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I am at the Kuwait airport now waiting for my flight to Beirut. I was planning on having breakfast at Fuddruckers but I missed it by 15 minutes (they stop breakfast at 11AM).

My Gulf Air flight arrived at 7AM to Paris. Kuwait to Bahrain was a pretty lame flight, the plane was really old and the seats extremely uncomfortable. Bahrain to Paris was a completely different story. This was my first experience with sleeper seats and I love them. Now they aren’t as comfortable as real beds but they are more than enough for long night flights where you need to get some sleep. The entertainment system is crap though, its nothing like Emirates on demand system, its just the regular old system still used on Kuwait Airways flights.

After landing and checking in to the hotel we decided to do a bit of sight seeing since our first meeting was at 5PM. The weather here is great, yes its raining but I miss rain. It feels like winter and its hard comprehend how its 52 degrees in Kuwait and just 15 degrees in Paris! I should pick up my work schedule tonight and hopefully I will have some free time to do some shopping and take in the sights. [YouTube]

This post is a bit technical but its meant to be a small guide for bloggers who want to post using their phones.

The past two days I have been experimenting with different softwares and ways of moblogging. The easiest way I found to moblog was with a software for my Nokia called Shozu. It’s very easy to use, I just take a picture and a small window pops up asking me if I want to send it to my blog. I could then click yes and it sends it or I click on more options and add more details like a subject title and body copy. But I had two problems with Shozu. The first one is the fact that it resized my images down to a thumbnail size and you could only see the larger picture by clicking on the link. I didn’t like that and there was no option to change it. The second problem I had was that since the software is free, Shozu places their logo at the end of your posts. I also didn’t like that, they should at least have an option where if you pay for the software they remove the logo but they don’t so I looked for an alternative.

After a bit of experimentation and googling I found a better solution (for me at least). It’s not as practical as Shozu but I am in total control of everything. I decided to go with the Blog by Email route and here is what I did:

1) Created two new email accounts
2) Got a plugin for wordpress called Postie
3) Got a software for my Nokia called Resco Viewer

I setup one email account on my Nokia to send emails from. The second email account would be the one I would send my posts to. I then installed the Postie plugin in WordPress which is a must have plugin if you are planning to blog by email. Firstly, Postie allows u to attach pictures and videos to your emails and then posts them for you. it also gives you a lot of other options for example Postie has an option where it could palce the image above or below the body copy, I chose above so it would match my regular posts. Postie could also resize your images and compress them before it posts them which is really important if you can’t resize images on your phone. Finally I purchased the software Resco Viewer for my Nokia. With my phones camera I have two size options when it comes to taking pictures, 1600×1200 and 640×480. The max size for images on my blog is 400 pixels wide. If I wanted to I could take pictures at 640×480 and have Postie resize them for me but by resizing the pictures myself on the phone and compressing the images slightly, the file sizes would be a lot small meaning it would be cheaper for me since I pay per kilobyte.

So the process now goes something like this:
1) I take a picture on my phone at 1600×1200 pixels
2) I resize the image to 400×300 and compress it
3) I send an email to my blog and attach the resized image
4) Postie checks my email constantly, when it finds an email it posts it on the blog under the category Moblogging

Now the biggest problem is my phone doesn’t have a spell checker to expect a ton of misspellings. So thats basically how I will be moblogging while in Paris. I will continue to post regular posts but the photo ones are meant to be something new and something I haven’t done on this blog yet. It should prove to be entertaining.

I have tickets to the NIN concert that is taking place on the 22nd in Ireland but I will be missing it and instead going to Paris for work. I am disappointed I will be missing out on NIN but it’s not like I am getting sent to Dubai or Beirut. I’ve actually never been to Paris before so I am really looking forward to it. I will be leaving on the 21st and coming back on the 26th. While there I will try photo blogging since with my new phone (the E61i) I can actually do that. By photo blogging I mean taking a picture from my phone and then instantly sending it to my blog. I already have a software that will do that for me and I will try it out before I leave to France to make sure its working right.

update: Here is a link to my old photo blog, before I started 248AM and Miskan. [Link]

Last month I posted about how Bazaar used an illustration for the cover of their dining guide without crediting the illustrator, without paying for the image and without permission from the artist. They replied thanking me for finding the artist and that they contacted him and were going to reimburse him.

Well they did contact him but the amount they offered to pay the artist was just $200. Considering that rights managed images start at a $1000 and upwards then you could imagine how low $200 is. Anyway the original artist had this to say about the whole incident:

I have been invited to comment the case with Bazaar copying an image that once was created by me. The image was used without my permission. I was therefore never compensated financially and for good reasons I assume that I was never mentioned in the credit line. I was made aware of the unauthorized usage before Bazaar contacted me.

When they contacted me they offered to compensate me financially. I am sure they found that the compensation was fair but I have a different opinion. In fact we are in a position where we don’t seem to be able to reach an agreement. I have therefore decided that it is not worth to take this any further due to the cost and time that I would have to spend on this.

I have also decided that I will not accept money that Bazaar offers me since that would be accepting the terms of how they have used my image. So case is closed.

I think it is vital to defend the copyright law for many different reasons. In most countries it is seen as self-evident that you shouldn’t use an image without paying for the copyright, but from what I can tell by following the debate on this website I understand that Q8 might not be one of those countries. The sad thing is that in countries where the copyright law is not taken seriously the originator has little or no chance at all to protect his work.

I am a freelance illustrator and my only source of income is the images I create. I have a family to support and bills to pay. If I manufactured, let’s say bikes and someone took one of my bikes form the warehouse and used it without telling me, how would you characterize that? Should the unauthorized use of images be treated differently?

I have been featured on design blogs all over the world. I take it that most of the people who are publishing my work there are very young. But they all have something in common – they contact me before or shortly after publishing my images and very often they write “Copyright Bo Lundberg” . What is it that they understand and that some publishers don’t?

Another aspect is that when I create an image it is commissioned by a client. They are paying for the usage of the images. To illustrate what can happen when people copy my images I would like to give an example. Once I had a call from a publisher in the US that I had done more than 80 illustrations for. They were extremely upset with me since they had found all my illustrations in another book printed in Asia and now they were contemplating on suing me. What had happened was that someone just ripped my images from the original book and created a whole new book, obviously without informing me. I managed to reason with the original client but as you might understand it was quite a situation to have been copied and then facing a possible trial.

I wish all the designers in Q8 good luck in your efforts. And to those who commission work I would just like to ask you to think twice before using an image without authorization. In the long run – who wants to work as an illustrator or photographer if you are not compensated and protected by copyright law?

Bo Lundberg

The reason I think we have a big problem here is because Bazaar is one of the biggest and most respected magazines in Kuwait. If they aren’t going to abide by copyright laws and set an example to the smaller publishers who will? They might as well do what Campus Cruise did and just take pictures off flickr and put them on the cover.

Wasn’t there a law that got released that says companies can not take the passports of their employees? I thought that there was but I could be mistaken. The place where a friend works now are demanding all employees hand in their passports or else they won’t get paid. Do they have a right to do this?

I was checking out one of those “Tarsheed” fliers that they are giving out at malls when I found a funny mistake.

First point they tell you to adjust the A/C to 30 degrees and set it on AUTO mode. Sounds reasonable but then the third point they tell you to turn off the A/C. So which one is it? Do I put it on AUTO or do I turn it off?

update: Some commenter’s are saying in the first point they are talking about central A/C while in third point they are talking about split units. That doesn’t make it any less funnier because no one will get what they meant.

I love my alarm clock but the problem with it is that its just that, an alarm clock. Sure it plays CD’s and has a radio but these are two features I never use. I really didn’t know what I really wanted until I found the Chumby.

What is a chumby?
The chumby is a compact device that displays useful and entertaining information from the web: news, photos, music, celebrity gossip, weather, box scores, blogs — using your wireless internet connection. Always on, it shows — nonstop — what’s online that matters to you.

Yes all that and it also has an alarm. It’s an internet appliance thats meant for the night table. The device isn’t out yet and won’t be out for at least a couple of months but the creators have promised it should cost under $200. You can check out the Chumby website for more details. [Link]

For now though if anyone is interested in an incredibly good deal on an internet appliance I would have to recommend the Audrey by 3Com. You can find them on eBay for under $50 and they look great and are perfect for the living room, kitchen or even the bathroom. You can check your email on it, browse the web and even use it as an organizer. I have one in my living room and it comes handy for checking the latest weather or headline news whenever my laptop isn’t around. Just go to ebay and do a search for “3Com Audrey”.

I was surfing the web last week at work when I fell upon a visual that looked familiar. I was sure that I had seen it before and only when I got home I realized where. The cover on the left is from Bazaar’s 2006 dining guide. The artwork on the right was originally designed and illustrated by a designer called Bo Lundberg.

I emailed Bo Lundberg to find out if he had given Bazaar permission to use his design for their cover and according to him he didn’t, the visual was copied from him and Bazaar never contacted him.

Check out Bo Lundberg’s work by visiting his website. [Link]

They are selling the limited edition Bugatti Perfume at The Avenues for a price of only KD975. The picture above is of the gold plated, 400 piece limited edition version but the one at The Avenues is the chrome plated edition with 4,000 pieces world wide. So one more time in case you think I mistyped, its KD975 for a bottle of perfume thats Nine, Seven and Five!

This news is a few days old now but I just found this video which shows the actual crash. For those of you who haven’t heard about this, Hayfa Wehbe was shooting a new music video which involved a scene where she was driving a convertible and a plane flies over her. While shooting the scene, the pilot misjudged his distance and the wing of the plane hit Hayfa’s head and the car’s windscreen. Looking at the video of the crash I would say she is one extremely lucky person. [YouTube]

Here is another video where she is interviewed at the hospital. [YouTube]

If you are going to copy paste articles from blogs and put them on your website at least have the courtesy to link the original blog properly. Gulfnews had no problem copying and pasting my Faloda post onto their website but when it came to copying and pasting my blogs website address they misspelled it and it ended up as 248.am.com!

Its cool they are into blogs and actually publishing them on their website BUT I would do things differently. For one thing I would make the url’s for the blogs at the very least clickable. That way their readers could just click on the links and be taken to our sites helping us get more traffic.

The second thing is I wouldn’t copy and paste blog posts word for word and publish them like that on the site. Instead I would actually get one of the writers to summarize the articles (like we bloggers do) and then provide links to the original posts in case their readers want to read more. That way they would be supporting bloggers again by sending traffic their way.

The way Gulfnews has things set up now they aren’t sending any traffic to the blogs and instead are just using blogs to add more content to their own website. Thats basically stealing since they are taking articles without permission and then not giving anything back in return.

As I said its cool that they are into blogs but I would take things a step further and actually try to support bloggers by sending traffic to them.

Make sure you check their blogs section at gu.lf.news.com

I am in Lebanon shooting a TV commercial for MTC-Vodafone and today is going to be the first day of a three day shoot. I am going to get permission from MTC to allow me to post pictures I shoot on the set at the end of every day. We are shooting two locations today, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The evening shoot will start once the sun goes down and end before the sun comes back up. Its going to be a really long day but hopefully once I get back to the hotel I will post some pictures.

The reason I am not posting much is because the hotel DOUBLED their Internet rate. Its $5 per hour now which sucks. As you can expect I sent them an email complaining but of course since this is Lebanon, no one cares what the customer thinks.

I was showing my partner at work the blog uncrate.com when we got to the post on the Obelisk chairs (pictured above and right below). I was telling him about how cool the design was when he told me his cousin has them in her store. So during our lunch break we both headed to his cousins store called Home House which is located adjacent to the Amiri Hospital on the Gulf Road.

Right as we walked into the store which was actually an old Kuwaiti house we spotted the Obelisk right in front of us. It was exactly like the one we saw on uncrate except we didn’t expect it to be this big. We were given a tour of the place and it turns out they have some really really nice stuff. I really don’t know where to start since I literally fell in love with their brands.

I guess I will start with my favorite brand they carry which is Vange. They have some of the most beautiful industrial designs. Just flipping through their website now while writing this is giving me goose bumps. Most of the Vange stuff is by order but they had the K-Baby, the K-Bench and the MAUI console on display. I loved the K-Bench and the MAUI series of shelving is just so hot!

After the Vange we were shown some stuff by Gandia Blasco. Their stuff are mostly for patios, chalets and beaches, they reminded me a lot of the stuff I see on CSI: Miami. Their style is the very modern outdoor furniture which comes all in white, very straight edged with white drapes and they are very very sexy stuff.

Finally we were shown some lighting systems by Tobias Grau. It was another brand I hadn’t heard of before but again they have some really really slick looking lamps. So minimal and so cleanly designed. If Apple were to make lamps this is how they would come out.

I am probably going to go back there and see how much the MAUI console and the K-Bench cost since I would love to have them in my place. I didn’t ask their prices while I was there for some reason so I don’t know how much they cost. The Obelisk costs around KD1,600 which although isn’t cheap, its still cheaper then in the US where they sell for $8,500.

If you want to pass by the place its very easy to find. If you take the right after the Amiri hospital you will find that the first house on the left is called Bait Al Cedra. They are located right inside Bait Al Cedra. Its right next to the Karizma gallery. You can call them on 253 0358 in case you get lost or visit their website www.homehouse.be

Here are the websites to the brands:
Vange
Gandia Blasco
Tobias Grau

update: I made a mistake. The store is called Home House not Bait Al Cedra. Bait Al Cedra is the name of the old house where Home House is located. I just edited the post above to reflect this.

Sumayyah Meehan wrote the following article on online shopping for a local magazine but since the article advertises websites that don’t have ad accounts with the magazine, the story wasn’t published. Since its a good article I asked her if I could publish it here and she was fine with it. Here it is:

‘Cyber Shopping in Kuwait’

As anyone who has tried to order merchandise from online ‘cyber stores’ knows it can be a harrowing experience. It can be a total waste of time in that you surf for a couple of hours tracking down that gorgeous shirt or that must have DVD only to find out that they don’t ship to Kuwait. Or else you find someone who does ship to Kuwait and when your package arrives it is either not what you expected or damaged. No more. Just because you want to buy something online does not mean that you have to cross into another country’s cyber ‘border’ to get it. There are plenty of digital pioneers right here in Kuwait and they are armed with the most cutting edge and interactive online stores around. Are you ready to take shopping in Kuwait to a higher level? Get out your charge card, or even your Knet card, and get ready to do some delectable damage at some of these cyber stores based in Kuwait:

Click N Buy – It takes a team of 9 people to keep up with the orders at Kuwait’s online IT store ‘Click N Buy’ (www.clicknbuy.com.kw). According to Manager Rajesh Chander Singh, “Having an online business is easier in terms of running, but it requires a lot of work in the backend.” Click N Buy is almost exclusively an IT company. They sell different brands of desktop computers, laptops, printers, scanners, iPods and accessories. They have additional items that are not IT based which include contact lenses, mobile phones and water purifier systems. “We have been open for a year and are still a new company,” offers Singh, “we sell exclusively to people living in Kuwait and average about 10,000 hits a month.” In an attempt to keep customers interested Click N Buy plans to offer several more items in the future such as watches, perfumes and handbags. They also plan to extend their ‘cyber-dom’ to include other GCC States. In addition to the cyber store they are taking on a new venture which is a website that will help users create their own sleek website in 10 minutes flat! So, keep an eye out for www.w3monster.com. Click N Buy accepts major credit cards as well as Knet. And they boast the lowest prices for IT products and services anywhere in Kuwait. Delivery is free for orders with a minimum balance of 10KD. And you can expect to receive your purchase within 24 hours of ordering! They also accept trade-ins for old laptops and offer IT rentals. And as if it could get any better there is even a discussion forum for customers!