Aside

I had the honor of being interviewed (again!) by Jesse Brown on his TVO show, “Search Engine“, to provide an update on the Iranian post-election situation. Update: Audio is here.

Friends, This op-ed (my first!) ran in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Please disseminate widely! -C Silicon Valley should step up, help Iranians Op-Ed by Cyrus Farivar Tuesday, June 30, 2009 The San Francisco Chronicle Until Iran’s election and ensuing political crisis, many Silicon Valley companies had ignored Persian-language services almost entirely. It’s easy to understand why. First, there’s an American embargo against Iran, which forbids American companies from doing business with that country. Second, there is a perception that the…

Ok, so I’m a little behind on my Daily Show watching. Hey, it’s been a busy few weeks! Still though, check this: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Jason Jones: Behind the Veil – Ayatollah You So thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

So while the world was watching Iran’s chaos this weekend, there was a new state in the process of being born: Greenland. Yes, that massive ice sheet that takes up an unfathomable part of your world map is well on its way to becoming an independent country, shaking off the 300-year-old colonial yoke of Denmark. On Sunday, Denmark handed over responsibility of the island’s internal affairs including potentially vast oil reserves to Greenland. In addition, the judicial system will also…

My former Engadget colleague Randall Bennett interviewed me today on the latest edition of TechVi talking about tech stuff in Iran.

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on fake Iranian Twitter messages is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern – WGBH – 89.7 FM – www.wgbh.org…

Dear Friends, I was recently interviewed in the studios of Eesti Raadio for BBC’s Digital Planet, which airs globally each week on the BBC World Service. I spoke on what I saw and heard at the recent NATO conference on Cyberwarfare in Tallinn. Download the MP3 here. More from BBC here.

The 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 better than nothing. This should work on Windows, Mac or Linux equally well. If you’re not techy and don’t understand the difference between a cup of java and JavaScript, fear not! This takes about a…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the new Persian tech tools from Google, Facebook and Apple is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

I guess folks over at Google and Facebook have been reading my Twitter messages and my blog — or more likely, simply sped up processes that were already in motion. Google announced about 90 minutes ago that it had added Persian to Google Translate, while Facebook is about to launch its Persian-language version of the social networking software. In my brief test, it seems like the “alpha” moniker is quite valid. While Google Translate was able to handle the Persian…