About the Author
Cyrus Farivar
سیروس فریور
English: [suh-ROOS FAR-ih-var]
Persian: [see-ROOS-eh fàr-ee-VÀR]
Freelance Technology Journalist
Freelance Radio Reporter/Producer
Author, "The Internet of Elsewhere"
cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org
Current location: Bonn, GermanyTwitter
Geekery Archive
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Senate passes Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act
Posted on July 24, 2009 | 8 CommentsLate last night, the Senate passed the Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act. Nico links to the presser just co-released by a number of senators, including leads McCain, Liberman and Graham, Casey, Kaufman and others. Important bits: • Authorizes $30 million to the Broadcasting Board... -
Haystack wants your USB thumb drives!
Posted on July 23, 2009 | 10 CommentsFor the uninitiated: Haystack is an awesome, new, anti-filtering software that’s custom-designed for Iran. It’s run out of San Francisco run by my new friend and green hat hacker extraordinaire, Austin Heap. Haystack is moving along quite quickly — heck, they’ve even got a swank... -
July 7: Cyrus on PRI’s The World
Posted on July 7, 2009 | No CommentsDear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Haystack and the Dutch Parliament’s new technological support for Iran is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820... -
Flickr and Twitter now play nicely with one another
Posted on June 30, 2009 | No CommentsSince Iran has been going nuts since the election, I’ve found myself glued to Twitter much more than before. I’ve used it to send out articles that I’ve found interesting, and get a handle on what people are talking about. More recently, I’ve used it... -
How to translate Persian Twitter messages automatically
Posted on June 20, 2009 | 13 CommentsThe Iranophile blog “Is this Ta’arof?” shows how to use Greasemonkey and the new Google Translate tool to help better understand what’s being said in Persian on Twitter. Of course, Google’s translation ability is still in alpha, and likely isn’t 100 percent accurate, but it’s... -
How to swap or give-away SIM cards?
Posted on December 10, 2008 | 5 CommentsIn the last year, I’ve been to Finland (where I bought a temporary SIM card for my three-day trip there). I also have SIM cards for Iran, Estonia, the Netherlands, France, the US, Senegal and others. But once I get home, these SIM cards are... -
Results of Salon’s Machinist Test Election 2008
Posted on November 7, 2008 | No CommentsHey guys, as promised, here are the results of Salon’s Machinist Test Election 2008 President: * Abigail Adams: 2 * George Washington: 0 * Thomas Jefferson: 8 * Martha Washington: 0 Don’t believe me? Feel free to audit the tally or a ballot, here. Thanks... -
Dutch WiFi café uses ever-changing SSID to guilt freeloaders
Posted on November 6, 2008 | 2 CommentsAdRants has found a great way to get those WiFi freeloaders like me to start buying more coffee — advertise specials and guilt messages in the SSID of the network, like this café in the Netherlands. AdRants: By continuously changing the names of their store... -
In search of an unlocked quad-band GSM phone
Posted on February 18, 2008 | 1 CommentI’m looking for a backup phone to take on an upcoming trip to Europe and as a phone to take while skiing. I’d like it to be new/used, under $100, quad-band, and ideally with GPRS/EDGE support that lets me download POP email from anywhere I... -
AutoPrint 2.0
Posted on December 22, 2007 | No CommentsI just found this awesome Greasemonkey script, Autoprint 2.0, which automatically switches to the print version for a whole host of news websites.
