Category: Kuwait

From what I read on their website it looks like they will providing internet by rolling out a large Wifi network that covers all of Kuwait. No idea when they’re planning to start (or if they’ve started already) and how much their prices will be. If anyone manages to get a hold of them and find out more let me know. [Link]

Thanks Sabah

A presentation of the new Kuwait Airport by Foster+Partners. [YouTube]

Update: I’ve updated the video link to a working one.

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.

I hope this actually gets built. Find out more about this project [Here]

After falling down behind Lebanon last year, Kuwait is once again back in the lead in the latest World Press Freedom Index for 2012. Below is the ranking for the Middle East and North Africa, the global ranking is in the brackets:

1- Kuwait (78)
2- Israel (92)
3- Lebanon (93)
4- UAE (112)
5- Qatar (114)
6- Oman (117)
7- Algeria (112)
8- Jordan (128)
9- Tunis (134)
10- Morocco (138)
11- Iraq (152)
12- Palestine (153)
13- Libya (154)
14- Saudi Arabia (158)
15- Egypt (166)
16- Sudan (170)
17- Yemen (171)
18- Bahrain (173)
19- Iran (175)
20- Syria (176)

You can check out the full list in PDF format [Here]

The first Alexander McQueen boutique in Kuwait will be opening this coming Sunday 29th of January at Althuraya Mall. [Link]

Can anyone guess when this will be completed? [YouTube]

Thanks Talal

Happened right across from a network cafe so there were at least 50 kids laughing and poking fun of the sad situation. This was the first time I was actually glad the cops came. They quickly broke up the crowd of juveniles by threatening to haul their asses away if they didn’t disappear.[YouTube]

[YouTube]

Here are two videos taken from the Chasing Classic Cars Discovery show when they visited Kuwait during last year’s Concours.

[YouTube]

As you can see, the Concours d’Elegance attracts some of the biggest names in the automotive industry and really puts Kuwait in the limelight.

The luxurious car show Concours d’Elegance is going to be held for the third time in Kuwait next month. Like the previous years, it going to be an important and prestigious event that will attract people from both inside and outside Kuwait.

What is the Concours d’Elegance?
Concours is a French word meaning competition. The concept of Concours originates in 17th C. France when aristocrats used to choose their best horse carriages to parade around parks of Paris during the summer week ends and holidays. Later these traditions changed to automobiles from the 20th C. Concours today have strict regulations and cars are inspected by qualified judges. Trophy winners are carefully chosen. Each year there are numerous events which take place across the world, many of which are world famous, including Villa d’Este in Italy, Goodwood in UK, and Pebble Beach in USA. The Kuwait Concours d’Elegance is rapidly becoming a fixture in this international program, able to attract some of the world’s rarest and exotic motorcars.

Date: February 15th to the 18th
Time: 10:00AM – 10:00PM
Location: Marina Mall interior, Marina Crescent and Marina Lawn

Tidbits
There are going to be some very interesting cars this year at the show including the Zagato, Jaguar F-Type, the McLaren and other surprises which they wouldn’t tell me about except that they’re “Concours Special Editions”. Valentino Balboni the former chief test driver for Lamborghini is going to back this year. Bruce Meyers the inventor of the Dune Buggy will also be at the event.

The new Supercar De Macross GT1 is going to be officially launched at our Concours. The GT1 has an 800hp Rouch engine and incoporates technologies currently used in F1… including some that are banned.

The Concours categories
Vintage: Class-A 1900 – 1930
Classic: Class-B 1931 – 1945
Post war Classic: Class-C 1946 – 1965
Modern Classic: Class-D 1966 – 1975

Muscle Cars Section
69 Dodge Daytona
70 Plymouth Superbird
71 Plymouth ‘Cuda 340 Convertible
67 Mustang Shelby GT500
74 Trans-Am SD
69 Shelby GT500 owned by Carroll Shelby him self!
and many many more.

Hollywood Cars
This year they’re bringing real life sized Pixar/Disney cars including Lighting McQueen, Finn and Mater.

Daily Events
15th – Muscle & Classic
16th – Supercars
17th – Kuwait Bike Show
18th – Enzo Ferrari Birthday

Once I find out more information I’ll add it to this post.
Here are some related links:
kuwaitconcours.com.kw
@KuwaitConcours
Facebook.com/Kuwait.Concours

According to the Millions of Milkshakes website, they’ll be opening in Kuwait and Qatar this year and Kim Kardashian will be at the launch. What does that mean? Check below!

I was contacted by Ford recently to test drive their all-new 2012 Ford Explorer. The last time I had driven an Explorer was ages ago and it was on a road trip from Montreal to New York and all I remember was how comfortable it was. Their new car looks a lot better and more exciting compared to their previous model which is why I was looking forward to trying it out.

The first thing I noticed when I started the car was the combination of an analogue and digital dashboard. The speedometer was analogue while the information on both its sides were digital which I thought looked very cool. The second thing I noticed was the large screen in the center console which turned out to be touch sensitive and featured something called SYNC which I’ll go into detail in a bit. So first impressions wasn’t bad at all.

Since I had the car with me all weekend I drove it down to Bnaider and as expected the ride was very comfortable. The Ford is pretty big and spacious with three row of seating with the last row of seats having ample leg room. When the last row is folded down you also end up with a pretty large and spacious boot which I like to call IKEA friendly. The model I had (XLT) came with a rear view camera which was practical although I wish it also came with a front cam or at least front sensors since the front of the car is pretty long and high. While we’re on the subject of wishes there are two things I really disliked in the Explorer. The first is the touch buttons on the center console. For some reason Ford decided to have all the physical buttons touch sensitive but I have something against touch buttons because I can’t tell if I’ve pressed them or not specially when my eyes are on the road. Although you hear an audible alert when you touch a button I always prefer to actually feel a button being pushed in which doesn’t happen with these buttons. The second thing I disliked about the car was that it was front wheel drive. I thought that was odd for an SUV especially since it was full time front wheel drive and didn’t have an option to flip into four wheel drive. That turns out is an extra option which the car I drove wasn’t equipped with.

Other than those two quirks I didn’t have any other major issues. The SYNC feature which I mentioned earlier is very cool although I wasn’t able to fully take advantage of it. Right below the center console is a small compartment which can easily hold an ipod or iphone with accessories. In that same compartment is an SD card slot, two USB ports and RCA (video and audio) inputs. The car also has built in bluetooth and Wifi. I’m not sure why all the cars don’t come fitted with Wifi, it should really be a standard feature nowadays. I was also able to connect the car to my phones 3G connection using bluetooth but the car can also connect to internet using USB 3G modems and Wifi. You could also have the car connect to your phones internet via bluetooth and the car can then share the connection over wifi for other passengers to use. My problem is once the car connected to my internet I didn’t know what I could do with it. I’m guessing I need to download apps or widgets but since it wasn’t my car I didn’t spend too much time experimenting.

The car I drove had a pearl white exterior with a beige interior. If I was getting this car I would definitely go for a gray or black interior since it would make the car interior look a lot trendier but I’m not sure if they carry those colors locally. The starting price for the new Ford Explorer is KD9,999 and goes up to KD14,000 depending on the features and model. For more information on the Explorer click [Here]

Ford if you’re reading this.. I WANT TO TEST DRIVE THE RAPTOR!

Family Bookshop in Salmiya is sadly closing down for good. I previously posted that they had a court case against the owner of the building but it looks like they lost because they currently have a closing down clearance.

It’s worth passing by the store one final time as a farewell to what used to be one of the best bookshops in Kuwait. Bit by bit what’s left of our childhood is being eroded away which is depressing.

On a similar note Waleed toy store which is located in the same strip is also closing down. Like Family Bookshop, Waleed toy store has been there for over 30 years.

The Kuwait Towers in Middle East by Eric Walker

Eric Walker, a blog reader sent me a link to a 360 Panorama he took at the Kuwait Towers. I thought he used some special equipment since the panorama is seamless and very well made but after talking to him it turns out he used just a regular camera with some accessories and software. Here is how he does his panoramas:

– He uses a regular point and shoot camera on regular tripod but he’s added a panorama tripod head mount (similar to these)

– He takes on average 40 shots depending on the scene. He prefers to have a tall structure nearby so that the majority of the panorama doesn’t result in just a plain blue sky. To get a clear shot of the ground below the camera without the camera shadow, he cheats and moves the camera back a bit and then takes the shot

– He uses the photo stitching software PTGui to stitch the photos all together. You can get that software from [Here]

– As a last step he uploads the final stitched image to his 360 Cities account where it is then reviewed by their council of reviewers. If they don’t find any stitching errors or other problems, the panorama gets published to their website and it can then be placed in Google Earth (360 Cities is the only panorama site that is partnered with Google)

Here are some other Kuwait panoramas Eric has taken:
Behind the Kuwait Towers
The Scientific Center of Kuwait
Mutla Ridge

Here are some Kuwait panoramas taken by other photographers:
Onboard Al-Boom Dhow
Hawally Park
Dhow in Souk Sharq
360 Mall
Kuwait Seaside Sunset
Heritage Souk
Salhia Complex
Water Clock in Souk Sharq Kuwait
Rooftop Swimming Pool

The Ministry of Information launched a photo election stream for the first time a few days back. The ministry is sending photographers to cover different events relating to the upcoming elections and then uploading their photos to their Flickr account. The photos are being uploaded every two days at full resolution and undoctored. They’re also allowing anyone to use their photos as long as you credit the source and not profit from the photos. You can check out the photos so far by visiting their Flickr account [Here]