This was the simple cause behind our Internet connectivity problems. bbz was the first to suspect it, and it sure took me a long time to figure out what that implied. But now I know, and we can get online whenever we want and on whatever hardware we desire.

The pathetic tech support of the provider is getting an earful for this one, though.

Recently, my friend InferenceArchitect brought to my attention the analysis of STRATFOR that argues that none of the clerics in Iran are interested in getting to a democratic Iran, but that it is a power hustle where each side is willing (or not) to accept the democratic aspirations of the Iranian middle class as a token of support. Fundamentally, ( Read more... )

Someone suggested I should give the computers a static IP address, in case the DHCP is not working properly, but that did not help either. I am getting very frustrated with the setup, it is one of the biggest flies in the ointment of living here.

The new place comes with cable modem and I am having setup issues ( Read more... )

This editorial by Nicholas Kristoff on keeping IQ scores high through summer reading in the NY Times, when recommended on facebook, led to some more research into the connection between reading and IQ on the one side and soul-searching about the restrained format of facebook to lead scientifically underpinned discussions on the other side ( Read more... )

A year ago we moved into this town home, and tonight is the last night of sleeping here. This produces feelings of pensiveness ( Read more... )

My favorite quote from this article is:In their minds and souls, as in their blogs and chat rooms, they [i.e. the Iranian young people, RCK] were wired to the globalized world, and yet in their growing bodies and narrowing social restrictions trapped inside an Islamic version of Calvinist Geneva.

For most of the stuff that I work with in my historiographical research, a Davidsonian style of knowledge representation is really most appropriate. The backbone of historiography is after all the chronology, so an event centric representation makes all sorts of sense ( Read more... )

My old laptop's hard drive developed an error right in the middle of some cluster of the registry hive. So I went down to the discount electronics place and they swapped me in a new 2.5" drive and gave me a UBS cover to get the old data off ( Read more... )

Vienna clocks in second place among the most livable places in the world.