Category: Interesting

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..

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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]

I used to think I was a very logical person until I tried answering these problems.. even the very easy problems are giving me a hard time. I think just hate reading long paragraphs.. [Link]

note: The lateral thinking problems are more fun [Link]

[source digg]

This is some guys list of things he’s figured out over time. Some interesting and informative stuff and it comes in 2 parts. [Part 1] and [Part 2]

This is a cool and nicely designed site I just found full of theories on the show Lost. I have been going throught the list of Highest Rated Theories by users and there is some interesting stuff there. If you are a fan check it out, if you haven’t watched all of season 2 yet there might be some spoilers. [Link]

I just heard today at 5AM a car crashed into Johnny Rockets opposite Zahra Complex (under McDonalds) in Salmiya. Anyone got any pics??

update: Here are the pictures: [Toomz] and [2by4]

An interesting article I found via Kottke that talks about how Brazilian players dont have last names (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cafu, Fred..) and why that is. [Link]

Players with the same first name often change their moniker to differentiate themselves. In recent decades, there have been several Ronaldos at the national level. One became known as Ronaldao, meaning “big Ronaldo.” Another became Ronaldinho, meaning “little Ronaldo.” When another Ronaldinho came along in the late 1990s, he was called Ronaldinho Gaucho—that is, “little Ronaldo from Rio Grande do Sul.” Eventually, the first Ronaldo left the Brazilian national squad, so Ronaldinho became Ronaldo. Ronaldinho Gaucho became Ronaldinho.

K.thekuwaiti spotted The Amazing Race reality show in Kuwait. The Amazing Race is a TV show where contestants travel around the world from country to country following clues trying to reach to the next stage as quickly as possible. K.thekuwaiti helped them cheat a bit which is really cool plus he took some pictures. Check it out. [Link]

Have you guys tried mPay? It only works with MTC but its really a time saver. Nat has a prepaid eeZee line and I used to recharge it for her using the MTC website which although easier then passing by the bakala and getting a refill card, it was still not easy enough for my lazy ass. mPay on the other hand makes life really easy. You sign up with them for free and you then get a menu on your phone allowing you refill other peoples phones (or yours) with just a few clicks on the phone. The amount then gets deducted from your bank account.

So for example I just went into my mPay menu on the phone, and then clicked on reload and then clicked on KD5 and then chose Nat and I then clicked on confirm. Right away I got an SMS telling me that I had transferred money onto Nats prepaid card and she also instantly got her phone recharged. Its that easy.

You can check out their website by going to mpay.com.kw but to sign up just pass by any Fono branch (like the one at Marina Mall) and they would set it up for you right away. I like stuff that makes me lazier.

Guy eats monkey chow for 1 week to see if its possible for man to live on kibble the same way pets do. It doesn’t work very well but the idea is still pretty good. I think if they ever made human kibble it would make life a lot easier for me. [Link]

[source BoingBoing]

I just got my Body Groom today from U Shop We Ship. It arrived to my mailbox in the States on the 2nd and it got delivered to me today in Kuwait which is the 6th. Thats 4 days to get from the US to Kuwait but it also included a Sunday which is a day off, so its usually should take 3 days.

I am very satisfied so far. The most impressive part is the fact that I paid for my package using Knet while the package was in the US. This also got me a 2% discount which is not much but better then no discount. My MacBook still hasn’t shipped from Amazon since they still don’t have it in stock but I just changed the shipping address to U Shop We Ship. The reason for that is USWS can clear my laptop from customs AND I can pay them the customs fee online with my Knet card. Thats very convenient and I love it. I am now going to start using USWS as my primary US mailbox and keep Aramex as secondary for my magazines. [Link]

FYI: Package arrived today morning at 10AM to Kuwait according to the tracking info. Delivery guy dropped it at my office around 12:30PM.. 2 and a half hours later. Thats something not possible with Aramex.