Category: Information

I have read a lot in forums on why Bose sucks but this is the first time I have actually seen an article on it. I found it via digg and its an interesting 2 part read in which the writer who is a sound system salesman discusses why Bose sucks without going into too much confusing tech talk. Its a good read for anyone who thinks Bose speakers are good or for anyone who is thinking of buying Bose stuff. [Link]

A week ago I got 2 liters of sorbet from Booza Booza to try out. Booza Booza belongs to the same group of young Kuwaitis that own Choowy Goowy cookies as I mentioned before. I managed to get more details on their sorbet’s from one of the owners yesterday and this is what I got.

Kuwaiti style sorbet is a 100% Natural, Fat free, Cholesterol free and lactose free products made from natural fresh or frozen fruits. We are able to customize any fruits or mixes that you require for any special occasion you have. Feel free to contact us for any order of our special Kuwaiti style sorbet. For customized orders, we offer, Deluxe, Premium, and Super Premium Sorbet.

Sorbet Flavors:
Mango Alfonso: Tasty Cool Mango Alfonso Sorbet
Spanish Strawberries: Made from Wild Spanish Strawberries.
Kuwait Islands: A Summer mix of pineapple Banana
Tropical Paradise: A tropical mix of Mango, Strawberry, Banana and pine apple
Lemon mint: The ultimate summer refresher of fresh zesty lemons and fresh ground mint leaves.

I tried the sorbet and as I told Nat, its as if I am having a fruit salad. The sorbet is very flavored with my favorite being Mango. The Lemon is also since its tastes like lemonade. When I had it with the other the other flavors though the Lemon was too over powering so it might be best to have it alone. You can order the sorbet the same way you order the cookies and using the same number and they will deliver it to you. The price of 1 liter of sorbet costs KD4. If you would like to order some maybe with a jar of cookies you can call them on 2626559.

Damn now I feel like ordering some cookies!

Update: I just got emailed information their regular icecream. Here it is:

Booza Booza is our frozen dessert factory, which provides Kuwaiti style icecream and sorbet products that are made from natural and high quality raw material. All final products are 100% Kuwaiti hand made from scratch by our precise, professional and specialized people. Our aim is not only providing you with satisfaction but consistency is the parallel path we keep in close proximity to keep our products in the highest quality.

Icecream Flavors:
Milk Icecream: Creamy Milk Icecream spiced up with traditional Arabic spices.
Chocolate Icecream: High quality European Chocolate mixed with milk for the creamy chocolaty taste.
Mango Icecream: Spoil yourself with the creamy natural Mango aromatic taste.
Strawberry Icecream: Creamy Smooth Strawberries.
Green Pistachio: Old fashion made green icecream mix with Persian pistachios and Arabic spices.
White Pistachio: Old fashion made creamy icecream with Persian pistachios and Arabic spices.
Lemon Sherbet: Zesty Lemon Frozen dessert with a touch of milk.

1 liter of regular icecream is KD3. You can also order it by calling 2626559 or if thats busy or no one is answer you can call them on 9112221

I managed to get more information on the Mardi Gras event that will be held at the US embassy. To keep it short, its invite only.

Late last month I placed an order for the IPEVO free.1 Skpe Phone and I just received it yesterday. I have to say its just the coolest accessory for my Mac, even cooler then my CueCat!

I ordered the white version while my sister ordered the black one and they are honestly both great looking. I prefer the white since all my furniture in my computer room is white plus white is more Apple like. The phone works really great with the Mac, all you need to do is install this application which runs in the background and whenever you want to use Skype you just pick up the phone and click on the Skype button which will then launch the Skype application. You can then use the up and down controller on the phone to move up and down in your Skypes contact list, once you highlight a contact you just click the call button and you are suddenly calling your contact all without even touching your computer. Say you want to dial a number that isn’t on the contact list then you just input the numbers on the phone and press the call button. Very very easy to use just like a regular phone. The build quality of the phone is just superb and combined with its looks its hard to believe it costs only $30.

I couldn’t wait to try the phone so I quickly called my brother up in Lebanon and spoke to him a bit, even when we ran out of things to talk about I tried to stay on the phone as long as I could since it felt great using it. After I was done with my brother I tried to find someone else to call just so I could use the phone again. I really love it.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this phone. It looks great, the sound quality is great and the phone feels much more expensive then it actually costs. Its integration with the Mac and PC makes it really easy to work and use which makes it very user friendly. The only downside I could think of is that the USB cable is too long, 2.5 meters to be exact which I guess could be a good thing for some people but not if you are planning on using it with your laptop. Another downside is expect your Skype bill to go up because you really just want to call more because of it. I hated the headphone+mic combination, it just didn’t feel natural but since this looks like and feels like a phone I am more comfortable using it. The final score is a 4.5 out of 5.

Buy the white IPEVO phone from Amazon
Buy the black IPEVO phone from Amazon
Visit the IPEVO website

A short video documentary which describes possible links between Michael Jackson’s music and Sonic 3. [Link]

We needed an ambulance at our office because a guy with diabetes fainted due to low sugar (or something like that). We called 777 and within 5 minutes the paramedics arrived. I am impressed.

Book to any Jazeera Airways destination and get the following prices:

Book on April 2nd and pay KD 2 (USD 7) one-way
Book on April 3rd and pay KD 3 (USD 10) one-way
Book on April 4th and pay KD 4 (USD 14) one-way
Book on April 5th and pay KD 5 (USD 17) one-way

These very low fares are for flights between April 23 and May 23 and are only for bookings made through jazeeraairways.com and travel agents.

Update: More info on this offer is available [here]
I just bought a two way ticket to Lebanon for Nat and the total came out to KD26 after taxes. Someone else in the office tried to get a ticket for the same day but their total came out KD62. The prices are going up quickly as more and more seats are being filled so hurry up.

Update 2: In case I wasn’t clear I meant to say that tickets on certain dates are getting more expensive because a lot of people are choosing the same day (ie weekends for example). You can find KD2 tickets but it most probably will be during the weekday.

A list of things which do not actually constitue a valid April Fools’ Day joke taken from Anil Dash:

“I changed my stylesheet! To someone else’s!” Why isn’t that funny? Because I still knew it was your site.

“Our tiny company bought/got bought by a giant company. Like Microsoft!” Wow, that’s lame. Neither believable nor surprising enough to be amusing.

“We are embracing this thing we’ve demonized forever!” So you’re a pest removal service that’s getting into the cockroach-raising business? Sigh.

“We have a big announcement today!” No you don’t. It’s Saturday.

“Our new product does the impossible.” You mean like making an April Fool’s joke on the web that’s actually funny.

I was actually planning on changing my stylesheet to something funnier before I read this list. Nibaq already pulled the second one today.

“No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth.” [Link]

Aramex have a new customer service manager because they want to fix all their problems. If you are having any problems or if you have any feedback or comments about their service then let them know about it so they can fix it. I know I had a lot so I sent them like 2 pages worth of problems with their solutions.

Send all your Shop & Ship feedback and comments directly to the customer service manager, her email is: [email protected]

Thanks

update: just replaced the hotmail email with her aramex email

I got a phone call yesterday from the owner of Choowy Goowy cookies, he wanted to reply to my post titled “Choowy Goowy Waiting List“. Basically it turns out the reason why I was told it would need two days for the cookies to get delivered was because the Choowy Goowy bakery was being renovated and they had stopped all orders for 1 week. The day I called asking for cookies they had just started delivery again and they had a long list of backorders they needed to complete. Part of the reason for the renovation is so they could accept customers who want to pick up the cookies themselves.

I then asked him about the fact that the person who I spoke to on the phone told me that I couldn’t order just 1 jar. He replied telling me that VIP customers could order 1 jar if they wanted to but new customers would have to order more. He told me they currently have only 1 delivery car and its difficult and time consuming to go deliver 1 jar in Fahaheel for example and another 1 jar in Kuwait City. He told me they are still a small bakery and they are growing slowly but steadily and they would get another car in the near future but for now they only have just one.

On another note I will soon be trying their Sorbet icecream, the owners of Choowy Goowy also have Boozah Boozah and they are working on some new receipes at the moment but once they are done they will send me a batch of their icecream to try out. Cookies in the winter, Icecream in the summer.. I can’t wait.

If you would like to place an order for cookies call 2626559

I was just reading Zaydoun’s post on how he has been blogging for three years and it really brought back some good memories. You see, before it was just Zaydoun’s “Kuwait Unplugged” blog and qHate which was made up of me, Rampurple and Nibaq. qHate originally was Nibaqs idea and it started off as a blog about life in Kuwait but when the US decided to invade Iraq, qHate quickly turned into a war blog. We were posting on things that were going on in Kuwait like the sirens, the panics and the gas masks we even got the chance to stalk meet Wolf Blitzer and John Vause. It was a lot of interesting little things that showed people how everyone in Kuwait was living during this uncertain time. Checking my first post (2-2-03) now though I realized it was actually related to the war.. so now I am wondering if war blogging was part of the original plan… It was cool how me, Rampurple and Nibaq used to blog together in one blog and now we all have our own separate blogs. I keep telling Nibaq we were like a rock band that split up and all the members went solo.

In the end the site ended after we hit our peak, the war was over, there was barely anything to post about and only Rampurple was left posting and she finally also said goodbye. Maybe one day we will all be back together again, like a reunion..

This is an interesting surprise. Yesterday I posted my views on the Toot the Arab blog network and what I saw as problems with the way things were laid out. Well I just checked the site now and it looks like most of the problems are getting fixed. The first change you will notice when you check Toot now is that instead of 9 blogs being highlighted on top, you now only get 3. The second change and probably the most important one is the tootstream. No longer is it just a long boring list of blog names and post titles, the list now contains a brief snippet of what the post is about. This makes things a lot more interesting and more usable, even the post titles are now larger and more clearer… check it out. [Link]

For the past couple of years I have been forced to use Extensis Suitcase to manage the fonts on my Mac. There was one serious competitor and Extensis ended up acquiring it. Awhile back I found out Linotype released a beta version of their own font manager software called FontExplorer X. I went ahead and tried it out and it was a bit buggy and had some features missing so I removed it and continued using Suitcase. A couple of days ago Linotype released the final version of their software so I downloaded it and ever since then I haven’t gone back to Suitcase.

FontExplorer is wayyy faster, has more features, and best of all its fucking free! Its FREE! Suitcase costs $100 and I see no reason why I should pay that much for a software that doesn’t perform better then the free FontExplorer. So what I am trying to say here is if you are a designer and frustrated with Suitcase, download FontExplorer, its lightyears ahead and so much more cooler.. [Link]

Last year I posted pictures of the abandoned Apple store in Kuwait City and they quickly spread all over the web. The coolest thing about this dirty old store were the old Apple posters, everyone wanted to get their hands on them since they are very rare and impossible to find. So I passed by the place today during lunch time and to my surprise the posters were all taken down and the store completely emptied and cleaned. I quickly got closer to see if I could find any trace of the posters and their they were folded on the floor of the display window. So I went upstairs to the Apple stores office and spoke to this Apple tech guy whom I met a couple of times before and he told me that they had just finished repainting the store and they would be opening it up in the next few days. I asked him what they were going to do with the posters since he knows how badly I wanted them, he told me that they were going to hang them up again. SUCKS! So now I am never going to get my hands on these Apple posters nor will I be able to get my hand on Lego guy!