Category: Information

Yesterday I posted about Al Khalid Complex and how cool a place it would be if all these trendy restaurants opened there. Well one commentator mentioned Lorenzo was opening there so I went back to the original picture I took and zoomed in to see if I could confirm it and there it was, a Lorenzo Opening Soon hoarding which you can see below. Nice!

Not sure why it took them so long but Jazeera Airways now has online check-in. What this means is you could now choose your seats and check-in to your flight before arriving to the airport and then just drop off your luggage at their fast baggage-drop counter instead of waiting in the long line with everyone else. [Link]

CABLiTV is a local business that recently launched with the aim of bringing American television channels to the Gulf. A couple of weeks ago they contacted me asking if I would be interested in trying out their service and I agreed. I’ve now been using their service on and off since then and here’s my thoughts on it.

First just a bit of simplified information on how their service works. CABLiTV get a cable and internet subscription in the States, they connect a Slingbox to their cable box and then stream the video feed online. You can then access the video stream in Kuwait and anywhere else in the world via a Slingbox player. It’s not a new service but they’re the first one’s I know of that are based in the GCC.

The amount of American channels CABLiTV provides is bewildering. Their smallest package consists of around 210 American channels while their most premium package consists of over 285. There are a whole range of standard channels to choose from like Fox, NBC, ABC, SyFy, etc.. and depending on the package you choose you could also have access to premium channels like HBO and Showtime.

So you’ve got all these channels but how do you view them? Well you can access your channels using your web browser which is probably the easiest but also my least favorite way. You can also access the channels via the Slingbox Player on mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, BlackBerry, Android phones and tablets, Windows Mobile etc.. which is more interesting than the browser but still doesn’t feel natural to me. The best way to access your CABLiTV account is using either a Boxee (pictured below) or a Logitech Revue since both these devices connect directly to your television. That way it feels like you’re watching proper television instead of feeling like you’re streaming a video off of YouTube.

Unlike OSN and ART, you don’t need to install a satellite dish on the roof to get these channels. All you need is an internet connection albeit a pretty fast one depending on the resolution you’re trying to stream. With my 10Mbps WiMD connection at home I sometimes managed to stream in full HD but majority of the times I would watch using the setting “Best” which is the second best setting and provides a pretty sharp picture. The slower the connection the lower the resolution but once you get past the middle setting of “Good” the picture becomes good enough for small screens like the iPhone or Blackberry while looking pretty pixelated on larger screens.

The idea of getting all these American channels to your home here in Kuwait is great but there are two downsides for me. The first which can easily be solved is you need a decent internet connection. The faster the connection the better the video quality you get and the more chance the video will stay stable while you’re downloading other things over the internet. The second issue I have is with the subscription price. Their most affordable package is KD578 a year which comes out to around KD48 a month while their most expensive package goes for KD770 a year which is KD64 a month. I’m sure there are a lot of costs involved in providing this service but it still comes out a lot to the end user and although I would love to have this service it wouldn’t replace my iTunes AppleTV account, nor would it replace my OSN subscription. So in the end I’m still going to pay for those services and then at least another KD48 on top of that for these channels.

Cost aside I do love the idea of this service. If you’re interested to find out more about what they have to offer you can visit the CABLiTV website where they also offer a free trial account. Check them out [Here]

I was just informed that according to the Kuwait Customs Labor Union, all the customs staff will go on strike starting from this Tuesday the 13th. Only emergency medicine and passengers on-board baggage will be processed during the strike. All other items will be placed on hold with no indication to how long the strike will last.

This seriously sucks.

According to the Aramex Shop & Ship FAQ the maximum value allowed per package to be shipped from the US should not exceed $2,500. Packages that are over $2,500 must come with an Export Declaration Form from the shipper or the merchant. Sounds complicated but turns out it’s not.

If you send an item that’s worth over $2,500 to your Shop&Ship account it will get marked as a high value shipment and be placed on hold. You will then receive an email from Aramex telling you that they’ve placed your item on hold and that you would need to visit their US Export Regulations page on the Shop&Ship website. You will then have to do the following:

– Download and open the “Written Authorization Sample” word document that’s linked at the bottom of that page.

– Fill your name in the field “Principal Party in Interest”. It should be the same name as the Shop & Ship account holder.

– Fill your physical address. By this they mean your Kuwait address and NOT your US forwarding mailbox.

– Place your signature in the signature field.

– Leave rest of the fields blank to be filled by Aramex.

– Finally send the word document along with the package tracking number to [email protected]

And that’s it. A pretty simple process that would delay your shipment a couple of days but nothing drastic.

The local arcade scene was never really huge in Kuwait but it had a presence with places like Showbiz and Burj al Abyad catering to the gaming crowd. Even though the arcade scene is pretty dead world wide they still do have a cult following and in Kuwait we still have a few places that have new games or still have old machines. Yousef from the blog yousefq8.com created a small Kuwait Arcade Database with information on the current arcade locations around Kuwait along with some information on their condition and what type of games they have. I thought that was a pretty cool idea although I would personally like to see the database include a full list of all the machines at every location. Still it’s a nice idea and if you’re interested to check it out check it out on his blog [Here]

Kuwait has one of the best ambulance services in the region and today I was invited to pass by the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Control Center in Subhan for a tour of their operation and a behind the scenes look to how their system operates. Around three years ago Kuwait literally demolished and rebuilt the EMS Control Central from the ground up which how they became to have the most advanced state of the art system in the Gulf.

The EMS Control Center are responsible for dispatching ambulances during emergencies. When you place a call to the emergency hotline 112 and request an ambulance, 112 will forward your call to the EMS Control Center. Their goal is to have an ambulance reach your location in under 8 minutes. This is not a dream goal, this is something they have to do for every call no matter where you are in Kuwait. Even if you’re on Failaka and you request an ambulance you will get it in under 8 minutes. How do they do that? Well I was taken through the whole process and I’ll try my best to explain it below. In summary, it’s one hell of a system!

The EMS Control Center is made up of three groups that sit in the department in three rows. The first row are the Call Takers, the second row the Dispatchers and their are the Supervisors.

Call Taker
When you call the EMS or have your call forwarded to the EMS, the “Call Taker” is the person who will answer your call. Their job is to take all the information from a caller, pass it to the “Dispatcher” and then stay on the line with and pass the callers instructions on what they can do to help (CPR instructions, how to slow down the bleeding etc..). The Call Taker’s have three screens in front of them. One of the screens is basically the phone, it has a number pad, a list of important phone numbers and a call history. The middle screen is where the Call Taker fills in information like the type of event that occurred (accident, heart attack, fainting etc..), event address, and caller information. The third screen has a map of Kuwait which updates live zooming in based on the address being inputted in the previous screen.

This system is all automated and very efficient. Pinpointing your location is one of the most important things since it’s what allows them to get to you so quickly. They have a number of ways of finding out where you are even if you don’t know the exact address. For example they can find you using a landmark. Say you’re in Salmiya and the accident happened near Sultan Center. They can then type Sultan Center in their system and the area Salmiya and they’ll have the location displayed on their map. Say you’re on the highway on the way to Wafra and an accident occurred but there are no landmarks around just an empty desert. Then they will instruct you to find the nearest lamppost and read the numbers on the side of it. Each lamppost has a unique number which the EMS can use to pinpoint your exact location. Once they have your location the Call Taker will send it to the Dispatchers (more on them in a bit) and a new screen then pops up with step by step instructions the Call Taker can pass on to the caller. The step by step instructions depend on the over the phone diagnosis so in case a person is suffocating the following instruction would pop up:

a. (ECHO) I’m sending the paramedics (ambulance) to help you now. Stay on the line
e. (Suffocation) Remove anything covering the face or in the mouth, then tell me if she/he’s breathing
f. (Critical Caller Danger) (If it’s too dangerous to stay where you are, and you think you can leave safely) get away and call us from somewhere safe

The Call Taker ends the conversation after the ambulance arrives. Due to the fact that people who call are usually in a state of panic, only around 25% of them actually listen and follow the instructions.

Dispatcher
The Dispatchers work behind the scenes and don’t communicate with the callers. Once the Call Taker takes down the problem and address they instantly pass it on to the Dispatchers. While the Call Taker stays on the line with the caller and follows up on the situation, the Dispatcher’s work in the background trying to get ambulances to the callers location. They have a similar set up to the Call Taker’s but with added features. For example the Dispatcher can visually see where all the ambulances are located in Kuwait along with information on each ambulance like their availability or even the speed they’re traveling. When a Call Taker passes an event to the Dispatcher an annoying (an a bit freaky) siren goes off in the whole department alerting the Dispatchers. Once a Dispatcher accepts the event on their screen the siren shuts off. The Dispatcher then does two things, first he sends the event to all the ambulances in the area of the incident, and the second is he sends the event to the “Regional Ambulance Center”. Kuwait is divided into six parts and every part has their own Ambulance Center. All the ambulances are fitted with laptops and once they receive the event on their screens the first one to answer the event in that area takes the mission. If for some reason no ambulance answers the event within 2 minutes, the dispatcher is alerted who then contacts the Regional Ambulance Center to find out why there is a delay. The Dispatcher also has the ability to assign specific ambulances to the events. So say for example an ambulance is needed on the Gulf Road near the Kuwait towers and the Dispatcher notices on his map that there is Ambulance #171 that’s just 0.78km away he could assign the ambulance to the event directly.

This whole process is done practically instantly since to get an ambulance to a scene in under 8 minutes they can’t waste any time.

Supervisor
Supervisors are stationed on a third row behind the Call Takers and Dispatchers in the emergency control room. Their job is to monitor and overlook all the calls that take place. They make sure everyone is performing their duty to their best and they also make sure the diagnosis the Call Taker’s make over the phone are accurate.

This whole system is called Computer Aided Dispatch System (C.A.D) and was developed locally by CyberMAK (Intergraph Kuwait). The system is more advanced then any other in the region (including Dubai). The system is robust and I left extremely impressed. I had no idea how advanced our EMS was. What I wrote above is just the general flow but there are a lot of little things as well that are handled automatically. For example once an ambulance drops a patient off to a hospital they can then set their status as “Ready” or “Not Ready”. If they’re not ready then they have to list a reason (from available pre-sets) like they need to go get petrol or they are heading to the garage. There’s also the gory reason which is the ambulance contains blood and needs to be cleaned. The ambulances also get real time information updates so when a Call Taker gets new information from the caller the ambulances get to see the new information updated live on their screens. Another cool feature is once an ambulance picks up a person the paramedics have a form they fill digitally on the laptop where they list their diagnosis of their patient. That form gets sent to the hospital ahead of their arrival so they can be ready to receive the patient. Then there are other features to make things quicker, I mentioned earlier that the Dispatcher can assign a specific ambulance to an event, to do that all the Dispatcher needs to do is drag the specific ambulance icon on the screen to the event icon and the event gets dispatched to that ambulance. You also have training rooms at the center, another ambulance dispatch room for non emergency cases and even seminars and workshops that take place all the time. While I was there I passed by a seminar that was taking place. The seminar was being given by American doctors to paramedics and I think the subject had to do with radiation effects on pregnancy (I guess they’re expecting something?). Something I forgot to mention, the paramedics are from ALL nationalities not just Kuwaiti.

I always complain about how Kuwait used to be better and how Kuwait needs to fix things and I have to say that Kuwait’s EMS is an example everyone needs to look at. It’s one of the first government services I’ve experienced that has left me impressed.

I’d like to thank Mr Mohammed for inviting me on this tour.

1. Kuwait City, Kuwait
2. Ahwaz, Kuwait Iran
3. Jizan City, Saudia Arabia
4. Bangkok, Thailand
5. Aziziya, Libya
6. Illizi, Algeria
7. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
8. Marrakech, Morocco
9. Las Vegas, Nevada
10. Dallol, Ethiopia

The only one that looks a bit odd in this list is Bangkok. Check out the list with more details [Here]

Update: The list has Ahwaz in Kuwait while it’s actually in Iran. Looks like a mistype.

Around 2 weeks back I posted a video along with some pictures of dogs that were poisoned in the Free Trade Zone. I just found out that aldaronline.com have an article (in Arabic) on the poisoning as well as pictures of the poison being placed and of how it looks like. As you can see below, it looks like regular dog food.

Not sure if anyone other paper picked up on this story but here is a link to the article on aldaronline.com. [Link]

In case you missed my previous post on this subject click [Here]

via Froyo Nation

So the old Salmiya building which housed some of our childhood memories like Family Bookshop and Alamiah got demolished recently and according to the developer Saud Sahoud, the picture above is what they’re building in it’s place. I honestly don’t have an idea what it is. I’ve actually named the picture above “something.jpg” since I’m not sure if it’s a mall, an entertainment park or some futuristic arena from TRON. Since I will be living down the block from this structure if someone can enlighten me to what it is that would be helpful. You can see a larger picture [Here]

I hope it’s going to be something cool because the area does need a big boost.

Update: I managed to find a better picture, the small one is above but the larger version of it is [Here]. Turns out it’s a mall which will contain 8 cinemas, a snow city, ice skating rink, thrilling rides, family entertainment and “things that will be the first in the world” [Source]

So I’m going to have a snow park and movie theaters in a building that wouldn’t like out of place on Blade Runner all just down the street from my house. That’s cool.

I was wondering how Salmiya would cope with this sudden influx of traffic but looks like a company has already been awarded a contract to sort it out. [Source]

Completion date for this mall is set for 2014.

Thanks Ahmad

Below are all the winners from the Concours automotive event that was held over the weekend at Marina Crescent.

BEST of SHOW
1938 Talbot Lago T150C SS Figoni & Falaschi Teardrop Coupe Chip Connor Hong Kong

Concours Cars
Class-A : 1910 – 1930
1st A5 1924 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Abdulkarim Chhapra Pakistan
2nd A8 1929 Cord L29 Cabriolet Rene Verbiest Belgium
3rd A9 1929 Hupmobile Abdulkarim Chhapra Pakistan

Class-B : 1931 – 1945
1st B9 1938 Talbot Lago T150C SS Figoni & Falaschi Teardrop Coupe Chip Connor Hong Kong
2nd B6 1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B Pescara Berlinetta Pietro Navone Spain
3rd B2 1932 Invicta S-Type Low Chassis Alan Chandler UK

Class-C : 1946 – 1960
1st C4 1951 Maserati A6G 2000 Vignale Body Shigeru Hoshino Japan
2nd C13 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mark I Ali Mustafa Makhseed Kuwait
3rd C13 1948 Delahaya 135 MS Convertible coachwork by Saoutchik Jean Claude Marmier France

Class-D : 1961 – 1975
1st D6 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Volante short chassis Mohammed Rezam AlRoumi Kuwait
2nd D8 1966 Lamborghini 350GT Albert & Rita Spiess Switzerland
3rd D3 1963 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato William Loughran UK

Muscle Cars
1st M17 1972 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible Stanley Kryla USA
2nd M8 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 Abdulla AlQadibi Kuwait
3rd M12 1970 Plymouth Cuda 340 Historical, Vintage & Classic Car Museum Kuwait

Racing Cars
1st R5 1953 Ferrari 375MM Spyder Helmut Ebrlein – Representing the owner Germany
2nd R8 1955 Maserati 250F Bill Pope UK
3rd R3 1927 Salmson Type GSC San Sebastian Camille Bourges France

Most Elegant Open Car
1955 Siata 208S Jim Utaski USA

Most Elegant Closed Cars
1955 Bugatti 57S Atalante Chip Connor Hong Kong

Most Elegance Racing Car
1953 Jaguar C-Type Margaret Jackson & Neil Hadfield UK

Best European Car
1963 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato William Loughran UK

Best American Car
1954 Plymouth Explorer 195 Coupe by Ghia Petersen Museum USA

Best Preserved Car
1966 Lamborghini 350GT Albert & Rita Spiess Switzerland

Best Restored Car
1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B Pescara Berlinetta Pietro Navone Spain

Most Innovative Italian Car – Trophy Awarded by ACI – Automobile Club of Italy (Selected by Kuwait Concours Judges)
1971 Lamborghini Miura SV Khalid Abdulrahem Bahrain

Best Rolls-Royce
1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Continantal Mulliner Park Ward Sheikh Ahmad Bin Ali Al-Khalifa Bahrai

via Octane

According to the latest Legatum Prosperity Index, Kuwait ranked 35th in the world. We came second only behind UAE in the MENA region although the list missed some important countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Oman due to lack of data. Lebanon ranked pretty low but what’s most surprising is Kuwait ranked better than Lebanon when it came to personal freedom.

You can check out the full list along with more details on the Legatum Index website [Here]

I’ve managed to get more information regarding the 2012 Concours d’Elegance that is going to be held in Kuwait next week.

– Leonardo Fioravanti the designer behind some legendary Ferrari’s including the 365 GTB 4 “Daytona”, 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer, the 308 GTB and GTS as well as the 288 GTO and the F40 will be giving a lecture at the Concours. His lecture will be on the Ferrari F40 since it’s the F40’s 25th anniversary. The F40 is the last Ferrari he designed and a car many believe to be one of the greatest super cars ever made. Obviously there will also be a Ferrari F40 on display.

– The F40’s nemesis, the Porsche 959 will also be on display at the Concours.

– The first day of the event they’ll be displaying old government vehicles like the old police cars and ambulances etc..

– The last day of the Concours on the occasion of Enzo Ferrari’s birthday, over 150 Ferrari’s will get together at Marina Crescent and then drive towards the Kuwait Towers.

– The Alfa Romeo Bat 11 will be on display.

– The first production model of the new Aston Martin Zagato will be launched worldwide at the Concours. In addition there will be an original 1960’s Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato on display right next to it.

This is basically all I have for now. For more information on this years Concours check out my previous post [Here]

Someone from WiMD the new internet provider I posted about earlier in the day left the following comment:

Many thanks, first of all, for giving us a platform to voice our services.

First things first, WiMD stands for Wireless Mobile Data. The name implies the meaning, so no gimmickry with names and how strong and powerful we are. Our technology is not based on the WiMAX standard and we don’t believe in sharing the customer subscribed bandwidth. We have nation wide coverage for our residential customers as of today.

Having said the above, we pride ourselves in what we commit to our customers. In today’s age of blogs and forums, we are aware that customer satisfaction is of prime importance and any wrong information/commitment can only do more harm to us than good.

As most of your readers have mentioned, they have never heard of us. This is true as we didn’t launch or market our services in the residential domain before today. All our existing residential customers till date have been through word of mouth and personal referrals. For obvious reasons you don’t get recommended for bad service or performance, do you?

We don’t want to take any further space and just want to introduce ourselves us a healthy alternative to your existing miseries with limited bandwidth and slower speed. Our request to all is, don’t judge us without even trying us. Our company policy for bandwidth commitment to customers is based on the site survey we do before delivering our services. Fair and transparent. Our NOC and Helpdesk are equipped to answer your queries.

And even after this, if your satisfaction quotient is not reached, kind reminder to our existing and prospective customers. We have a fair money bank policy which means, if you are dissatisfied with our services, you get the remaining balance on your contract reimbursed upon cancellation.

Just want to remind your readers, we are in Hall 6 @ InfoConnect. Please feel free to drop by.

We mean business and that is what we are here for. So no strings attached, no hidden dramas. JUST PERFORMANCE.

No idea on the price but one reader mentioned they start from KD385 per year.

Update: Here are their prices per year

1Mb KD130
1.5Mb KD150
2Mb KD180
3Mb KD225
4Mb KD270
5Mb KD320
6Mb KD325
7Mb KD355
8Mb KD390
9Mb KD473
10Mb KD523
11Mb KD590
12Mb KD660
13Mb KD730
14Mb KD800
15Mb KD870
16Mb KD940
17Mb KD1,010
18Mb KD1,080
19Mb KD1,150
20Mb KD1,220

Update2: I’m going to be trying out and signing up for their service. First hurdle is to see if I can install the antenna on my balcony instead of the roof since I don’t have access to my buildings roof. Hopefully the balcony would work, I’ll find out on Saturday.

Looks like this year the government is really thinking digital with the upcoming elections in Kuwait. Last week I posted about their Flickr page where they were uploading pictures taken at different events related to the elections. Well Saud A. Almutairi contacted me and provided me with details regarding the election day website he helped the government setup.

On the day of the elections the Kuwaiti public will have access to preliminary results via the following channels:

Main Website
On the day of the elections after all polls are closed at 8pm that’s when counting will begin. An hour later if you visit the MOI news portal at https://news.gov.kw you will be automatically redirected to a live results website containing 5 tabs each representing a Kuwaiti circle and each containing 3 lists:

The Candidates
This first list will be a list of all the candidates (ordered alphabetically) and contain two fields that will be constantly updated: the vote count and current rank of the candidate. This list will NOT be auto sorted based on rank as to avoid confusion. This list will remain alphabetically ordered.

Follow
The second list will contain a list of candidates a user wants to follow. This list will be empty by default until the user adds his candidates. In the screen shots below you can see how it looks empty and how it looks with some candidates added.

The Leaderboard
This final list will contain the top 15 candidates based on rank. This list will be constantly changing as per the vote count so unlike the first list, the names of the candidates here will move up or down. This list will also contain the percentage of votes the candidate has based on all votes in the circle.

If there is an update the numbers will flash. Updates to the website should start around 10PM and occur every 5 to 10 minutes.

Mobile Website
When a user visits https://news.gov.kw from a mobile device (tested on the iPhone and Android) they will be presented with a mobile optimized version of the website. You can check out the screenshots below on how the information will be presented. The only thing to note here is that on the mobile website, the list of candidates are sorted by rank.

Twitter Integration
For twitter the MOI will have 5 handles, one for each Kuwaiti circle. The system will be set up to automatically post updates every 5 minutes on the Top 12 candidates.

Here are the twitter handles for all circles: @MediaKuwait1 @MediaKuwait2 @MediaKuwait3 @MediaKuwait4 @MediaKuwait5

Note: The results from the MOI are considered preliminary scores and NOT official scores.