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Here are two pictures of a Ford GT parked outside of Marina Mall.

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I got my CueCat today from Aramex. So far I have been having problems with it. The CueCat works like a keyboard, when I scan a barcode with the CueCat, it types out the barcode number on my mac. The problem I have is that when I scan the number in the organizing software Delicious Library and when I scan a number into TextEdit (like Notepad on Windows) I get 2 completely different numbers where the one in TextEdit is the right one. For example I picked up a random book lying around here, when I scan it into Delicious Library I get the barcode “978908090103408” but when I scan it into TextEdit I get “9780891348382 90000”.

I don’t know whats wrong with Delicious Library, I am going to try and google it now and figure out the issue. Other then that the CueCat is pretty cool, works like a charm. Unlike regular barcode scanners you don’t hold the CueCat from a distance and highlight the barcode, you have to take the CueCat and touch the barcode and then swipe it across. It doesn’t matter if you hold the barcode upside down or vertically it will still scan it right.

Anyway if you are interested in the CueCat it sells for only $9.99 on Amazon. The cheapest barcode scanner you can get.

Update: Ok figured out the problem, or atleast figured out how to get the barcode scanned right. Instead of clicking on “Add a new item” and then scanning, I should just scan right away and it will add it for me. Cool.

BMW Thailand are cool, they have cut-outs of your favorite BMW car read to download. [Link]

Oldboy
I just finished watching two really great movies. The first one is called Oldboy, its a Korean movie that made a big splash at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2004. The movie is available with an English soundtrack but the one I manged to get was Korean with English subtitles. I can’t say much about the movie without ruining the plot but basically a guy gets locked up in a studio apartment for 15 years by some unknown assailants before getting released one day. Once he is out he tries to seek revenge by trying to find out who locked him up and why. Quentin Tarantino loved the movie and thats why it got the extra attention in Cannes.

The Devil’s Rejects
The second movie I watched was called The Devil’s Rejects. This movie reminded me a lot of Natural Born Killers except its way cooler and more violent but they both involved violently sick people who are on the run from the cops. The movie was written and directed by the freaky Rob Zombie and it features A LOT of violence, nudity and general weirdness. If you liked Natural Born Killers you would really like this movie then.

With all this free time now that Ramadan has started I was able to watch a few movies the past two days. I watched Cinderella Man first and I didn’t like it. It was too long and it starts off very sad and doesn’t really turn into a happy movie by the end. Million Dollar Baby was way better. I watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy second, I had never read the book but the movie was pretty cool. I mean any movie where earth gets blown up in the first 5 minutes must be cool. The movie was filled with a variety of weird and strange characters so it was very odd and entertaining. Finally I watched Land of the Dead yesterday night. This was fun to watch. Its not as scary as Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later but it was interesting none the less and it did play from a different perspective. This is the only zombie movie I have watched where the movie makes you side with the zombies. It’s definetly worth watching.

Yesterday night I downgraded my PSP from version 2.0 to 1.5. The reason I did that was so I could play pirated PSP games and install Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis emulators.

The downgrade was a bit scary, whenever you play with a hardwares firmware you risk fucking it up so that it becomes useless. Luckily my downgrade went smoothly and my PSP is now version 1.5. Games like SOCOM which I received the other day need a software version 1.52 or higher, so I downloaded another software which makes the PSP think its another version, I made it think it was version 2.0 and I can now continue to play SOCOM online.

I ordered a 1GB Sandisk Ultra II memorystick duo from Amazon so I could install the PSP games on. I ordered the Ultra II version since its faster then the regular memorystick and will help when it comes to loading the games faster.

Until the 1GB stick arrives I am using my 128MB memorystick which won’t fit any downloaded pirated PSP games but will fit a ton of emulators and Roms. I installed a Super Nintendo emulator with the following games: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, NBA JAM Tournament Edition, Super Metroid, Super Mario World and Star Wars Empire Strikes Back. They all run very nicely on the PSP and I spent most of my time flipping between Mortal Kombat and NBA JAM, my two favorite games ever. I still need to download NHL 94 which is one of my favorite sports games also.

Using thepiratebay.org I was able to find around 30 PSP games which I managed to download. A 512MB memorystick would be enough to run most of them but if you are planning to install more then 1 game on a memory stick it would be a lot better to get a 1GB stick. Some games like Collin McRae take up 975MB of space which won’t even fit on a 512MB stick.

So if you have a PSP and want to downgrade and install emulators and downloaded games, here are some links to help you out.

Downgrading from 2.0 to 1.5 Guide
PSP Version Changer (WAB)
PSP Emulators
PSP Torrents
I have 1.5 now what?

Citizens and expatriates, who eat or drink in public places during the Holy month of Ramadan, will face a penalty of upto 100 dinars ($342) and/or a 30-day jail term.

You are warned.

Here is the video of Kate Moss snorting some white blow.
[Mirror 1] [Mirror 2]

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French Connection, the fashion retailer, is scaling back the use of its controversial Fcuk slogan after a slump in sales. The acronym for French Connection United Kingdom has been splashed across the company’s clothing and advertising campaigns since its creation in 1997. But with sales down 10 per cent in the first half of 2005, the company has decided that the brand has tired and will be taken off its clothing and billboards. [More]

I think fcuk was cool when it first came out but I have to agree that I think it has been abused and is just lame now. When fcuk became popular the word fuck was still a bad word, now though you could have fuck on your tshirt and no one would look twice.

Panaphonics
Panaphonics is a fictional brand of electronics referred to in a 1996 episode of The Simpsons, entitled “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield.” It is a parody of the Panasonic brand.

In that episode, Homer goes to the television outlet in Ogdenville to shop for a new television, and his son, Bart tells him that the televisions being sold there are knockoff brands. Homer then showcases his trademark ignorance by saying: “I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see it. And look, there’s Magnetbox and Sorny!” (which are parodies of the well-known Magnavox and Sony brands, respectively)

Just like other catch-phrases from The Simpsons, it is beginning to catch on in Internet usage, just like the Yakov Smirnoff jokes several years ago. The term is now used as a slang by some online to describe derivative or poor-quality electronics. See also the script for Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield.

In real life, “no-brand” video cameras have been sold in tax-free areas in the far east under the name of “Panascanic”. In many parts of eastern Europe brands such as “Panasonix”, “Tonny Hilfiger”, “Eila”, “Fuma”, “Fike” and “Somy” can also be found.

More Made-up words from The Simpsons

I know everyone recently has been complaining about the traffic and I want to add something here. Today the traffic was the worst I had EVER seen in Kuwait EVER. Not even the great winter floods or the Thursday night Salmiya traffic could even come close to todays traffic. Everywhere I went, all my little traffic escape routes, every corner, intersection, road, everywhere was just packed with cars. There was traffic in places I couldn’t imagine their ever being traffic in! I got to the office nearly 30 minutes late so I hope this isn’t going to be like this everyday now…

Jazeera Airways seems to be all the buzz lately, I was a great fan of Kuwait Airways but it seems lately they have turned into trash (last time I used them was 4 years ago). So me and Nat were planning our trip to Lebanon on Christmas and I decided to give Jazeera Airways a shot, I was impressed.

I went to the Jazeera Airways website to check out the prices and stuff when I noticed a button to Book a flight. I clicked on it out of curiosity and started filling up some forms. 10 minutes later I had purchased two, two-way tickets to Lebanon. The whole process felt like I was ordering movie tickets online, it was too easy. The coolest part about the whole thing was I was actually able to book my seats on my flight to Lebanon and on my flight back to Kuwait. No one else had purchased or booked tickets for the two flights I was on so the whole plane was empty and I was able to get 2 seats on row 10 for the trip going and coming. When I was done paying for the tickets I received an email with all the details about my flight, my reservation number and my invoice, its like shopping on Amazon.

The booking and paying online, plus the fact I could reserve my seats ahead of time had already impressed me, but the biggest seller was the price. Two, two-way tickets to Lebanon cost only KD164 (with taxes and everything) during peak season. Kuwait Airways or Middle East Airlines would have cost around KD135 per ticket and they wouldn’t have allowed me to reserve my in flight seats ahead of time. So thats a total saving of over KD100 which I could now spend on 600 bottles of beer or 4 bottles of Jack Daniels at B018.

The only downside to Jazeera is that if you want to eat on the plane you have to pay for it. They serve cold sandwiches and drinks but they are not free which I don’t really think is a big problem anyway. For those of you who want to travel in style and not economy, for an extra KD26 per ticket per one way you can sit in first class. That would put the price similar to the Kuwait Airways or MEA regular economy ticket price though.

Finally, I called them up a few times on the phone (177) for details and info and the people I spoke to were very friendly and polite which made me feel more comfortable. Now the only thing left is to fly with them, my flight is in December so I will review it when I come back.

Reduce your stress by listening to soothing sounds online. [Link]

I downloaded a couple of movies over the weekend, they are:

Four Brothers
Cinderella Man
The Brothers Grimm
Kill Bill 2
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

So far I watched Four Brothers and it was a pretty cool movie with a great soundrack. I liked Marky Mark since he was part of “Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch” so I usually like all his movies. Tonight I am going to watch The Brothers Grimm which I am expecting to be as weird as Terry Gilliam’s previous movies.

I haven’t reviewed a microwavable dish in a while but here is a good one. There is a local company called Livestock Transport & Trading Co. that have a line of frozen ready made meals that sell under the brand Jahez. Jahez have 24 different frozen meals in total but todays review is about the Chicken Masala meal.

Cooking the meal was very easy. You take out the tray from the box, punch a few holes in the plastic cover and then stick it in the microwave for 6 minutes. I have my own way of cooking the meals though. I place the tray in the microwave and let it cook for 3 minutes, then I open the microwave, take out the tray and peal open the plastic cover. Then using a fork I move all the food around and when I am done I close the cover again and shove it back into the microwave for another 4 minutes. I do this so that the food thoroughly cooks. I have had issues before with microwavable food where when eating, the food ends up being really hot in the center of the dish but cold nearer the outer edge.

Once the meal was done I took it out of the microwave and opened the plastic cover again. The smell was really appetizing and visually the dish looked very eatable. I took the tray and sat down in front of the TV and started eating. The Chicken Masala tasted pretty good, somewhere between a home cooked meal and the Mughal Mahal fast food restaurant. I finished the chicken and then took the sauce and poured it over the rice and continued eating. It was a pretty satisfying dinner and overall I think this might be one of the best frozen meals I have ever had. The best part of the meal is the price. Since its made in Kuwait its pretty cheap coming in at around 700fils depending where you buy it from. The Co-ops usually have a larger collection of Jahez meals and cheaper prices then Sultan so you can find it for as low as 670fils in some places. Great price plus good food gives this meal a 4 out of 5 rating in my book. For more information on Jahez click here. Also make sure you read some of our other reviews located here.