OpenVPN was blocked even in 2010. No protocol (UDP or TCP) and port combination worked. Both normal and static key configuration were detected and blocked.

tcpdump showed a short packet exchange between the client and the server, and after that the connection completely died. Subsequent tries on the same protocol and port were completely blocked too (probably blacklisted).

Even so, I find it weird that OpenVPN was blocked while PPTP was allowed. Maybe they had/have a way of attacking PPTP ?

What worked back then and might still work is SSH (including tunneling). With access to a server outside Iran and a bit of imagination many things can be done with SSH tunneling.

Because there isn't enough profit made from the current laws.

Since child prostitution exists and is unofficially accepted there, they can't go for "protect the children" slogan, so they are going for "protect the king".

Is there a difference ? Aren't management and engineering part of the process ?

Use TorButton then (the Windows bundle includes it IIRC). AFAIK it solves most of the problems you mentioned. If you are using Firefox 4 then you need the alpha version from here.

Add to that BetterPrivacy, and you should be much harder to track.

Luckily there are laws protecting us from the corporations and their allegiances. At least partially. And at least for now.

If you are interested in this subject, you might find this documentary interesting.

From wikipedia:

I don't find governments to be trust worthy in these matters. Besides, freedom of speech is IMO something that you either have or not. You can't just have half of it.

This is not about freedom of speech, but more about lying for some form of profit, or being completely retarded. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure this would be considered criminal.

1. And who decides when freedom of speech is to be limited ? The government ?

2. Could you please give a realistic example of how freedom of speech could cause significant harm and/or death for the case of Fukushima ?

Has anyone checked Clancy's recent novels to see how their retinas look like after all this time ?

I am sure a similar argument was used before "helping" Iraq too, and look what it turned into. I just hope this time it'll end when the dictator is gone (or at least weak enough) and the people of Libya will be allowed to make their own future. Let's not turn the rebels fighting against the oppressive government into the insurgents fighting against the invading force.

I don't follow you. Could you please elaborate ? Why is Firefox dying ? And if so, why is it similar to BSD ? What's this "BSD is dying" thing anyway ?
I wish people would write more than just a simple sentence and expect everyone to extract the great depths of meaning from it.

For the record, I just upgraded a system from 8.1 to 8.2. It has 6 jails running software like mail server, web server, name server, db server and others. Everything works fine, without the need for recompilation of ports.

Also, for as long as you read the file /usr/ports/UPDATING, you should be just fine even with rare port upgrades. Add to that a tool like portupgrade, and you are set for a nice ride.

You can use freebsd-update to do a binary update. Also, recompilation of ports is not usually necessary in between minor upgrades (ie. 8.1 to 8.2). Of course, you may have chosen to build a custom kernel and then you need to build it manually. On my dual core CPU with 4GB RAM it takes about 10-12 minutes to build the kernel and 30-40 minutes for world. To deal with etc scripts you can use etcupdate.

Also, if you don't like this way of doing things and you are a more desktop oriented user, you can look at PC-BSD which comes with its own package system for binary packages, while still offering access to the ports system. And PC-BSD 8.2 (which is obviously based on FreeBSD 8.2) was just released, too.