2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Short but interesting report. [YouTube]

Qatar has retained its position as the Middle East’s most innovative economy in the annual Global Innovation Index 2012 (GII).
…
The study, commissioned by leading business school INSEAD in partnership with other firms, scored 141 countries based on the degree to which their economic environment enables innovation, as well as actual innovative outputs.
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Saudi Arabia was ranked 48th (up six places on 2011) while Kuwait was the lowest ranked GCC nation at 55th, down from 52nd last year.

Ouch! [Link]

Originally I was planning to write a small post on my experience with the Synology backup drive and maybe compare it to my Drobo but in all honesty, the thing turned out to be a lot more than just a simple backup drive and so the tiny post has turned into a much bigger one.

Synology DS1511+ Web Interface

Firstly a quick brief about what the Synology DS1511+ is. In it’s most simplest form it’s an external backup hard drive that can take up to five 3TB hard drives and has data protection which means if one of the five hard drives fail my data is still protected. But the DS1511+ (from here on I’ll just call it the Synology) is also a mini server and so doesn’t require to be connected to a computer.

Xbench disk test

Performance wise the Synology turned out to be a lot faster than my Drobo. How fast? Copying a 2.48GB file from my computer over FireWire 800 to the Drobo took 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Copying the exact same file over gigabit ethernet to the Synology took just 42 seconds. That’s over 10 6 times as fast!

So yeah if you’re looking for a backup drive to put all your important files onto it and still have your data protected in case the drive fails, the Synology is great. But, the Synology is also more complicated to setup than the Drobo. Cost wise they’re selling the Synology drives in Kuwait for cheaper than Amazon and you can find them at either Blink (where I got mine from) or Cameo. Cameo also has the newer but slightly more expensive DS1512+.

Now that I got all that out of the way this second part is what REALLY makes the Synology cool. Continue below for the second part of this review.

The AlJazi Villas are the villas located right in front of The Village in Abulhasaniya. I always thought they looked interesting from the outside but was curious to know how the inside looked like as well. Conveniently, I just noticed ArchofKuwait have pictures of the interior as well as some information on how the project originated. They’re pretty cool villas and you can check out the photos [Here]

Back in January I posted that Kim Kardashian would be coming to Kuwait for the launch of Million of Milkshakes by the end of the year and last night she confirmed on twitter that she’s coming in October. I think that’s pretty cool since we don’t get that many celebrities in Kuwait.

Ama Traveller just posted pictures and information on a new place that opened up in Kuwait called “On Cost”. Judging by the pictures and her comments it looks very similar in style to the very popular large US retailer, Costco. Need to pass by and check it out myself but you can check out her post and pictures [Here]

Omarker posted a video on his blog that was taken a few days ago onboard a Kuwait Airways flight to Jeddah. The video isn’t so great but you can see that the oxygen masks were released and you could also hear some strange engine sounds. [YouTube]

According to The Buz Fairy, Al-Qabas reported that the minister of transport asked Kuwait Airways to ground three of its ailing Airbus planes due to multiple and repeat maintenance and operational issues.

It’s times like this I wish Wataniya Airways was still around.

Gizmodo has a visual showing where the majority of the world’s tweets come from and Kuwait is ranked high. Not only that but Kuwait is one of only two other countries with high ratio of tweets to interent users. That’s pretty extraordinary, you can check their post and full uncropped visualization [Here]

Thanks Naveen

I just found out about Faye Sultan, Kuwait’s first female Olympian swimmer who’s going to be heading to London this summer to represent Kuwait in the Olympics. She’s only 17 years old and blogger Ali Almawash managed to get an interview with her which you can check out [Here]

According to Faye, Kuwait is still suspended from the Olympics and if things aren’t sorted by the time the Olympics starts she’ll be swimming under the flag of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA).

via LWDLIK

I know it took me long but I finally fixed the annoying bug that would crash the app on some iOS devices. So if the Kuwait Blogs App was crashing with you check the Apple Store ow and you should see a minor update.

The Kuwait Blogs App is an iPhone application that allows you to browse some of my favorites blogs all in one place. It’s free and you can download it from the Apple Store [Here]

iBadala is a local phone directory app on the iPhone and one that I use frequently. I’ve posted about them before [Here] and my biggest complaint back then was regarding the app’s design which looked prehistoric.

Turns out they read my post since I got an email from iBadala yesterday telling me that based on my feedback they’ve released a new revamped app with a completely new look. I downloaded the app awhile ago and the app does look better but more importantly the ease of use and speed is still there so they haven’t broken anything. In fact, they’ve made two minor changes to speed things up even more:

Search as you type
According to iBadala this feature was supposed to be in the original release but it never worked properly. What this feature does is it starts searching for results as you type so if you’re searching for “Open Flame Kitchen” by the time you’ve typed “Open” you already have two results displayed with the second one being Open Flame Kitchen.

Search results ranking
Another new feature to speed things up is how the results order changes the more people use the app. For example as I mentioned above a search for “open” will result in two results with Open Flame Kitchen being the second. If a lot of people are searching for open and then clicking on Open Flame Kitchen more than the first result which is Arab Open University, then the app will start displaying Open Flame Kitchen as the first result instead.

I was also told they’re releasing an Android version of the app in the next few days so that should please some people as well. If you want to download the iPhone version it’s available right now in the [App Store]

Big D’s on a roll, this is his second video this week but this one’s produced by our friend TJCfilms. Here’s the YouTube description:

Big D is on a mission to open the minds of people all over the world and educate them in regards to the citizens, places, religion and culture of Kuwait and the Middle East. With Relevant Existence he is shining a light on what the people of Kuwait suffered through in the Iraqi invasion.

[YouTube]

Looks like it happened earlier today outside Al-Ikhlas Private School. [YouTube]

It’s starts getting very awkward 3 minutes in. [YouTube]

This is going to be a somewhat strange review since I have no idea what I ate or what ingredients made up my meal. I don’t even like vegetables but when I found out about the place from @basilalsalem’s Instagram, I decided to pass by and try it out.

Green Land is an Indian restaurant located in Souk Al Mubarkia. It looked pretty trendy based on Basil’s picture but my first impression got a bit tarnished since the table cloth on my table had food stains on it. Turns out they don’t change them after each customer but instead just brush off the dirt. That’s just gross.

I ordered a bunch of things for me and my brother, most of which were recommended by Basil and some by the waiter. Here is the whole list:

Masala Dosa KD0.900
This is pictured above, it looks like an oversized crepe but instead of it being filled with Nutella it’s filled with a potato mash of a sort and comes with Marak sauce on the side which is spicy and full of flavor.

Subzi Maharaja KD1.600
I believe this dish is the one pictured at the bottom of this post. No idea what’s exactly inside just that it’s a mixture of vegetables and topped with a bit of cheese. It kicked ass. Definitely worth going back for.

Dal Makhni KD1.250
I also have no idea what this dish was. It’s picture in the photo below (it’s the pot on the right). It was also great, my brother preferred the Subzi Maharaja but for me both are equally as good. If the Subzi Maharaja has one slight advantage it’s that it’s less saucy and so easier to eat with bread.

Poori KD0.300
Easily the best poori I’ve ever had. The order comes 8 in a basket each around the size of a CD. They aren’t very oily and are delicious.

Butter Nan KD0.400
Again the best butter nan I’ve ever had. The order comes 4 in a basket.

Phulkas (Chapathi) KD0.400 (for 2 orders)
Great but waited for the poori and nan to run out before ending with these.

Mango Juice KD1.250
They have a juice stand in the middle of the restaurant that makes fresh juice by order. I went with the Mango juice and it was great since the mangos used were ripe.

Water Melon Juice KD1.250
My brother ordered this and I tried it. Tastes exactly like you’re eating water melon so it’s very refreshing.

Small Water KD0.450 (for 3 orders)

———————

Bill Total: KD7.800

Although we started off on the wrong foot with a dirty table cloth, I have to say the food made up for it. As I said I don’t like vegetables but these dishes were so delicious that I realized I probably don’t like vegetables because I’ve been having them the wrong way. Kinda like how I grew up hating zucchini and then I tried it grilled a few months back and now love it. All the breads we had were great, even the dough of the crepe looking dish was delicious and kinda makes me want to go back with a jar of Nutella and ask them to spread it all over the inside. Price wise they’re on the affordable side with just the juices adding a bulk to our bill. The service was fast and the waiters friendly and helpful. Their menu is huge with no descriptions so you either have to know the dishes or get recommendations like I did. I had a good time and I’m definitely going back to try more stuff.

Green Land is located at the edge of Souk Al Mubarkia in Kuwait City in the block behind Shater Abbas Restaurant. If you ask around for Shater Abbas everyone knows it. They open from 8AM to 4PM and then again from 6PM to 11PM. Their phone number is 22424246 or 22424247

Update: Forgot to add an important point. They don’t accept Knet or credit cards so make sure you bring cash with you.