If it's the same implementation as Turkey's (now defuct) ban YouTube, it was done on a DNS level.

Simply changing your DNS servers to anything else (Google / OpenDNS, etc) - not only do you bypass the block, but you also have reliable DNS.

Yeah, you're an idiot.

Not so much in regards to the fact that the iranian government is fucked up, but completely in regards to male-female interactions, and the iranian people in general.

And yes, I've actually been there.

..or, HDMI-In... Problem solved.

Rounding works both ways, you know.

Zynga's business plan is a perfectly understandable one.

1. They see a product that works - they know there is a market for this product, with an approximate size of N.

2. They make a copy of the game, knowing that they'll capture 1/Nth of the market.

You can't say Zynga has no model or plan. Their power comes from crunching numbers, and monitizing the crap out of their products. If their competition is not doing that - it's certainly not the fault of Zynga. The long and the short of it is - companies are in business to make money. Zynga doesn't pretend to make games for fun, it's to make cash - and it obviously works.

If, as the nay-sayers say, all Zynga games were terrible, and poor copies of other titles - then they wouldn't be making money or headlines.

I don't care either way, but you have to acknowledge reality.

You've never used an iPod right?
iPods were/are well designed, look good, have great interfaces, etc - but getting music onto them is horrendous.

You can't just copy music on / off. You can't click and drag playlists across. You can't copy your music off (easily). iPods are many things, including "victim of bad software"

Yeah, and you'd miss out on a stunning country and amazing people.

Actually - stay at home. The less jaded people fucking it up for other people, the better.

Hardly:

http://www.ninjito.com/2009-10-07-NYC

"Lax Security" is pretty much everywhere.

USA: Genuine NASA motor:
http://www.ninjito.com/images/2007-01-25/qx-door-3.jpg

Russia, particle colliders:
http://www.ninjito.com/2008-08-24/qx-collider-1.jpg

France, air tunnels
http://www.ninjito.com/_2010-05-07/qx-xx-4.jpg

USA, a certain famous bridge in NYC
http://www.ninjito.com/images/2009-10-07-NYC/qx-b-1.jpg

The only reason this never comes to public attention is because generally, the people that do it don't want public attention.

Your hunch is correct, and it's not the first time that Channel 7 have done this sort of this.
4-5 years ago for the launch of one of their shows, they had stills of cityscapes. Curiously, it was a familiar set of stills - they'd gone to google images, and pulled down the top 10 photos.

Noone had been contacted to ask for permission. There was a complaint procedure that went like this:

Ch7: The images appearing in the transmission come from our media library.
Right Holder: No, they're mine.
Ch7: No, they really came from our media library. Do not make allegations that you're not prepared to defend in court.
Right Holder: Here's 'your' image, with mine overlayed. Here's the other 10, and here's the matching google search.
Ch7: We have been told by our lawyers not to respond to your communications. Any pursuit of this matter will see it terminate in court.

Essentially, it's a media corp. They don't care, and they'll do whatever they can for stories.