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According to the Kuwait Time’s photo the guys sister is Britney Spears. I’ve noticed they’ve been using random pictures off the internet for their articles. Below are two more:

Funny. You can check some more out [Here]

Update: Looks like Kuwait Times read this post and have corrected their mistake. They’ve now removed the Britney Spears photo and instead replaced it with Natalie Portman’s…

A friend of mine just posted about a new Mexican restaurant that opened up in The Village. Going by the pictures and write up it looks like the place is actually pretty good. Check out his post [Here]

Registration is now open for entry into the 2012 PAWS annual dog show. The show will take place in the beautiful gardens of the British Embassy on Friday March 9th from 11AM to 4PM. There will be stalls at the dog show selling a variety of merchandise, activities for the children, refreshment stalls and of course the main attraction will be the dog competition categories.

Full details can be found on the PAWS website and all competition categories are listed on the application form which can be downloaded from the website as well. Here is the [Link]

Someone from WiMD the new internet provider I posted about earlier in the day left the following comment:

Many thanks, first of all, for giving us a platform to voice our services.

First things first, WiMD stands for Wireless Mobile Data. The name implies the meaning, so no gimmickry with names and how strong and powerful we are. Our technology is not based on the WiMAX standard and we don’t believe in sharing the customer subscribed bandwidth. We have nation wide coverage for our residential customers as of today.

Having said the above, we pride ourselves in what we commit to our customers. In today’s age of blogs and forums, we are aware that customer satisfaction is of prime importance and any wrong information/commitment can only do more harm to us than good.

As most of your readers have mentioned, they have never heard of us. This is true as we didn’t launch or market our services in the residential domain before today. All our existing residential customers till date have been through word of mouth and personal referrals. For obvious reasons you don’t get recommended for bad service or performance, do you?

We don’t want to take any further space and just want to introduce ourselves us a healthy alternative to your existing miseries with limited bandwidth and slower speed. Our request to all is, don’t judge us without even trying us. Our company policy for bandwidth commitment to customers is based on the site survey we do before delivering our services. Fair and transparent. Our NOC and Helpdesk are equipped to answer your queries.

And even after this, if your satisfaction quotient is not reached, kind reminder to our existing and prospective customers. We have a fair money bank policy which means, if you are dissatisfied with our services, you get the remaining balance on your contract reimbursed upon cancellation.

Just want to remind your readers, we are in Hall 6 @ InfoConnect. Please feel free to drop by.

We mean business and that is what we are here for. So no strings attached, no hidden dramas. JUST PERFORMANCE.

No idea on the price but one reader mentioned they start from KD385 per year.

Update: Here are their prices per year

1Mb KD130
1.5Mb KD150
2Mb KD180
3Mb KD225
4Mb KD270
5Mb KD320
6Mb KD325
7Mb KD355
8Mb KD390
9Mb KD473
10Mb KD523
11Mb KD590
12Mb KD660
13Mb KD730
14Mb KD800
15Mb KD870
16Mb KD940
17Mb KD1,010
18Mb KD1,080
19Mb KD1,150
20Mb KD1,220

Update2: I’m going to be trying out and signing up for their service. First hurdle is to see if I can install the antenna on my balcony instead of the roof since I don’t have access to my buildings roof. Hopefully the balcony would work, I’ll find out on Saturday.

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

According to the blog 965Malls, the international french fries chain New York Fries is opening up at Marina Mall. New York Fries shouldn’t be confused with the already open New York Friez who tried to convince me poutine was made with chili and cheese and not gravy and cheese. Hopefully these guys will be able to do it right.

I don’t know who these guys are but they just released a song called 2:48AM and their video is in black and white with my blogs magenta as the only color. Hence forth from this day forward, 2:48AM by Dabruck & Klein will be the blogs official song. [YouTube]

Sony is holding a PlayStation Vita event tomorrow in Dubai where they will be previewing their new handheld gaming system to the media. I was invited to attend the event but since my brother is a bigger gamer and runs his own gaming blog he’ll be going instead.

The event schedule is going to be the following:

11:00am: Media arrive and are greeted by PS VITA event staff
11:45am: Media are taken around the different stations for a quick tour
12:00pm: Event staff offer light food and refreshments
12:30pm: Sony PlayStation ME representative welcomes everybody, explains a bit about the USP’s of VITA and introduces SCEE speaker and game developer
12:45pm: Presentation starts followed by panel discussion and Q&A with all speakers
1:45: Post presentations one on one interviews
1:45 – 4:00pm: Hands-on with Vita

Since he’ll be having an extensive hands-on session with the device and attending the Q&A session, if anyone has any questions about the PS Vita or is curious about something leave it in the comments below and he’ll try to get them answered for you.

I promise this will be my last basketball post. Turns out the Kuwait Club’s basketball team’s uniform is ripped off from NBA’s Washington’s Wizards. How funny and sad is that? It even made it to the Washington Post! [Link]

Thanks Walker

Ok, the title is not true but more than once I’ve mislead Kuwait new comers into believing we were about to take the subway when walking down towards the Darwaza Abdul Razaq Tunnel in Kuwait City (pictured above). Even once you’re inside the tunnel and you realize it’s just a pedestrian tunnel, it’s still not hard to imagine a pair of escalators located in a corner that can take you further down below towards the trains. That’s why I always found that tunnel interesting and I don’t think there is anything else like it in Kuwait.

The Architecture of Kuwait blog has a bunch of pictures of this underground pedestrian tunnel and you can see them [Here]

If the Salmiya Park ends up looking anything like the picture above then I’ll be spending most of my time in there hanging out with my dog. I am guessing it’s going to be an animal friendly park since other than the mall, museum, restaurants etc.. there is also going to be a veterinary clinic. For more info on the Salmiya Park follow this [Link]

According to the Lurkerz blog the PS Vita is now available in Kuwait in Rihab complex. According to his post the PS Vita (Wifi+3G) with two games is being sold for KD230 and KD180 without any games. For more information check out his post [Here]

I was hoping to spend this week in Lebanon snowboarding or renting a snowmobile and going cross country over the slopes. I even packed my Contour+ video camera since I wanted to capture some video to share on the blog and I also packed lot’s of thick jackets. But, this whole week I’ve been here in Lebanon the weather has been pretty warm. I’m literally wearing a t-shirt during the daytime and a very very light jacket at night. There is no snowboarding, no snow and it’s not even cold. WTH?

Architecture of Kuwait announced yesterday they will be tracing over old photos and turning them into 3D in order to visualize moments of that era. I think that’s a fantastic idea and one I’m looking forward to see. Not sure how far back in time they’re going but I’m guessing somewhere in the 50s and 60s. Check out their post on this project [Here]

Btw notice how much greener the city looked like in the picture above?

Dec 5: Kuwaiti-Lebanese relations are “deep-seated and historic,” Kuwait’s Interior Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Borders Security Affairs Major General Sheikh Mohammad Al-Youssef said Thursday. [Source]

But…

It actually gets funnier because:

Dec 15: The Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abou Faour hailed the Kuwaiti support offered to his country over decades in various fields. [Source]

I’m never gonna understand politics.

Post shamelessly copied from Lebanon News: Under Rug Swept