Archive for June, 2004

The best spam ever.

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 30, 2004, 6:43 pm UTCPosted in: Tech

I just got the following spam:

Subject: Re: Agreement
From: “Schulz”
Date: Wed, June 30, 2004 7:18 pm

fhcfg. lpqjdqykv nttwyly sdmseyomd tkhnvud xbveiscb
ufaez dtwlwhs xmidtzne jkpss- zxvort
cdbvfs uxouxeba ycujpt exysmyv
gppsxswh pdpimpfi xclxzgh, zqufbdcj usbcbxrc
phywogc imuyquaui cooltamq dlwtdpdns
khbuw memdlfycz cmbcajsz, vcfnj hxrbeokgb
soheu bplldtbne mhhlc louecryz
byjezf mzdartc mfsbrcfit hlxirtgni zkwbfhv, vaerhcnea
ybdhse izuvplujd uuohuw- drenkxqnl
cicrzyfx. kdffzj. vgxbi omsalzi, nlkrn
jfojzd iubova- eihkqumbf ubvgh qpxcig oveps
gucmkp vvlogu qfmbkdtc- mpxelafu kcrigdmpk

$700 for an apt in Manhattan?

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 30, 2004, 8:22 am UTCPosted in: Columbia

OFFER OF ACCOMMODATION

Dear Cyrus,

We are pleased to offer you the following
accommodation in a UAH property:
434 West 120th Street # 5E2 New York NY 10027
One bedroom in a two bedroom apartment share.
This unit is unfurnished.
Billing rate is $693.00 Per Month
Ethernet Service Charge $25.00 Per Month.

Utilities are not included.

Wanna see a blueprint?

Sounds great! My roommate is a SIPA (School of Intl. Public Affairs), so that should prove to be interesting — a “Kendrin Dyitt,” whose name turns up one hit on Google. Weird.

All the Tech News That’s Fit to Print

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 29, 2004, 11:42 am UTCPosted in: Tech

Considering that I stole your thunder last time, Rachel, I’ll wait until later — but I will say that we’re all proud of you!

Also, anyone want a free subscription to Wired?

“Redmond, we have a problem.”

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 28, 2004, 3:18 pm UTCPosted in: Personal

Well, trip to LA went well, more or less — a mild exchange with my Dad on Sunday notwithstanding. It was good to see family and a couple friends and what not. (In addition Made it back easily on BART, and overheard a guy called Dennis who is the promoter/manager for KaliFam talk to some other guy about the music business. I learned two things of note:

1) AndrŽ 3000 of Outkast fame is currently shooting a movie where he is playing Jimi Hendrix.

2) There’s a huge private and exclusive music industry party in Sept. 2004 (29th annual) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They rent out an entire hotel and have major artists perform for a couple days and there are crazy parties that go on all day and night. In addition, the hotel hires Puerto Rican women (about 2,000 of them) to parade around topless to keep the men “happy.” It gets so crazy, says Dennis, that he went to a party last year there and along with the invitation were: “Two condoms, a 50 cent blunt, and an ecstasy tab.” Huh.

Today, Owen (Thanks Owen!) promised me that I could abuse my press powers and attend WWDC this morning — my first ever Steve Jobs keynote. I rushed out of B2 at about 9:35, forgetting my notepad (I had to buy one en route), and when I wanted to take pictures of Steve Jobs, my digicam was dead, so that sucked. Other than that, it was a lot of fun, and I was about 50 ft or so from Steve Jobs, and yes, he did wear a black top, jeans, and sneakers. (I love California.) If you care about this sort of stuff, Apple announced some neat toys, hardware and software, including a 30Ó LCD, which costs $3300 not to mention the $600 that is required to power the thing. ItÕs a damn sexy monitor (I got a life-sized poster of it), but IÕll never be able to afford it. IÕm pretty content with my 12Ó Powerbook for the time being (although I am jealous that Rachel is getting a free upgrade given the hardware problems that sheÕs had.) Maybe IÕll get a new laptop next summer, once I have a job (knock on wood.)

Work has been very busy, involving lots of calls to Europe (wonÕt I be glad when this is all over).

Rachel R. comes to the Bay Area on Wednesday! Yay!

My brother needs an apt

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 27, 2004, 5:35 pm UTCPosted in: Personal

Anyone know of a $1400 or less apartment (2 bedroom, living room, etc) apt within walking distance of campus? He can move in mid to late July. Email me if you have any insider information.

Marmoulak (“The Lizard”)

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 26, 2004, 9:21 am UTCPosted in: Iran

Last night my family went and saw a new Persian film called “The Lizard”, a contemporary Persian comedy, which is something of an oxymoron. In the last 10 years or so, in the new wave of Persian cinema with films like “The White Balloon,” “Children of Heaven,” “Rain,” and so forth. They tend to be quite simple and beautiful films, but very melodramatic and heavy as well — and they don’t differ a whole lot from one to the next.

So when my Dad told me that we were going to see a Persian comedy, I was intrigued.

The movie centers around a burglar known as “The Lizard” for his amazing ability to scale brick walls. He gets caught early on and is thrown in prison, but manages to escape by dressing up as a mullah (Islamic leader) and walking out, fooling the guards. In his new disguise as a mullah, he gets on a train headed for northern Iran (he’s trying to leave the country) and makes up a story about how he’s going to a mosque there, but when he arrives at the border village, the villagers think that he’s the mullah that they’d sent for and adopt him, much to his dismay. So not knowing anything about Islam (he rants about Islam while in prison), he tries to adapt — often producing some pretty funny results, including one great scene with a young Islamic student who is always pestering the new “mullah” with really tedious points about the Qur’an.

My favorite of which is when this kid asks, in all seriousness about how Muslims are supposed to conduct their day and night prayers in the North Pole, where it is day half the year and night half of the year. The-Lizard-as-Mullah, completely baffled by this question waxes poetically about how there has been some debate among the Islamic clergy about this issue, and how some say that for this reason, some say that Muslims should pray according to their own time zone, and that if it were night always then some of them would have to count as day prayers. Then the kid follows up with a question about what if the people of the North Pole and the Muslims of the world should get in a war and a Muslim should be taken captive back to the North Pole — and he responds that for this reasons, some of the other clergy have said that Muslims should stay out of the North Pole — they come from warm climates anyway, why should they go to the cold?

I don’t know if that makes much sense, but I recommend this movie.

Friday in LA

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 25, 2004, 2:16 pm UTCPosted in: Personal

Our family cat, Magic, died two weeks ago when we were in Chicago. I just found this out today. I wasn’t particularly attached to him, as he was a very large and boring orange tabby cat — bigger than our dog (a bichon frisŽ, Marcel). But still, I find it weird that no one thought to tell me.

I went to the LA Farmer’s Market in Fairfax for the first time today and had some gumbo ya ya at a New Orleans place, which was quite tasty. I saw a number of guys writing scripts on laptops, reminding me that I was in LA. Still I never considered the Farmer’s Market to be the ideal place to write a script.

The. Best. Post. Article. Ever.

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 24, 2004, 10:46 pm UTCPosted in: Media

“Fuck yourself,” said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.

. . .

There is no rule against obscene language by a vice president on the Senate floor. The senators were present for a group picture and not in session, so Rule 19 of the Senate rules — which prohibits vulgar statements “unbecoming a senator” — does not apply, according to a Senate official. Even if the Senate were in session, the vice president, though constitutionally the president of the Senate, is an executive branch official and therefore free to use whatever language he likes.

Car crash in Senegal

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 24, 2004, 9:01 pm UTCPosted in: Senegal

There was a minibus crash in northern Senegal today, nearly 30 dead. The paramedics took 50 minutes to arrive.

Xinhua News

Twenty-eight people were killed immediately, three died later in the local hospital, and 34 others were injured. The authoritieshave flown 14 seriously wounded people in two planes to the capital of Dakar for treatment.

Reuters

DAKAR, June 24 (Reuters) – Two public buses collided on Thursday in the northern part of Senegal killing 28 people and injuring 27 others, a spokesman for the West African country’s fire rescue unit said.

“One bus was heading towards the northern city of Saint Louis while the other bus, packed with passengers, was going to Dakar,” Abdoulaye Ndiaye of Senegal’s fire rescue unit said.

“We recorded 28 deaths and 27 other people were injured, three of them very seriously.”

Le Soleil

Il y a 26 femmes et deux fillettes parmi les personnes décédées. Les deux chauffeurs ont rendu lâme dans cet effroyable accident de la route. Selon les premiers éléments de l’enquête, l’un des chauffeurs, qui était en état de somnolence, a perdu le contrôle de son véhicule qui a quitté sa voie pour aller heurter l’autocar qui venait en sens inverse. Les blessés ont été évacués vers les hôpitaux de Louga par les secouristes arrivés sur les lieux plus de 50 minutes après l’accident, indiquent des témoins qui se trouvaient à bord des autocars.

“Sorry, no tools of any kind are allowed on board.”

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 24, 2004, 9:02 am UTCPosted in: Travels

I got approval for a short piece for Wired magazine! Woo-hoo!

I’m in LA through Sunday afternoon — I barely made my flight in OAK yesterday, and the security fuckin’ took my hex key (aka “Allen wrench”), which I have in my Camelbak pocket. C’mon guys, it’s a hex key! (“Sorry, no tools of any kind are allowed on board.”)

You’d think that they would have invented a system where people can leave stuff at the security desk and then pick it up when they return so they don’t lose it, or even try to go pick it up at some office later on.

Let’s hope the Dodgers can salvage one game.

Who wants Gmail?

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 21, 2004, 8:59 am UTCPosted in: Tech

Without ever having sent a Gmail message, I have six invites now. Who’s interested?

Maria, I feel your pain — let’s buy each other a drink

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 16, 2004, 7:01 pm UTCPosted in: Personal

God damn. I just talked with this French guy in Japan for a story that I was asked to essentially redo because their stringer didn’t do a good enough job on it, and I was told to record it, and the damn thing didn’t record right through the phone. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but they’re doing it in transcript style, instead of normal news style. I only hear my voice. Fuck. It’s 7 pm, and I have to be back at the office in 12 hours to call Europe.

And I’m hungry.

For sale: Dodgers vs. Giants ; Section 330, Row 1, Seats 19-20

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 15, 2004, 11:38 pm UTCPosted in: Baseball

I have a pair to this great game that I sadly cannot attend on June 21 (this Monday).

$48.50 for the pair (what I paid for them).

It’s Indy Time!

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 15, 2004, 10:08 pm UTCPosted in: Personal

Who wants to go see Raiders of the Lost Ark in downtown Oakland on Friday (8 pm) with me for free?

Oakland Film Office Summer Festival

Writ of Douchebaggery

By
Cyrus Farivar
 – June 14, 2004, 9:31 am UTCPosted in: Politics

So for those of you who missed it last week, check out this link for a hysterical clip (DivX) of Jon Stewart talking about how Ashcroft wouldn’t release a 2002 memo to Congress about the use of torture.

Oh, and the Post released the memo today.

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