free your 'net and your, uh, whatever

So apparently the US is funding Anonymizer to provide proxying for Iran and China, so that dissidents can access stuff blocked by the incumbent regime's proxies. This is to be applauded, but I have a few issues with it:

Firstly, Anonymizer say that they change the IP address of the proxy in response to evidence that the government bitkeepers are filtering it. Er. What if they filter by hostname instead? I'm assuming, of course, that the users have to connect to it by hostname; otherwise, every time they change the IP address, all these dissidents are going to have to find out the new address and reconfigure.

Secondly, Anonymizer say that they're advertising this in Iran via mass mailings to addresses provided by human rights organizations. That's, er, spam. It's beneficial spam, I guess, but it's still spam.

Thirdly, Anonymizer is being funded by USgov? How much access does USgov get to Anonymizer's records, then? I had an account with Anonymizer for a year, but I'd think twice before signing up again.

Fourthly, there's a certain irony here; after all, this is a "free your internet" cry coming from the same country that attempted to apply broad internet censorship starting with the CDA in 1996, and continues to do so with such choice pieces of literature as COPA and the various proposed anti-P2P legislation. In fact, they're blocking access to pornography through this proxy because, "There's a limit to what taxpayers should pay for". So what else gets blocked?

Food for thought.

survey

There's a certain stereotype about the Irish: we're all drunks, and we favour the "boiled to death" school of cuisine.

So, based on a random comment made at the weekend and the impending visit of a friend, I cycled around for an hour yesterday counting pubs. Well, actually I cycled around for a bit first, then I started counting pubs as an amusement. In the space of its main street, Dalkey contains the following drinking establishments: The Club Bar, In Dalkey, Finnegans, The King's Inn, The Queen's (possibly The Queen's Inn), and Mc(or Mac)Donagh's. Additionally, there's a dedicated off-license, and an off-license attached to a supermarket. Given that Dalkey is a ten-minute walk from my house, I felt it necessary to research the opposite direction - towards Dun Laoghaire - where I encountered two more pubs, Eagle House and Albert House. The latter is the closest pub to my front door, being within five minutes of my front door.

On this trip, some 10km of weaving and wandering (sober) around the area, I passed more eateries than I can recall - something approaching a dozen in Dalkey alone, and another handful in Sandycove/Glasthule, and a bunch more scattered around seemingly at random. Several chinese restaurants, one Thai, one fish-and-chip shop which does the best quarterpounders I've had in a long time (although one of my local barmen tells me the Noggin Grill is better), one Italian, and several mixed-fare; at least two of the pubs do restaurant-class food, and at least two more advertise pub food in the window. Of course, any given restaurant will have an alcohol license, so add them to the list of drinking establishments mentioned above.

Thus, I submit, the stereotype needs updating: we're all WELL FED drunks.