Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How is it like to be a dev in Iran

shahinsorkh.ir

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 462 posts

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#141

Post by Ayesh »

strooper wrote: post #50

Dear Iranian devs, let's learn to take advantage of the situation instead of complaining about it. Why not learn from the devs in China?! To my knowledge, China blocks no less online service than Iran. China monitors citizens' online activities in ways that very few other countries can. Yet their internet services flourish and engage users in ways nowhere else is seen. Let's build/clone fancy/popular services locally…

This was heavily downvoted, but I think this can be an opportunity as well.

I am preparing to go to Iran and of this year to travel, and I have been researching about a lot of things. I was fascinated to learn about Daric Pay, an internal payment network that is trying to replace Visa/master.

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#142

Post by Gibbon1 »

chewbaxxa wrote: post #120
_ptgt wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In general openness and cultural/economic exchange help progressive forces within the country, and sanctions help xenophobic hard-liners. I've read in various places that the opposite is actually true -- sanctions from the liberal US strengthens the liberals in Iran by highlighting how the regime's aggressive policy is resulting in economic pain for Iranians. This didn't really work with China either. Granted, there…

I doubt that US foreign policy has anything to do with the desire to “liberalize” a country. Unless you’re using that term in a different sense...

In the case of Iran US is both acting as an agent of Israel and Saudi Arabia foreign policy and punishing Iran for not knuckling under.

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#143

Post by adventured »

h0l0cube wrote: post #123
mattigames wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I don't live in Iran, if there is ever a solution to the Iran tiranny it must happen from the inside and from its own people.

There's many Americans that didn't live in Iraq, but fully supported the toppling of Saddam.

Did you know it took about 25-30 years for South Korea to no longer look like a disastrous third world nation after the Korean War?

Millions of Korean people died in the process that made the South Korea of today possible. Was it worth it? Should the South Koreans regret their prosperity and freedom today? Should they have avoided the bloodshed and chosen to perpetually live under the Kim regime instead?

Saddam being gone is not a bad thing and the US should not have invaded the country to topple him. The US installed a functioning democracy with a constitution in Iraq, at enormous national cost to the US and to the Iraqi people. In 25 or 30 years, if the Iraqi people are even moderately free, living in a democracy and able to chart their own path as a people through elections, will it have been worth it? What would the alternative have looked like?

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#144

Post by grecy »

throwaway-klsdj wrote: post #96
throwaway-ba9 wrote: post #74

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I'm one of those operations people who have been required by a legal department to block access from sanctioned countries - I've literally written the HTTP rules to deny access to folks like the original author. I think about how the infrastructure I write and operate creates situations like these, and while I know I'm partly to blame, it's worth highlighting that this is a by-p…

This is a good point. To add a slightly different perspective, I work for a US company that routinely has to deal with cyber attacks by Iranian professionals, probably government sponsored. I think most people don't realize how incredibly serious this is, and how basically there is already a global war being fought. And the nations with the most freedom have the most to lose. Certainly most of the people in Iran are…

> And the nations with the most freedom have the most to lose.

I'm genuinely curious - can you please expand on what exactly you mean by this?

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#146

Post by stickfigure »

milemi wrote: post #105
viburnum wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South Africa is seen as a success.

That’s a good example, albeit a special one where the regime was not accepted as being of the people by a large majority of the population.

It's really hard to judge how 'accepted' governments that remain in control via fear and information control are.

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#148

Post by rb808 »

The modern computer world is so interwoven in the internet now. It was only 20 years ago when every company I worked had physical computers, no internet access (except email) and every piece of software had to be installed from CD.

I wonder if/when a big war or disaster occurs much of our computer world will just break. We've built an extremely fragile system now.

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#149

Post by _ptgt »

pm90 wrote: post #139
_ptgt wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberal countries tend to befriend other liberal countries. So yes, even from a purely strategic perspective US foreign policy has a desire to liberalize other countries (in the classical sense of the term).

This is a hopelessly naive (and incorrect) assessment of the US relationship with Iran. The US literally deposed the first democratically elected head of government of Iran https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9...

Mossadegh wasn't exactly a liberal. He nationalized the oil industry and the very justification for Operation Ajax was the fear that Mossadegh would ally Iran with the USSR -- who were certainly socialist and most definitely not liberal.

Moreover, multiple US administrations pressured the Shah on human rights and, more generally, the US has a definite (though certainly not absolute and varying by administration) preference for working with regimes with a decent human rights record.

I would also quibble with the sole attribution of his fall to Ajax (he was already deeply unpopular when it began, albeit arguably unfairly) and note that his extensive use of emergency powers at the time make the "democratically elected" bit somewhat misleading, even if nominally true.

Re: How is it like to be a dev in Iran

#150

Post by adventured »

pm90 wrote: post #139
_ptgt wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberal countries tend to befriend other liberal countries. So yes, even from a purely strategic perspective US foreign policy has a desire to liberalize other countries (in the classical sense of the term).

This is a hopelessly naive (and incorrect) assessment of the US relationship with Iran. The US literally deposed the first democratically elected head of government of Iran https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9...

Your statement about naivety is interesting given that what you just said about the history of Iran is wrong and a common myth.

Mossadegh was not elected by the people of Iran to be Prime Minister.

Mossadegh was not democratically elected as head of the government. He was put into that position by dictate of the elites that ruled over Iran in fact, including with the backing of the Shah. He was democratically elected to the Majles, which is not the same thing as the people electing him as Prime Minister. The Majles largely consisted of elites that were wealthy property owners. So the de facto ruling feudal lords of Iran - including the Shah - installed Mossadegh as leader of the country, the exact opposite of democracy.

Post reply on HN