Category: Interesting

Interesting… [Link]

From Kottke: KitKat bars have always been big in the UK, but when the company introduced some exotic new flavors, overall sales of the candy dropped 18%. [Link]

An interesting article where the author attributes some of the decline in rape to the availability of porn. I think it makes perfect sense. [Link]

Carlsb3rg posted this link to an article on ticketing corruption in the forum. Two researchers found that the number of parking tickets that legally-immune foreign diplomats acummulate in NYC and refuse to pay is a great measure of how corrupt their home countries are. Guess which diplomats blew away the competition… Kuwait! [Link]

I figured this is a good time to post this link since many people are travelling. Seat Guru is the ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities and airline information.

Say you are flying with KLM on their 747 jet and you reserved seat row 30A and want to know if you made the right decision. With Seat Guru you would know you didn’t since they have that seat marked as “Be aware”. On the other hand seat 35C is marked as a “Good seat”. Flying Lufthansa on their Airbus A340? Lucky you since you will have internet access plus if you are seated in either business or first class you get your own power port.

Very helpful info. [Link]

Red Bull sent us a couple of these to put up in our office.

I was flipping through some blogs when I landed on Flippa X’s post on Burger Boutique. The post opened up my appetite and 30 minutes later I was at Burger Boutique having dinner. I thought that was pretty interesting because I don’t do that with magazines. I never read a food article in a magazine and then acted upon it. With blogs I have done it a bunch of times already. Although this might sound strange but I think the reason is I find blogs more credible then magazines, or should I say more real..

I first got into Alternative music in the summer of 92. I was visiting my cousin in LA and he made me watch a music video of a band called Blind Melon. The song was No Rain and it involved a girl dressed up in a bee costume, I am sure everyone has seen it.

Anyway in 1995 the lead singer died from a drug overdose. The band split up and Blind Melon fell apart. I was still a fan though and in 1999 I designed my own website as a tribute to them. It was located at https://unex-t.com/nico and it was the most popular fan site back then.

One day I was checking BlindMelon.com which wasn’t active and decided to email the owner asking him if he could forward the domain to my site. He replied telling me not only would he forward the domain to my site but that I could have the domain since he didn’t have a need for it. That was in 2000 and ever since then I had been running the site.

Everyone was happy, I had a very active community with a active message board with over 20,000 messages, I was providing free blindmelon.com subdomains with hosting to other Blind Melon sites and mostly I was keeping the band alive.

To make a bit of cash I had links on my site advertising the bands various CDs on Amazon and for every CD I ended up selling I got like 50 cents or something. I was making anywhere from $100 to $200 a quarter selling these CDs, its not a lot of money, it didn’t cover the hosting bill (back when I had I was hosted on fasthosts.co.uk) but it was nice cash that I injected back into Amazon by buying tshirts and sneakers.

The problem is suddenly out of the blue the band is interested in the domain. The band members all had different solo projects that all resulted in failure. Unified Theory, The Tender Trio, Extra Virgin and Mercy are some of their failed projects. Now it seems they want to release a new album of unreleased stuff in September and they want the domain.

At first they wanted me to give them the domain for free and when I refused they offered me $500. I tried to explain to them that I had a lot of sentimental attachment to the domain and the fact that I spent a lot of money on it. They disappeared and hooked up with the Law Offices of David Rudich who a few days ago sent me a cease and desist letter accusing me of cybersquatting.

This is not fair and I need help. After taking care of the site for over 6 years and keeping the band alive its not fair that they can come and take it away from me just like that. What are my options? I can’t afford a lawyer. They even HAVE a official website located at BlindMelonMusic.com, what do they want with me?

You can check out the site now by going to BlindMelon.com although I put up a fruity intro page. If you want to see how the site used to look like then you need to go to BlindMelon.com/index2.html

note: Just so there isn’t a misunderstanding, I made money from the domain but it wasn’t profit. Hosting the site cost me a lot more then what I was making from Amazon..

You can read the cease and desist letter after the jump..

After I posted the picture of the new Escalade earlier in the month I got a phone call from Alghanim Automotive marketing people telling me I could take the car out for a ride. So yesterday I took it for a ride and wow what a ride.

The first thing I noticed once I got into the car was how beautiful the interior was. As I mentioned before, unlike the old Escalade who’s interior I found extremely boring and “American”, the new Escalade is much more cleaner and very European. The interior detailing is extraordinary and extremely comforting on the eye. It’s really a huge leap over the old one. The drivers seat was also extremely comfortable and I was quickly able to adjust it and the mirrors before I left the dealership.

I took the car out to the Gulf Road and went cruising. The engine is unbelievable, with over 400HP it just wants to go faster and faster. I had a hard time keeping it at 80KM/h, there is just soo much power in it that a slight tap on the gas and you’re already at the speed limit. Of course speed limits are meant to be broken when no radar cameras are around so as soon as I passed one I slammed on the gas for an earth-shattering kick down. The engine (which comes from the Corvette) just suddenly took on a new life and turned the classy quiet Escalade into a scary loud hotrod.. it was incredible.

After driving for a while I decided to park the car and take some pictures plus explore the various features of the car. The coolest thing I found was the trunk since its fully automated. Basically the old trunk was very heavy to open and close especially for woman so the new trunk is motorized. You press a button on the handle and step back while the door opens up. You press another button and the trunk closes down. I even recorded a video of it, which you can watch [Here]. The car currently doesn’t come with a Navigation system but by the end of the year they will not only be coming with a built in Navigation system but also 3 screens in the back (it currently has 1) and the ability to play a different movie on every screen, plus 3 other people in the car could also listen to 3 different CDs all at the same time using wireless headphones. So in total 6 people could be watching or listening to 6 different things all at the same time.

The exterior of the car has also changed a lot although it still closely resembles the older model. You still have the over sized headlights for example which allows you to spot an Escalade from a mile away. The new Escalades also come with 22inch rims as standard and soon official body kits will be made available by Cadillac so anyone will be able to pimp their ride at the dealer. When driving around on the Gulf Road the car is an eye catcher. It can’t not be since the car is huge and I was driving the Pearl White version so I was sparkling under the sun.

I had a lot of fun driving the car around and when I brought it back to the dealer, the manager gave me a detailed tour of the cars features. If I had the money I would have bought the car right on the spot which brings me to the final point, the price. The new Cadillac Escalade starts from KD20,900 which is cheaper then a Range Rover but more expensive then the Lexus. It’s in a pretty nice position at the moment and I am sure once the car is more widely available the price will come down a bit more. If I had to choose between a Range Rover and the new Escalade it would be a really tough decision, luckily it’s not a decision I am likely to make anytime soon.

Here are some pictures and videos I shot:
Picture of Escalade’s interior
Picture of Escalade’s Exterior
Another picture of the Escalade’s Exterior
Video of trunk opening and closing
Video of a tour around the car

The past week I have been driving to work using the Gulf Road. On my way I kept spotting this group of American looking people on the side of the road (on the side going towards Salmiya) with their GMC’s parked up on the side walk and a little shade setup. I thought maybe they were shooting a TV commercial but then I noticed that everyday they would move a bit. First time I saw them they were in front of Burj al Hamam restaurant, then I saw them near Fridays and just now on my way back from the beach I saw them near Marina Mall. So, I decided to u-turn and stop and ask them what they were doing.

I park the car and open my window and a guy comes towards me, I ask him if he minds telling me what they are doing since I keep seeing them in a different spot every day. The guy replies back to me with an Australian accent that they are installing fiber optic cables. I thank him and drive off.

So mystery solved, now if you see the SUVs parked on the side of the road you know why they are there.

update: a reader mentioned the following article related to fiber optics in Kuwait. Looks like we might be getting some good stuff. [Link]

You open your fridge, you find a slice of cheese, half a cucumber, some ketchup and what looks like chicken.. what do you do? You enter the ingredients in Snacksby and it will tell you what you can make with those ingredients. Very practical and adventurous.. its like MacGyver but for food. [Link]

update: “like MacGyver but for food” has now become their new tagline.

Someone emailed me these pictures of a huge Whale Shark that was caught in Kuwait. I don’t know when these pictures were taken but since I haven’t heard about this before it could be very recent. Seems the pictures are old but you still check them out below..

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

I just added a link on the top menu called Proxy. This will take you to a page where you can type a url of a blocked site and it will open it for you. For example the blog I don’t like you in that way is blocked for some stupid reason in Kuwait but if you go to the proxy page and type the website address it will open the page for you. Try it out. [Link]

Sometimes I can’t purchase stuff online because they require a US based Visa card or a Paypal account. My usual action then is to ask a friend who lived in the States before and has an American Visa card to purchase the item for me and then I pay him back.

Now there seems to be a way around this.. epassporte.com. Basically you get a “virtual” visa card from them which has a US billing address. You can then fill up your virtual card using your regular visa card here in Kuwait. By virtual they mean digital as in you won’t get a physical credit card you can hold in your hand, you just get the numbers.

Anyone tried this service? I am thinking of trying it out myself. [Link]

update: OK seems they are not very trustworthy.. [Link]

Its interesting work, the concept is good and a story is attached to every painting, but I just don’t think I would want it hanging on my living room wall. [Link]