Archives

The location for Tweetup Riyadh March 2010

The latest Tweetup Riyadh was held in Caribou Coffee in Riyadh. While the coffee was excellent the seating wasn’t the best. So if you have a suggestion for a meetup location then make sure to post a twitter reply to @tweetupriyadh with your suggestion.

Remember that the Tweetups are now held on the first Monday of each month instead of Thursday.

Lost Answers, funny song

Only less than 12 hours remaining until the return of final season of Lost. I found this funny parody song about the return of Lost and if the writers will solve all the answers or not. I also found an updated version of the “Lost in 8:15 minutes” video.

Video and lyrics after the break.

Continue reading Lost Answers, funny song

SaudiMac posts for January 2010

Here are the top posts on SaudiMac for the month of January 2010.

As usual I made a post on SaudiMac.com English website and SaudiMac.net Arabic site.

Can you guess what’s the main item? Yup, the Apple iPad.

Only in Saudi Arabia: No singles allowed in this hotel

Something interesting from Mövenpick Al Nawras in the fine city of Jeddah. This sign has been found on the Internet:

Translation: Single men absolutely cannot rent a room, no exceptions allowed. Families can rent a room only with an original family card (دفتر العائلة) no photocopies allowed. These are instructions from the Saudi MOI.

Apparently someone misused the services of the Mövenpick resort, so everyone else have to pay the price ;) . But they should exclude all single men, not just us Saudis. I am sure single expatriate men won’t have this problem because that sign is in Arabic only. Also Mövenpick Al Nawras should have mentioned this on their website as well just to be fair.

Guess I can’t go unless I get married or borrow my father’s family card ;) . If you know the cause for that policy then please share it!

Lost plane crash scene done in 24 style

For fellow fans of the hit TV show Lost: Flight 815 crash done in real time, 24 style. You get the plane scene, the hatch scene and the otherville scene. Enjoy (10 minutes video):

Lost’s final season (season 6) will air Tuesday February 2nd, a bit early this season. I will be downloading acquiring it of course on Wednesday.

My favorite iPhone Apps

I have made a list of my favorite iPhone Apps (some free, some aren’t). Make sure to check them out:

In English: My favorite iPhone apps in 2009.

And in Arabic: برامج الآيفون المفضلة لي في العام ٢٠٠٩.

Top Arabic Web Apps for '09

Make sure to check this list of Arabic web sites, I mean apps, strange, in Arabic it’s مواقع = websites but it’s web apps = تطبيقات الويب. Enough nitpicking. Here’s the list of Arabic Web Apps:

  • Mashahd TV OnDemand network. A good example that proves you don’t need to add YOUTUBE/TUBE in your site’s name.
  • Qabas min Hikmah (to quote from wisdom). A database of wise quotes.
  • WA9.LA (link). iTiny. URL shortening services.
  • Gwasah (submarine, gather your friends and sail in the submarine). Allows you and your friends to have private discussions.
  • Kanashah. Online notes web app.
  • Auto Survey. Arabic survey tool.
  • Zahma o La (is it crowded or not). Monitor King Fahad bridge (between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain) activity.
  • Mo3jam (dictionary). A dictionary of colloquial Arabic terms.
  • Kammelna (Complete us, a Belote term). Online Belote card game. Belote is a popular in Saudi Arabia.
  • Arabic Keyboard. Because you can’t find an Arabic keyboard everywhere you go.
  • Bedkash. Classified ads.
  • iconty (My Icon). Arabic icon search engine. For designers.
  • Uzerat (Users). The BugMeNot for Arabic websites. Find logins for sites that demand your registration.
  • Hide 2 Me. Share multiple links in a single short link.
  • Read Now. A stumbleupon for Arabic reading content.

Voting will begin next Friday.

Tee Gschwendner branches in Saudi Arabia

I talked about Tea Gschwendner (Tee Gschwendner) before. But I will take the time to list all the branches with Gowalla links in Saudi Arabia for easy reference.

One important note that Fahad reminded me on Twitter: ” اذا بغيتوا تشترون من تي جشفندر لاتاخذون كلام البائع كله اعرف وش تبي قبل :) واذا نويت تجرب جرب كميات قليلة”. If you wanted to buy from Tee Gschwendner do not believe whatever the salesman said, you should know what you want and if you want to try something just buy in small quantities (100g, 50g). Yes, I agree with Fahad completely.

Here’s the list:

Come on, Jeddah and Dhahran friends, use Gowalla and add these shopping centers to the map.

Only in Saudi Arabia: Family Only Parking

Spotted by Hussain at Hyperpanda near Extra electronics store in Al-Khobar.

Only in Saudi Arabia we will see idiotic signs like these. Hey bachelors, you are not allowed to buy groceries.

Expect more “Only in Saudi Arabia” posts.

STC & Mobily wrongfully claim to be the first HSPA+ carriers (Updated)

Update: Last time I ramble uncaffeinated! fixed facts! Sorry Mobily.

Both the Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) and Mobily has announced yesterday that they are the first to offer HSPA+ (Evolved HSPA with download speeds up to 56Mbit/s!!!). They announced the same thing in at least 2 different Saudi newspapers: AlRiyadh and Al-Eqtisadiah simultaneously!

Here are STC’s “news” articles: on AlRiyadh newspaper and Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper (Arabic links). The two articles are identical, in fact they are most likely a press release by STC. STC claims to be the first in the country, however…

Mobily had the same thing: on AlRiyadh newspaper and Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. In addition, the news was also announced in Saudi Gazette English newspaper. The first part was identical to the Arabic press releases however it did include some info about the new Mobily Connect modem promotion. Mobily claimed to be the first in the region, makes no sense because…

STC was wrong!Both were wrong!

At least one telecommunications company had HSPA+ with 21Mbit/s available in the region. Zain Kuwait had HSPA+ since September 2009 (Kuwait News Agency link) and is called e-GO. Isn’t Kuwait party of the “region”? So why is Mobily claiming to be the first in the region when Zain Kuwait clearly had it first and who is bringing it first in Saudi Arabia? STC or Mobily? Both claim to be the first. Zain Kuwait actually released an HSPA+ device (Kuwait News Agency link). I found nothing about Zain Kuwait updating their network.

The Big Question

Two major Arabic speaking newspapers (AlRiyadh and Al-Eqtisadiah) published conflicting articles, each claiming to be the first. Why didn’t the newspapers verify the information first? How can the readers take them seriously?

Image source: www.sequence.cc/SMS_main.php