Cyrus Farivar

BDP: Cody’s Books, founded on Telegraph Avenue in 1956, expanded to Fourth Street in 1998 and San Francisco in 2005, closed on Telegraph in 2006, closed in San Francisco the following year, moved to Shattuck Avenue in March, and then, yesterday, on June 19, 2008, went out of business. Shoppers and passersby at the 2201 Shattuck store Friday found a locked store and a sign taped on the glass doors reading: “Cody’s Books is Closed-Thank You.” Above the windows a…

NYT: DAKAR, Senegal — From the air, this sprawling city looks like a metropolis on the move, a buzzing quadrilateral jutting into the Atlantic. Cars speed along a supple, newly reconstructed four-lane highway that hugs the rugged coastline. Cranes dot the seaside, building luxury hotels and conference centers, as investors from Dubai revamp the city’s port, hoping to transform it into a high-tech regional hub. But on the ground the picture shifts. Jobless young men line the new highways, trying…

NYT: A new black consciousness is emerging in France, lately hastened by, of all things, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States. An article in Le Monde a few days ago described how Mr. Obama is “stirring up high hopes” among blacks here. Even seeing the word “noir” (“black”) in a French newspaper was an occasion for surprise until recently. Meanwhile, this past weekend, 60 cars were burned and some 50 young people scuffled with police and…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Charter Communications and what it means for privacy and advertising online will be on All Things Considered today (June 12)! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 4 pm to 6:30 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 4 pm to 6 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 3:30 pm…

Oh man, my pal Wayan Vota has just found the first documented example of XO laptops getting jacked in Peru. Please recall NickNeg’s argument as to why XOs would never get stolen: there are thousands of cars in the United States stolen each day, but not one single post office truck has been stolen in the history of the United States. The reason is that there is no secondary market for post office trucks because they look like post office…

Please, gag me with a flag pin. I know I’m not the first to say this, but please, NYT: “closed-fist high-fives” it is not. Terrorist fist jab, it is not. Fist bump, fist pound, or dap are the acceptable nomenclature. Props to Gawker for this deft analysis: These are kids (meaning “18-35-year-olds across the entire nation), white and black, for whom respect knuckles are second nature. And Obama’s bump and shoulder-brush, probably simply because he’s such a natural actor, don’t…

The iPhone 3G is pretty rad, but after some reflection, there’s no real compelling reason for me to sell my first generation iPhone and get a new one. 1) The 3G costs just as much as the old one over two years. In fact, slightly more. 2) Taxes/fees included, my cell phone bill these days on T-Mobile (for 1000 minutes) is usually about $80. On AT&T it would cost me about $90 for less minutes, plus 3G. Is that worth…

Big ups to: Rick Karr for his new video commentary on Internet surveillance. Hamid Tehrani for his new post about anti-Semetic Iranian blogs. Glenn Strachan for his latest piece in Discovery about how badly America sucks at WiFi.

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on learning English in Estonia aired today. Sorry I didn’t inform you in advance. The audio is here. Also, I had a spot news item on the new iPhone for NPR this afternoon. Audio is here.

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Apple’s WWDC will be on Morning Edition tomorrow (June 9). It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 5 am to 9 am Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 5 am to 10 am Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 2 am to 9 am Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM –…