2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I am pro Sony PSP. I definetly think its a way cooler machine then the GameBoy DS which is big and clunky. The Sony PSP games are way cooler and the connectivity features of the PSP are also a lot cooler. In a recent comparison in WIRED magazine between the PSP and DS, the PSP ofcourse came out on top. But today I read an argument about the PSP that I found interesting. The PSP is better then the DS, we know that, but how much better it could have been is the issue here.

Here is the rant I read taken from Joystiq:

The PSP’s battery is a topic of huge debate. Depending on use, a single charge can last anywhere between 6 hours all the way down to 1.5, depending on which features the handheld utilizes. Why is this?

I seriously ask, should you as a consumer and gamer, have to juggle volume and brightness to eke out a bit more play time? Should game developers be asked to manage the battery consumption or should that be an issue for the developer of the system? Basically, shouldn’t the system, when used at maximum capacity, have a reasonable battery life?

If Sony hadn’t tried to force an optical drive in the PSP, there would be much more room in the system for a larger capacity battery. Load times would be nonexistent. The system would be less fragile and prone to breaking due to mechanical failure. The system wouldn’t have the shuriken UMD ‘feature’. Overall, it would be a much better system. Sony’s reliance on the optical disc has resulted in a worse product than could have otherwise been built.

Why? Why did Sony insist on putting an optical drive in the PSP when it had to compromise on so many other issues? Simple, Sony wants to sell you movies and music on the UMD. They want you to buy a UMD movie for $20. That UMD movie has 1/3 the resolution of a similar priced DVD. That UMD movie can’t be played back on a TV. That UMD movie does not have additional DVD features, menus, subtitles or other cool things you may find on a DVD. Sony makes nearly 100% profit on movies and music.

Sony sacrificed the PSP in order to make money off of movies.

Now, before you start calling names, I’m not laying hate on the PSP. Nice screen. Sleek, shiny case. Good graphics. Nice.

I look at the decisions made by Sony and I see decisions that are absolute trash for gamers but great for lining Sony’s pockets with money. I feel frustrated knowing the PSP could have been so much more if they would simply step up to the plate and decide to knock a home run out of the park instead of walking to first base on the back of movies and music. The missed potential for a system with an 8 hour battery, fully loaded with wi-fi on, makes me weep.

4 hours isn’t enough. 2 hours is a downright embarrassment. As gamers, we should demand more.

Today is the first day of the 4×4 event at Marina Mall. I passed by yesterday night and they were still setting things up. Basically various car manufactures are going to be displaying their 4X4’s plus on the beach there is a 4X4 offroad course with little hills and stuff. I heard you will be able to test drive any car for free on this course including an H2. We will have to wait and see if this turns out to be true or not. The event is from March 8th till the 18th if I remember correctly.

Had the Italiano Burger from McDonalds today. Sucks. Sucks like their mushroom and swiss.

Update: And oh yeah, the sauce is not a dark red as in the pictures, its brown.

Just found this website that talks about how Hartz flea and tick products can kill cats. I sometimes buy Hartz flea colors for our family dog and after reading stuff on this site and seeing some pictures of scarred cats I don’t think I will ever be buying another Hartz product. [Link]

I just read an article on GameSpy about “The Top Ten Handhelds that Never Made It“. I believe the Sega Nomad should have been in the number 1 position since it seriously had a lot of potential and it was way ahead of its time. Gameboy is just so crap compared to the Sega systems (except SNES). I mean if Sega had solved the battery issue (6AA’s last 1.5 hours on gamegear) I think they would have easily won over the Nintendo. Anyway here is the list of the top ten:

1. Neo Geo Pocket Color
2. Bandai WonderSwan
3. Game Gear
4. GamePark GP32
5. NEC Turbo Express
6. Atari Lynx
7. Sega Genesis Nomad
8. Milton Bradley Microvision
9. Nokia N-Gage
10. Tiger Game.com

Link

This is “ASIMO” Internet Office.
Thank you for your inquiry.

Unfortunately, I am very sorry to inform you that we do not
rent ASIMO out to overseas for its technical differences
such as power supply, radio wave, and security maintenance.

We appreciate your understanding.

Best regards,
——————
“ASIMO” Internet office [asimo [email protected]]

Don’t shoot the messenger! I was listening to the radio today morning while taking a shower and Linda from the breakfast show was talking about how woman should stay at home with the kids and how that would help the economy by freeing up work for the men on welfare. She couldn’t have chosen a better day for her personal opinions. While today everyone is out in-front of the parliament demonstrating for more rights for woman, Linda wants all the woman to leave their jobs and stay home with the kid. I hope she gets a lot of hate mail and even fired for her stupid opinion. PLUS, she has kids yet she is working so that makes hers a hypocrite. On my way to work today I passed by the demonstration, I snapped a few pictures and I just put them online. Nibaq is there now and taking pictures so his should come out better.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

Update: Here are nibaqs pictures

Do you know who originally created the iPod? If you guessed Steve Jobs then you are absolutely wrong. The father of the ipod is an engineer called Tony Fadell. Another interesting fact is that Tony Fadell is a Lebanese citizen. I contacted Tony Fadell last year and I had a nice chat with him via email. He turned out to be a very cool guy. I asked him if I could send him my iPod mini so that he could autograph it for me. He told me I didn’t need to and then fedexed me an autographed blue ipod mini skeleton. So anyway thought I would showoff share a picture of my autographed blue mini with you.

In And Out Of My Life – Onephatdeeva

I passed by Souk Sharq today morning because I wanted to get some breakfast from Sultan Center. Most of the parking lot opposite Debenhams was closed because of construction. Souk Sharq is finally building car shades it seems. It took them how many years to realize that a shaded parking is important in Kuwait? If it wasn’t for the strong competition from Marina Mall I don’t think they would have bothered with the shades. I think they are doing too little too late. I think the Souk Sharq days are gone, Marina Mall is a much better place with better shops, a better food court and much better management. There are a couple of more large projects coming up, we will see if they will also turn out to be better then Souk Sharq.

I found this link to a website with a very comprehensive guide on finding MP3s using google. Since AllofMp3.com is probably gonna get shut down soon and I hate using P2P software, this will be another way of finding some music. Oh how I miss the golden days of AudioGalaxy..

As Busynow had predicted in his comments, Amazon has put the Sony PSP preorder back but this time the system is bundled with 5 games and the price is $450. Sadly this new price is way above my budget and so will now have to wait for Amazon to carry the PSP as a stand alone unit before I can purchase it and that might take a couple of months depending on the PSP stock in the market.

I don’t know if this review will be very fair since the place I am reviewing I have been visiting for 26 years now. Yeah that long, and my parents were visiting it before I was born. The place is called Caesars Restaurant and its located in Salmiya. Its one of my favorite chinese places ever.. worldwide. In-fact every time I have chinese food anywhere I have to compare it to Caesars. Caesars just recently moved to a new location since their old place got demolished recently. The new location is adjacent to their old building so regular customers can find it easily. The new location is larger, is better decorated and now contains a lot more private booths. All the waiters are extremely friendly. I spend the first 5 minutes of my arrival saying hello to all of them. Its good to see them all. Some have been around since I was a little kid and have actually watched me grow up. I love the new private booths, they are very comfortable and they dont feel claustrophobic at all. For appetizers I ALWAYS have crab soup and prawn spring rolls. As I said previously, every time I have chinese anywhere else I have to compare it to Caesars and when it comes to the starters, Caesars wins by a mile. Their crab soup is simply the best soup I have ever had and I dont mean best chinese soup I mean best soup.. ever! The spring rolls? You can ask Nataly about them. When we go we usually order 2 plates of prawn spring rolls, one for her and one for me. Each plate has 6 pieces and they all disappear very quickly. For the main course I always have the sweet & sour chicken. Ofcourse I have tried their other dishes like the popular sizzlers and noodles, but I just can’t get enough of their sweet & sour dishes. Nataly keeps trying new stuff, yesterday night she had the sweet & sour prawns but before she had the fish sizzler and before that chicken with mushroom and bamboo shoots. One more thing left to talk about and that is the rice. Once again Caesars have the best rice in the world. We always order the fish fried rice and its easily the best rice you can ever have anywhere. Now with all this excellent food you would think the prices are just out of the world. In reality, Caesars is a very affordable chinese restaurant. This is what we had last night:

1 Large bottle of water
1 Coke
1 Crab soup
2 Prawn spring rolls
1 Fish fried rice
1 Sweet & Sour Prawns
1 Sweet & Sour Chicken

Total Price: KD10.500

As you can see the price for a very filling chinese dinner for 2 is just ten dinars. and this included shrimps. Very affordable. The only thing stopping me giving the place a full 5 stars is consistency. Every now and then something might not taste the way its supposed to. Maybe its me, maybe I am too picky but this is a minor issue I have. Also the location, its not really the place to be in Kuwait. So for the final score I give it a 4.5 out of 5. For reservations or to get the exact directions, you can call them at 5732885 and 5733044.

Here is a picture from the outside.

Update: Seems I couldn’t even spell Caesars right. I fixed it now.

Return to Patagonia – Lemon Jelly [Real Audio]

Swearsaurus is the world’s largest resource of multilingual swearing. It will teach you a vast array of swearing, profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, cursing, cussing, and insulting in a massive 165 languages – because it’s good to experience cultural diversity! Here is the link.