Search: “sti”

I know a lot of bloggers have been posting their views on Apple’s Snow Leopard and here is my addition. While getting my shots for my next post I noticed the image capture software has been updated and improved. Pretty cool.

The fake iPod Shuffle looking device in the picture above is the Fiio E5 Headphone Amplifier. For the past few years I have been using earphones (the kind you stick deep inside your ear) for traveling. They’re great because they isolate a lot of the airplane noise and if there is any kid screaming next to me I hear nothing. Now the disadvantage is after using these earphones for over an hour they start getting uncomfortable. They also aren’t practical to put on and take off every time you need to communicate with someone.

That’s why I ended up getting the Sennheiser PXC 250 sound isolating headphones back in July and since then I’ve used them a few times while traveling. They are very comfortable and cancel out the engine sound pretty well but I didn’t find them loud enough. In fact, my last trip I ended up using my older earphones instead. So, I decided to get a headphone amplifier to help increase the volume for when I find my headphones too low. I didn’t want to pay a lot and was looking for something portable. My two options ended up being either a homemade cMoy amp I could purchase from eBay or the Fiio E5 which was recommended by some users on Head Fi. I went with the Fiio.

Teddy On The Go is an interesting social experiment by a Kuwaiti architecture student that recently moved back to Kuwait. To keep herself in check and out of a routine she decided to start the website Teddy on the Go as a way to motivate her into doing something interesting or new everyday and also as a way of expressing her opinions subtly through the bear. Her project is going to last for 365 days only after which the bear will be sold for charity. Currently she is at day 11. Check out her experiment by visiting her website www.yearofteddy.com

I haven’t been to Signor Sassi in London but I just came back from the one here in Kuwait and I was pretty impressed. They haven’t opened yet, they’re still testing but everything is pretty much ready and they will be soft opening on Sunday with the official opening in early October. I met the Signor Sassi owner since he’s in Kuwait making sure everything is perfect for the opening and he was very nice and friendly. The location that’s opening on Sunday is the Gulf Road one which is located in the same place as Fish Market and Fusion. The 360 Mall location won’t be opening for another 2 months at least. In case you haven’t heard of them before, Signor Sassi is a popular Italian restaurant located in Knightsbridge. It’s run by the same people behind the award winning San Carlo.

Just like the Gucci rumor I posted about a few days ago, there is another rumor going around that The Chocolate Bar in Marina Crescent was closed down by the ministry because they found chocolate that contained alcohol in them. That is of course not true or else I would have been their #1 customer. The Chocolate Bar at Marina was closed down due to renovations and all their other branches are still open for business.

A friend at work saw the Jazeera Airways “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” offer the other day and decided to buy a ticket. He paid KD38 for a two way ticket to Dubai. Awhile ago he received an email from them to claim his free ticket. So he clicks their link and decides to get another ticket to Dubai and guess how much the free ticket is going to cost him? KD43! So his free ticket is costing him more than his paid ticket. I thought that was pretty funny.

Tip of the day: Always read the fine print!

There is one thing I find very frustrating with Aramex Shop & Ship and that’s their formula for which package ships out first and which package stays behind until their next flight. It doesn’t look they have a formula but more like it’s completely random. I could have 5 packages in my mailbox and they would ship one, the third package that arrived, something random like that. So I sent them the following email today:

Dear Aramex,
I have 4 packages that arrived in my mailbox in the following order

1) Private Mail 08/29/2009
2) Amazon 4255 Anson Blvd 08/31/2009
3) HONGKONG SERVICES PO 09/01/2009
4) Mail & Magazines 09/02/2009

They all weigh less than 0.5lb which qualifies them for the daily flight from New York to Kuwait.

This is the order that the packages were shipped:

1) Private Mail 09/02/2009 (early morning Kuwait time)
4) Mail & Magazines 09/02/2009 (evening Kuwait time)
2) Amazon 4255 Anson Blvd 09/02/2009 (late evening Kuwait time)
3) HONGKONG SERVICES PO 09/02/2009 (late evening Kuwait time)

All four packages were shipped on the same day but on three different flights!
Package (1) got shipped in your regular slow shipping
Package (4) the least important because its a magazine got shipped with overnight shipping and I am expecting it this morning
Packages (2) and (3) got shipped regular slow shipping

What I would like know is what is your formula for deciding which shipment goes out and when? Why weren’t ALL my packages placed on the same flight as my magazines since they all weigh less than 0.50lb which I was told was the requirement to be on that flight and they would have ALL arrive today? Why wasn’t package #2 shipped before my magazines since it arrived before?

This complete random and unorganized (at least to us consumers it looks like that) is very frustrating. For example shipment #3 has an item which I could have used while traveling later tonight so its very frustrating for me to see a magazine arrive before something I really wanted to get here first.

thanks
mark

Now while looking through my previous Aramex posts I found one dating back to January 2008 when Aramex said it was going to introduce online payments. What happened to that?

I passed by Tilal Complex tonight to check out the new Tamiya store. They opened up in Tilal back in December 2008 but recently they moved to a larger store on the first floor. I was expecting the new store to be bigger than the previous but it turned out to be like 10 times bigger and looked amazing! Seriously I was in shock. It was very nicely organized, they have stations in the back where you could go and build your car, they even rent tools. They also have a painting room with exhausts for the fumes, a small photography studio where you can take pictures of your car and my favorite section, the spare parts! They have hundreds and hundreds of parts occupying the whole right side of the shop. What I used to hate about their old store was the fact that you had to know what part you wanted and then ask the salesman to get it for you from behind the counter but now I can just browse and find parts and accessories myself.

I really really love their new store and I highly recommend anyone that is interested in radio controlled cars or plastic models to visit it. They’re located on the first floor of Tilal Complex, opposite their older store. Oh and they have this HUGE space right by the shop where they are currently building a race track.

Here is a link to their website [Link]
Their phone number is 22256707

Last week I posted about my problems with Qualitynet and since then they’ve contacted me a number of times to see how they can solve my problem. Tonight they finally sent over the head of corporate support with a small KD5,000 device to see if they can fix my problem.. and they did!

The picture above is the readout on the devices screen before he fixed it while the one below is after. They were able to double the speed my line can handle from 1.5MB to 3MB. So will I be leaving Qualitynet? No I won’t. They read my blog and they care that I stay happy which is fantastic for me.

Last time I took out my radio controlled cars out was back in February when the weather was good and my brother took the picture above. Since then my cars have been hibernating due to the bad weather. But, I just took my Tamiya Lancia out with the upgraded Super Stock RZ motor and was having a good time until the stock electronic control unit (ECU) overheated. And thats when I remembered what I liked about these cars. I like upgrading the different parts and I like the fact that when something breaks I can fix it.

This season I think I want to get the Tamiya Unimog although I am still dreaming of the Mammoth truck but its just too expensive. The Tamiya dealer My Toy has also opened a larger store in Tilal Complex which I still need to pass by and check out. They’ve also set up a large race track in the basement for people to race their cars on. This RC season should turn out to be a lot of fun.

I was sitting at home all cozy watching tv when Nat calls me up on her way back from the gym. She had spotted a dog near our house playing with a cat by the side of the road and she was worried the dog might run into the street and get hit by a car. So I put on some shorts, got a towel, dog bowl and leesh and then waited for her to come home so we could go together in the Wrangler to rescue it.

When we got there it turned out what she had thought was a cat was actually another dog. They were both medium sized dogs and when they saw us they started barking and wagging their tails as if they were happy to get some company. They were playing on the grass near a puddle of water on one of those islands that are located near intersections (see picture below) and they seemed to be very friendly. When we got close one of the dogs came up to us and we started petting him but the other one kept his distance. I went back to the car to get a leash and the other dog that was keeping his distance crossed the road behind me and then ran off towards some buildings and disappeared. Nat was still petting the other dog and so I was able to get close and put the leash on him and then made him cross the road where we fed him some treats and gave him some water. We called Animal Friends and arranged a drop off location but as we were about to take off the car wouldn’t start. My Jeeps battery had died (I had just done a full service a week ago in which I would think they would have checked the battery condition at least).

Its always an awkward position to be in when the car doesn’t start but now I had a dog with me which made things more complicated. Luckily I was in my neighborhood so I called up this car electrician who is located near my place (thats what I love about Salmiya everything is near my place) and he came 5 minutes later and jump started my car. I then had to drive to his place and swap out my car battery while the poor dog waited in my trunk confused and scared with all these things going on around him. Finally around midnight I was able to get to the Animal Friends drop off point and hand them over the dog.

As always I would like to remind everyone that Animal Friends is a non-profit organization and they need donations to be able to keep rescuing all the animals. If you would like to donate click on the following link to find out how. [Donation Link]

I am really getting frustrated with my Qualitynet connection. It’s like every week they have some kind of major problem and their DSL connection either crawls to a halt or just stops working completely. Currently I can barely load websites because the connection is so bad. I am trying to call qualitynet support but they keep hanging up. After around 9 or 10 minutes being on hold the music stops and I think someone is finally going to pick up when they end up hanging up on me. This happened 3 times now. Last week they had issues and the week before that. Qualitynet are you reading this? This is frustrating!

Anyone else having problems with their internet provider?

Update: Ok I am definitely changing providers. I just had my worst experience with customer support in my 3 5 year history with them. I finally got through to customer support and a guy picks up. I tell him I have a major issue with my connection. He goes uhum. I am like yeah its been like this since 5pm. He was like is this Patrick? I was like WTF? No I am not Patrick. I then proceed to give him my DSL phone number and he then replies you have a problem with your internal building line. I was like dude are you reading random notes off your computer screen? The building line problem is a completely different issue, yesterday the engineer was over trying to see if I could install 4MB and the internal line issue is that the building gets 4MB but by the time it gets to my apartment the max is 2MB. He then proceeds to explain to me I can only get 512kb. I was like what are you talking about? I was using 2MB until a month ago and up until 5 minutes ago I was on 1.5 what do you mean I can only get 512kb? Anyway long story short he had to be the most incompetent customer support person I had ever dealt with. In the end I ended up closing the phone with him and calling them back up again to talk to another support guy. Everything is back to normal now finally.

Update2: Called Kems (Zajil) and spoke to a guy who sounded like he was asleep. I asked him a few questions and he answered but he didn’t sound too confident. He told me if want to get 2MB for KD200 I need to act now because their offer expires on September 5th. So I need to make my decision in the next couple of days if I want to move either to Fasttelco or Kems. Kems I think would be more practical since our new office is going to be located right next to their head office which makes it easier in case I need to pass by them.

Update3: Qualitynet just called me and told me my problem is my internal building/house wiring and because I was a loyal customer they would send a technician to swap out the whole wiring at their expense. I told the guy that I live in a huge complex and it’s not possible to swap out the line or I would have paid for it myself. I told him I had been using 2MB for 8 months and 1.5MB for like 2 months and yesterday I was told my line could only handle 512kb. He insisted to send someone over so I agreed. Will see what happens.

Update4: Well just an update, I don’t think I will be moving over to Kems. Ever since my post multiple people have been calling me from qualitynet to see what problems i have and trying to solve it. They even offered to rewire my phone line throughout the building! Qualitynet reads my blog and they want to keep me happy so that’s more than enough to convince me to stay with them.

I had seen a few adapters that convert the car lighter into a powered USB port but they were all ugly looking or too bulky. Then I read about the Belkin Micro USB adapter on Gizmodo and decided to order one from Amazon.

Because its tiny it fits perfectly into the car lighter without sticking out so it actually gives the impression that it came built in from the factory. I am currently using it to charge my iPhone and BlackBerry but you could use it to charge other devices. Very practical.

It costs KD5.750 and comes with an iPhone cable. [Amazon Link]

Update: Changed picture to a better one

Update2: According to a reader its available at Alghanim X-cite for KD8

The Hummingbird Bakery is one of my favorite dessert places in London so when I heard they released a cookbook I ordered one right away from Amazon. Since I have a lot of free time during Ramadan I will be baking a lot more and today I started off with an Apple Pie.

I passed by Sultan Center to pick up my ingredients around 3PM but it was a huge mistake. The supermarket was packed and everyone there was shopping in large quantities. My favorite line I overheard today was a daughter telling her dad “but that’s a lot, we don’t need that much” and then the dad replying “it’s Ramadan so it’s fine”. That’s why the 10 items or less line was practically empty and why I was able to leave so quickly without waiting in the humongous lines with people who had carts filled to the brim with food.

Anyway back to baking. The cookbook has a lot of pretty pictures and instructions for baking but they really don’t take you in great detail through the process. Since I hadn’t baked an Apple Pie before I used a Betty Crocker cookbook from the 70’s that had step by step pictures which helped out a bit specially when it came to putting the bottom crust in the pan without ripping it (you fold it twice so its a triangle and then you put it in the pan and unfold back into a circle).

According to the cookbook you’re supposed to bake the pie at 170degrees celcius for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. It took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to get the crust golden brown! Next time I will be increasing the temp up to 180 to try and speed things up a bit. The result though was an extremely delicious tasting pie. I had only one minor issue and that was with the bottom crust and top crust separate while baking on one side of the pie but its a minor quibble which I should be able to solve next time.

So far the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook looks to be working. If you want to order it, it’s available on Amazon for around KD5. [Amazon Link]

Previously: My favorite cookie recipe

I’m back in Kuwait finally. Just an update about the Jeep garage they never ended up emailing a cost estimate since they ended up repairing the a/c at no cost. This is the email I got the day before yesterday:

Dear sir,
At the ouset, I would like to wish you a very good day. I would like to inform you that we have completed the service of your vehicle & also we repaired the a/c of your vehicle. We cleaned your a/c system & we road tested your vehicle & it is working fine. Also I washed the vehicle & kept for ready for delivery. The total repair charges coming to 58.00 KD/-.

Also assuring you our best of services always.

Thing is the problem with my a/c was that it was making a very loud sound and it would let in the smell and air from outside even if I had it to circulate internally. Not too sure what a cleaning would do but I guess will see tomorrow if that fixed the problem.

Update: Picked up the Jeep, its perfect! They did end up fixing my AC and it now finally sounds normal. They also did a pretty good job of cleaning it, the interior is spotless. Not bad, wasn’t expecting this.