Gawker: valleywag, cyrus farivar

Iran's plan to kill "corrupt" bloggers

Paul Boutin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EDT

On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.” The text of the bill would add, “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” to the list of crimes punishable by death.

Hoo boy, I can hardly wait for Michael Moore's take on this one. More coverage by Iranian-American radio reporter Cyrus Farivar. (Photo by AP/Saman Aghvami)

Wikipedians cover up for Jimmy Wales

Paul Boutin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:20:04 EST

"The Wikipedia effort is not personality-driven," claims a commenter who insists that "nobody cares" about Jimmy Wales's behavior. The cult of personality in action: Journalist Cyrus Farivar — a regular contributor to NPR, The Economist, Wired and the New York Times — has had his Wikipedia page deleted several times in retaliation for a joke he made on Slate ("Yes, I added an entry on myself to Wikipedia. Why haven't you?") Meanwhile, Wales's entry is missing the "Personal controversies" section that sprouts on any conservative media personality's page. Of course, his Fox TV paramour Rachel Marsden has one. Here's the current sum of all human knowledge of the Wales/Marsden affair stored in Wikipedia as of 9:15 a.m. PST:

"Wales had a brief relationship with Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden. [1] In March 2008, Marsden attracted media attention when she claimed that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales had used Wikipedia to end a relationship with her. She then auctioned a t-shirt and sweater she claimed to be his on eBay. [2]" No mention of Wales's three more significant acts which have damaged Wikipedia's geek cred.

In Estonia, Skype girds for battle

Owen Thomas — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:42:31 EDT

Why does eBay subsidiary Skype have a Swedish military transport in its Estonian development center? Could it be preparing to take the fight for VOIP customers against new competitors like Ooma to a new battlefield? Read more.

Valleywag tipster Cyrus Farivar reports from Tallinn, Estonia:

This van belongs to Linnar Viik, father of the Estonian Internet. He now works at Skype. Turns out, he also loves windsurfing, and apparently needed a vehicle big enough to carry his and his buddies' windsurfing gear to reach the best spots. So what did he do? He bought a big, fuck-off SWEDISH MILITARY TRANSPORT vehicle ~~at auction~~ from a colleague who bought it at an auction. Oh, and it has on-board CDMA/Wi-Fi, and power outlets too.

So there you have it. No military plans at present. But Internet-calling upstarts, I'd think twice before you get Viik mad. (Photo by cfarivar)