IncidentFlux

My Review of Hush Puppies Venture - Men's - Shoes - Black

2011-10-19T13:33:00.001+04:00

Stride comfortably down your career pathway in the Venture oxford from Hush Puppies. The soft leather lining is naturally breathable for corporate comfort. The profile is suited for business applications, crafted with waterproof leather to maintain attraction.

I would buy these shoes again and again

By Muzammil from Ajman, United Arab Emirates on 10/19/2011

Sizing: Feels true to size

Width: Feels true to width

Pros: Durable, Classic Design, Stable, Good Cushioning, Comfortable, Breathes Well

Best Uses: Casual Wear, Business Casual, Going Out, Date Night, Work

Describe Yourself: Conservative, Comfort-oriented

Bought my first brown colored pair of Ventures from Karachi, Pakistan. Have been looking for the same in black ever since.

Man these shoes are so well fitting if you have large or wide feet (mine are 11.5 wide, left foot slightly larger). Airport friendly metal detectors don't go off when you pass through.

These shoes taught me about shoe sizing, prior to buying these, I used to feel shoes were either too loose, or snug, because I have wider feet, these models make variations for wide or extra wide feet.

I will definitely buy another pair in case Hush Puppies stops making them (I hope not). Sadly they are not easily available all around the world.

(legalese)

FiiO E11 Portable Headphone Amplifier With Micca Accessory Pack - Review

2011-10-10T14:28:00.001+04:00

Micca Distributor - 5/5
Seller shipped very promptly and I received the package a day before the start of the estimated delivery dates.

Package was shipped via USPS in a bubble wrap soft package. I would've preferred a similar sized small hard cardboard box instead for better protection.

I really appreciate the 100mAh bigger extra battery and universal (battery) charger by Scud. It's very thoughtful, useful and economical at this price.

Scud Universal Charger SFC-519 - 4/5
The charger has a NEMA 1-15 electrical plug, if you're outside the United States, you might need an adapter for sockets. Build quality is above average and the charger can be technically used to charge batteries of various mAh types. The charger's apple logo lights up when a battery is connected and starts blinking rainbow colors while charging.

SCUD SCL-1109 A 3.7V 900mAh (extra battery) - Battery BL-5B - 4/5
It's too soon to comment on this battery's longevity. I haven't had any issues after a single charge.

KXD BL-5B 3.7V 800mAh (stock battery) - 4/5
It's too soon to comment on this battery's longevity. I haven't had any issues after a single charge.

Fiio E11 - 4/5
Built quality is very good, doesn't look or feel cheap. Having markers on the volume knob would really, currently there is no reference point and you could easily leave it on a higher volume and damage your ears or headphones.

This or any other headphone amp will make lower impedance headphones hiss, but thats physics and not a flaw with the device.

I use it with my Lenovo T410 laptop and acts like a hardware equalizer with my beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 80 Ohm headphones. It does add that extra quality I wanted, but not a huge improvement, that's also because the Lenovo T410 uses a Conextent audio chipset.

My listening preference is 'L' Gain and '1' Eq.

beyerdynamic DTX 101 iE - Mini-Review

2011-10-10T13:59:00.000+04:00

I recently bought the beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 80 Ohm headphones, and they're worth it. beyerdynamic being so well respected, I went for their DTX 101 iE Earphones, they look great, feel fantastic, no comfort issues. But In my opinion they sound terrible. My 15+ year old Aiwa Sound GT earphones sound better.

FYI they also hiss badly with my portable headphone amp (FiiO E11). These are low impedance headphones, so an amp is not required at all.

They sound dull, flat and lifeless.

Online shopping experiences

2011-10-08T15:05:00.000+04:00

I recently got my first credit card and started shopping online, perhaps my experiences will encourage others to have a safe and fun shopping experience.

Being outside the United States, United Kingdom or Canada. There are few to none, quality shopping choices. Situation is worse in over-hyped Dubai, at least price wise, other side of the ugly coin is the UAE gets the worse spec'd products.

What's the alternative?
Well ShopandShip.com is the best option at the moment, they give you US, UK and a Chinese shipping address.

Do UAE retailers not care?
Most I think are complacently enjoying their eroding pseudo monopolies, thinking they control channels of distribution and price. That won't last long.

Others are greedy, like the big distributors in the region, I won't name names, because of the ridiculous liable laws in the UAE, which favor big business, employers and curb freedom of speech considerably.

What do I need?
1. Credit card.
2. PayPal (eBay owned), Amazon Payments, Google Checkout or a Moneybookers account.
3. US, UK or Chinese shipping addresses.
4. Amazon US or UK accounts.
5. eBay US or UK accounts.

Amazon Vs eBay - Where should I buy from and which is better?
I've personally bought from both without any big issues, apart for some delay at times. Amazon and eBay both have excellent reputations and consumer protection policies. They reverse transactions when things go wrong.

Amazon
Amazon sells directly and marketplace style like eBay.

Amazon sells in three two ways:

a) Direct - Sold by and fulfilled (warehoused, packaged and shipped) by Amazon.
b) Market place - Sold by vendor and fulfilled (warehoused, packaged and shipped) by Amazon.
c) Market place - Sold by vendor and fulfilled by vendor.

eBay
eBay is a market place (But It Now) and auction model, however their buyer protection applies across their site. All the selling is done by vendors. Fulfillment may be done by Amazon at times.

Summary
Amazon has the better e-commerce platform, site and services in my opinion. However, you'll find good, reputed, trust worthy sellers on both Amazon and eBay.

Tips
1. Pay online with PayPal or Moneybookers if you buy from smaller or lesser known online stores. This way your credit card details aren't spread across (possibly on poorly secured servers) the web.

2. Check delivery addresses on shipments - Mistakes are made with tracking numbers or worse yet shipping addresses.

3. After spending some time playing with your goods (yes there are so many jokes here), provide detailed reviews of your experiences good or bad. How courteous was the seller? How was the packaging? Don't write a bad review about the seller if you subjectively don't like the product or it didn't fit your need. Unless it was broken or something. This is even more important if you buy obscure stuff - This encourages the good merchants and improves or weeds out the bad ones.

4. Get email alerts and filter them in you inbox. Keep the payment confirmations seperate and have different folders for Amazon, eBay or newegg etc. I use nested labels in Gmail to organize this.

Security tips
1. Make sure the padlock on your web browser indicates a secure connection via 'https'.

2. Keep your OS and browser updated with the latest security patches.

3. Avoid doing online transactions on public computers, smart phones, tablets etc.

4. Avoid public wifis for online transitions. Technically it's secure because of https, but if you can wait to get home, then wait.

Related:
Google Checkout vs PayPal vs. Amazon Payments: What's the best eCommerce option? - DigitalFamily.com

Mini-review - Victorinox Swiss Army Men's 241424 Dive Master 500 Chrono Black Dial Watch

2011-10-06T23:20:00.001+04:00

Amazon's service - 3/5

This was my first Amazon transaction, after placing an Int'l expedited order, and being charged, there was no activity for two days, then it was quickly shipped and I got it a day before in the United Arab Emirates, according to Amazon's delivery estimation. Considering its price and int'l shipping request. I was expecting the item to be shipped the next day, not two days later.

Watch mini-review - 4/5

Haven't had the watch for too long, but I had already tried the watch in a store, so I knew how it felt and looked on my wrist, before buying it from Amazon.

Subjective Pros
1. If you have thin wide wrists like me, in my opinion the chrono model with the additional crowns compliments my kinds of wrists better.
2. It does feel heavy, but I like heavy watches, best to get the bracelet sized from a reputed watch dealer, because the crown will slam against your wrist bone, if you shake a bottle or something yes it will hurt. Get it sized to fit for comfort!

2. Band/braclet doesn't pull any hair, very smooth.

Subjective Cons
None

Objective Pros
1. Solid construction, quality build.
2. Bracelet/band has full and half links for accurate sizing.

Objective Cons
1. The dark PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating will scratch, not too much but eventually it will, you don't have to baby it. Read around, PVD coatings are known for getting scratched, high end Italian luxury watch maker Officine Panerai's CEO also said this.

2. The night lume on the hourly time markers isn't bright enough for me.

Suggestions

1. Would like to see an automatic with chrono and titanium.
2. PVD care and more general watch care instructions should be prominently mentioned in the manual.

Unboxing video

Opera - 10 years of usage insights

2011-05-02T03:42:00.001+04:00

I've been using Opera as my primary browser since the year 2000, so I think it gives me some insight on areas of improvement.

Improvements
1. Downloads acceleration, backend work mostly. Focus on speed should be universal.
2. Status bar like Chrome, indicating uploads percentages. keep it optional of course.
3. Add some kind of animated icon while clearing private data. The entire interface freezes and Windows reports it as not responding during the cache flush process.

Feature requests
1. IRC - Auto update to themes like skins and promoted via My Opera.
2. Auto updates for skins.
~~3. Auto Nightlies and Beta channel updates.~~
4. Publicly transparent bug tracking and feature request handling system.
5. One click profile backup for bookmarks, toolbars, keyboard shorcuts and related files.
6. Global sync: Bookmarks, Toolbars, settings, Content blocker list, Cookie whitelist, every conceivable user customizable feature.
7. Add Zoom to 'Edit site' preferences.
8. One click settings backup.

Opera ASA's behavior over the last ten years, indicates they are very slow to user feedback and only got off their laurels these days because of Firefox and Chrome. So I don't expect them to listen to this because people have been asking for this at Opera forums for years and they have never made any efforts to centrally compile these requests.

I will continue to use Opera as my primary browser and Chrome as secondary, but these days I've grown tired of all their casual attitude to user feedback. Beginning of the end for Opera, perhaps? but I sure hope not.

Edit: Opera Next, look it up

Malaysia vs U.A.E.

2010-07-18T03:19:00.000+04:00

Originally posted on ArabianBusiness.com. Pretty much sums up why the United Arab Emirates is not the right place to build a long term future for the average investor.

With greetings from Malaysia
Posted by Saeid on Saturday 17 July 2010 at 10:28 UAE time
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/592749-dubai-mulls-new-visa-plan-to-lure-entrepreneurs

We left the UAE two months ago and already have a SDN BHD(equivalent of a LLC) in Malaysia.

It costs 2600 Dhs to start a business in Malaysia. Another 8000 DHs/ year for hiring two resident Directors. You will be the sole signatory of the company and will hold 99% of the shares. The other 1% can belong to who ever you want, even some one in another country. If you buy a shelf company which is what we did, it takes roughly 2 hours. And you're ready to go.

After getting your residency, you can be one of the Directors and when your spouse gets hers, then she can be the other. It will then cost about 400 Dhs a year to renew your license.

There are no employee visa issues here. There are plenty of Malays, Chinese and Indians who are looking for work. And they have great work ethics.

The retail space rentals are very cheap here. You will not make as much money as you once did in the UAE. But even in the UAE you will not make what you once did.

You will not have to have a place of business, such as an office, a shop, a warehouse,etc. You can work right out of your home if you need to and then expand as time goes on. The residential rental fees are very cheap too.

If some one is looking for employment, they should still consider the UAE, as there still is a job market there. But as an investor or a Start Up, I think South East Asia should be considered seriously.

As some people have suggested recently, Singapore seems like a great place too.

Another thing I can tell you about Malaysia, there are rules as to how things get done here. They have been in place for years, they make sense, and they don't get changed over night.

All that aside, the most important thing is, you will be respected as a human being.

LG Flatron W2261VP short term review

2010-02-18T02:49:00.016+04:00

Bought my first LCD monitor after my CRT died (Yes CRTs still rule!). Since I've been using it only a few days, here are my short term observations.

Pros
1. Very reasonable price for a 21.5" size, 16:9, 1920x1080 resolution HD LCD monitor. Sine it's such a high resolution monitor, would suggest adjusting for text clarity using ClearType tuner. To avoid eye strain.
2. D-SUB (Analog VGA), DVI-D, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack.
3. The 'www' 'f Engine' preset is pretty good for text readers like me.
4. Matt screen surface. No silly reflections.

Cons
1. No 1:1 pixel mapping option. Really matters if you prefer running at lower resolutions, but don't want to scale.
2. No height adjustment. Not a big deal in my case.
3. Lack of on-screen soft keys (like Samsung monitors) makes the side buttons difficult to use. This gets very annoying.
4. Viewing angles are not good at all, but manageable.
5. No VESA mounting interface. Don't need that for the moment.

Odd quirk
The monitor switches off occasionally when I get calls on my Nokia E71 mobile phone, the phone was near its funky touch power button. The phone was set to GSM not UMTS (3G). Weird indeed...

Related
1. LG Product Support for W2261VP-PF
2. Detailed Technical Review at PRAD.de
3. Buyer reviews at Amazon UK
4. Buyer reviews at Amazon Germany

Yahoo! Mail Vs Gmail for Business Review

2009-10-28T15:24:00.006+04:00

I’ve tried out both Yahoo! Mail and Gmail for business use for the past few weeks. I wanted to give Gmail a fair go, since I’ve been a Yahoo! Mail user since 1998. Long story short, I had to go back to Yahoo! Mail because…

1. Gmail checks external POP3 accounts by its own weird algorithm, to save on resources, this means external mails goes uncheked for up to an hour. Gmail’s POP3 mail check frequency can’t be easily manually controlled like Yahoo! Mail’s ‘check all accounts’ drop down with the Check Mail button. Unless you like looking at Gmail’s 'Accounts and Import' settings all day.

2. Gmail’s threaded view has its advantages, but it becomes a real pain if you keep saving that draft to look at an unrelated email, not in that thread. Again Yahoo! Mail’s tabs allow this.

3. Google can send emails after verification on behalf of other email addresses. However it’s got this very bad habit of adding ‘On behalf of’. Again Yahoo! Mail doesn’t.

I really wanted to stick with Gmail for the following reasons…

1. Encrypted sessions.

2. Canned responses, my workaround for multiple signatures.

3. Tags, although I prefer folders, but I can respect their productivity aspect.

4. Better compatibility with the Opera browser.

Suggestions for Gmail

1. Allow users a tabbed interface option as well.

2. Drop the ‘On behalf of...'.

3. Allow manual adjustment of POP3 mail polling frequency, or at least a more convenient mail check button, maybe a simple F5 or clicking on the logo.

Time will tell if Gmail will listen and offer us options or not…

Plasmas Vs LCDs

2009-07-09T08:22:00.003+04:00

This my rant/response to this Yahoo! Tech article:

As the technology fades, plasma TVs see huge discounts - Yahoo! Tech
Mon Jul 6, 2009 5:08PM EDT

I'm really sick of LCD lobbyist, pretending that LCD's are better than Plasma displays, even high end LCDs have trouble with fast motion and viewing angles. LCD supporters keep touting their just one advantage i.e.: 'power consumption' and the difference is not as big as its marketed to be. LCDs still suck at picture quality where it counts!

Thats why the industry killed CRTs, because they couldn't make high margin profits off them anymore, even though they still have the best picture, and now they're doing it to Plasma displays.

Plasmas can easily handle fast motion like CRTs, for real Blacks (Not LCD's fake Greys), Sports, Games etc, they have very wide viewing angles, unlike LCDs, where even at 10 degrees colors start looking different.

Only thing annoying about Plasma displays is their front glass which is no different than CRT's glass and matters little unless you have a lamp shining directly in front of it. Most of the good Plasma displays are coated with anti-reflective material these days.

Sorry to say people, you pay high dollar for crappy displays when you buy LCDs. Damn the false marketing!

Kudos to Panasonic, Samsung and Hitachi for their good Plasma displays.

Yahoo! Tech people, please don't rehash press releases, but do some research first, like:

Refs:

LCD-Plasma Display Technology Shoot-Out - ExtremeTech.com

Plasma display - Wikipedia

VLC media player for Nokia Symbian S60

2009-06-30T04:12:00.006+04:00

VLC code porting has begun! Symbian developers please contribute, Symbian OS users Please spread word of this project!

Project : VLC Port For Symbian OS
http://web.mahaserver.com/mahashare.php?id=311

VLC media player for Symbian - Early Alpha files
http://www.4shared.com/dir/17210271/c211d405/sharing.html

Discussion theard at VLC forums
VLC Media Player support for Symbian OS
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=23646&highlight=nokia

Discussion theard at Symbian-Freak.com
http://www.symbian-freak.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26819&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Edit Saturday, 9th April 2011: Project appears to be abandoned. Maybe Nokia can allocate some resources and get this done? Don't think that'll happen, considering their new allegiance to Windows Phone 7.

Recruiting Myths - Ugly resumes get JOBS!...and other FISHING lessons

2009-05-29T04:01:00.001+04:00

PPTP VPN Clent for (Nokia) Symbian S60 3rd edition

2008-11-28T12:39:00.005+04:00

I rather get a free app from Nokia than pay for some thrid party app, which should’ve been part of the package from the start. But I found a PPTP VPN Clent for (Nokia) Symbian S60 (3rd edition).

SymVPN 1.00 for S60 3rd edition

SymVPN - Compatible Devices

SymVPN - FAQ

€29.95 EUR is definitely not a reasonable price for it...

Update : If the app included OpenVPN/SSL support this price and app would be perfect. However that might not happen because OpenVPN is Open Source and SymVPN is not.

Edit Saturday, 9th April 2011: I do have to give these guys credit for supporting the Symbian platform. Even if they slightly raise their prices it would be worth it, provided code quality and support is increased along with it.

Nokia E71 - Pros & Cons

2008-11-25T11:46:00.002+04:00

After using my new Nokia E71 for a few days these are my thoughts...

Pros

Hardware:
1. Superb battery life.
2. Build quality is reference standard, very well designed.
3. Slim balanced form factor, weight/size ratio really helps in one hand typing.
4. WiFi/WLAN, FM, GPS, 3G.
5. Big enough screen.

Software:
1. Very fast OS and fast user interface.
2. Last.FM Mobbler and Nokia Internet Radio apps shine on the E71.
3. Symbian S60 vast apps ecosystem is the key.

Cons

Hardware:
1. No option to buy non-regionalized (keyboard) models. Arabic (in White, easy to see) with English (in Blue, very hard to see) is really killing the expereince for me. Will replace keypad with aftermarket keypad first chance I get.
2. Keyboard keys could've been slightly larger, but this debate will never stop. My opinion Blackberry got the sweet spot right, just copy that!
3. Fingerprints, smudges dirty the entire sharp look of the phone.
4. Loudspeaker should've been louder and stereo. They help in noisy biz situations too.
5. A gig or two of user storage would've been more pratical for a device like this. Memory's already cheap enough.
6. Atleast 384MB or 512MB SDRAM, face it its already a computer.
7. I'm also annoyed by a backlight bleed, between the LCD and top keys. I don't mind the backlight bleed so much, if it was an even bleed, it looks like Nokia got some measurments wrong with the top left key.

Software:
1. Mobile VPN is crappy and useless, doesn't support the two big PPTP or OpenVPN technologies. That means I can't bypass blocks, as all my VoIP is useless because all VoIP SIP, Skype, Fring is actively blocked in the Middle East. Just port OpenVPN to S60 please!
2. S60 browser should be fully functional like desktop browsers.
3. Poor Codec support - Just port VLC media player already!

One big request...
Just port OpenVPN to S60 please! If Nokia supports PPTP, OpenVPN then we'll really save money with VoIP calls using this smartphone. Heck, version 1 iPhone already has this!

Opera 9.5 released

2008-06-14T03:03:00.002+04:00

Opera 9.5 with a new browser engine, Opera link (sync bookmarks, Speed Dial and notes), content search, new skin, strengthened defense against malware and phishing & more.

Opera USB - Install free zipped version for admin locked systems.
http://www.Opera-usb.com

Opera Portable - Secure version Wipes usage history.
http://www.kejut.com/OperaPortable

OperaTor - Bypass proxies & browse the web anonymously.
http://archetwist.com/en/opera/OperaTor

read more | digg story

Rights of expat workers in UAE

2008-03-22T02:42:00.005+04:00

Let me first say, whatever rights, expat workers might have on paper are loosley enforced, So I’m posting a letter from the comments section of ArabianBusiness.com about the riots in Sharjah over wages. This letter is very good at describing, how the UAE labor law and justice system favors businesses with its swiss cheese of labor laws for each free zone and how any kind of protests are negatively portrayed in the UAE press.

Further reading: Wikipedia: Human rights in the United Arab Emirates

1,500 involved in shocking Sharjah riot
by Elsayed Elazony and Dylan Bowman on Tuesday, 18 March 2008

worker's unrest
Posted by PMS, dubai, UAE on 20 March 2008 at 15:00 UAE time

I would like to start by saying I am against all violence in any form
and I strongly condemn what happened in Sharjah. Having said that I feel that some of the commentators fail to understand the real issues.

Most laborers from India are victims of misinformation and exploitation by the nexus of employers in the gulf and the labour "agents" back home. I met a young man , hardly 20 years old who had paid such an agent Indian Rs. 1,50,000/- to
be considered for a job as sweeper in a mall. He told me his salary was Dhs. 500/- though he had been promised a lot more in India. 200 Dhs. were spent on his food, 25 dhs. on personal needs like toiletries, hair cut etc. Dhs. 200 he sent home and saved 75 Dhs. per month At the exchange rate of Rs. 11 per dirham he will need FIFTEEN years just to recover his investment in coming here. If you add to that the simple fact that the cost of living in Dubai has gone up and the Dirham has depreciated against the rupee you see the magnitude of the problem. If on top of that workers have inhuman living conditions are you surprised they riot ? I am NOT condoning violence I am just explaining the cause of it. No point in conspiracy theories of Indian political parties being behind this. The poor laborers can contribute nothing to their party funds and so they will not be bothered.

For the labour officials to say there are channels for lodging complaints is all fine but they really have no clue at how difficult it is for any one to approach the government agencies for justice. I once met a group of laborers who had not been paid their salary for 6 months and who wanted to lodge a complaint with the labor department. But the poor souls neither had their labor card ( company never gave it to them ) , their passport or visa copy ( company retained it ) or even the 10 dirhams that a typing shop asked of them to prepare their complaint in Arabic.

Where are the so called labor inspectors ? I remember reading that there was an acute shortage of them as many had resigned. As far as I know there is a serious shortage of inspectors and this is one major reason why workers still suffer in horrible conditions.

And where is the PRESS , who are supposed to be the champions for justice ? I must have written at least 25 letters on this very issue but the papers never publish them.

We hear often in the press of protesting workers being deported but never about any builders who have broken laws being jailed. Why ? We read about the rampage by some workers but never any in-depth investigation of the causes that led to it.

For the press or the authorities to just blame it on "instigators" is too simplistic an approach and seems more like and effort to avoid responsibility than a serious attempt to resolve the problem. Some how Raphael Nadal going up a lift to the top of Burj Dubai merits more attention than the plight of the workers who built the tower.

I am not a muslim but I have been told that the Prophet ( PBUH ) has said in the hadith ( right spelling ? ) that a worker must be paid his wages " before the sweat on his brow dries up". What an amazing concept of fairness and justice ! But here we regularly read of protesting workers who did not get their salaries for months on end and the labor officials claiming the problem was solved when the employer "promised to pay " . But there is no follow up in the press if the workers did indeed get their pay as promised. And there are NEVER any reports of any serious action being taken against the erring employers. All they seem to get are warnings.

As an educated and reasonably well to do person I have extreme difficulty sometimes dealing with the authorities to get even the basics of justice ( I've had lots of problems with my land lord who cut off water and electricity in an effort to illegally evict us ) so how can one expect an individual uneducated impoverished laborer who may be only speaks the dialect of his village and does not even have 10 Dhs. in his pocket to go and fight for justice ?

Prices of property in Dubai and Sharjah have gone up by more than 100% in the last year or so. Have the laborers salaries gone up by even 20% to offset the plunging value of the US $ ?

Why are speculators from around the world encouraged and invited to invest and make millions out of the property boom here and the people who actually CREATE this wealth with their bare hands denied any share of that pie ?

Finally - for all its claims to want to build a just and international community why does the UAE government not pass a law on minimum wage for unskilled workers and why does it not allow the formation of labor unions so that the workers have a legitimate voice ?

The people of the Indian subcontinent are not by nature violent. They suffer in silence until it becomes unbearable.

I would like to urge the Authorities to think deeply about this issue and come up with fair , just and long lasting solutions.

The Revision3 Gazette Episode 11 - Rev3 Studio Operations

2008-01-10T14:21:00.001+04:00

Interested in television studio production? Get a web-hand look at our new studio and how it works as Studio Engineer David Randolph gives a tour and basic rundown of the operations of the brand new Revision3 Studio.

read more | digg story

Dubai's Dirty Night Secrets (PBS Documentary)

2007-12-25T18:41:00.001+04:00

A PBS documentary into Dubai's (Where men outnumber women 3 to 1) dirty secrets. A place that hardly enforces labor rights, in a Muslim country, where prostitution is illegal. Mimi Chakarova takes a closer look at Dubai's barely disguised sex trade and visits some of these clubs and captures the city's night secrets.

read more | digg story

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II Review

2007-07-31T18:28:00.000+04:00

Bought My Book ProEdition II drive - 1 Terabyte model, from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Pros

1. Sleek looking.
2. 1 Terabyte
3. Raid 0 or 1 (Performance or redundancy).
4. Hard Drives are user serviceable and can be cold swapped; Western Digital provides official instructions on that.
5. Three year limited warranty.
6. USB 2.0 (Burst mode), FireWire 400 / 800 (IEEE 1394a / IEEE 1394b).
7. Outer rubber edge helps stability and reduces vibration.

Cons

1. No format with FAT32 option with RAID0 or 1
2. No JBOD option – RAID 0 doubles your failure chances and RAID 1 reduces total space to just 500 GB.
3. No eSATA interface – For a drive this capacity it’s very important, if overall throughput matters.
4. Power supply external.
5. Noise – After testing connecting both FireWire 400 (I don’t have FW 800) and USB 2.0 simultaneously and individually I can confirm that connecting via FireWire switches the drive’s fans to mini hair dryer mode, very annoying indeed. I was copying data via USB 2.0 from both my internal hard drives and two optical drives for the past two days and not once, did it switch to super turbine mode. Maybe they can tweak the firmware to run the fan at lower speeds than full blast. However I think this challenge can be overcome by just relocating the drive to maybe underneath the desk or even replacing the internal fan but voiding your 3 year warranty in the process.

Fan Noise reduction - Workaround

I got some really good advice from Amazon and newegg customer reviews. About flipping the internal fan around, looks like a design oversight, as the fan sucks in air, instead of out. After flipping the fan around the drives are running much cooler and its not kicking into leaf blower mode even with FireWire (400).

I even went further and took out the 'drive cage cover' yesterday, so now air will pass through both sides of the enclosure.

This mod will work without voiding your warranty with all second edition drives i.e. My Book Pro Edition II, My Book Premium Edition II, or My Book World Edition II.

Even though I've been stress testing the drives in RAID 0 mode and had left it constantly copying 200 gigs of data and managed to fill it up last night and all that time it was in silent mode. I even tried to stress test it further by playing three MPEG 2 VOB files during the copy process.

WD Button Manager

The WD Button Manager, not only does it show free space on the drive, but also safely ejects the drive and shuts it down after ejection. On the down side it only works when the drive is connected via USB and was using 15, 044 K memory according to Windows task manager just sitting there.

Wish list

I hope WD would release a firmware update, to JBOD the drives into logical volumes and format with FAT32 in either RAID modes.

To be honest I’d love to have a (perfect) drive with eSata, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 / 800 and NAS capable Gigabit Ethernet connections, RAID with option to JBOD multiple drives, all in a quite case with an internal power supply but at the moment there aren’t any.

Conclusion

The only major con with this model would be its fan noise (Without modification) when used with FireWire. Thankfully noisy hair dryer hasn’t kicked in after modifications.

Considering my current usage pattern I’m satisfied at the moment, this unit serves my purpose for now, as a music and video jukebox.
Looking back I would've gone for the 'FreeAgent™ Pro 750-GB USB 2.0, eSATA, FireWire External Hard Drive'. Even though it doesn't support RAID, it’s a better overall package to cover future needs.

Useful Links

My Book side-by-side comparison chart

How to dismantle a My Book Pro Edition II, My Book Premium Edition II, or My Book World Edition II to replace a hard drive.

Opera, Stop being so stubborn!

2007-07-23T13:28:00.000+04:00

Opera is a very well designed browser and Internet suite but its still missing some little and big things, such as:

1. Downloads acceleration - Metalinks, segmented downloads whatever it takes, Opera should be really fast on all fronts.

2. Middle clicking ‘JavaScript links’ opens them in new tabs.

3. Progress bar for uploads - Eg: To X-Drive, Yahoo! Briefcase etc.

4. Extensions / Plugins.

5. SOCKS proxy support.

Last two are biggies but goodies, history seems to be repeating itself, for years Opera wasn't free, when it went free it got great press and lots of people converted, but now its about extensions or addons issue. People at Opera are either just too stubborn or just too scared to adopt extensions and release an API, as it might make opera less secure. Even if its just to shutup Firefox fanboys.

How to record VoIP calls in Windows

2007-05-18T02:30:00.000+04:00

I came upon this step by step explanation on how to record calls from VoIP, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger, and Google Talk or any other VoIP applications one might use like any of the Betamax services like Low rate VoIP or VoipStunt.

From my initial research currently there is only one free solution (for now) that lets you easily record VoIP calls without any duration restrictions, that application is Solicall (www.Solicall.com).

If you want to understand, why we have to do this then download this podcast:

Gear Media Tech 1: Mixer Basics
http://pixelcorps.tv/gmt1

Systm - Episode 4 – Podcasting
http://revision3.com/systm/podcasting

Full credit goes to the guy who figured this out and here's his post:

---

I read a few instructions on the Net and experimented a little bit to figure out how you can record a Skype call in Windows without any fancy commercial plugins. The following instructions work fine for me when I'm using a headset (using loudspeakers would probably result in a feedback signal) - test it and feel free to write a comment if it works for you or not:

How to record Skype calls:

- download Audacity (open source audio editing software) from http://audacity.sourceforge.net and install it

- start Skype

- in Skype go to tools->options->sound devices and switch 'let Skype adjust my sound device settings' off

- start Audacity

- set recording setting to 'wave out mix' or ‘What U Hear’

- set wave output to 0.1

- set recording volume to 0.9 or 1.0

- go to Windows volume control (double click the speaker symbol in the notification area of your task bar)

- volume control:
- volume control: 100%
- wave: 10%
- microphone NOT mute
- mic volume up to 5th mark

- recording control:
- microphone: mic boost off, volume 100%
- make sure 'wave out mix' or ‘What U Hear’ is selected and volume is 90% to 100%

- in Skype go to tools->options->sound devices->'make a test call to Skype answering machine'

- record your test call by pressing the record button in Audacity

- play back your recording and adjust audio settings if necessary

- remember to get your conversational partner's approval before recording a call

Source
http://theword.zeroone.co.nz/index.cfm/2006/6/16/How-to-record-a-Skype-call-in-Windows
http://blog.keutgens.de/index.php/archives/14

Wisdoms of Hazrat Luqman

2007-04-25T20:26:00.000+04:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luqman_(person)

1. Anything that you preach, practice it first.

2. Speak according to your rank.

3. Recognize the respect of people.

4. Recognize the rights of people.

5. Guard your secrets.

6. Test your friends in times of trouble.

7. Try out your friends in times of profit and loss.

8. Keep away from stupid people.

9. Be a friend of clever and wise men.

10. Show your efforts in good work.

11. Plan with clever and wise men.

12. Speak with affection.

13. Value your youth.

14. While you are young do the work of this world and hereafter.

15. Honor your friends.

16. Deal with your friends and enemies in an honest way.

17. Regard your parents as a blessing.

18. Regard your teacher as your best guardian.

19. Spend according to your income.

20. In all your work take the middle course.

21. Serve your guests to the best of your ability.

22. Make generosity a habit.

23. When entering somebody's home look after your eyes and tongue.

24. Keep your clothes and body clean.

25. Be friendly to your society.

26. Teach your son knowledge and discipline.

27. When dressing start by putting on your shoes and socks on your right foot, and when taking them off, begin with the left foot.

28. When working with somebody, work recording to his capacity.

29. While speaking at night, speak softly; and while speaking during the day, first keep an eye on all sides.

30. Don't stretch in front of people.

31. Anything that you don't like for yourself, don't prefer it for others.

32. Work with intelligence and planning.

33. Don't try to teach when you are not learned.

34. Don't set your heart on things which belong to others.

35. Form a habit of speaking less, eating less and sleeping less.

36. Don't undertake any work without thinking.

37. Undone work should not be thought as completed.

38. Do not leave today's work for tomorrow.

39. Don't joke with your elders.

40. Don't bore your elders with lengthy talks.

41. Do not encourage people to be rude to you.

42. Don't disappoint a man in need.

43. Do not remember past disputes.

44. Don't confuse your own good with the benefits of others.

45. Do not show your wealth to friends and enemies.

46. Don't ignore your relationship with relatives.

47. Don't scandalize about people.

48. Don't admire yourself.

49. If a group of men are standing, do likewise and stand.

50. Don't point fingers at others.

51. Don't pick your teeth in front of others.

52. Don't spit or clean your nose loudly.

53. When yawning keep your hand in front of your mouth.

54. Don't expect loyalty from ill-bred people.

55. Don't speak nonsense.

56. Don't make people ashamed in front of others.

57. Don't repeat something that has been said already.

58. Don't make signs with your eyes and eyebrows.

59. Don't praise yourself and your family in front of others.

60. Don't decorate yourself like a woman.

61. Don't do what your children want you foolishly to do.

62. Guard your tongue.

63. Don't gesticulate when speaking.

64. Look after the respect of people.

65. Don't mix with offenders.

66. Don't recall the dead by their ill-doings, because there is no benefit in it.

67. As long as possible try not to start fights and arguments.

68. Don't continuously test your strength on others.

69. Don't take an experienced person to be noble.

70. Don't eat your bread at the table of others.

71. Don't hurry in your work.

72. Don't grieve over worldly things.

73. Don't become acquainted with anybody that does not value himself.

74. At times of anger say things thoughtfully.

75. Don't clean your nose with your sleeves.

76. Don't sleep at sunrise.

77. When walking with your elders, don’t walk in front of them.

78. Don't interrupt while other people talk.

79. Don't rest your head on your knees in the presence of others.

80. While you are walking look where you are going and do not look around.

81. Don't order your guests to do something for you.

82. Don't get angry with any one in the presence of your guests.

83. Don't sit with loiterers and doubtful characters in the street.

84. Don't lose your respect for the sake of profit and loss.

85. Don't be a wastrel and proud of yourself.

86. Don't carry people’s enmity on to yourself.

87. Keep away from strife and trouble.

88. Be friendly to people, but not to the extent that you may lose your own respect.

89. Don't belittle yourself.

90. Devote your life and with Allah by truthfulness.

91. Devote your life and with your ego by discipline.

92. Devote your life and with people by being just.

93. Devote your life and with your elders by service.

94. Devote your life and with your young by being sympathetic.

95. Devote your life and with the poor by generosity.

96. Devote your life and with your friends by advice and love.

97. Devote your life and with your enemies by patience.

98. Devote your life and with the ignorant by silence.

99. Devote your life and with the wise men by respect.

100. Don't covet others wealth, and in this manner spend your life.

101. When you have a lot don't store, and when it comes, don't refuse it.

102. I have carried steel and stones but nothing is heavier than (the Amaanat) of Deen.

103. I have experienced comfort and pleasure, but nothing is more pleasurable than safety.

104. I have tasted bitterness of all kinds, but nothing is bitterer than dependence on others.

105. I learnt good manners from the bad mannered.

106. I learnt wisdom from the blind who don’t step forward without feeling the ground.

107. There can never be a spoken or written word from which the wise cannot derive benefit.

108. Even a hundred books of wisdom cannot make a fool wiser, if he is not ready to benefit from them.

10 Tips for Being a Better Office Professional

2007-04-22T09:43:00.000+04:00

1. Do not discuss your salary/wage with your coworkers.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people do this. There is essentially zero good that can come out of this. One way or another somebody’s feelings are going to be hurt. It can cause a lot of strife between people and it’s even a terminable offense in most workplaces.

The only people that you could share your salary with are the following:

* Spouse or signifigant other if you live together or otherwise share a budget.
* Parents (with the understanding that it is strictly confidential, no telling their golf buddies, AA group or Joey your 4th cousin twice removed.)
* Your accountant.
* That’s it.

2. Perception is reality.

No matter how unfair it is, no matter how illogical it can be, it is the absolute 100% truth. People don’t have time in the workplace to ferret out the whole story. If you’re seen as a slacker, you’re a slacker. If you’re seen as a hothead, you’re a hothead.

Work hard to cultivate the perception you think you should have and protect it once it is achieved. That means you may have to work harder/faster/better than the other guy or gal if you’ve already been branded.

Along the same lines, be careful who you hang out with at work. It’s very easy to be pigeonholed with a group if you frequently go on breaks with, lunch with or otherwise hangout with people who act less that professionally (or proficiently) in the workplace.

3. Be honest with your coworkers, but not too honest.

If this job is just a stepping stone towards bigger and better things, don’t share that with the 20 year lifer that you just met at the office. I was guilty of this at my first professional job. I think back on that and realize what a jerk I must have sounded like.

Hopes and dreams are great, but try to keep conversations with your coworkers light, at least in the early going before you really know them.

4. Choose your battles wisely.

No you will not quit if they switch from Arrowhead bottled water to Sparkletts. Get a grip.

Some battles are worth fighting, others are small potatoes. Think of it this way. Every day that you work and do an acceptable job you earn a certain number of points. As you spend more time at the job you accrue these points until you can cash them in for several purposes.

One of those purposes is in the eternal battle to impose your will on others. Whether it’s a raise or more donuts on Friday. If you’re constantly spending your points you’re going to find yourself fresh out when something REALLY important comes along like… say… layoffs.

You always want to have a cache of points to turn in when you need them.

5. Nobody likes a whiner.

This goes hand in hand with choosing your battles. If you are constantly whining about things then you will actually lose points without getting anything for them besides irritated coworkers. If your chair is uncomfortable, go swipe one from somewhere else, or politely ask the office manager about maybe getting a new one.

If you can’t get whatever ails you resolved quickly and in a polite non-whiny manner, try to learn to live with it or fix it yourself.

6. Don’t get shitfaced at happy hour or the holiday party.

Wooo open bar! Hold on there partner. While it’s ok to have a cocktail or two while you’re at a company function, don’t get obliterated.

I’ve seen more than my share of otherwise normal folks completely crash and burn due to their allowing their cup to runneth over.

Take it easy, have fun, but remember that come Monday morning, yes they will remember if you act like an idiot while plastered. Minus points.

7. Get it in writing.

Email is one of the single greatest inventions ever in corporate accountability.

If there is ever a doubt in your mind about what you’ve been tasked to do, get it in writing. Sometimes people make judgement calls on the fly when they’re pressed for time. More often than not, when they are proven to have made the incorrect call, they will turn to you and ask you why you did that (idiot!). So having their instructions in black and white will save your ass a hundred times over the course of your career.

Get it in writing. Plus points if you catch the office bully with his pants down using this technique.

8. This isn’t high school or college A) debating.

Academic debates about random crap are fantastic fun in a scholastic setting. Nobody wants to debate arbitrary minutiae in the office, especially your boss.

9. This isn’t high school or college B) over the top.

While it may have been fun to be the over the top bombastic “willing to do anything to get a rise out of someone” kind of person back in school, this does NOT fly in the workplace.

Yes, it was jolly good fun to tease people and make people uncomfortable back in the day, but not any more when your livelihood hangs in the balance. This goes for discussing politics and religion as well. It’s just not a good idea.

10. Smile, today’s the first day of the rest of your career!

A positive attitude can have a great affect on your interpersonal relations at work and your career in general. Bosses and coworkers are a lot more forgiving if you can take a beating and still keep a bit of cheer about yourself.

Remember, it’s just work, don’t take it too seriously.

The number 1 rule for all the above is to REMEMBER ALL OF THE ABOVE. Complacency kills. As time goes along it's real easy to forget where you are, and let some things slip.

Make sure you stay on your game.

Source

Official Opera User Survey

2007-04-21T16:33:00.001+04:00

Give your input straight to Opera product developers, time to let them know whats good, bad and what needs to be improved.

read more | digg story

Ten Ways Being a Geek Makes You More Attractive

2007-04-11T00:40:00.001+04:00

Everyone is familiar with the stereotype of thick glasses, an intense obsession with star trek, and social skills akin to a sack of potatoes. It's 2007 and things are different: geeks now possess a number of qualities that can make them very attractive.

read more | digg story

Flippin' U.A.E.

2007-03-27T10:50:00.000+04:00

Props to Emirates Today for publishing this photo. Its a pretty good representation of what's goin' on in the U.A.E.

Entry Alpha

2007-03-02T14:38:00.000+04:00

Another day another blog... Haven't decided yet if I'll move over from Yahoo! 360° If Google does a better job of supporting my fav browser: Opera, then I'm in.

Time will tell indeed...