a quick fix or access to their web mail.

Anyway, these PCs are connected. During the intro to the class, the instructor asked that we refrain our surfing to breaks and lunchtime. He then noted that we can surf where we want during those times, though we should "use our judgment" as to places we visit.

Turns out they don't fully trust our judgment. During the first break I clicked on The People's Republic of Seabrook and got the following message:

Access Denied

The requested document, http://intellectualize.org/, will not be shown.

Reason: DDR score = 396. This page will not be displayed because it contains prohibited words or it has exceeded its tolerance of questionable words.

You're a naughty boy, Jack. Amazingly, even Larry didn't set off the bad word filter. What are the odds of that happening?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 18, 2002 to Websurfing | TrackBack