View From the Bushes

One of the most popular ways for companies to control what their employees look at on the web is a program called WebSense. DireKobold has long been small enough to avoid categorization by WebSense, but despite our small size if you're around long enough, you'll eventually get noticed (kind of like Lando and Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back). Presumably in this fashion, DireKobold has been noticed and categorized under "games." As you can imagine, most companies block the "games" category, so several of my readers have reported being unable to get to my blog any more. We use WebSense here where I work as well, but fortunately I'm one of the administrators. :)

As a result, my brother-in-law (the one I stole the largest potato wedge in the history of the world from) has graciously agreed to host a mailing list for me (his open source powers exceed my own) at vfb[please_no_more_spam_replace_this_begging_with_the_at_symbol]networkecho.com. I have already added everyone who told me that it was blocked, but if anyone else is interested you can subscribe by mailing: vfb-subscribe[seriously_enough_already_I_can't_take_it_anymore_at]networkecho.com. The upshot is that every day once the blog is posted, I'll e-mail it to that list as well. If you would rather, you can just e-mail your request to me and I'll add you.

My friend sent me this link on an interesting studydone on the effects of wearing red when determining who wins athletic events. I don't think their sample size is large enough yet, and I would like them to cross-reference it with what odds-makers were saying in advance of the contest, but I'm not ready to discount it yet. If it does prove to be true that wearing red gives a discernable advantage, that could have some very interesting effects.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross