VPN in Ubuntu

So, some people in China have a VPN and this can be tricky to set up. It took a while to work out all the tweaks to get Ubuntu VPNing. I recently had to re-do this because I accidentally messed it up. Here's the tips (NB this was an SSL VPN, not PPTP as PPTP can have trouble running over routers and/or PPPoE, I believe... in any case it doesn't work for me!:Go to the networking icon in top-right and click edit connections and use VPN tab of Network Manager.

• Don't select "make available to all users" even if you want it to be available to all users
• Don't enter a password in Network Manager, you will be prompted for one when trying to connect the first time and can save it in the gnome keyring which works better, but managing the gnome keyring can be a nightmare and its sometime better just to create a new VPN with the same settings!#
• May need to change the default port for SSL connection to 80 (I did: perhaps the GFW is blocking the default port?)
  
• sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart can sometimes fix things
• A hard reboot can sometimes fix things! Yes, I know you "shouldn't" need to.

Ubuntu really should work on making network manager easier to do VPN and force a restart of it.

China and Google

There's a overload of opinion on this on the web, from both perspectives. I'm not sure how much I can add to this, even as the war of words threatens to escalate into a pull-out. But here's my opinion:

1. I'll be annoyed with google if they pull out of China as it will make it harder for me to access my email, etc. Youtube and blogger are already blocked but there's youtubecn.com and VPNs to work around that, but its a pain to have to jump through those hoops sometimes.
2. Google lose access to a market of 1 billion people. Doesn't seem wise.
3. UK has ridiculous libel laws, Germany censors Nazi stuff (understandably), US has restrictive anti-copy legislation that brings down websites... China has issues, but the internet restriction is hardly the biggest.
   

They're possibly people of above-average stature

We've now got a VPN working, to establish easy access to things as if we were in the UK. One thing the girls like is watching what they call "funny videos" on Youtube. This means things like "Agadoo" with Black Lace dancing with a lady dressed in a pineapple costume. Or "Baggy Trousers" where Madness's flying saxophonist always gets them laughing. The also like more recent stuff like Katy Perry's Hot and Cold and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance... and anything by Alvin and the Chipmunks. The latest "discovery" is They Might Be Giants, although I gather that anyone who watches Conan will have seen them a lot. The girls particularly like Never go to Work and One dozen Monkeys.