Naughty Words

Charles points out some rather unexpected results of searching for words that seem innocuous: NIGHTWATCH and SOCIALISM. Not together - separate searches, but both blocked by very literal-minded software.

My most recent experience with a “safe surfing” blocker occurred at work a few months ago…you see, I work at a nuclear-missile base (but not WITH the missiles - relax), and I was doing a bit of research on various missiles in order to better understand the history of same. But: whenever I tried to Google for “TITAN MISSILE,” I was thwarted by the Secure Computing program. Silly me — I puzzled over the blockage for a good ten minutes before I understood.

no comments
posted by David on 12 30 04