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So far, no one has published a workaround for YouTube's block on Americans trying to reach the site's beijing2008 channel. But lazy reporting and glib posts from reputable sites make it sound like the geeks (i.e. me) have solved the problem already. Wired, Silicon Alley Insider, and Om Malik's NewTeeVee are the worst offenders. I spent most of today actually trying their suggestions. I am obligated to report they're all worse than useless. Here's how each of them failed:

Specifically, NewTeeVee's Janko Roettgers recommended Indian proxy servers that all proved to be either dead or "transparent," meaning they pass your IP address along to YouTube's servers, making you easy to block. He lists a bunch of sites where he guessed video "should pop up." He guessed wrong.

SAI's Eric Krangel didn't even bother listing proxies. He just tells you to "use a proxy server through a country on YouTube's whitelist like South Korea." He also lists a few non-English streaming sites that have zero Olympics footage. Eric, next time try it yourself before you send your readers on a goose chase.

In addition, each of these writers also list a bunch of streaming sites like Veetle and pirate networks that, having been there, we can tell you are packed with nothing but NBC bootlegs. [Clarification: These clips are pre-game coverage from broadcast TV, not from nbcolympics.com, which hasn't started posting yet.]

Wired's wiki page is a shotgun blast of every possible link anyone could think of, including stale tips on watching the BBC from 2005. Like others, it sends the readers hustling to try out links that the authors clearly didn't test first. I tried every single one of the downloadable players listed there. China's Olympics channel, CCTV-5, has been removed from all.

If you want to watch soccer instead of reliving a MetaFilter thread from three years ago, the only actual end-run we've found is this live CCTV-5 stream that lets you watch in silence at 291 Kbps.

We're still looking for an end-run around for YouTube. Send us a working hack and you'll be our hero of the week. But if all you've got is a few guesses you haven't tried, send them to the reporters listed above — they clearly love that stuff.