Cyrus Farivar

Big ups to my Columbia buddy Benjamin Harvey, a reporter for the Associated Press, who is doing an excellent job of covering the trial of Turkey’s best novelist, Orhan Pamuk. By BENJAMIN HARVEY Associated Press Writer © 2005 The Associated Press ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey’s foremost novelist goes on trial Friday in Istanbul in a free-speech case that has divided the nation, embarrassed its liberals and cast a pall over its dream of joining the European Union. For Europeans who…

Wired News: by Cyrus Farivar This summer, Hugh McGuire was searching for free audio books online from his home in Montreal. He didn’t find very much. So McGuire launched LibriVox by recruiting amateur readers to create audio files of works of literature. The project now includes almost two dozen complete works, including Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, Jack London’s The Call of the Wild and other classic novels and poems. At the current rate of recording, McGuire says he expects…

From the genius of my good buddy David Boyk: And for today’s nugget of political genius, I’m going to start with a question. Who do we not need in this country? Answer: Assholes. Another question: who says those retarded slogans like “love it or leave it?” Again, assholes. Final question: how can we combine these two facts? My solution: ostracism. Whenever government employees break the public trust, they should have 72 hours before they’re deported. That amount of time should…

Macworld: By Cyrus Farivar Around the Macworld offices, we don’t need a calendar to tell us when we’re getting close to the end of the year. All we have to do is take a look around at all the Eddy Award statues waiting to be doled out to the makers of the best Mac hardware and software of the past 12 months. It’s that time of year once again, as we’re devoting this week to unveiling the winners of our…

I am proud to announce that my piece on The World will be airing probably within the next week on NPR stations across the country, and of course, online. I’ll post more as soon as I know more. Tracking at the KQED studios with Clark Boyd on an ISDN line was fun — I hope this is the first of many! And also, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m going to be doing a piece for The Economist! (Big thanks…

Has anyone heard of this? Apparently this was the Webster’s Dictionary “Word of the Year”. A quick Google search reveals this NPR Weekend Edition story as its number one hit.

On various occasions, I get pangs of wanderlust that pulsate through my veins. I read about I am in a constant struggle with my general love of the Bay Area and all of the wonderful people and sights that it holds and with my desire to see the world. I have a map of the world in my bedroom and one above my desk at work and am constantly reminded of all of the places in the world that I…

In the continuing saga of my scanning old family photos with my grandfather, John Hadsell, I present my great-great-grandfather, Sidney Forward Hadsell. All I know about him is that he was born in Michigan and served in the Union Army. He was discharged around the age of 20 due to a medical condition. He later came to California, and had my great-grandfather (Dan Hadsell) later in his life, in 1882. He also attended the Panama Exposition in San Diego in…

Chicago Tribune Op-Ed by Dr. Eboo Patel I am an American Muslim. I believe that Prophet Muhammad brought God’s final revelation, the Holy Koran, to humankind. This is not based on empirical observation or verifiable fact. It is a matter of faith. While there is significant suspicion of Muslims in many segments of American society, the secular urban liberals and progressive religious believers I know rarely question the premise of my faith. They do not ask me to read books…

Hi Cyrus, Three thoughts on your excellent “skeptical inquiry” into Negroponte’s $100 computer. A. You probably haven’t enough gray hair to remember the Timex Sinclair. More a stunt than a computer, but reached cult popularity with those who enjoy the challenge of writing TIGHT programs. Here’s a website with a jpeg of it being well-used as a doorstop! B. To be fair, I’m imagining that Negroponte isn’t projecting today’s costs/components, but counting on continued leaps in integration and reductions in…