Cyrus Farivar

This is a much better version of what I tried to do on election day. [Hat tip: Babak]

Hellz yeah. Oaktown is getting free WiFi! Waiting for my next Southwest flight will now be WAY better. Says the company presser: The launch marks FreeFi’s second deployment at a major U.S. airport in 2008. In January, FreeFi partnered with Denver International Airport to replace daily-fee Internet service with free Wi-Fi access. The Port of Oakland, owner and operator of Oakland International, awarded FreeFi a multi-year contract with the airport which commenced Oct. 1. [via Wi-Fi Net News and A…

Time: Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008 My Chance Encounter With Obama in Hawaii By Pico Iyer It was three days before the new year in late 2006, and I was eating a burger with the traveler and writer Paul Theroux on Oahu’s North Shore. Beside us in the rickety little shack was a quintessentially Hawaiian group of Chinese Americans, African Americans, semi-Southeast Asians and kids who could have been any or all of the above, waiting for the dad in the…

Big ups to Newsweek for this massively amazing set of reporting on the Obama and McCain campaigns and the behind-the-scenes strategy and play-by-play of the buildup to the election. I’ve just finished part four of the seven part series, which closes with this fantastic kicker: The power of the Obama operation could be measured: doubling the turnout at the Iowa caucuses, raising twice as much money as any other candidate in history, organizing volunteers by the millions. (In Florida alone:…

Am I the last person to find out that Obama spoke on Tuesday night behind “10 feet high and 15 feet long” “two-inch thick bullet proof glass” ?

Written: November 3 2008 Bastia, October 25 2008 Once we got off the boat in Bastia, we were supposed to meet “Felipe” — “In front of the port across the road there is a tourist office, very well known place.” Um, ok. Our ferry was late, and with the rain, it took us that much longer to get out of the port and find the tourist office (obviously closed on a Saturday night). Once we got there, I called Felipe,…

Hey 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 to all those who participated!

“[This map uses] a color scale that ranges from red for 70% Republican or more, to blue for 70% Democrat or more. This is sort of practical, since there aren’t many counties outside that range anyway, but to some extent it also obscures the true balance of red and blue. ” By: Mark Newman Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems University of Michigan [via Ethan Zuckerman]

AdRants 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 networks to such things as OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready, BuyCoffeeForCuteGirlOverThere?, HaveYouTriedCoffeeCake?, BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate, TodaysSpecialExpresso1.60Euro and BuyaLargeLatterGetBrownieForFree, the chain is able to both promote items as well as guilt patrons into realizing free WiFi really isn’t totally free. Hilarity ensued…

Newsweek: This is part one of a seven-part in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day. Barack Obama had a gift, and he knew it. He had a way of making very smart, very accomplished people feel virtuous just by wanting to help Barack…