Search: “sti”

At work I’ve got a Fasttelco connection and today I noticed that Skype was blocked. I don’t know how long its been blocked for but I found it strange that it was. Then someone posted a comment on the blog saying that United Networks have also blocked Skype. I’ve got a Qualitynet connection at home and at the moment Skype is still not blocked here but now I’m wondering if Qualitynet will start blocking skype to.

Update: Its also blocked on KEMS/Zajil

Update2: As of today morning the site is no longer blocked by Fasttelco

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.

There is a British TV show called “Banged Up Abroad” where the stories revolve around British citizens who were arrested abroad usually on drug related charges. The trailer above is for an episode where a British guy in the late 80’s gets caught dealing drugs in Kuwait and gets sentenced to 5 years in prison. Saddam then invaded Kuwait in 1990 and he was able to escape back to England.

What I don’t get is this TV show. Why would you turn criminals like drug dealers into semi celebrities? [YouTube]

Note: Qualitynet users, if you get an error that the video is no longer available its because of Qualitynet. The video is still online but somethings weird with the Qualitynet connection and 80% of YouTube videos are showing as no longer available. I’ve been having this issue for over a week now.

Just found out from q8loco’s blog that there is a new radio station launching in Kuwait called Mix FM 98.4. No one get their hopes up though its an Arabic station so BBC and VOA News are still our only other options over 99.7 for now. [Link]

This commercial was in the news yesterday (I think MBC) and they were talking about how racist it was towards people from the Gulf. I just watched it now and I actually think its pretty funny. Sure they are stereotyping but thats what makes it funny. The commercial is about this Sheikh who spots a fuel efficient Nissan Tiida and goes ballistic on it. What do you think? [YouTube]

I am at the Bangkok airport waiting to board my Qatar Airways flight back to Kuwait. I slept in total only 4 hours in the past 3 days because of the workshops and last night when it was all done and over with I only managed to get 5 hours of sleep so I am still extremely tired. Once I get back to Kuwait posting should resume normally and I will also fix the serious problem with the forum.

I was just reading a post from a blogger in Beirut and I found out two interesting things about Sultan Center.

The first which was a surprise is that Sultan Center is now operating the large supermarket chain in Lebanon called Geant. Geant is a large French based supermarket chain like Carrefour which is why I found that interesting. Could Sultan possibly open Geant in Kuwait? Or will they rebrand Geant’s to Sultan Center in Lebanon? I don’t know if Sultan operating Geant in Lebanon will have any effect here in Kuwait but nevertheless a lot of interesting things could happen.

Now the second thing which I found funny actually is that it seems the problem Sultan has in Kuwait with expired produce has worn off onto Geant in Lebanon. The Lebanese blogger purchased rotten meat from the supermarket and had a bad experience with the management there which is why he posted about Sultan and Geant in the first place. This blog by the way is my favorite Lebanese blog so it has some pretty interesting stuff. [Link]

Update: I just found out about another local blogger who found expired food at Sultan Center and was able to document his finding with pictures. He took it up with management and when they found out about his blog they threatened to sue him if he didn’t remove the post. I think thats extremely bad for their image. Threatening a blogger for posting about expired food he found at their supermarket. If anything they should thank him for highlighting the problem. Here are his posts on his experience with Sultan Center…

Sultan center in trouble!
Sultan center did It AGAIN!!!!
Sultan center STRIKE 3!

Note: Please take into account that the above information might not be true. There is no way for us to verify that the bloggers above are telling the truth and we haven’t heard Sultan Center’s side of the story. I for one only shop at Sultan Center.

I am not a fan of LV but this seems like an interesting combination. I wouldn’t buy it, but its interesting. []

I am not sure if I should try the KD55 burger next week while I am in Thailand so I decided I will let you guys decide for me. The Trilogy Burger at Trader Vic’s in Bangkok costs KD55 ($200) because of the very expensive ingredients. If you guys vote that I should try the burger then I will do it, take pictures of it and post my feedback on this blog. Since I’ve already gone through most of the best burgers in Kuwait as part of my Best Burger in Kuwait Challenge then I think it would be interesting to see how the Trilogy Burger will compare. If you guys think its a stupid idea and not worth it then you can vote a no.

[poll id=”2″]

Update: Some readers suggested it would be better not to waste money on this burger and to feed the needy instead. So what I’ve decided to do is also donate $200 to the World Food Programme. That way if the result is YES to having the burger I won’t have to feel guilty. $200 will be enough to feed 133 children for a week. You can also help by donating to the WFP. [Donate Now]

The shawerma place called Weekend that is located in front of AUK in Salmiya got demolished. Supposedly the owner of the building demolished it so that he could drive off the owners of the shop. You can read more about it on the Al Rai Alaam newspaper but its in Arabic. I wasn’t a fan of Weekend, I prefered Malek Al 3aseer which was right next to it but it still sucks. They are doing the same with the shops in old Salmiya. For example Family Bookshop is still open but you can barely get to it. The entrances are blocked by rocks and sand because the owner of the building is trying to drive them out. [Link]

Thanks LunarDream

Oobject has a top 16 of the most popular Arab videos involving stunts with cars. I’ve watched most of them but there were a few I hadn’t seen before. Interesting videos if you haven’t seen them yet. [Link]

These new sneakers just got announced by Reebok and I think they look pretty cool. Its an interesting concept of using luxury associated materials like snakeskin in the sneakers but I can’t figure out what I could wear it with! [Link]

The other day I posted a video of kites being flown in the Kuwaiti desert. According to a reader the kites all belong to Al-Farsi Kites Team who also have the largest kite in the world. They have an official website and a flickr group with a lot of pictures including my favorites the Winnie Poo like bear and the squid like creatures. Here are the links:

Official Al-Farsi Kites Team Site
Al-Farsi Kites Flickr Pool

The beautiful picture above was taken by M.Ashkanani

I heard a lot of bad stuff about Toshiba hard drives yet somehow I ended up buying one. Back in February Nataly needed a larger drive for her MacBook and I ended up going to Red Star in Walla Complex in Hawalli to see what they had available. I usually buy my stuff from Red Star or SoftIsland across the street since they both usually give me the best prices. The largest drive they had in my budget was the 160GB Toshiba. I didn’t want to get it but the salesman there convinced me that unlike the old Toshiba drives that were made in China and were prone to failure, the new drives are now made in Philippines and were supposedly of much better quality. I bought into that and went ahead and purchased the drive.

Just before we sold her MacBook the drive ended up dying. Luckily she had everything backed up on her old drive and so was able to recover her work but the Toshiba drive was dead. I put it aside and forgot about it until a few days ago I accidentally found the original invoice. There in very clear hand writing it stated “6 months warranty”. I checked the date and realized it had only been 5 months since I bought the drive so I headed to Hawalli today and got the drive replaced. I wasn’t to sure if they would replace it for me or not since most of the places there are pretty shabby but Red Star were pretty cool and after testing it out told me I could come back tomorrow and get a replacement. Since I didn’t want to come back the next day and since I also didn’t want another Toshiba drive I ended up settling on a 120GB Seagate and a nice discount on a decent HDMI cable.

I just installed the drive in my PS3 and its working perfectly. I will never buy another Toshiba drive ever again and I would not recommend them to anyone. They are cheap which makes them tempting but you really should stay away from them.

I saw a new Dodge Charger police car today mounted onto a tow truck. I think the Ministry is still deciding which car to go with and changes are still being made on the cars. For example I noticed the front bumper on the car (pictured below) was different than the one pictured [Here]