FOR THE RECORD, the “SonicWall Content Filter” used by Panera Bread on its wi-fi sucks like a bilge pump. I just tried to check an article in Arms Control Today and the journal is blocked because it has to do with “weapons.” Jeez. Who runs SonicWall?

UPDATE: More on SonicWall here. Sheesh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Interestingly, SonicWall doesn’t block the definitely not-safe-for-work Good Shit site.

I don’t want to be too hard on Panera, whose reluctance to have customers sitting around looking at porn on widescreen laptops is understandable. And after all, they’re making the service available for free, so who can complain? But SonicWall just seems to be a lousy product. I’m not impressed to see that libraries are using it.

MORE: Blake Hiatt emails: “We run a SonicWall at work, and they are configureable. More than likely, the person who manages the network has the settings on the SonicWall very tight, or, doesn’t know how to configure it correctly.” Somebody call the Panera IT department!