Aside

I was reading up on Hezbollah on Wikipedia earlier this morning and got side tracked to the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Why doesn’t anyone talk about this anymore? The map is pretty sweet. I wonder if we’ll ever see something like it actually implemented.

With all this talk about search data being leaked, I’ve given a little bit more thought to cyber-security. First, I use my ISP‘s VPN almost all the time now. Second, I’ve switched from Fire to Adium, if for no other reason than it’s more customizable and has really super easy built-in encryption. Then today I came across these tips from the EFF on how to keep your search history private, including a suggestion to get the CustomizeGoogle Firefox extension. All…

This evening, I installed Parallels Desktop to my Mac, enabling me to run Windows XP on my Mac. It’s a weird feeling.

Seems to be working now.

In trying to get my email domain (cfarivar.org) to point to this site, my email has been down for several hours. If you need to email me, use cfarivar [at] sonic [dot] net. And I can only communicate with my host via web-based messages. Argh.

The Atlantic, September 2006: Several months ago, I discovered that I was being “considered for deletion.” Or rather, the entry on me in the Internet behemoth that is Wikipedia was. For those of you who are (as uncharitableWikipedians sometimes say) “clueless newbies,” Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. But it is like no encyclopedia Diderot could have imagined. Instead of relying on experts to write articles according to their expertise, Wikipedia lets anyone write about anything. You, I, and any wired-up…

Mana, the woman who I wrote about for Wired News a few weeks’ ago has finally evacuated to Europe. In order to keep herself busy, she’s started an online store of products of interested to Lebanese expats and Lebanophiles. I think I’m going to get myself a long-sleeved t-shirt with the illustration to the left. The Arabic reads: Wali Lubnani (“And I Have My Lebanon”, a famous line by Lebanon’s adored poet: Khalil Gibran). Check out some of her other…

A New York friend is coming to San Francisco for a weekend to attend a wedding. She’s staying in Union Square and only has one full day to tour the city on her own, and this is what I recommended: 1) Get up whenever, stroll around Union Square/Market St. 2) Optionally check out Yerba Buena Gardens and the Museum of Modern Art, or the California Historical Society Museum, or the Cartoon Art Museum. 3) Around lunchtime, make your way to…

You know, there are days when it feels like the whole world is smiling on you. Yesterday I went for a run at about 7 pm up in the Berkeley Hills on the side of Strawberry Canyon. As I was coming down the hill, the sun was setting over the Bay and there were wild blackberries blooming on the trailside. I love this place.

Wow, this terrorism stuff is scary. Kudos to the British authorities for doing a job well done. That said, isn’t this a little overboard? IHT: In Britain, the authorities banned laptop computers, mobile phones, iPod music players, and other electronic devices from being carried on board; passengers were obliged to empty their remaining carry-on items into the plastic bags.