Toronto Report

Google as a Model for Governments

shayan — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:35:41 +0000

Ahmadijenad’s government has announced a bill which forces all Iranian webloggers to register their information in a web site so government can track them later if they write anything that government doesn’t like. Obviously everyone is against it and it is even against the Iran’s constitution law and government will have a hard time to enforce it, but interestingly while we protest such request, at the same time we are volunteer to provide much more information about ourselves to others.

Just think if someone at Google wants to know ’something’ about me, what he ‘can’ know?

- By reviewing my Gmail account s/he can read almost all of my non-business emails. Remember Gmail’s policy is archiving all the emails and never deletes anything from its database.
- Once Google catches my IP address, will know about my searches: what I was looking for, how important it was for me (by amount of time I spent for it), and what I learned about it (by tracking my clicks).
- From Orkut can know who are my friends, the communities I joined, see my latest photos an even what was my Halloween custom last year! He can understand some of my habits as well (such as my interest to explore strangers’ photo albums!)
- By tracking my account at YouTube will know more about my interests, and how much time I spent for it and when (For those who wonder why Google should pay more than $1.5 billion to buy YouTube).
- From Google Talk will know who I call, when, for how long.
- From Google Talk an Gmail will now about my chats, its time and its content.
- From Google Alert will know what is really important for me that I monitor the web and news for it.
- From Google Reader knows what what are my information resources and what I check usually on a daily basis.
- From Blogger (that I was using until recently) with a good estimation will know what has been in my mind in a given time that I shared with others in my weblog).
- From Google Analytics knows about my personal and business websites, their subject and content, number of visitors, etc.
- From Google AdWords will have a good estimation of the budget I spent on advertisement and it leads to a fairly good estimation on my company size.

I should change my question to What Google can ‘not’ Know About Me. Poor those guys in Iranian government who are struggling to gather the information they want and they never could make it!

Confession!

shayan — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:01:08 +0000

Iranian celebrate the Yalda, the longest night of the year, by getting together, reading poems and symbolically try do fun things. This year, one of the bloggers has suggested a game: everyone confess to 5 things which even his/her close friends don’t know them. So here is mine:

1. When I was in high school, grade 11, I stopped taking exams! So I had to study 8 courses in the following summer and get ready for the admission exam of university (In Iran due to very high demand for higher education there is a national exam and top ranked students can choose which university and field they want to register. At the time that I took the exam, almost one million students participated and 10% could get it in). Anyway, I got admission for the best technology university in the country as mechanical engineer student, but I never participated in classes, then I changed my fields to Applied Mathematics in Computer, an changed it again to Pure Mathematics, after getting my B.Sc. I started MBA in back-home, in University of Toronto I started Information Studies but didn’t find the school and field enough challenging, and switched to Philosophy of Science and Technology. This one was challenging, but due to full time work I had I didn’t have time to study enough so I got back to MBA as it really doesn’t need that much study! So battle still continues but I am dedicated to get my Ph.D. degree…

2. I hate cooked parcel! In Iran they mixed it with rice and I hate the smell an taste!

3. Once I hit a car in a parking lot and made a little bit damage on it. I escaped the scene! and I don’t tell you it was in Iran or Canada!

4. Sometimes I think I should consider a limit in useing my skill in convincing people in doing things!

5. I don’t like conservatives, but there is one guy who is conservative and I worked with him for eight years in Iran. He (Professor Javad Larijani) supported the Internet project in Iran and without his vision and support it was impossible to do it. He is the only conservative that I’d work with him again I find the opportunity.

You are like a flower amidst bramble bush.

shayan — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:10:29 +0000

It is almost 5 years I have left Iran. During last years, a new generation of young musicians has been emerged which is very talented and I like almost everything I hear from them. Ironically, compare to all those L.A. musics that have been produced without any Islamic restrictions rarely you can find something interesting in them, those guys in Iran have almost no room to work freely and their music has been developed totally underground as government not only doesn’t support that kind of art even banes it and doesn’t allow it to be published by recording companies (yes, like books to publish a music album you need to obtain permission).

Sometimes I hear a piece of music that I really can not understand why it should be baned. This piece by Mohsen Namjoo is one of them; the lyrics is from Sa’dee, one the most famous Persian poets (lived 700 years ago) and there is no female voice in it, but still baned… it is so sad.

I hope you enjoy it.

Risk or Uncertainty

shayan — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 03:53:39 +0000

I guess most people think risk means uncertainty; “if you are not certain about something you are taking a risk”. Interestingly, by definition, risk is different from uncertainty: Risk means there are some “known unknown” that you know those known issues might happen, but you don’t know when it will happen, in what direction, and to what extent.You can think of interest rate as an example.

Uncertainty means there are some “Unknown Unknown” that you don’t know what might happen at all, and obviously the direction and extend is unknown as well. 9/11 can be considered as an example.

So, the difference between risk and uncertainty is that risk is a probability that can be measured (or calculated); for example the chance of having an interest rate less than x in next year can be calculated.

How about certainties? Means things that we know will happen for100% ? It seems there is only two things that we will happen for sure: tax and death! Let me know if you can name anything else!

Adieu Gary Cooper (2)

shayan — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:51:43 +0000

Another character in Adieu Gary Cooper is a man who teaches skiing to the tourists in Alps mountains. He is white and so is his wife, and they have a few kids which one of them is black! (Obviously one of the seasonal tourists has had a role in that regard); The man is so cool about the black kid and let him live with them; when his friends ask him whether he minds the fact that he is not ‘his’ kid, he responses “there are so many kids in the world that are not mine and this is another one”!

Doubt!

shayan — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 17:51:16 +0000

I am not sure… I was going to meet 1 person at 11? or 11 persons at 1?!

Adieu Gary Cooper

shayan — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:27:22 +0000

Adieu Gary Cooper has been one of the most favorite books of mine and a few close friends. It is full of interesting characters and we always enjoy quoting from it in different occasions.

Tonight, I was browsing Orkut which is a social networking application and you can list your friends and upload some photos and information about yourself . In Orkut, you find tens of thousands of names and photos of people in it, those who are connected to your friends, friends of your friends and so on; those you never knew about them and suddenly you find so much information about them, their interests, places they have been, picture of their families and friends, their best friends, their Halloween customs, etc. etc. and it reminded me a character in Adieu Gary Cooper who was tired of all lies and dishonesties around him and had believed the only book that says nothing but truth is city phone book! Still, just to make sure all the information in the phone book is right he was checking it time to time by picking a random name and call the associated number to the name! Just to make sure this one doesn’t lie and tells the truth, consistently!

Proof of God!

shayan — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:53:31 +0000

God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the devil exists since its consistency cannot be proved. - Hermann Weyl

PS. for those who doesn’t know what is consistency of mathematics: It means if ‘currently’ 2 times 2 is 4, in future if we try it again, result will remain 4! It might seem obvious, but Kurt Gödel showed the consistency of the mathematics cannot be proved, so we believe mathematics is consistent but we can not prove it! You can imagine what kind of nightmare it was for mathematicians when Gödel announced his theory. Click here for more information.

An Exhibition of its Kind

shayan — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:09:40 +0000

Due to heavy censorship in Iran, there are many books each year that don’t get approval to be published (Yes, you need to get approval on content from authorities to publish your book and just market demand is not enough to publish a book). So, recently, there was an exhibition in Tehran of books that never got published! Of course, only one copy of each book was available!

It reminded me a short story that grandmas tell the kids in some places around Shiraz, south of Iran:

There was a king who did NOT have three sons; Two of those sons died and the other one had no life. One day, one of those who was dead took a horse who had no legs, took a gun that had no pipe, and got in a way that had no end. On his way, he saw a gazelle who had no body and used his gun to hunt the gazelle. Then he went and went until reached three houses, two of them were destroyed and the other didn’t have roof; There was a fireplace in the one without roof, but fireplace had no wall and there was a pot that didn’t have bottom. The prince cooked the gazelle, ate it and felt thirsty; He went again and reached a river that had no water and started drinking and never took his head off. That was our story!

PS1. Who needs magical realism literature?! We are living it already!

PS2. Shiraz is the name of the town whose grape was taken to Australia and famous Shiraz wine has gotten its name from it.

Do it, Don’t do it!

shayan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:43:35 +0000

When I force you to do something I have applied at least 16 assumptions:

1. Truth exists (somewhere)
2. Truth is unique and there is no multiple-truth
3. The assumed unique truth, has only one face (so if I discover that face, that’s it; there is no other point of view or face that might be missed)
4. Human kind can discover the truth
5. Truth is static and it doesn’t change over time
6. Based on 3, 4 and 5, once truth is discovered, there is no need to re-discover it again
7. ‘Some’ people can discover the truth some can not
8. I am among those who are able to discover the truth
9. and you are not.
10. Based on my understanding of truth, I can know what is good and what is bad for others (so truth is not some general knowledge about universe, it can be about almost everything)
11. You are among those that role 10 can be applied and I can know their interest better than themselves
12. You must obey good things and your interests. (You have no right to harm yourself what so ever)
13. If you don’t obey, there is someone who has authority to force you to do so.
14. I am among those who has that authority
15. If still you resist you deserve punishment
16. I am among those who can punish you!

So 80s

shayan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 19:07:40 +0000

Before coming to North America, I remember once I was looking at map of highways in California, those multi-level roads and bridges, and I was wondering how this country has been built in less than 200 years and I was thinking every single aspect of life should has been so planned and organized and efficient to achieve such level of success.

Last night I was visiting Chapters bookstore and saw So80s Book among other books on 60s and I was thinking of the fact that America has had its own dark periods like McCarthyism, and periods like 80s (which looks to me a lovely crazy period) while advancing in other areas. It is amazing how social evolution with all its challenges didn’t stop the country from moving forward in its other aspects.

Sometimes, I think it can be true for the individuals and our life too! We can be so crazy and at the same time build the most powerful and strong elements of our personality and character which will support us for years to come…

Perfectionism and Rationality

shayan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:10:10 +0000

I guess increasing the level of rationality (specially among politicians) in each country and society is one of the most important goals of social engineers. It is one of the biggest challenges in developing countries like Iran as well. We see so many claims, policies, goals, etc. in all different levels from politicians to ordinary people which has no ground and with a simple logical overview you notice there is no support for those ideas. But how it happens? How you can establish an acceptable level of rationality and make it common sense? Obviously, west has done a much better job in this area and I was always wondering how it happened and where was the start point.

These days, I think one of the important ‘practices’ which is very well established in west is ‘how to do yourself’ guides and those manuals play an important role in this regard. Of course anyone knows how to fix a chair, but when you create some guidelines for it, and provide best practices and a wide range of tools and methods it encourages everyone to do it in a more professional way and it increases the overall rationality in everyday life and automatically you expand it to other aspects of your decisions and becomes a method of thinking . This idea can be applied in almost anywhere: driving, swimming, etc. A good example is driving. Driving a car looks simple, but adjusting the speed to traffic, number of stops you make, etc. distinguishes a good driver from a bad one. In another word, being perfectionist is an essential element in developing and establishing rationality. Perfectionism is not something in addition to rationality, it is part of it and should become part of the culture.

PS. In this post, I used rationality as a technical term (not vs. craziness!).

Shooting Even his Shadow

shayan — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:43:34 +0000

In Persian, there is an idiom called “Shooting Even Someone’s shadow” which means when you hate someone, you would even shoot his (or her) shadow if see it anywhere!

Example: She will even shoot his shadow if he shows up.

Chicago

shayan — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 01:00:04 +0000

I visited Chicago two weeks ago; I was always thinking guys in Toronto city hall are following New York as a model for Toronto but now I am sure Chicago is the city they have in mind.

I liked it. I was enough lucky to catchPatritia Barber in Green Mill (the oldest Jazz bar in north America) and her wonderful voice; also found a very interesting book store. Weather is like Toronto but bigger downtown and of course lots of colleges.

While I was there, Chicago Tribune released some photos by Stanley Kubrick; Photos were taken for Look magazine at summer 1949.

So Many Words

shayan — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 04:17:28 +0000

So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be

(Alfred, Lord Tennyson — In Memoriam)

Intelligentsia

shayan — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 22:12:26 +0000

The intellectual elite of a society. [Russian intelligentsiya, from Latin intelligentia, intelligence, from intelligns, intelligent-, intelligent. See intelligent.]

The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran

shayan — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 20:51:36 +0000

Not only would a foreign invasion of Iran vitiate popular support for human rights activism, but by destroying civilian lives, institutions and infrastructure, war would also usher in chaos and instability. Respect for human rights is likely to be among the first casualties.

Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Source: NYTimes

Bush Loves Iranians!

shayan — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 06:31:16 +0000

Bush keeps telling that he wants to liberate Iran and Iranian people. I am wondering why he doesn’t pay any attention to Chinese people?! Or Russian? Or billions of poor people in Africa? They are hungry and suffering from aids. They even don’t want freedom or liberty. They are simply hungry and dying of HIV. Why Iranian are so important for Mr. President?! Any idea?!

Yasmen Levy

shayan — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 05:33:35 +0000

BBC has announced its award for world music (2005). It’s is always my most favorite collection of world music.

This year I discovered Yasmin Levy; just listen to her and enjoy her Mediterranean nostalgic music.

The Last day of the World

shayan — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:53:06 +0000

Don’t Worry. It’s not the last day of the world; it’s already tomorrow in Australia.

Benefit of Philosophy

shayan — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 04:55:32 +0000

I am studying philosophy of science in U of T. Indeed, it is history and philosophy of science and technology; when people ask me what is the benefit of reading philosophy, I didn’t know how to answer but recently I found a good one. For instance I told to my real state agent that I can tell you if you will be slave of machines in future! Of course she responded that she feels already she is slave and she doesn’t need to know who would be the master in future!

Persian Music Masters in Toronto

shayan — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 04:42:02 +0000

For those who want to hear persian music by masters, Alizadeh, Kalhor and Shajarian are coming to Toronto.

Shajarian was my first favorite singer and it took me almost 10 years to understand Alizadeh: His majic in music and his infinite creativity. Kalhor which was a part of Silk Road Project is very well known in western countries and he is becoming better and better every year.

I would love to go and listen to the music but I just can not get rid of my worries about Iran and those disgusting war talks; sometimes you are not in the mood to seat and listen; even if it is Alizadeh with Shajarian and Kalhor in one concert.

‘Is Iran Next?’

shayan — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 20:27:02 +0000

Talking about war against Iran is on media everyday. Almost any single article in newspapers or interviews are talking about it. An analyst says bush and his administration are dead to do that and change the Middle East structure (From Afghanistan to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia). It’s very hard to hear all of these and be quite and busy with your daily life, while your family, friends, relatives, colleagues are under fear and are going under attack. On the other hand, neither Iranian inside the country have any influence or authority to affect political policies in Iran nor immigrants in different countries such as US and Canada have established their connection with governments so they can not do anything. What can we do?

When I think that we should talk to different organizations, member of parliaments and any other institute which is able to do something, even if they listen either they don’t have power to stop it or they might say that well, US doesn’t feel safe if Iran gets access to nuclear bomb. As a person, I can not defend Iranian Government or promise anything, although on the other hand everyone knows there are some other countries such North Korea which are more advanced in this field and nobody is willing to take action against them (at least not now. But it doesn’t change anything.).

What can we do?!

Laws of Nature

shayan — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 07:02:33 +0000

As I mentioned before, I am a kind of education addicted, but once you take a course which requires a really hard work and you compete with younger people who are full time students, then things get a little bit hard! At this situation, you have to admit that Being Always Amator has a side effect too! If it was an IT course or anything on management, it would be piece of cake, but knowing about Descart’s theory on Laws of Nature requires to really read the Discourse on Method and summarize it to be a part of discussions, while you know other students will read at least a couple of other articles on the subject in addition!

Iranian-Hijab Style!

shayan — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:26:47 +0000

Matt and thses ladies must pay copyright to Iranian women to copy their style of Hijab… anyway, he is nominated for the best photoblogs in 2005 and you can vote for him, Sam and Rannie here .

chance to win

shayan — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 04:37:29 +0000

American history has proofed that everyone has a chance to win!
- Rocky!

American Technology, American Freedom

shayan — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:59:00 +0000

Hardliners in Iran are struggling with Internet and trying to ban or restrict people from getting access to it; it’s stupid but they even try to ban Yahoo messenger or Orkut! On the other hand some American service providers warn Iranian clients to reject them time to time. For example Planet had just fired an email to its Iranian customers telling them that their service will be terminated within hours.

I really don’t get it; I mean, it’s not just about Iran, citizens of any country have right to use and enjoy of technology for business or personal use. For countries like Iran Internet is the only way to interact with the world and there is no alternative for it. President Bush just announced in his speech for second round (Four Years More term!) that he wants to export liberty and American freedom to the world! Well! That’s fine; let’s please start with American Technology! People know how to use it for their freedom and the rest would be much easier for you!

I Had My Shot

shayan — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:12:09 +0000

I saw Million Dollar Baby last night; it was beatiful and I liked it. Of course If you are looking for a happy-end hollywood style movie it’s not for you.

In one scene, Morgan Freeman says to Eastwod that everyday someone dies, dishwashers, etc. but only a few poeple could say “I had my shot”, when they die…

I had attended a meeting of IT consultants a few weeks ago and speaker was telling us if you want to know whether you are sucessfull in your business, ask your self: I would regret dying without having… Your answer tells you what to do next!

Sometimes you feel you get back to same thoughts that you’ve had as a teenager…..

Always Amator!َ

shayan — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 05:43:09 +0000

Maryam is a big fan of Susan Sontag and I know about her almost nothing, but I read in an article (in New York Times) when she passed away that she liked almost everything! It is obviousely against common paradigm of being professional in something that education system forces us: anybody expect you to be a professional in your job, your position, being expert in something, being special in doing one thing, etc, etc. I have been always a fan of begin always amator! I believe amators are like kids in society: kids are searching and looking for things and learn everyday some new things. Being professional for me is just sticking on something and that is it! While amators are learning something new everyday. Just imagine a society without kids: every one is specialized in somethings and knows what s/he does and that’s it… so boring…

Livin in Past, Living in Moment

shayan — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 02:34:58 +0000

Recycling all magazines, brochures, advertisements that you get along bills, etc, etc plus newspapers that you don’t find time to read them and have to get rid of them when new ones have arrived, gives a strong feeling of living in the moment; forget about the past.
This experience is like saving links: most likely all of us used to save links and add them to favorites or use different tools to manage favorite links, but at the time that you need them, you prefer to Google again since Googling even those links is much easier than finding them in the archives.

I guess those experiences made me throwing out my phone book that I used to have it for more than 10 years from Iran. It was a weird experience, I admit, but when you keep cycling any single paper why not your old phone book? Adding that even you don’t know whether you talk to any of those people or even those numbers will be valid. First feeling was that I am cutting my relationship with past and back home, but it’s not: it’s just simply a new habit of living at the moment. There would be an easy way to retrieve that information or find those old friends when you need them!

Education Addicted

shayan — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:07:33 +0000

The lady that is doing my hair cut was asking about my studies and wether it is finished or not, and as usual I explained that this semester I have registered only in one course and I was too busy to take more, etc, etc. She just says I know you are one of those education addicted poeple and you just can not live without having some courses and exams ahead!

I guess she is right!

A Bit Philosophy

shayan — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 03:42:29 +0000

“Why is God making me suffer so much? Just because I don’t believe in him?!”
Sidney Morgenbesser, Philosopher @ Columbia University

Let’s log in English!

shayan — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 03:39:38 +0000

After almost four years blogging in Persian, I am going to write regularly about Canada, Torotno, culture, Technology, Philosophy (what else?!) and some other issues that I am interested in them!