Search: “mis”

Alain Robert (Spiderman) who is famous for climbing famous skyscrapers around the world was in Beirut last week. He climbed the famous Phoenicia Hotel but the whole thing was too commercialized. He had permission from the hotel and the whole event was staged as a publicity stunt for Gillette. Not as interesting as his other climbs, very disappointing. [YouTube]

Just found this interesting photoset on Flickr which contains photographs that were taken in Kuwait around 1950. All the pictures were scanned by David C. Foster from the photograph album of Francis Hadden Andrus. The picture above is of Yousef Ahmad Al-Ghanim on the left and Tom G. Mohney on the right. [Pictures]

Update: In case you missed it the shot below was featured on SomeContrast.com awhile back. Its a picture that dates back to 1956 and is of the first Porsche in Kuwait. The owner Murad Behbahani is sitting behind the wheel, and his brothers Mohammed and Redha Behbahani next to him. In a way it’s kinda similar to the shot above. [Link]

Miss Ghesquiere sent me a link to this video 5 days ago of a teacher in one of the local schools singing the Bird song but I didn’t find it funny until I watched the latest Family Guy episode below. Pretty cool teacher.

My friend had her Yahoo account taken over (her mistake) and now all her friends are getting the following email from her:

hello,
I hope this message meets you in best of health, Pardon my mistakes because I am in a hurry writing this, I had traveled to Nigeria for official purposes, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged, I am so confused right now,I do not know what to do or where to go,I did not bring my phone here,I have access to only emails, please can you send me $3000

I find that really funny but on a serious note has anyone ever had their Yahoo email taken over and then had the password reset again by Yahoo?

Aramex just delivered my D90 camera. I ordered it once it got released late last month as a replacement for my Nikon D70 which had started showing its age. I originally purchased the D70 for my Miskan project back in November 2004 to replace my aging Sony F717. I still love my D70 and it still performs really great but its developed a problem that’s common to the D70’s where it has trouble reading the memory card. Although I hate zoom lenses I ordered the D90 with the kit lens. Since I will be trying to shoot short movies I figured a zoom lens would definitely come in handy. I still have my eyes on the Nikon 20mm f2.8 lens and the Nikon 85mm 1.8f lens. Maybe for Christmas…

Note: The Nikon D90 w/ kit lens is available on Amazon for KD350 [Link]

I just found out about this and think its amazing news for Villa Moda and all the other local start ups. It just goes to show that great local ideas are great ideas anywhere in the world.

Majed al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti lifestyle retailer known in the fashion world as the “Sheik of Chic,” has teamed up with the government of Dubai to create a global brand development strategy for his Villa Moda enterprise.

The Dubai International Finance Center, or DIFC, was to announce Monday that it had taken a majority investment in the multibrand high fashion retailer, where Sabah will remain as chairman and creative director. The exact amount of the investment was not disclosed.

I think Dubai is a perfect partner for Villa Moda but its depressing because Villa Moda is a Kuwaiti based idea and operation and it would have meant more to have Kuwait finance Villa Moda. But I guess its not only about the money, Dubai have a vision, Kuwait’s vision is… Dubai? [Link]

Thanks Mish!

A reader called Omar emailed me a very startling email about his experience with Sultan Center. Now I can’t verify if this is true or not because I don’t know Omar but the pictures look pretty legit to me. This is what he had to say:

I bought two After Eight dark chocolate bars from Sultan Center last week. I opened one and after taking my first bite I almost puked. I checked the expiry date on the sticker and it said 31/10/08. I then decided to peel that sticker only to realize that Sultan had covered up the real expiry date! The chocolate had expired on June 2008! I am heading there right now to make a big scene about this, but I doubt I will get very far.

Who prints and sticks these labels, is it Sultan Center or another company does anyone know?

Update: Omar passed by Sultan Center and it seems the labels are printed by the American supplier, this is what he had to say:

Thanks for posting this Mark. After I sent you the pictures I went to Sultan and asked to meet the manager. A pleasant Indian guy came over to talk to me. He is the floor manager (working in Sultan for 9 years). I showed him the expiry date and the real expiry date underneath. He was truly shocked and not feigning. I can usually tell when people are faking. After the initial shock set in, he got extremely apologetic, saying that he�s worked here for 9 years and never came across something like this. He agreed that this is not an honest mistake and is FRAUD!

We then went to check the rest of the stock, unfortunately it was all sold out (so sadly a few more people are gonna experience moldy chocolate at its finest). The floor manager took my details and promised that the “big” manager will call me soon.

30 mins after leaving Sultan I get a call from a very apologetic, sweet talking Lebanese guy who identified himself as The Manager. He apologized a million times, and also admitted that this was not an honest mistake. However, Sultan is not the source of the fraud. Apparently the �ministry of something� here in Kuwait insists that food products come with that Arabic sticker from the source, and should be tagged before clearing customs. So the “American Food Supplies Inc. ” which provided Sultan with the chocolate (already with the sticker) is the one to blame. They have been using that company for over 10 years and are truly shocked. To prove to me they are serious they will keep me updated of the proceedings with the American supplier. He also asked me to come back so they can compensate me for my troubles (whatever that means). I will go see him tomorrow.

I must say, I was expecting complete indifference by the management, but I am pleasantly surprised that they took the matter very seriously. If the stickers really are applied by the supplier, before they reach customs, then Sultan is not the source of the Fraud. Can anyone confirm that those stickers are in fact applied before they reach customs?

Has anyone by any chance seen a store still selling the original iPods? I suddenly have the urge to get one. I found one still shrink wrapped in the box on eBay but I think its going to end up selling for over $300 easily which is more than what I am willing to pay for one. If a store in Kuwait still has one though they might be willing to let it go for cheap. I remember back in the day Eureka was selling the 5GB one for KD220. I wonder if they still have them in stock somewhere gathering dust?

Update: Wow, found an old post on Gizmodo where there was a competition called “Show us your iPod”. I don’t remember this but it seems I submitted a photo of my iPod mini autographed by the iPod inventor Tony Fadell and it actually was a finalist in their giveaway competition. Don’t know how I missed that, its from back in 2006.

Update 2: While I am being all retro here. The picture above is of Nibaq taken back in November 2002. I took the picture so we could submit it to iLounge for their iPods around the world gallery. Back then they didn’t have any submission from Kuwait. [Link]

Lately I’ve been in the mood to watch a lot of old stuff. Currently I’m watching the old tv show called Newhart which I vaguely remember watching when I was a kid. For some reason I find the show very comforting to watch.

There are also a bunch of classics I’ve still haven’t watched which figured I’d get out of the way while I am at it:
Dr. Strangelove
Grease
Paths of Glory
Rain Man
Spartacus
Trading Places

I think whats pushed me to start watching old movies is the lack of decent movies nowadays. Nothing I’m watching is turning out to be anything extraordinary. Where is the Apocalypse Now of today? Thats what we’re missing.

Tonight I swapped out my Wranglers speedometer gear since the original stock one thats installed wasn’t working properly with my 33inch tires. My speedometer was off by around 10-20km/h and it was also effecting the transmission shift points. Installing the new speedo gear was pretty easy but it felt very claustrophobic under the Jeep. Now I need to figure out how to test the accuracy of my speedometer…

It seems ProntoWash is popping up everywhere. I first saw them in the parking lot of Muthana Complex, I then spotted them in the parking lot of Salhiya, SomeContrast spotted them at Mishref Coop and now they’re also in the Marina Mall parking. It seems like a good idea to have them wash your car while you shop but I wonder how long the queue gets if they can only handle two cars at a time?

A bunch of people now have the new iPhone’s here in Kuwait and if you are wondering how to get a hold of one well it seems the easiest solution is eBay. You have two kinds of iPhone 3G’s you can get, you can get the regular locked version which is the one thats being sold in most parts of the world like in the US or you can get the Italian version which at the moment seems to be the only one that is officially unlocked.

The regular locked iPhone 3G is cheaper and sells for anywhere from $700 to $1000. Most users on eBay list them as unlocked iPhones but at the moment thats just not true. If you read the posts carefully they all promise to have the unlocking done a week after purchase… they are basically just waiting for the unlocking software to get released. You can go ahead and buy this version if you want but as of this post you won’t be able to use it in Kuwait at the moment. Very soon though with the next update of the unlocking software Pwnage you should be able to unlock it.

The Italian version is currently the only version available “officially” unlocked. This means if you buy the Italian version of the iPhone you can use it in Kuwait without needing to hack it or anything. This version is available for sale on the regular ebay.com but a larger collection is available on the Italian eBay which is ebay.it. The Italian iPhone sells on average for around $1400 which is pretty expensive but the advantage is that it works in Kuwait without a hitch.

If you’ve got the extra cash it might be a better deal to fly to Italy, spend a night or two there, buy an iPhone and then come back. If you don’t have the extra cash just wait a couple of months and the prices will probably drop down but I doubt they will go down under $500 or $600.

He screamed like a girl but I probably would to. Ok it turns out it was a GIRL who was hit by lightning not a guy, my mistake. [Flickr]

I just found out about a new online electronics store called Feeezo. They don’t have a very large collection of electronics but if this is just the beginning then the idea sounds promising. The website looks like crap, and I think most of the items are from Alghanim except Feeezo is more expensive. But, its a nice idea which I think Alghanim should implement themselves. [Link]

Thanks Rakan!

I just saw two new Fasttelco ads and I think they are of really bad taste. The one above shows a dead bat bleeding while the other one shows a bat screaming in pain as it crashes through a window. These have to be the most horrendous ads Fasttelco have ever released. Check them out on ads2blog.com [Link]

Update: I just got an email from someone at Fasttelco telling me these ads were never and would never be released by them and that they were never approved. Ads2Blog have also updated the original post stating that the ad was done by an Art Director and “were never meant to see the light nor get published”. I guess that makes a lot more sense now. Its good to know Fasttelco haven’t completely lost it.