Categories
Electronics Personal Reviews

Logitech X-230 Review

I needed some small speakers for my desktop computer which I use every now and then when I want to copy mp3s to my iPod. The computer has a tiny built in speaker but its too weak and you can barely hear anything so I wanted some affordable external speakers I could connect to it so I could hear some of the songs before I move them to my iPod. I looked at some bookshelf stereo speakers but after some research I ended up getting the Logitech X-230.

The X-230 is made up of two small speakers and a sub that fits under the desk. I read a lot of positive feedback on them online and a friend of mine who has the smaller X-210 told me his speakers sounded really good so I imagined the the larger X-230 sounded even better. They did.

I am currently sitting on my desktop computer typing this post while I am listening to some music coming out of the speakers. Its really hard to believe these speakers cost me only KD15. The sound is pretty balanced and there is some proper bass being pumped out by the sub although it gets a bit boomy every now and then but hey, they are KD15 speakers. Everything is sounding pretty good coming out of these speakers and for the price I paid I think they are a steal.

So if you’re looking for speakers I would highly recommend the Logitech X-230. You can get them from the local Logitech website for KD14 with delivery but I ended up getting them from Hawalli for KD15.




Categories
Events Kuwait Music

Michael Jackson Vigil Pictures

Some pictures from the Michael Jackson tribute that was held yesterday on the Marina Mall beach are up on the Facebook group. It seems the cops came and broke up the vigil because they thought it was witchcraft! I didn’t go but looking at the pictures I think it looked like a pretty cool and proper vigil. I read someone got into a fight with the police, if anyone has more information please post it below. Here is a link to the Facebook group with the pictures. [Link]

Note: You need to have a Facebook account to view the pictures.




Categories
Cars & Bikes Kuwait

Stunt driving on the Gulf Road

360Dewan uploaded the video above onto YouTube of a Nissan Patrol Land Cruiser on two wheels at a traffic intersection. Best part of the video is when the Patrol gets chased by cops at the end. [Link]




Categories
Cars & Bikes Kuwait Videos

Flip Fire Fail

[flashvideo file=”video/fire.flv” /]

Nat shot this video earlier today on her way to the gym. She arrived to the scene just as the fire trucks did so she managed to capture some pretty decent footage. The car flipped over and caught fire just opposite the Flex gym on the Istiqlal Highway. According to a cop on the scene, the driver made it out before the car caught fire.




Categories
50s to 90s First Impression Kuwait Video Games

First Impression: Pocket Retro Game Emulator (Dingoo Digital A320)

I ordered the Pocket Retro Game Emulator from ThinkGeek 10 days ago after reading about it on a few websites. Its a small portable game system that comes with built in emulators that would play games from the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo and a few other systems. Since I am a huge fan of retro gaming and since it would be a great addition to my collection, I ordered the device for $99.

The device has a built in 4GB drive so I quickly copied all my favorite games onto it and realized I still had nearly 4GB free so I copied ALL my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games onto it which amount to around 2000 games. I also copied a few NeoGeo games including SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.

The device played everything I threw at it even SVC Chaos which was a huge shock. Not only that but the device also came with the appropriate cables to connect it to my TV so I could play the games there if I wanted to. Some SNES games weren’t running that perfectly for example NBA Jam was running slightly faster than it should and the sound in Donkey Kong Country was a bit strange but the device plays NHL ’94 perfectly which alone would make the game system worth $99. The build quality isn’t that great, it feels cheap and its pretty light. I am not sure how much abuse it would take but I doubt its as durable as a Nintendo DS or PSP.

Now one thing that kinda pissed me off is the fact that ThinkGeek is marketing this device with the name “Pocket Retro Game Emulator”. In reality the system turned out to be called the Dingoo Digital A320. A quick search on eBay for the Dingoo would result in a ton of results with the device priced at around $75. So if you want to buy one that’s where I would look. Will post a more thorough review at a later date.

Note: The device also plays movies and music. Also has a built in FM tuner and an eBook reader. The battery is built in and lasts over 5 hours. In case 4GB isn’t enough the device takes SD cards.




Categories
Fashion Kuwait

Fight at Villa Moda

Yesterday night a fight broke out at Villa Moda in which the cops had to be called to come in. Believe it or not the fight was over a bag. Seriously I am not kidding!




Categories
Kuwait Shopping Video Games

Want a swii?

Found this at Sultan Center, its a copy of the Nintendo Wii called except its called swii. It costs around KD9 ($30) and comes with a wireless controller which looks like the wii controller except with a plastic tennis racket at the end. I think the device also plays only one game which is a tennis game with Super Nintendo like graphics. They had a working model on display so I tried the tennis game and it pretty much sucked as you can imagine.




Categories
Kuwait Personal

Fire in my office building

There was a small fire in the basement of my office building and I managed to capture the whole excitement live on my twitter account. You can check out all the posts by clicking [Here] to go to my twitter account or click on the direct links below:

There is smoke!
More smoke it’s getting worse
Fire truck is here!
Firemen seem to be taking their time
Cops r here now
Lots of shouting fireman getting ready to go in
They just went in
I think the fire is nearly out
The crowd watching
More crowds
The cause of the fire, cigarette in the trash bin
Smoke still coming out
Soaking the garbage bin with water
More cops arrived

Note: Once you follow the links you will need to follow the image links on those pages to see the pictures.




Categories
Animals Information Kuwait

Dog Fighting in Kuwait

I knew there were dog fights in Kuwait but I didn’t think they were being held in public, during the day and at a popular place like the Friday Market. Where were the cops?? This is sick! [Link]




Categories
Animals Kuwait Personal

Three Puppies Rescued

I was at Smoke House with Nat having lunch when a friend of ours called up saying her friends had rescued 3 puppies and didn’t know what to do with them. We finished up our lunch and headed towards Adan area where we met up with our friend, Jasem from the Six-K Club and his best friend. Jasem and his friend rescued the three puppies after finding them locked up without food or water.

Turns out the owner of these dogs went insane and the cops came to take him away. When they came and found the three puppies they locked one up in the bathroom and then shoved the other two into a small pigeon cage in the back yard. No water, no food, just left there to die. They had been left like that for 6 days before Jasem and his friend found them. The puppies were very dehydrated and starving.

We first called Animal Friends League and no one picked up, so we then called PAWs and as usual no one picked up from their side. Once we hung up we got a call back from Animal Friends who asked us if we could drop the puppies off at their farm in Wafra which we agreed to. After giving the dogs some water and food we took off to Wafra.

Its extremely extremely disappointing and sad to hear how the cops treated the puppies. I don’t know what to say, maybe they should just ban dogs in Kuwait once and for all. At least that way the dogs won’t suffer in the hands of abusive kids or get left to die in tiny cages under the scorching sun. Thanks Animal Friends for taking in the dogs. They need all the help they can get so if you want to know how you can help them out click [Here]




Categories
Information Kuwait Personal

Bloodsport

I got home after work to find a bunch of retards fighting under my building. I parked my car in the basement and walked up to the ground floor to find around 20 teenagers (16-18 year olds) shouting, screaming and shoving each other around. I watched them for like 5 minutes and then decided to go upstairs and watch them from my balcony. A lot of fights erupt next to my building because there is a billiard place in the building next door that attracts a lot of the wrong crowd. There is also a prostitution ring that operates in that same building but they only open for business like once a week and its a pretty tightly run ship with high end customers so they never cause any problems (I should post about them one day). The billiard place on the other hand just attracts all these trashy kids that want to fight for the dumbest reasons.

While watching the fight from my balcony I heard what sounded like one guy yelling at who I thought was one of the Bangladeshi janitors in my building so I went back downstairs to make sure no one did anything to the workers. Turns out the workers were inside the building away from harms way but the fight outside had turned really violent with guys holding cutters and some guys bleeding. I live in a shopping mall in the old Salmiya street and these guys were basically fighting in the backside, then moving inside the mall and then back out to the front of the building onto the main Salmiya street. It was ridiculous! So I asked the landlord if he had called the cops and he told me yeah when the fight had first started but no one had come yet.

20 minutes later and the cops still hadn’t showed up. Actually the fight dispersed and everyone ended up going their separate ways and the cops never showed up. I went back up to my apartment while the janitors started to clean up the blood stains. Unbelievable.




Categories
Design Interesting Kuwait

OBEY Kuwait

Abdullah, a reader of the blog sent me a picture of the giant wall sticker above which he took while he was in the States. The reason he sent it to me is because it looked very similar to Kuwait’s national logo (also pictured above). I wonder if a Kuwaiti living in the States remixed the logo or if Shepard Fairey (the guy behind OBEY) did it himself. He already admitted that his famous Obama Hope poster was based on a copyrighted photograph so it wouldn’t be to far fetched to think that he based this design on the Kuwaiti national logo. For those of you who don’t know anything about OBEY or Shepard Fairey, check this [Link]




Categories
Design Interesting Kuwait

IKEA Hackers in Kuwait

Back in 2006 I posted about a blog called IKEA Hacker that had just launched. The blog displayed different IKEA hacks done by other people, people who took regular IKEA stuff and using their creativity turned them into unique pieces. Well two of those people are a couple living in Kuwait, Pinot and Dita. They took IKEA fabrics, cut them up and then created fantastic wall art with them. Its really cool stuff and whats even more cool is the fact they taped the whole thing and created a video presentation which you can watch below. Currently they’re voting for the IKEA hack of 2008 and they are nominated so vote for them by clicking [Here]

Now watch the video below of the making of and check out the post about them on IKEA hacker. [Link]

[YouTube]




Categories
Cars & Bikes Personal R/C Toys

Tamiya Lunch Box

I picked up my Tamiya Lunch Box kit today. The Lunch Box is based on an old dodge van and was originally released I think in 1988. Recently though Tamiya has been re-releasing some of their “greater hits” and the Lunch Box is one of them.

Sadly I won’t be building this truck yet since I’ve ordered some parts off eBay (metal bearings / a faster motor) and they still haven’t arrived. For now I’ve started with the painting. Originally the Lunch Box is supposed to be painted yellow but I saw a guy online who had his painted military green and I decided to basically copy him. Its my first time painting and I think I’m doing good for a beginner.

I was a bit heavy handed with the spray paint at first and I am not too patient waiting for the different coats to dry but I’m still learning so I should be better the next time. I think I need to pass by the dealer later in the evening and pick up another can of paint just to be safe.




Categories
Complaints Personal

Shouldn’t cheaper oil mean cheaper shipping?

aramex

Back in June when the price of a barrel of oil hit $142 it kinda made sense why Aramex sent the email below:

Thank you for using our SHOP&SHIP service. Our aim is to continuously enhance your shopping experience with us.

Aramex has found it necessary to increase the SHOP&SHIP rates to offset the increase in fuel price and operating costs. Effective July 1st 2008, our new rates will be as follows:

First ½ kg K.D. 3.000
Each additional ½ kg K.D. 2.500

We appreciate your understanding as this situation is completely outside the scope of our direct control since fuel represents a significant variable cost in the provision of transportation services.

Today the price of oil is around $40 a barrel so why hasn’t Aramex decreased their shipping prices yet?