2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I wonder what happened to the guy! [Link]

I dropped off my Jeep at Auto Tech yesterday night so they could start installing my lift early today morning. I just passed by after work and they had practically finished the installation. They only have the motor mount spacers to install, a spare tire bracket to tweak and a test drive to make sure everything is fine. So I will passing by again tomorrow to pick up the Wrangler and then take better pictures. I managed to take a few shots now but there wasn’t much room to maneuver. They will also be flipping the tires inside out so that the white markings are facing the inside, that way the tires will be totally black matching the black rims.

Some lucky guy in Kuwait has an actual size flight simulator in his home. From the short video it looks very real and very cool. [YouTube]

A while back I posted about how I purchased the Sony DSC-W300 from a store in Muthana Complex and how I got a free memory stick with it. Well I don’t know how many readers went and purchased the camera from that store (I know of at least 3) but I just wanted to inform you that there is a very high chance that you ended up with a fake memory stick just like I did.

I first noticed a problem when some photos were turning up distorted. At first I thought it was a defect from the camera and was going to return it for another one when I realized the memory stick was a fake. Here is a link with details on how you can tell its a fake, I found out mine was a fake from the way the packet was sealed.

Anyway another thing you should know is that the camera shutdown speed is effected by the type of memory card in the camera. The shutdown speed is calculated from the moment you press the off button till the lens retracts. I did a test using three different memory cards and here are the results:

Sony 2GB Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo
First try: 1.62
Second try: 1.68
Third try: 1.65
Average is 1.65 seconds to shutdown.

SanDisk 1 GB Ultra II Memory Stick
First try: 2.61
Second try: 2.5
Third try: 2.54
Average is 2.55 seconds to shutdown.

Fake Sony 1GB Memory Stick Duo
First try: 5.25
Second try: 4.67
Third try: 4.92
Average is 4.94 seconds to shutdown.

So if you purchased your camera from Digital World in Muthana Complex and you got a free memory stick my advice is to throw it away and get an original one. Other than the high risk that you might lose an important photo the performance of the camera also suffers greatly.

I am not really a “lets save the world” type of guy but I don’t mind helping out by using less energy as long as it isn’t a hassle for me. With not enough electricity in Kuwait for everyone its even more important to try and save energy just so we don’t end up stuck in a 50 degree heat wave with no AC. Thats why I decided to finally try energy saving light bulbs. I used to hate them because I thought they all emitted white light which I don’t like but I just recently found out their are versions that emit warm colored light which matches regular light bulbs we are all used to. So, I passed by Ace Hardware today and picked up two 20w bulbs to try out. At KD1.050 a pop they are around 10 times more expensive than regular bulbs but they last 6 times longer and use around 4 times less energy. A 20watt energy saving light bulb is equivalent to an 85w Tungsten bulb.

First thing I did was try them out to see if the color of the light is fine and it is. It matches the color of regular light bulbs so I am now going to go back to Ace and buy a whole a bunch of these so I could start replacing all the bulbs in my house. If you’ve held back on buying these light bulbs there really isn’t a reason not to get them anymore unless its because of the price. But even the price shouldn’t be a factor, seriously how many bulbs do you have around the house? 10?

I passed by and picked up my Wranglers lift kit from DHL today. Yes they were open today, turns out they’re actually open 24 hours a day including Friday! My shipment got cleared from customs yesterday evening and I was planning on passing by them after leaving Marzouqs place but I was just really exhausted and actually ended up going to sleep at like 11. Anyway today morning I woke up and headed straight to DHL in my mums mini van. My shipment consisted of two large boxes weighing in total around 56KG. The total shipping cost came out to only KD125 which is around KD2.250 a KG which isn’t bad at all.

Now I am going to take an appointment with Auto Tech so that I can pass by them this week and install the lift on the Wrangler. They told me they would be able to finish it in a day if I bring them the Jeep early in the morning so I can’t wait! The picture above is of Geo posing next to all my parts which now include:

5 Hankook DynaPro 33×12.5 tires
5 steel Cragar wheels
4 Old Man Emu Coils
4 Old Man Emu Shocks
1 set of JKS disconnects
1 JKS 1.25″ Body Lift
1 JKS Motor Mount Spacers
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (front)
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (rear)
1 set of Old Man Emu bump stop spacers
1 set of bunp stop spacers (front and rear)
23 black power coated wheel nuts

Hardees is selling ice cream cones for only 50fils. I tried it and although its not as good as McDonald’s 150fils ice cream cone, for 50fils its really great.

The other day I posted a video of kites being flown in the Kuwaiti desert. According to a reader the kites all belong to Al-Farsi Kites Team who also have the largest kite in the world. They have an official website and a flickr group with a lot of pictures including my favorites the Winnie Poo like bear and the squid like creatures. Here are the links:

Official Al-Farsi Kites Team Site
Al-Farsi Kites Flickr Pool

The beautiful picture above was taken by M.Ashkanani

If I had a garden I would definitely get a couple of these sculptures. [Link]

I passed by Eastpak earlier tonight to check out their bags. I have an Eastpak bag for every occasion but I needed a travel bag that is smaller than my backpack but larger than my shoulder camera bag. My small Eastpak camera bag is actually a great size specially since it fits my Asus Eee but once I start cramming in the rest of my stuff it gets pretty tight. Anyway it turns out Eastpak have a 50% discount on some of their bags so if anyone is looking for a new bag now is the perfect time to get one.

Naif have an offer now where you can get three chicken shawermas for only 500fils. Thats around 166fils per shawerma which I think is the cheapest in Kuwait or at least the cheapest I’ve ever seen.

I’ve had the E71 for a few hours now and so far compared to my previous phone the Nokia E61i, the E71 is better in every aspect. For those of you who own E61i’s you will be glad to know that the E71 is a much much faster phone, MUCH faster. Everything launches in a split second and moving from menu item to menu item and opening or closing an SMS is all instantaneous. The size of the device is also smaller, width wise its around 20% less fat and its also slightly less thick. The camera is finally usable and the keyboard although smaller than the E61i doesn’t feel cramped or strange in any way. I’ve also noticed the phone is a lot more customizable which is a plus and its also smarter. For example in the main screen if you no longer want to display SMS notifications, you just highlight it and press the delete button and it will ask you if you want to hide it from the main screen. The power button has now moved to the top which is a good idea since I had a bad habit of accidentally shutting the phone with my ear, not fun specially if you are in the middle of a conversation.

On the negative side the GPS seems extremely slow and unpractical. The phone also loves finger prints and smudges which is very iPhonish. The case also seems more fragile. I’ve dropped my E61i so many times and I am not sure the E71 can handle as much abuse. Overall though I am really impressed with the phone. I was expecting it to be better than the E61i and it has exceeded my expectation in every way so far. Oh and its no longer showing me MTC on the main screen, its finally showing me Zain KW!

A reader just emailed me an informed me that the Nokia E71 is out in Kuwait and available in Sharq. There is a store there called Phone Center and they are selling it for around KD170 depending on your haggling skills. Their phone number is 2454022.

Thanks Jassim!

Update: After I posted this I left the house and was heading to Avenues when I got a phone call from the Nokia dealer in Fanar. I had put my name down on a waiting list for the E71 and once the Fanar branch got the phone they called me. It was around 9PM, they had just received two E71’s and they told me to come in and pick it up so I turned around and headed back to Salmiya. They were selling it for KD159 which was cheaper than what the phone was being sold for in Sharq. So far the phone is really really great and the Nokia dealer really surprised me, I was actually expecting them to forget about me and never call me once the phone came in but they actually called me right away, really great service. Thank you!

Update2: Mac users, if you want to use the E71 with iSync follow this link, someone made a plugin that will get it working. [Link]

I heard a lot of bad stuff about Toshiba hard drives yet somehow I ended up buying one. Back in February Nataly needed a larger drive for her MacBook and I ended up going to Red Star in Walla Complex in Hawalli to see what they had available. I usually buy my stuff from Red Star or SoftIsland across the street since they both usually give me the best prices. The largest drive they had in my budget was the 160GB Toshiba. I didn’t want to get it but the salesman there convinced me that unlike the old Toshiba drives that were made in China and were prone to failure, the new drives are now made in Philippines and were supposedly of much better quality. I bought into that and went ahead and purchased the drive.

Just before we sold her MacBook the drive ended up dying. Luckily she had everything backed up on her old drive and so was able to recover her work but the Toshiba drive was dead. I put it aside and forgot about it until a few days ago I accidentally found the original invoice. There in very clear hand writing it stated “6 months warranty”. I checked the date and realized it had only been 5 months since I bought the drive so I headed to Hawalli today and got the drive replaced. I wasn’t to sure if they would replace it for me or not since most of the places there are pretty shabby but Red Star were pretty cool and after testing it out told me I could come back tomorrow and get a replacement. Since I didn’t want to come back the next day and since I also didn’t want another Toshiba drive I ended up settling on a 120GB Seagate and a nice discount on a decent HDMI cable.

I just installed the drive in my PS3 and its working perfectly. I will never buy another Toshiba drive ever again and I would not recommend them to anyone. They are cheap which makes them tempting but you really should stay away from them.

I passed by Marina Mall today to pick up my MacBook from the Apple store Digits. My computers logic board died and last month they told me they would fix it under warranty but it would take around 2-4 weeks for the part to arrive. Well it ended up taking 3 weeks and my Macbook is back from the dead. The whole thing only cost me KD10 which I believe was for shipping or customs. Now I’ve got three completely different sized laptops. I’ve got the 15″ MacBook Pro for work which I am finding extremely enormous. I’ve got my Asus Eee which I am finding super tiny compared to my MacBook Pro. Finally I have my perfectly sized 13″ MacBook which lies somewhere in the middle. It feels good to be back typing again on my MacBook.