Category: Information

These are the current DSL prices in Kuwait for a 512KB connection.

Qualitynet: KD24.5 a month (You need an NBK account for this price)
UnitedNet: KD25 a month (Yearly contract paid montly)
Fasttelco: KD70 a month (KD50 if paid 1 year in advance)

Just a note, Fasttelco had the lousiest sales guy when I called, really crap. UnitedNet don’t seem to have a website which I think is very ify Turns out they do have a website but google doesn’t know about it. With Qualitynet if you don’t have an NBK account then you need to pay the full year subscription in advance or you will have to pay the monthly fee of KD38.

Z District has a cool post on the Shooting Range located on the 6th ring road. If you haven’t been to the shooting range before then check out the article, he has pictures and info inlcuding the prices. [Link]

I ordered a package from Amazon on Tuesday and I chose overnight shipping. Package arrived to my USWS mailbox on Wednesday and shipped at the same time. Today morning the package arrived to Kuwait and is now being delivered to me.

Now for my sign off.. Aramex sucks!

If you find something on Amazon you want, buy it on the spot. I had two items this past week which I added to my wishlist only to find out the next day that they weren’t available anymore.

Etisalat the only ISP in UAE has recently started blocking YouTube. I always thought UAE was more “open” than Kuwait with all the alcohol, prostitution and a lot more westerners yet the ISP seems more conservative then the Saudi Arabian government. Last year they blocked Flickr which was EXTREMLY popular with all the creative photographers in UAE and now they blocked YouTube. Etisalat just really sucks. [Link]

I got a phonecall from the USWS owner yesterday asking my opinion on something. At the moment when you sign up with USWS they ask you if you want your mailbox checked once a week, twice a month or once a month. He wanted to know if we (USWS users) would rather have it this way..

Instead of a set frequency, WE get to decide when we want our stuff shipped. Say you order a bunch of stuff from Amazon, they ship it to your USWS mailbox as 3 boxes. 2 boxes arrive today and the third is still on its way. Once the third package arrives (say the next day), you go to your USWS account, select the 3 packages and click on ship now. Your packages then get shipped the same day. Currently if you tell them to ship a package right now you pay $20, they will be removing that charge.

Another example, say a magazine arrived to your mailbox today but you are planning to order stuff from Amazon next week. You can decide to keep the magazine in your mailbox until your Amazon packages arrive and then you can have them shipped all together and that way you save on shipping.

Another example is say you have 5 packages in your mailbox, you can decide to ship 3 now and leave the other 2 there to be shipped later whenever you want.

Am I being clear here? Basically they will get rid of the shipping frequencies and the 20$ ship now fee. They will let you decide when YOU want your packages shipped and then ship it when you tell them to. I personally find this a lot cooler since its faster and more affordable for us. Instead of having them ship 1 magazine and have me pay KD2.5 for it, I would rather attach the magazine to another heavier package and save on shipping. I also love the idea of having my packages shipped the same day they arrive if I want and at no extra cost.

If you are a USWS account holder please leave your feedback below. Let them know if you prefer this method or prefer the older one.

The past week I received 3 emails asking me where I am hosted. 248AM is hosted on a friends server but 248PM is hosted on Dreamhost. For anyone here who is thinking about starting a blog or is looking for a webhost for their domains then you should consider DreamHost. They currently have a really good offer going on where for only $9.95 a month you get 20GB of webspace with 1TB of bandwidth every month and the ability to host an unlimited number of domains with them. Setting up WordPress (the software that runs this blog) is very easy with DreamHost, its just a click of a button, plus if you sign up with them now they give you a free domain name so you can have your blog up and running for only $9.95.

Use he coupon code 60DOLLARS when signing up to get an instant $60 discount.

It’s really hard to find a better deal so check them out and don’t forget to use the coupon code to get your $60 discount. [Link]

Some really interesting questions answered. [Link]

Confused on who likes who? Check out the ME Buddy List! [Link]

[source ouwet]

I was looking for apartments for sale in Montreal when I found one located in Habitat 67. I hadn’t heard of the place before but now that I read about it I think it would be a really funky place to live in. Habitat 67 which is pictured above was built in 1967 but it looks like it could have been built today. Here is some info I found on it on Wikipedia.

It was designed by architect Moshe Safdie based on his master’s thesis at McGill University. It was designed to integrate the variety and diversity of scattered private homes with the economics and density of a modern apartment building. Modular, interlocking concrete forms define the space. The complex was built as part of Expo ’67. The project was designed to create affordable housing with close but private quarters, each equipped with a garden. The complex was originally meant to be vastly larger. It also failed in its goal of being affordable as the building is today quite elite.

Anyway the apartment I found is a 3 bedroom flat and costs $399,000 Canadian. Its expensive for a 3 bedroom flat and I can’t afford it but its nice to know that a piece of architectural history can be purchased for that amount. Check out the Habitat 67 website for more pictures and info. [Link]

They are now available at Sultan Centerm both the regular Fusion and the Fusion Power. Don’t know how much they cost since I couldn’t find the price.

Interesting… [Link]

Alghanim Automotive sent me these pictures of a pimped out Trailblazer. They have an accessorizing arm called Kromozone that specializes in pimpin’ cars and this is their latest creation. I think they should have displayed this car outside Virgin Marina Mall instead of the car they previously had on display which didn’t looked pimped at all. You can check more pictures of the Trailblazer below including some of the inside which is just as pimped.

Trailblazer-0001
Trailblazer-0002
Trailblazer-0003
Trailblazer-0004
Trailblazer-0005
Trailblazer-0006

You can contact Kromozone on 6947719

Update: Here are some better pictures:
Side shot
Inside shot
Front shot

Kleio posted the following comment under the Kuwaitis Stuck in Damascus post:

I was one of those people who was lied to by the Kuwaiti Embassy. They told us all to go up to the Safir hotel in Bhamdoun and that we would be able to catch buses out from there, so we did (two of us) on Friday morning. Once we got there, it was pure chaos. The embassy was totally unorganized and only had about three employees there at the hotel. Why tell all the Kuwaitis to go there if you don’t know how to deal with that many people? The embassy staff (consul and ambassador included) were unhelpful and rude. We couldn’t get on a bus that day because they were giving priority to people with children and elderly. We were told to wait for a phone call telling us when we were assigned to a bus. We naively believed that that would really happen. We missed like 8 buses out merely because we were following the “rules” that turned out to be complete bull. Then, the embassy didn’t offer to pay for the hotel room we had to reserve for the night (even though they had told me when I called that morning that we would “certainly” get a bus out that day).

Next morning, we were told that every single person who was put on a bus to Syria would be guaranteed a seat on a flight out that day. They also told us there would be embassy officials accompanying us to the border, more officials at the border, and then officials from the Kuwaiti embassy in Syria would be there to greet us at the airport. All B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. Nobody accompanied us – our Lebanese bus driver and one guy on our bus who volunteered to take charge took care of things at the border. Then once we got to the airport, there was no trace of the embassy. It was each man for himself. Went up to the Kuwait Airways office and it was chaos with an enormous waiting list. Guaranteed a seat, my a@@! Luckily, like Nat, we had our tickets booked for Sunday night on Jazeera from Beirut anyway (same flight as Nat, turns out), and so we were confirmed on the replacement flight leaving from Damascus on Sunday. However, we arrived at the airport on Saturday, thinking we had a Kuwait Airways guarnateed ticket out. Of course, all hotels in Damascus were fully booked, and the embassy did nothing to help us find accomodation (I never saw anyone from the embassy in the two days I was in Syria). We had to find our own shelter.

I’m not saying the embassy has to pamper us and do everything for us – quite the contrary, we were perfectly capable of making our own arrangements. All I’m saying is, don’t bloody lie to us and hundreds of others! I would rather they had told us up front: “Look, we’ll try to get you out but there are thousands of you and only a few buses at a time, so we don’t know how long before we can get you across the border. And all we’re doing is getting you to Damascus – from that point on, you have to make your own arrangements. We have extra Kuwait Airways flights arranged, but it’s up to you to get yourself on one of them.” Was that so hard? Why make empty promises and “guarantees” to people who YOU told to come to YOU for help?!

Kleio also has pictures and a video from her evacuation.

In regards to the post below, Nat was able to get a ticket to Kuwait because she used her Beirut to Kuwait ticket. Her original Jazeera Airways flight which was supposed to take off from Beirut on Sunday took off from Damascus instead. I was worried Jazeera would cancel her ticket “by mistake” but they didn’t and honored her ticket and even her seat number.

I have already mentioned a whole bunch of times on this blog how great Jazeera Airways is and their recent actions in regard to the war in Lebanon has been extraordinary.