NBC won’t let me watch the Olympic trials

You can’t watch! Go away!This afternoon I got very excited to find out that NBC was going to be doing a full coverage webcast of the US Olympic Marathon Trials tomorrow morning. I have already scheduled to get up at 5:30 so I can watch the start. I went to the website to make sure that everything was ready to go. Though there is no current coverage, the site seemed to work just fine at the time.

That was this afternoon. Now, as I get ready to go to bed, I wanted to give everything one more check. When I went to the page from which the video will be streaming, I am met with a message that says:

Content Not Available:
Geo-blocked. This event is only available to viewers within the U.S. … If you are outside of the United States you are not allowed to view this content.

If you would like to view the marathon online from a location outside the United States, please go to wcsn.com

[Emphasis mine]

I am “not allowed to view this content”? Why does your location matter? This is the Internet for crying out loud! Are we limited by imaginary borders?

Their alternate website is only showing the NYC Marathon on Sunday. According to their event schedule they will not have Trials coverage.

I happen to know a way around this. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up going through a proxy server in the US. That will hide the fact that I am outside of US borders.

Putting aside that it is totally idiotic to not allow people outside of the US to view the content, this is another example of where trying to stop people from doing what they want only hurts less knowledgeable people. There is nothing stopping me from using a proxy server. There is nothing illegal about using a proxy server. There is no logical reason they should be keeping me from watching this event. Therefore I am going to thwart their stupid scheme to keep me from seeing my country’s top marathoners compete tomorrow. But what about all the other people out there who don’t have the knowledge to do this? They just get to brood at NBC and have to accept that the network is keeping them from content they want.

If they don’t want people to see their coverage, then they should not be in charge of filming the event. This is where big media has an agenda and has no real interest in the viewers. I know I am not the only person outside the US who wants to see this. My suspicion is that the advertisers were not willing to pay the dollar amount that NBC wanted to show it to a world wide audience. They are more concerned about milking the dollar than giving us content.

Arghh!

Missionary Talks: Listener Feedback 03

Yesterday I put together a quick episode of Missionary Talks which contains some feedback and information about what I have planned in some upcoming episodes.

I am working on a biography episode of William Carey. I will be snagging at least one interview in the morning. Through my work on William Carey I have become interested in contacting my missionary friend in India to do an interview with him. I am also going to be traveling in 2 weeks and might be able to grab one more interview while I am away.

Just because I have not put out much this last month does not mean that I am going away.

Double 15s weigh a lot

As we stood there picking up the set of double 15 domino set we wondered who’s idea it was to buy such a thing. We play a few different games with the set, but I don’t think we have gone over using a double 12. We mostly play Mexican Train, but on occasion play normal domino rules (whatever normal means).

The reason we were picking them up is our daughter (3 years old) climbed up into the game closet and proceeded to pull them (along with most other games with lots of pieces) down on her head. The double 15 set weighs more that 5 pounds! Ouch!

But she did not get much sympathy from us (she was not injured). She had been told countless times to stay out of there for that very reason. She got to help us pick up all the marbles, dominoes, pegs, dice, sticks …