[thebear]

Here's a bit of historical trivia that may or may not be relevant in connection with Iran as a potential new exciting market for VCs. I do believe it's something that every hacker should know. I quote from the Wikipedia article on the 9th century Persian Mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī:

Some words reflect the importance of al-Khwarizmi's contributions to mathematics. "Algebra" is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations he used to solve quadratic equations. Algorism and algorithm stem from Algoritmi, the Latin form of his name. His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit.

[qwerty_asdf]

Looking at the word "al-jabr", part of me wonders if this might've been the lexical root that inspired Frank Herbert to name his mystical device "The Gom Jabbar" in his novel, Dune.

Meanwhile, in an effort to stay on-topic, and not get distracted by so much navel gazing...

From the article:

  Mobile penetration is over 120% — meaning many people have more than one device.

Pure speculation on my part, but might this be due to a trend in keeping burner phones, in order to avoid a heavy-handed state-sponsored surveillance apparatus?