Category: Kuwait

Don’t do it in public places. I was just walking in Salmiya while video calling and I was getting a lot of stares. Walking with my hand out in front of me, phone open and talking out loud is just too weird in public.

Just had my second video call ever and it was with K.thekuwaiti again. I have to say its really weird video calling but I think I could get used to it. I watched him give me a tour of his office and he watched me eat my icecream. Everyone in my department wants to video call now and luckily I found another guy with a 3G phone and an MTC phoneline so we set up video calling on his phone and gave everyone a demonstration on how it works. People were expecting the video to be all choppy and slow so they were surprised when they saw how fluid and clear the picture was. The coolest thing is all these video calls are for free at the moment..

How come there is no seating? In the old airport there were tons of places to sit down and wait but in the new airport the only places to sit are next to the restaurants. The problem is there isn’t enough seating there either. Since there is no seating elsewhere in the airport people flock to the tiny food court and order a coffee and hog the seats. So if you want to eat (like I usually do) you can never find a place to sit.

They should either add more seating all around the arrival area or expand the tiny food court by adding more chairs and tables.

I was just reading a recent issue of Campaign ME magazine (April 30) in which they have a section dedicated to Kuwait and I got to the part where they talk about Internet in Kuwait and to my surprise they mention my blog. The funny thing is the way they mentioned it and it went something like “…there is 248AM.com which is run by Nataly and her husband”. Nataly and her husband?! It should be like Mark and his wife who posts only once every 4 weeks. I am sure she is going to enjoy this when she reads it. She comes back from Beirut tonight btw so you can expect a post from her sometime this week about her trip.. then you have to wait till next month for another one.

A while back K.thekuwaiti posted about how to get video calling on MTC to work. Basically they are on trial period now and you can video call for free, the only problem is trying to find someone to video call.

If you have a 3G phone with video calling capabilities then all you need to do is send an SMS to the number 99999 with the word vc in the message and you should get a reply back telling you that video calling has been activated. If you get a message back and video calling is still not working, then turn off your phone, take out the battery and simcard and then put them back together. I had to do this to get 3G working on my phone and now I have a little 3G icon on my phone.

I tried video calling yesterday with K.thekuwaiti since he is the only person I know of that has video calling and it felt like video chatting using MSN. I don’t think I would use video calling to chat with a friend but I think I would use it to call a friend up and show him something. Like I could be at a party and I could call a friend up and show him with video what was going on at the party, that sort of thing.

Maybe once more people I know get 3G phones video calling could turn into a norm…

A friend is selling her PowerMac for a really good deal. The Mac was purchased last July from Solize and is in like new condition. The PowerMac has been used maybe only 4 or 5 times for video editing. Here are the specs:

– 2.3 Ghz, Dual Processor
– 1 GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB)
– 250 GB Harddisk
– Super Drive

Asking price: KD650

If you are interested or have any questions leave a comment below and she will contact you. More pictures here and here.

update: PowerMac has been sold!

Today morning I checked the comments on my post from yesterday called The V3x and I read a comment by Omar who said I could find the V3x for KD120 which is basically the same price as the phone on Amazon. So I called Fono up and asked them if they had a version with only an English keypad and they said yes, so awhile ago I went and picked up my phone from Fono. First impressions.. well I realized how ugly and out dated my Sony Ericsson K700 is. The phones OS does seem confusing but I am guessing its because I have been using Ericsson for most of my life. The coolest feature on the phone is the fact that I can charge it using my Nikon’s USB cable. The data/charging port on the V3x is your standard USB input found on most USB devices like external harddrives and digital cameras. Very practical. The screen inside is gorgeous, very sharp and huge! Gonna finish up some urgent work and then fiddle with my phone a bit. I hate new phones since I am always worried about scratching them..

update: just tried video calling with K.thekuwaiti, I feel so futuristic now

update 2: to get it working with isync you need to install a plugin which you can find [here]

I haven’t been watching Showtime for ages so I just turned it on now and was checking my Tivo guide and to my surprise I found two new cool shows. Not new as in they are recent but new as in new additions to showtime. The two shows are Moonlighting and Out of this World. Can’t believe they are playing these two shows.. I love them!

I have some extra cash saved up which I just decided I would use to invest in the stock market. Anyone got any stock tips? Also I am planning on setting up an online trading account with Mutadawil, does anyone have a better suggestion? I wanted NBK but I need like minimum $25,000 to setup an online trading account with them.

From the ArabTimes:

‘Girlfriend’ blackmailed for sex: Police have arrested a Syrian salesman of a phone shop in Jahra for allegedly taking nude shots of a bedoun girl in Jahra using Bluetooth technology and threatening to post her pictures on the Internet web site if she refused to have sex with him, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. The suspect was arrested after the girl filed a complaint against the suspect who is believed to be her boyfriend. Acting on a complaint police raided the man’s shop and seized from his computer the woman’s photos and telephone numbers of several girls.

Maybe I am low-tech or something but how do you use “bluetooth technology” to take pictures?

You know the stand in the Marina Mall food court with the chocolate fountain? Well they have the worst chocolate chip cookies ever. It costs 250fils, its small, its extremely dry, it was tasteless and totally crap. I took one bite and then quickly trashed it.

I am having my apartments AC serviced and so the repair guys had to turn it off. It feels like I am sitting in a sauna at the moment, I hope my keyboard is water sweat proof. Geo is currently packing up his stuff and moving back to Belgium, I am hoping he will take me with him..

Update: Ok the guys just left, they just Pimped My AC.

I was at Marina Crescent yesterday with Geo when I noticed a guy setting up a large telescope. I then remembered Astronaut Girl’s post on Astronomy Day at Marina Crescent. They had two large telescopes located at Marina Crescent and passerby’s were encouraged to look through it. I wasn’t able to since I was with Geo and I didn’t want to bother the crowd but most of the reactions from people who tried it was of amazement. I would have posted about the event before it happened but it had totally slipped my mind…

Update: Tonight at Ujeri Observatory, Science Club there will be some presentations by Ujri himself, amateur astronomers, and Astronaut Girl. Astronaut Girl will be giving a presentation about Space Science and the opening of the new branch of Space at the Science Club. Visitors will also be able to observe the sky with the big telescope. Time: 7:00PM to 10:00PM

TivoGuy passed by zMacShop yesterday because he was interested in the MacBook Pro. He was expecting the prices to be a bit more expensive then the States but it turns out they were selling it for KD890 which is KD160 more expensive! This is for the 15.4″ 2.0Ghz with 1GB RAM and 100GB HD. So I phoned a couple of other Mac stores in Kuwait to see how much they were all charging for the same laptop and this is what I found:

Mac & More
Tel: 5735815
Price: KD 980

Integrated Office Co (IOC)
Tel: 6275734
Price: KD 980

Mac City
Tel: 4911112
Price: KD 970

Kamal Al Sultan Co
Tel: 4815533
Price: KD 965

zMacShop
Tel: 2617575
Price: KD 890

Solize
Tel: 7215945
Price: KD 850

Turns out zMacShop is actually a lot cheaper then the other Mac stores in Kuwait but surprisingly not the cheapest. The cheapest store turned to be Solize and by KD40 which is a nice chunk of change. The price on Amazon is KD730 for your information.

A few days ago I posted about how Hardees recently increased their prices well today I passed by McDonalds for breakfast and it turns out they just increased their prices as well! The thing is this is the second time they increase their prices. I posted about their first price increase last July when the majority of their combos had their price increase by 50fils. Well they just did it again but this time by 100fils. Even the breakfast menu got effected this time with the regular breakfast combo now costing 850fils compared to the 700fils it used to cost before.

So I picked up my breakfast combo and drove off thinking about how these price increases suck when I stuck my hand in the bag and realized they forgot to give me my hashbrowns! So not only did I pay 150fils extra compared to what I used to pay but they also forgot my hashbrown. Luckily I had their phone number stored on my phone so I called them up to complain. They apologized and told me I could pass by again for the hashbrown, I told them I was on my way to work but it wasn’t a problem, I just didn’t want it to happen again.

Nice way to start a morning..