21–30 of 63 posts
Works great for websites, but can SOCKS5 transparently redirect DNS traffic? In the end I setup an OpenVPN server and setup port redirecting for DNS.
I did this because I live in another country where the U.S. has sanctioned me from seeing a variety of things I could pay for if I lived in the U.S. - Australia. I'm just not under a regime that will kill you if they catch you... Works great for websites, but can SOCKS5 transparently redirect DNS traffic? In the end I setup an OpenVPN server and setup port redirecting for DNS.
It boils my blood when a harmless fellow developer faces trouble due to political mess created by dumb people.
I did this because I live in another country where the U.S. has sanctioned me from seeing a variety of things I could pay for if I lived in the U.S. - Australia. I'm just not under a regime that will kill you if they catch you... Works great for websites, but can SOCKS5 transparently redirect DNS traffic? In the end I setup an OpenVPN server and setup port redirecting for DNS.
Well, I'm not doing anything political, so no one will catch me and kill me. I'm using it for exactly the same reasons as you, namely that the United States won't let me view some content, listen to some music and stuff. Even though I have to pay illegally to access this content (which is when I use my Canadian IP), I still am paying for them and must be able to use them.
It boils my blood when a harmless fellow developer faces trouble due to political mess created by dumb people.
Have to piggy-back off this and wish the guy best of luck in his endeavors. It's moments like these you understand that most of your problems are meaningless compared to what other people face.
Thank you a lot for your well wishes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I'm not doing anything political, so no one will catch me and kill me. I'm using it for exactly the same reasons as you, namely that the United States won't let me view some content, listen to some music and stuff. Even though I have to pay illegally to access this content (which is when I use my Canadian IP), I still am paying for them and must be able to use them.
How do you pay? Credit cards are normally issued from a geographic region and you need ID to get one in another country due to AML measures...
It costs extra money, but oh well. It's better than staying ignorant and not being able to improve and learn more.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you pay? Credit cards are normally issued from a geographic region and you need ID to get one in another country due to AML measures...
I used another friend's credit card. There are some services here where some guy in another country who is originally Iranian will charge a fee to take your Iranian Rials and send them to a PayPal account, or go and pay for a service on another website on your behalf. It costs extra money, but oh well. It's better than staying ignorant and not being able to improve and learn more.
What could possibly go wrong? :-)
It boils my blood when a harmless fellow developer faces trouble due to political mess created by dumb people.
Let's perform a gedankenexperiment. There is a country A that "misbehaves" — e.g. threatens its neighbourhoods and promises to hit them with nuclear weapons ASAP (in other words, promises nuclear offense). Quick note: in this context "country A" means "government of country A". There is also a country (or an alliance) B that is overwhelmingly more wealthy than A, has more military might and political power. What do you think B should do? Here are the options:
1) ignore A until it directly threatens B;
2) use B's military, crush A's government, help A's people to rebuild the country;
3) apply political and economical pressure to A, which in practice means "make A citizens' life miserable so they deal with A's government themselves". It's sometimes possible to apply the pressure selectively (e.g. to A's elites).
I agree with you that it's a morally ambivalent situation. However, I strongly believe that an embargo (including "digital" one) causes less casualties than "boots on the ground". Moreover, democracies don't fight each other, so in this scenario A is (most likely) a dictatorship. Dictatorships are bad and I believe that wealthy countries should care about long-term wellbeing of citizens of other countries, at least for their own self-interest. Your opinions may differ, but it would be wrong to brush off the whole issue with "political mess created by dumb people".