2006/01/30

Bizarre Blocking

I have gotten used to seeing the proxy server block web pages for no discernible reason before, but tonight I think that I have seen the strangest thing yet.

I was looking for an online translation service to translate an email that I got (from Arabic to English). I found a couple of likely options, but when I try them, they are blocked by the proxy server. One is http://www.cimos.com/index.asp, and the entire domain seems to blocked. The other is even stranger. Almisbar, (http://www.almisbar.com) is not blocked at all, so far as I can tell, except for the page (http://www.almisbar.com/salam_trans.html) that will translate from Arabic to English. So the proxy server has been deliberately set up to block this service but nothing else. I have to admit, I do not understand how translating from Arabic to English is "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates".

3 comments:

samuraisam said...

because you can usually use online translation services to recieve otherwise-proxied webpages, i believe it is only limited to text, but it's an easy way to get around it all.

secretdubai said...

Yes. God forbid that anyone manage to view rough translations of playboy.com with no images, just imagine the damage that could do on impressionable young minds.

:(

Anonymous said...

You could try the Al Misbar demo webpage: www.almisbar.com/demo.html
but, it isn't that good--it's a just a demo anyway. ;)