I have lost count how many times I have told people that “going to a shooting range and renting a gun when you have a non-immigrant visa (F-1, H1B, TN) is a bad idea.” To avoid having to find the material over and over, I will post it here and start sending the link. I […]
Author Archives: Ehsan
Challenge: Using Apple Watch as My Only Communication Device
I tried leaving my phone at home for a week, and just using the Apple Watch for communication. Apple Watch is beyond just an accessory for your phone. It can directly connect to WiFi! It can do messages, voice calls, and even do basic tasks like summoning a Lyft ride. With these capabilities, plus all […]
Occupation Changes in San Francisco
San Francisco is going through a face change, where people are being evicted to make room for the new workers. There is demand for finding residence in SF, while many many regulations restrict construction of new residences. Since tech giants (Google, Apple, Facebook) started to offer shuttle services to their employees for a better commute between […]
How do apps Telegram and Signal compare?
Telegram is an app well known for instant messaging in certain regions of the world. Today, they announced Telegram was taking down many channels belonging to ISIS. The media, eager to paint ISIS as a sophisticated group, quickly called the channels “encrypted.” But, how true is that statement?
Some Diversity Comparisons In and Out of Tech Industry
Diversity in Silicon Valley has been topic of much discussion recently. There is no need to look at the statistics to know tech industry is suffering (severely) from lack of diversity. To fulfill my curiosity, I decided to add up the numbers from some random companies I was interested in. The results for both gender and […]
Iranian Identity and Issue of Flags
When you are from middle east, everything has a political flavor to it. And when you try to get people together and represent all, all these small differences suddenly erupt! I was in New York this week and was able to attend the annual “Persian Parade” event in Manhattan. It was definitely something of interest […]
Blinds controller using AllJoyn, Arduino, Linino
Long ago I had thought about having blinds that would open in the morning to let sun in and close at night to block the outside spotlights. It would also be nice if the blind behind behind my TV would close when I started watching a movie. Since there is not much necessary need for it, […]
Censoring Iranians: different intentions, same results
As I had noted before, average internet user in Iran faces a good amount of censorship. Some of it comes from internal agencies in Iran who”judge” what is appropriate and what is inappropriate for Iranians. And sometimes it is the websites and companies deciding that Iranians should not have the privilege of accessing certain information of software. […]
Android Installation in My Car: Origins
Part 1 of my experience with Android based auto infotainment systems.
Google’s Commitment Issues, Miracast, and Android Fragmentation
I bought a recently released HP 7 Plus tablet, a very nice device with bare minimums and a decent price tag ($100). But it still is on Android Jelly Bean. What it means is some (popular) apps, such as Instagram, no longer support it. It makes some sense, as it is not the latest flavor […]