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How is it like to be a dev in Iran

shahinsorkh.ir

81–90 of 462 posts

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

#81

It seems like some of those obstacles are also opportunities. For example, the point about not being able to get a MasterCard or Visa and therefore not being able to use AWS makes me think there's probably an opportunity for a neat business renting out VMs to Iranians with whatever payment they can use. Of course AWS does a lot more than just rent VMs, but it seems like a relatively straightforward part of the busine…

Being on the wrong side of us sanctions is not a happy place.

I was imagining this as an opportunity for Iranian devs, who are, presumably, already on the wrong side of US sanctions.

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

#82
post #43

Effects of sanctions totally slide off the elite and shit all over the poorest members of a society.

It is sad the sanctions have that side effect. Hopefully it’s enough to affect some change in a hostile country led by an oppressive elite.

Sanctions (in the form that the US is applying them to Venezuela and Iran) are a form of economic warfare. The idea is to cause economic instability by stopping (oil) exports, and thus cause general instability. Now, there are mismanagement arguments you could make but it would be naive to ignore the massive effects that US (and importantly, US ally) sanctions have on a country that relies on exports.

The effects on Iran are not side-effects. They are clearly the primary goal.

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

#83
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's also why you shouldn't abuse Tor with web scraping or other actions that lead to sites blocking it

This is why you shouldn't use CloudFlare, whose good intentions lead to not so good places

When 80% of traffic from an IP is malicious and the other 20% is regular traffic, but both sources look like the same traffic (impersonating browser headers, sometimes running headless chromium), what else can you do? Cookies and stateful cookie-like objects, such as privacy pass.

Can anyone report how well privacy pass works nowadays?

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

#84
post #2

Seems like it could be dangerous just to blog about these activities if you live in Iran?

Unless you are not in Iran and this is propaganda.

I am not a fan of IRI by any stretch but that post does not pass the smell test. And last I checked -- I have relatives in Iran -- no one is "starving".

As for Iran's government not wanting its citizens spilling their daily beans on an Israeli platform, that's pretty sensible. (Would Israel permit its citizens to chat away on platforms from Iran?)

How difficult is it to redirect to a server outside of Iran?

Who resolves "shahinsorkh.ir" for your browser? DNS lookup says 104.24.126.79 and that is in California, United States, and not Iran.

"Let's go invade Iran so Iranians can access Facebook and not starve!!!"

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

#85
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with you?

He believes that his advice will prevent some developers from suffering serious legal consequences. I see nothing wrong there. Feel free to provide the right information if you think he's incorrect.

Sanctions are applied by the US and it's allies. There aren't Iranian laws stopping you from selling things to or using services from the US or its allies.

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

#86
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why you shouldn't use CloudFlare, whose good intentions lead to not so good places

When 80% of traffic from an IP is malicious and the other 20% is regular traffic, but both sources look like the same traffic (impersonating browser headers, sometimes running headless chromium), what else can you do? Cookies and stateful cookie-like objects, such as privacy pass. Can anyone report how well privacy pass works nowadays?

The times I've had to use Tor, privacypass has been usable.

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

#87
post #2

Seems like it could be dangerous just to blog about these activities if you live in Iran?

Unless you are not in Iran and this is propaganda. I am not a fan of IRI by any stretch but that post does not pass the smell test. And last I checked -- I have relatives in Iran -- no one is "starving". As for Iran's government not wanting its citizens spilling their daily beans on an Israeli platform, that's pretty sensible. (Would Israel permit its citizens to chat away on platforms from Iran?) How difficult is it…

>Who resolves "shahinsorkh.ir" for your browser? DNS lookup says 104.24.126.79 and that is in California, United States, and not Iran.

because it's cloudflare

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

#88
Haha, at this point the only difference between Iran's totalitarian censorship and Western censorship, is that the West does it way better, ref. deplatforming and censorship on both Facebook, Google and Twitter. At this point, even banks are trying to freeze the assets of people they don't like.

He's talking about totalitarian censorship, when most of the totalitarian censorship—and surveillance—in the West are done by Big Tech in cooperation with bureaucratic entities such as the EU and Great Britain. The USA too, but they're more interested in information. (However the US do currently "censor" traders from using foreign platforms that offer leverages that are too high according to US authorities, among other things. For their own good, of course...)

Oh and Big Tech also blocks Iran on many platforms, for obvious reasons. So not only does Iran have to deal with invasive surveillance and censorship from their government, but also from tech companies abroad. Talk about picking the short straw! He's right about one thing, though. Nobody cares about the people. Not in Iran or the West.

Edit: I knew such a comment would be costly, but next time, you could be the one who's affected. Think about it.

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

#89
post #27

Its an ongoing war. Just without bullets. My concern is that people will see him mention things like censorship and for them that will justify an invasion that results in mass killing and destruction. Does anyone know exactly what sort of actual submission they are looking for from Iran? I really don't believe its about nuclear development. I hope that any Iranians who can get out will get out.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/mike-pompeo-speech-12...

These were USA's 12 demands from Iran, and this is Iran's response[2]. Iran has sort of colonized Iraq and Syria, similar to how it has control over Lebanon using Hezbollah. IRGC even recently announced Syria as their 35th province. This video from 6 yrs back captured from a killed Iranian Journalist in Syria gives a clear picture of IRGC's actions in Syria.

https://youtu.be/ZI_88ChjQtU?t=868

I have linked the video at a timestamp where an IRGC soldier says how the Arabs who are living in that village aren't humans, but watch the whole video, it is good. So what is happening is Iran/IRGC is using the Shia identity to get poor and oppressed Shia people from Afghan/Pakistan with a promise of citizenship in Iran, to wage a war against Arabs and Israel. There is also a war going in Southern border of Saudi with the Houthi of Yemen, supported by Hezbollah/Iran[1]. So Saudi and Israel are concerned with this, and using their support from the current Trump administration, they are trying to get Iran to act.

[1] https://twitter.com/lcmporter/status/1152880775580258304

[2] https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/1152647222586036224

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

#90

Dear devs, Please stop using Google Cloud Platform to host your projects. GCP blocks Iran, so by hosting any part of the app on GCP, your apps become impossible to access from Iran. Azure and AWS do not do this. This form of blocking is exclusive to GCP. After the switch to GCP, Iranians lost access to gitlab. Firefox Monitor is blocked in Iran for the same reason. The list goes on and on. I don't believe Mozilla tea…

Or... maybe developers should not play the games the Iran goverment want them to play and every effort should go towards throwing the current dictatorship not to stop using what they want us to stop using?

What about American developers? Shouldn't they stop using services like Google, Facebook, etc. Because of their proven collaboration with US intelligence service?
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