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A couple of readers emailed asking on more information about VPN’s so I figured I would do quick write up about it. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and to understand how it can be of use to you I will give you a quick example. There are some sites (mostly media) that require you to be a US resident to be able to either watch videos or listen to music. A quick example is Hulu.com. If you want to watch a video on Hulu you would get the message (screenshot above) that videos can only be streamed to US residents. A VPN would help you get around that restriction.

How VPN works is you sign up to a VPN service (I use StrongVPN) and then you access the internet through their servers. So instead of you visiting Hulu directly from your computer in Kuwait and getting the error I mentioned earlier, with a VPN based in the US you end up accessing Hulu through them so Hulu thinks it’s you in the US. I did a quick illustration above to better visualize this.

With VPN active all the websites you visit will think you’re based in the US. It’s that simple really. It also doesn’t require you to change your browsing habits and unlike proxy websites you don’t have to access the web through a website. Once you setup VPN on your computer you connect to it from your desktop and then just browse the web like you would usually do. The above screen shot is from my Mac, I just click on Connect VPN and that’s it.

I know it sounds a bit complicated at first and maybe hard to grasp but really all you need to know is that VPN allows you to access sites that are restricted to just the US (like Hulu, Netflix, Pandora etc..). As I mentioned earlier my VPN account is from the company StrongVPN. I’ve been using them for over a year now and haven’t had any problems. I’ve also got their cheapest package. Here is the [Link]

If you have any questions just ask below.

I’ve been getting really bored of regular tuna and so when I found this John West packet at Sultan Center it looked like an interesting alternative. I checked the back label and it said I could heat it up in the microwave and it was just 156 calories. I bought a packet to try it out and it turned out to be actually pretty good. You just open the packet, empty the tuna onto a plate and microwave it for 30 seconds.

It looks extremely unappetizing but it actually tasted much better than regular tuna. Wouldn’t mind having a few packets at home for those late night cravings. The biggest issue though is price, 1 packet costs KD1.750 for the “Sweet Thai Red Chilli” although they did have different flavored ones for around 500fils cheaper.

I’ve got a ton of TV shows and documentaries on my server and for the longest time ever I had been using XBMC to watch them all. XBMC is basically a software that allows you to stream videos from another computer or hard drive. Originally I used to use XBMC installed onto the old original xbox, then I installed it on a hacked AppleTV but since XBMC on AppleTV couldn’t play 720p video I finally I ended up purchasing the small Acer Revo and was using that to run XBMC until Boxee.

Boxee is the name of another media center software that was actually built using XBMC. But unlike XBMC, Boxee was more focused on providing content (TV Shows/Movies) from the internet primarily and from a local home server secondary. Boxee never really interested me much until the end of 2010 when they did something I always wanted XBMC to do… release a set-top device that was dedicated to just running the media center software. The Boxee Box (pictured above) is a beautifully designed tiny angular cube that runs the Boxee software. Everything about it from the package to the interface is very tastefully designed and that really sets it apart from XBMC. Where XBMC looks like it was put together by geeks, Boxee looks like it was put together by Apple. They even paid attention to the little details like how the Boxee logo lights up in a nice green glow when the device is powered on.

It might not show in the pictures above but the Boxee Box is pretty small, maybe around the same height as the iPhone. It comes with a double sided remote control that has a very simple minimal amount of buttons on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other. The remote uses radio instead of infrared to send signals which is great because you can hide the Boxee Box anywhere in the room and still be able to control it. It also comes with a power adapter that works in Kuwait (110-240v) as well as a HDMI cable.

The interface is very easy to use. You can easily browse the available online TV Shows and Movies all nicely organized but you need to have a VPN account (I use StrongVPN) to actually watch the shows online since they don’t allow non-US residents to stream stuff. Watching your local media files is also easy, you can either plug in a hard drive into one of the Boxee USB ports or connect to your home server over Ethernet or Wifi. Once you add the media it will scan IMDB for information on the shows or movies and then download the DVD cover and all the other information and store them on Boxee. It’s really very easy to use, much easier than XBMC since Boxee is trying to be fairly mainstream.

There are some minor downsides but it’s really just nitpicking. I don’t like how the remote control feels and I can never tell which side is up or down without looking at the remote. The remote keyboard buttons on the rear also need to be pressed hard but I guess that’s better than no keyboard at all. Boxee is also not as easily customizable as XBMC.

Price wise it’s fairly decent costing around KD50 on Amazon plus around KD13 to ship it with Aramex to Kuwait. I think this is probably the best media center option available right now until Plex (another XBMC clone) starts working properly on the Roku. Boxee doesn’t have any trouble playing 1080p video files and most importantly it doesn’t take much shelf space while still managing to look very cool. If you have a lot of media files and are looking for an easy way to watch them on your TV screen then I highly recommend the Boxee Box. It’s only available on Amazon and here is the link if you’re interested [Amazon Link]

Update: Forgot to mention you can install Apps in Boxee and my favorite is Pandora.

The North Korean airline, Air Koryo now flies in and out of Kuwait once a week. Supposedly this new route was opened to cater to the increase of North Korean workers coming to Kuwait which makes sense since North Korea isn’t really a blossoming touristic destination. What’s also interesting is this route is the first nonstop link between North Korea and Middle East. Make sure you visit the Air Kroyo website since it’s as outdated as their plane above. [Link]

Thanks Aws

The Hoppin’ John String Band, a Bluegrass group, will be in Kuwait as part of a U.S. Embassy sponsored visit and they’ll be conducting public performances in several locations. All public performances will open to the public and free of charge. No tickets or seat reservations will be required. Here are the details:

The U.S. Embassy Kuwait In cooperation with the National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters presents: The Hoppin’ John String Band

Date: June 15, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters’ Al-Dasma Theatre Mishref Theater (next to the Mishref Cooperative)

Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 9:00am to 10:00am
Location: Live on Sabah Al-Watan (Al-Watan Television)

Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 8:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: The Higher Institute for Musical Arts

Date: June 18, 2011
Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Location: Live on Raykum Shabab (Al-Rai Television)

Date: June 19, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: The Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry

Here is a link to the U.S. Embassy Kuwait Facebook page [Link]

Update: June 15th location was changed

On Thursday two engineers from Mada came over and handed me a router so I could review and after using it over the weekend here are my findings. I’ll start the post with the speedtest results since I know that’s what everyone has been waiting for. I used speedtest.net for the testing and although I was originally planning to test using the servers in London, New York and LA, I ended up running into issues with the New York and LA server and so decided to add two more locations which are New Jersey and San Francisco.

I don’t know why the NY and LA servers were giving me such terrible numbers but I think it had to do more with the server than my connection since the connection worked perfectly again with their neighboring cities. The location of the WiMAX router does effect the speed of your connection. For example I live in Salmiya block 9 and according to a Mada engineer, Salmiya is one of their most focused areas so the speeds I’m getting are probably the fastest you can get. When I tried the Mada router at my office in Kuwait City, I was getting on average around 2.8Mbps tops. The engineer told me it had to do with the location (Kuwait City), the fact my office is on the 21st floor (connection starts dropping after the 15th) and the fact the windows were double glazed (bounces signals). A reader called Kevin tried Mada in Mangaf block 1 and his download speed was around 6.5Mbps. So location does make a big difference on the speed. I don’t play many games online but my brother who lives next door and leeches my connection does. He spent the weekend playing on his Xbox online and according to him he didn’t notice any difference going from DSL to WiMAX.

Setting up and connecting the router was a very simple process. You just plug in the power cord, wait a minute and that’s it. You can then either connect to the router via one of the two ethernet ports on the device or by wifi. I did face a minor problem when I wanted to log into the device so I could change the wifi password as well as setup other options. Underneath the device you have two sets of login information. One is supposed to be the default wifi password the other I assumed to connect to the device to change the settings but it wouldn’t work. It was around 11PM and I wasn’t sure if there would be anyone at Mada support to help but I called them up and someone answered right away and gave me the default username and password which was just “user”. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to go through a dozen menus on the phone just to get to someone from support and I liked the fact that I didn’t have to wait on hold either. This probably has to do with the fact that the service is still new and so not many people have subscribed with them yet.

Which brings me to the future. The Mada WiMAX service currently has no download cap for the next 3 months, after that they are still not sure what the download cap will be but they’re saying it will be at least 20GB and that they will be offering a package for people who consume more. 20GB a month means around 600MB a day which is too little and makes the device really useless. 600MB a day is suitable for users who just use their internet to check email, maybe visit a few websites and also watch a video or two on YouTube. Those kind of users aren’t heavy internet users and for them if it’s a 1MB connection or 10 it wouldn’t make a difference. The real people who can use and fully take advantage of Mada’s WiMAX speed are users like me who spend all their time online surfing through a ton of websites, watching a million YouTube videos while iTunes is busy in the background downloading all the latest TV shows and Movies, the Playstation and Xbox downloading game demos and the server downloading torrents. For me it makes a huge difference if the connection is 1MB or 10.

Which brings me to a potential future issue. The connection is really great right now but that’s because the service is only a few days old, how will it be a month from now or even a year from now? I am not sure. Mada has been around for awhile now catering for the commercial industry so that gives me a bit of confidence in them. But still, 20KD for 10MB is going to attract a lot of people specially with all the problems people have with the ISP’s introducing download caps. Personally I am going to take it day by day and right now the Mada WiMAX internet connection is the fastest connection I’ve ever had. I’ve already disconnected my DSL modem at home and replaced it with WiMAX, that’s how much I’m loving this connection.

Mada currently have a booth setup at Marina Mall right outside the Mac store Digits and they also have a booth at Mohallab. It’s KD20 a month and if you sign up for 3 months it’s KD60 but you get the router for free. Here is a link to their website [Link]

Mada dropped off their router for me to try out today. I just turned it on now and ran a speed test and got 9.3Mbps which is more than 4 times my current DSL speed. Actually considering the fact that my Qualitynet connection is currently limited to 512kb because I hit my daily download limit, Mada is currently around 18 times faster than my 2MB Qualitynet connection. Will do a lot of testing over the weekend and post my review early next week.

I saw the camera above on Gizmodo today. It’s a digital camera that’s waterproof and costs just KD10. Seems like the perfect thing to take to the chalet on weekends and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. It’s a 1.3MP camera which doesn’t sound like much but it’s more than you need for Facebook or posting on a blog. It also shoots video but from what I read the quality isn’t that great. In case you drop it the camera floats on the water which is pretty cool as well.

Anyway here is the link to the camera on [Amazon]

Update: My friend just told me he got the Kodak camera above from Amazon for KD18. It’s 12MP and looks a lot cooler than the KD10 camera I originally posted. It also comes in 3 colors. Here it is on [Amazon]

I just found out that Habchi and Chalhoub will be opening up a bunch of their brands at the new luxury expansion of The Avenues. Some of the brands they will be opening there are Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Tods, and Lanvin. The LV store is going to be the largest LV store in the Middle East. I’m not sure where the biggest store currently is, I’ve been to the one in Beirut, Bahrain and Dubai and I think Dubai’s is the largest right now.

Should be cool but sadly the launch is still far away since as you can see above, the expansion is still under construction. They’re expecting to open sometime at the end of 2012.

Remember when back in February there were rumors floating around that internet providers would start implementing download limits? Back then I spoke to Qualitynet support and was assured that “I could relax and download the whole Internet if I wanted to and I would be fine”. Then, two weeks ago when they added the fine print on their DSL page saying “Terms and Condition & Fair Usage Policy Apply” I called them up again. Support told me this was just a temporary issue because of a cable cut.

But now it seems they’ve changed their stance on this sensitive subject. I just called them up and they told me that even though they still haven’t received an official letter from management with details on what the limits are going to be, we should expect that there will be a limit in place soon.

Unconfirmed user reports have placed the limits as the following:

– 2MB DSL users will have 2.8GB daily limit, 19GB weekly limit or 85GB monthly. Once you surpass your limit your connection speed will drop to 512KB.

– 4MB DSL subscribers, one subscriber says Qualitynet told him they will be limited to 139GB a month while another said Qualitynet told him it’s 85GB as well.

Not sure what to say about this, I find this a bit depressing. Please Qualitynet don’t cap our bandwidth!

Note: ALL ISP’s in Kuwait will be applying caps, it’s not just Qualitynet.

Update: According to a reader in the forum KEMS will start watching for bandwidth abusers starting tomorrow. They won’t be setting a cap but if they notice a user abusing their bandwidth then those users would have a cap applied. The reader couldn’t get an exact figure from the KEMS support guy on what counts as abuse.

Update2: I just got an email telling me about a NEW internet provider called Mada. They are offering WiMax, 10Mbps in Salmiya area (I guess might be higher or lower other areas), NO DOWNLOAD CAP and it’s KD60 for 3 months. They have a booth at Marina Mall. I was there last night actually and saw the booth but didn’t know what it was. This is their website [Link]

On weekends when the parking fills up at The Avenues people start parking in the areas surrounding the mall including climbing up onto the curb that runs along The Avenues from the rear. So, it’s understandable why The Avenues or the municipality decided to build a fence surrounding the curb to stop cars parking there.

But, what I don’t understand is why make it so ugly and why make it so high? As you can see in the pictures the fence is so high it’s actually taller than some cars. If you were walking and wanted to cross the street you wouldn’t even be able to step over the fence because of how high it is. It doesn’t make sense.

Why build a fence that high or that ugly. I’m sure there must be a hundred better looking options.

Update: According to Avenues this fence is NOT being built by them. The Ministry of Works and the Municipality are in charge of it and The Avenues have already complained and made suggestions to them but since it’s not on their property they don’t have any control over it.

Patrick from Projekt Cyan was at the movies in 360 Mall yesterday when he noticed a section Cinescape had setup with information and visuals from the start of Cinescape (previously called KNCC) around 50 years ago till today. They had old ticket stubs, a logo history and even some old 3D glasses that they used to give out (although if my memory serves me correct the 3D glasses I got when I watched JAWS had black and white stripes all over.) The pictures are pretty bad quality since they were taken by phone but it should give you a rough idea of what’s on display.

In case you previously missed it, here are two links with pictures of old KNCC theaters:
The Original Al Hamra Cinema
Old Cinemas in Kuwait

[YouTube]

I had been using the WaterField ultimate sleeve case ever since I got it in May of last year and it’s been really great. Only issue I had with it is that it was sometimes to bulky to fit into my smaller messenger bag and Nat couldn’t fit it into her purse unless the purse was also pretty big. So I looked for a thinner case I could use on occasions I didn’t need as much protection and decided to go with WaterField again. They had a model called the suede jacket (video above) which is extremely thin and just allows you to protect the iPad from scratches it might get being carried around freely in your bag or purse. I’ve been using it for awhile now and I love it as well. The material of the sleeve actually cleans your iPad as you pull it in or out which is a great way to get rid of all the smudges. Price wise it’s not that expensive at $19 but when you add shipping and then Aramex’s fee to ship to Kuwait it does become a bit over priced. It’s still a great buy for someone looking for something as unobtrusive as this. [Link]

If you’re looking for an activity to do this summer then the Kuwait for Kenya (K4K) project by LoYAC might be one to consider:

The K4K trip will take place in Mombasa, Kenya as usual. The duration of the trip will be 3 weeks, from 02 July 2011 to 23 July 2011.

The objectives of this year’s trip will be slightly different from the previous years. We’re looking at 2 projects to conduct during the trip; an agricultural project in Barani community and starting the infrastructure for the MYCC (youth center) building.

During the trip, we will have two weekends, which we’ve planned a safari trip and a rafting trip respectively. Both should be plenty of fun.

For those of you that are interested in joining us, please keep in mind that the age criteria is 18-28 years old. Also, the trip will be self-funded with an estimated total cost of KD 800 (excluding Safari and Rafting activities). Interested volunteers should review the pre-field manual, to be aware of the trip’s process and risks.

If you’re interested then you can contact Aisha Alsayegh ([email protected]) or Sara Al Ansari ([email protected]) for more information. Here is a link to the K4K website with info and picture of their previous projects [Link]

Still alive… just not kicking.
Tapes are for 500fils while CDs are for KD1.