Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I experienced problems regarding my nationality during passed two weeks. Problems you may not ever faced as Europeans, Americans, Africans etc! Well, I'm Iranian! The case is: I wanted to buy something (domain names) from somewhere which I'm gonna describe details beneath:
steps:
1- surf and search for some registrar options: enom, opensrs, directi etc
2- log into the first alternate (enom) and try to pay using a credit card
3- ...Oops! Iran's range of IPs are blocked! Since ICANN has issued and emphasized on internet governing terms and no sanctions have been deployed on Iran, you have to think there's something else wrong.
4- thanks global village, you've got enough tools to keep your location behind. I logged into one of my servers in Europe and logged into enom again. I made the payment using an UAE registered credit card (and paid to an American company, this is globalization!!) everything seemed to be right. So you have to come into this conclusion all I had to do, was denying my nationality!
5- the first time I logged into my account normally (without proxy) my account got disabled!
6- I contacted the support and found out the problem: my dear IP! Damn global village!
7- I tried directi... The Indians won't get nervous with my nationality... I'm doing fine right now and I will transfer over 1000 domain names into their business (who says it's not a deal??)

Thanks Christine Graf, the risk manager of enom, I may better leave you behind with your boundaries and fears. I don't know how old are you Christine. But if you are over 40, you may recall the days Iran was the biggest US friend in Asia, and if you have studied world's history ever, you may know Iran is one of the oldest and greatest civilizations ever...

Friday, August 25, 2006

I've written a new article in Persian (hackers are not trustworthy!) about offers you may get from white hat hackers to consult or contract on your security issues. In case you got an online business you probably have experienced some hacking threads. In many cases the hackers calling themselves white hat, will offer you security services in a consultation or contract form. The article discusses how hackers are not trustworthy in any case, regarding some logics and ofcourse, some bad previous experiences market have seen.
I prefer to summerize these issues here:
1- hacking is a guilt in any circumstances. So a hacker is a guilty person in any aspects. Do you hire a person who obviously declares he's a guilty guy?
2- a good consultation firm, will keep you dependent on itself always. Do you feel comfortable with depending in a critical item (security) on some criminals?
3- what will your customers think if they understand you've hired some hackers for any reason? They will lose what you are trying to gain at the first step, because they don't need anything but privacy. And a hacker means no privacy!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

My grandfather (Ebrahim Honarparvar) died in 3rd of august 2006. I believe he lived great and honorable, and died gentle. No disease, no pain and no need to bed care upto the last moments of his life. He studied till his last days like his entire life.
I'm really proud of him...
You can see his grave in Bournemouth, England, with my grandma's picture who died 12 years ago. My uncle Mohammad and his lovely family did their best for his great funeral and I have to thank them all. Dear Dani, Carly and Jemma, thank you all for your kind treat over past years to our beloved grandpa.