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Using this map browser tool you can see how any city is connected to the internet just by clicking on it ..

I’ve used it to see how Kuwait is connected with other cities ..

As you can see in this image Kuwait is only connected to Dubai ( the regional provider ) and KSA .. ( It is also connected to New York Through Dubai ) [corrected]

Now the internet is decentralized, but still there are a number of large international commercial, government and academic networks that forms the backbone of the internet, and to rely on a one or two routes to connect to the internet is a very risky situation,it was upsetting to find out that Kuwait is not directly connected to any of those, in stead it’s connected to the internet only through Dubai .. I thought that this was normal and all GCC countries are connected through Dubai but the bad news was that Kuwait is the only one !! All the other countries are connected through 5 different routes ..

This is a very risky situation, because there’s a single point of failure, if something wrong happens to the connection between Kuwait and Dubai , a whole country will be disconnected from the internet .. No matter how reliable the cables are , having a single point of failure is a deadly mistake ..

Other GCC Countries Connectivity

KSA Connections

Bahrain Connections

Qatar Connections

Oman Connections

Notice how Kuwait is the least connected GCC country ! all other countries have at least 5 connections..

Internet Map

Using data collected from a distributed scientific project Chris Harrison Managed to summerize some of the information in a very visually appealing way ..

This image shows the Internet Connection Density, the stronger the contrast the more connectivity there is ..

while this image shows the network connections between cities across the globe with the intensity of the edge contrast reflecting the number of connections between the two points ..

I remember when fasttelco started, they had a different logo and corporate identity that the one they have now, The had to change it because of copyright disputes over their logo at that time. Apparently the have replicated a logo of another existed telecom company elsewhere in the world, then the company found out about it and fasttelco had to change it ..

If it tells something is tells that their marketing department didn’t even make the effort to create or hire someone to create an new logo for them at that time, or may be ( if we want to give them the benefit of the doubt) they hired a design company to do a logo and they replicated an existing logo and fasttelco didn’t know about it ( which in this case isn’t fasttelco’s problem) ..

This happened a long time ago when fasttelco started, but the thing that brought this up to my mind today is a new ad for fasttelco in today’s news paper .. They simply copied the most famous Mac and PC guys apple ad and just added a Kuwaiti Twist to it .. Given the popularity of the mac and pc guys ad, I don’t think that they didn’t know about it this time ..

They simply copied it, which got me into thinking is it OK for Kuwaiti companies to keep copying ideas like that? are they too lazy or not creative enough to even come up with ideas for ad campaigns ?

You can do most of the common necessary banking transactions online these days, except when you need to deposit some cash in your account. And the solution is Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs) .

They solve a lot of troubles and are very convenient to use since you don’t have to go to the bank during their working hours and stand in line just to deposit some money, you can easily drive to any ATM that has the Deposit feature (CDM) at midnight and deposit your money as easy as you withdraw it ..

What I know is that the first bank to make Cash deposit machines available is Burgan Bank, then NBK , then KFH .

I personally used both KFH and NBK , NBK has a lot of CDMs and they are so reliable .. out of the hundreds times that I’ve used them they always work except 2 times ..

But KFH is a different story, for starters they only have 2 machines in Al-Asimah .. and most of the time they don’t work .. I want to know why on earth they put these machines out there and market them when they don’t do what they are supposed to do !! almost every time I try to deposit cash I get a message saying “ the Cash deposit service is no available” , and for my bad luck it’s always a critical time .. Once I tried one in Alfaiha then the one in Hawally and they both didn’t work so I called the bank and they told me to try the one el AlFarwaneyah I went they and it didn’t work either ..

The problem that’s upsetting the most is the reason they give when you call and complain about this problem, their excuse was that the machine is full and it’s the weekend so there’s no one there to take the money out of the machines !! how ridiculous is that a giant bank are can’t collect money from their machines just because it’s THE WEEKEND !!

It’s the weekend when people will use this the most because the bank branches will be close .. It’s the weekend when the shops that use the machines to deposit their daily cash sales have an increase in sales .. so it’s the time when people use and need this service the most, but for them it’s the time when it’s OK that the service is not working !

I think that they should be more clear about their services and it’s availability , they can’t market the service and say that you can deposit at any time or 24/7 where most of the time that this service is needed it doesn’t work ..

Intellectual property rights in the middle east is not only ignored, but it has reached a point way beyond just being ignored. Now people are not only pirating the content, they are treating the content that they illegally copied as if it was their content.

For example you see that Arabic music websites are not only making copyrighted content freely available on their websites, creating a large amount of traffic for them to sell ads their websites, without fearing of any legal actions from the original content owner .. They are now adding credits for their websites on the pirated songs files and embedding their websites on the sound track itself ..

I wonder when will this thing stop, it’s really sad that of all the Arabic websites out there, there is a very small percentage that contain their own original content, most websites are just filled with pirated content ..

This is not about you playing the coach simulation game Manager, it’s about you becoming one of the owners of a real english football team along with 50,000 other members ..

William Brooks a Passionate 36 years old fullham fan , started My Foot Ball Club .. the idea is to find 50,000 football fans interested in buying and running a football club, collect a an annual £35 (around 20KD) then buy the club with the money the collect from the members .. after that the members will be owners in the club, and they will be able to decide and vote on all the decisions for the club like who players should they buy, what formation they should use for any game and every little detail starting from the what club should they buy and what will they do with the stadium and ending with the jersey colors and what manufacturer they should contract with.

and everything is done using the website, the member will vote on the player selection and team formation and then the coach will use it in the game ( so for once in stead of the fans blaming the coach the coach can blame the fans if the team loses ) ..

the impressing thing is that the whole project only started in April and till now they have 45,247 members registered alread .. at a rate of 300 members per day .. so at this rate they will reach their target 50,000 members in about two weeks .

I’ve already registered and I’ll see what happens, they will request the fees later ..

Here’s alink to an interview with the founder on wired website with a lot more details ..

tell us what do you think about this idea, do u thing it will work or it wont ?

This got me into thinking about the enigma of managing the our national team .. what we can replace the Kuwait Football Association with this system .. will the fans be pleased if they can manage the national team themselves? will it be better, worst or just crazy?

One of the most important features of Mozilla FireFox is the large number of useful extensions available for it. In this article I will talk about some of the extensions I use ..

Need an Answer?

Since English is not my first language, while browsing I often come across words that I don’t have any idea what they mean ..  In stead of rushing for a dictionary or opening an online translate tool I use Answers.Com FireFox Extension . It enables me to view the meaning of any word on a layer on the same page  just by holding the ALT key and clicking on it.  It’s perfect because it gives you a lot of information about any word and fully explains it without ever leaving the page and opening a new application which will make you loose your focus on what you are reading.

 456315.651 EUR , How Much is it in KDs ?!

When you browsing for products and you need a way of converting between currencies that is both accurate and current using Exch side bar is the best way. This extension will fetch the current conversion rate from Yahoo Finance and allow you to convert currencies in the sidebar while your browsing.

Video Downloader

The Video Downloader extension is a must have for people who visit video social networks sites like YouTube and Metacafe and a lot of other video sites .. installing this extension will show an icon on the status bar , if your in the video page .. you just click this icon and a pop up window containing a link to the video’s download link will show up to you.

( you might need to download an FLV player because not all the files are available in avi format )

 Book Marking

My favorite way of bookmarking is using del.icio.us  it’s particularly handy for people who browse on more than one computers (Work, home desktop, laptop .. )  and want immediate access to their bookmarks .. it also enables you to share your bookmarks with others and has a fast and handy way of bookmarking and tagging pages.

This article ( 12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them )  is an excellent article that talks about the different kinds of Web design clients out there .. It’s a good read for designers and developers and explains the highs, the  lows and  how to work with each type ..

Web 2.0 Summit Videos This is a page from the web 2.0 Summit .. A summit that was helt back in November 2006 ..

On this page they have the complete coverage of all the summits seminars, discussion and presentations. They include some really great an inspiring discussion from people who are changing the face of the web. The videos feature speakers from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, Wordpress, GoDaddy ..

Those videos are very inspiring and informative and I thought I’d share them with you ..

I came across this page  “How I Work: Bill Gates” where bill gates tells  in details how he does his daily work, an thought I’d share it with my blog reader(s) ..   (I don’t think that I need the ’s’ yet :P)

P.S.

and I think that Bill Gates is copying from me

I’ve recently got a new LCD screen and added it to the existing one to create a dual screen setting ..

The advantages are endless.. and the main one is increasing the productivity,

To mention only one way of increasing productivity .. now I can easily have dreamweavor on one screen and the web project I’m programming in the browser on the other screen and view the changes as I change the code in stead of using ALT+TAB a million time and loosing the focus every time the windows are switched ..

I definitely recommend using it ..

Multiple screens or a BIG one

I’ve done a part of the math for you and compared the use of a 40” LCD screen against using multiple smaller screens based on Screens prices in Kuwait  ..

When it comes to displays the main factor is not how large the windows will look on the screen , it’s how many windows or how many applications can you view on your screen and this is determined by the resolution .. the other factor of course is the size of your wallet $$

A brand new 40” SONY LCD will give you a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 ( 2.073 million pixels ) and it’s priced at around 1000 KD !!

while a low priced ACER 17” Screen will give a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 ( 1.310 million pixels ) and it’s only 51 KD ..

But if you use two of these screens in extended mode you’ll get a total of 2.621 million pixels of desktop space which is way better for you and your wallet

of course there are higher resolution (30” - 40”) LCD screens for a single screen setting ..

but you can also use larger screens for the multiple screens setting and even better you can use more of them !

Software

This is a great software called Ultramon will make you utilise and manage your screens more efficiently.

Links

Here’s a more detailed article about multiple screens from a site called TECHARP .

and for those of you who already have multiple screens this free dual monitor backgrounds website dmb might be useful ..

A discussion about this on Slashdot