ok guys.. and gals sorry about the lack of posts from me. However Flamin Carrot’s been doing a great job keeping everyone updated about the world’s happenings. So do comment away!!….

I have been personally down with a major dose of food poisoning after having a simple sharwama from “Kuwaitana(now totango) in Salmiya. i did doubt that something of the chicken sharwama didnt look good, either it looked too pale or over roasted.  So Friday- Saturday and Sunday went reallllly bad!!!!! with splitting headaches, growling tummies to what not!!!…

Luckily i had eaten only half of it, before i realised something was wrong. yesterday i decided to pass by the restuarant. It was closed at about 3 pm. to my shock i still see the meat on the grill .. just wrapped around with plastic. i wonder how old it was!!!!!! and they went on reheating it !!!!

Someone must sue them!!!… i might visit them today to give them a piece of my mind! Today, im much better though Weak!… Now i got a hundred mails to respond, loads of people to call… and much more… but will be posting shortly.

• Assistant IT Engineer(need to know Formating, Installation of windows & other applications, cabling & networking, must have a driving license.)

Recently, our telephone at home was shutdown and we get this message, that “Your phone has been disconnected due to non-payment”. Now more than the phone itself, i was freaked out about not having internet at home and it caused me to either rush to the nearest exchange or check it out online. Zita(my wife).. suggested we check it online. So after about 20 mins of searching for the MOC site, we didnt really find anything there. So we checked out www.e.gov.kw and found that we could pay online!….

I was worried about the process as government sites hardly work! and steps involved, since it was in Arabic. but we used google to translate every word that was in arabic. and managed to get the bill paid using KNET. it was a Six Step Process.

1. Sign in using your Phone and CivilID.
2. Check your balance pending.
3. Pay via knet, the same amount pending or more than whats pending.
4. Enter your Email for a receipt.
5. Pay with your debit card, and confirm
6. Await Receipt on screen and Email

i thought i had to wait till MOC checks the balance, but we checked the telephone and wow it was instant!!!!

For a direct link to the service, click here : http://e.gov.kw/MOC_en/Pages/eServices/MOC_AR_EService_BillsQuery.aspx

Thou shalt have great breath! Honestly, it feels like penance in the confessional already having to smell your breath while you tell me how many hail mary’s will save my soul.

Thou shalt not be mean! So the guy in the pew in front of you is playing snake in the middle of mass. Or the couple  poking each other in their sides as they sit next to each other  faking folded arms. Or the two girls giggling in the far end. Don’t point them out in the middle of mass for heavens sake (like I once observed at the Roman Catholic Church, Kuwait City). You’d think that would only make them not want to come back ever?

Thou shalt learn varied tips from competing religions. I’ve gone to more energetic services seriously! You shall not make us fall asleep!

Thou shalt consider starting a blog. Imagine that!  A cool blog about hobbies priests have. Doodles and cartoons about church life. Humor in White Robe. Bonus points if it is a funny blog!

Thou shalt do some PR with da people!  Wake up, it’s no longer the age of blind faith!

Thou shalt know all cool things current, thou shalt use all cool things current in your sermon, thou shalt be omniscient about all cool things current. If you are not on the same page as the Lost/ Desperate Housewives watching Christians then how will you associate with them to tell them where they draw the line? The best thing you could do is know these television characters well enough to tell us why we shouldn’t be like them. Having Bon Jovi’s “Keep the Faith” ring tone will take you further to a younger crowd then any other strategy.

Thou shall make a facebook group. Seriously, it’s actually just cool to have one. Religion can be cool, n’est ce pas?

———————–

Other things thou shalt consider:

SMS daily spiritual messages via Blackberry and iPhone

Online sermons blogged

Fan page on facebook and MySpace

Twitter holy thoughts

Tell gaming developer Zynga to build a chapel for farmville.

Thou shall analyze tips and opinions instead of scoffing at them with a holier than thou attitude!

There is a reason that there is a Highway to Hell (AC/DC) and a Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)- the latter requires effort and I hope the list of tips will help!

Facebook does bring friends and families together. i found a classmate through facebook and he had a photo of our school times. So i uploaded it on my blog , so that it can be found by everyone.  

The names are Bharat, Hulin, Praveen, Nabeel, Jinesh, Sujil, Nilesh, Raymond, Mufazzal, Seby, Husseni-N, Arun, Danny, Lakhvinder, Sajid, Zeeshan, Prem, Jerry, Vindhu, Benoy, Amit, Ali Asagar, Mathew, Jaya, Ranjeev, Hatim, Husseni-A, Hameen, Harvinder, Alexzander, Ramesh, Yunus, Murtuza, Syed, Rakesh, Reno.

So if you are in this list, and need the better quality, pls mail me.

People dont realise, when they expose their whole life out there. its easily available for the unknown to view, pry and stalk you. Facebook status messages are extremely public, unless you spend alot of time to lock your account.

i was going through endgadget.com today, i found this article that there is a website called “OpenBook”  which connects to facebook profiles and get their status messages. you can even search based on gender. i tried  searching for random text like “kuwait ” , “goa” and more.. and got a whole list of results!

Check it out for yourself!

http://willmoffat.github.com/FacebookSearch/

Western Digital now comes with Access Security with encryption. In Short, you can password-protect your external drive, forcing it to access for a username and password everytime you plug it to any pc. From a security point of view this is extremely good and prevent unathorized access if you loose the drive itself.

What i hate about which literally made me mad is that the security is too strong, so if work on stand by modes like over a laptop. it can actually corrupt your data. For example, Imagine you had a word file open and was typing to glory and suddenly you decide to close the laptop screen and make it go into standby. this actually shutsdown the device making it logout so when you boot it up. Windows detects the device but wont let it load up due to the password issue. this would corrupt your open documents.

Secondly, even for the slightest loose contact over the USB slot, would coz the device to loose its Authentication session, making it highly Unreliable!!.

One of my latest projects, Shopclosetcandy.com is finally online. Its an online store with the latest fashion trends from all over the world. Closet Candy is a locally run business in Kuwait. its currently integrated with KNET and also includes Cash on delivery services.  i feel with the plans and strategies the owner has in mind. it will be a major online player…in Kuwait Internet Market.

So do visit the site .. www.shopclosetcandy.com  and do let me know your reviews.

This icons are available for download for free at
http://www.noupe.com/freebie/free-furry-cushions-social-icons-set.html

Today i was shocked to see a girl get sexually harassed and molested on a live reality show. I felt that this show is depicting Indians as a bunch of fools crazily looking for partners online and get molested on live TV. Channel V nicely puts it as a lesson to learn from Internet chatting… but i was pretty much shocked by it. Watch it for your self and comment.

After years of being a workaholic and being pressured by my parents, not to get involved with my family members. i decided to “BREAK FREE” and get in touch with everyone and see how is everyone doing. The last 2 week-”ends” was extremely fun, loving and something different from my usual routines of not being in touch with family.

One thing i did learn from this expereince is no matter what your parents or uncles tell you. Its important to meet your cousins, in-laws , its a wonderful experience to meet people from your own age levels and generations and at the same time are related to you.

I was searching for a family tree software, but the ones that are online are extremely complicated. So its in my to-do list to make a “simple-tree” view web application, for people to use.  Speaking of tree-view. this is a Family tree script,  i had done some years back for my friend, Vibin .. http://www.kallumgal.com/dtree.asp .

Picture: A few South African Artifacts near the TV at our living room.

1.   One of the Leading IT Company in Kuwait immediately requires 

• IT Sales Cum Technician
• Office Receptionist
  Male or Female. Freshers or experienced, Send your CV to sales.sharif@gmail.com

——————————————————

2. An International Insurance Company (State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan) Inviting Application from Dynamic, Energetic and self-motivated part time or full time Pakistani male / female marketing executives. Those who are interested please send their CV to shahid_riaz1@hotmail.com or make a call to Mr.Shahid – 97293703

——————————————————

3. An auto spare parts company in Shuwaikh wanted Accountnat ( Male). Candidates having B.Com Degree and Transferable ( Article:18)can apply. Starting Salary KD 175. Interested candidates can apply at  martinclement81@yahoo.co.in or Fax : 24822443

——————————————————

4. Leading American Kuwait General Trading & Contracting. Est. is seeking to recruit the following for their car accessories outlets: 
Salesman
* The candidate must be well experienced in car accessories and fluent spoken Arabic.
* Must have good knowledge about car accessories.
* Must know the fittings of different accessories of cars.
* Must have good communication skill.
Interested candidates please call to 66285063 or E-mail us at ahsunn@gmail.com

——————————————————

 5.  Urgently required a female secretary at Fahaheel.
Must be graduate,Must know Ms-office applications, Good communication skill, Good correspondence, language proficiancy in English(verbal & written). Arabic is an advantage.  Should have minimum 3 years experience , Preferably Fahaheel, Mangaf area.
Salary will be depend on the experience & after the interview. Call Mob. 99697585

——————————————————

6.   Wanted a salesman for an established distribution company with the following criteria.
-Experience in sales field.
-Good Communication Skills.
-Valid Kuwait Driving license.
-Own car is an advantage
Interested candidates pls forward their CVs to murtazak@hotmail.com

——————————————————

7.   Technical Construction Co Requires Office Administrator
Job Responsibility 

•  Coordinating between the office and the field teams.
• Managing the daily office paper work.
• Managing Special computer application related to the company business. 
• Arranging the working timetable for the field teams in daily bases.
• Taking phone calls and making the outcome report from customer’s calls.
• Developing the working standards.
• Raining a daily, weekly and monthly report.
• Managing the correspondence with the suppliers overseas.

General Skills Requires 

•  Highly computer literate.
• Full Function Microsoft application functionality.
• Full Function Project operations.
• Willing to learn new tetchiness new computer application.
• English language three competences required.
• Transferable residency.
  For those how like to apply for this job please send your CV. To the following
  E-mail.Officebackup74@yahoo.com. Phone:22640309

——————————————————–

8.   Temporary Vacancy (1-1/2 Months)in a Company for the position of Coordinator with the following requirements:
*The candidate should be a Commerce Graduate.
*Min. 5 yrs of experience is required in Administration, Invoicing, International Correspondence, Handling the clients etc.
*Good reading, writing & speaking capacity in English. Please forward your CV by email to jobscert@gmail.com

———————————————————

My New work environment involves me to handle difficult situations and complex tasks. As a single individual, i can really handle them alone, i seriously dont like baggage and can be the boss of my own self. So i take all the gain and all the loss. But trying to bring in the spirit of “teamwork” in a department seems to be close to impossible in my work environment. A statement was made today to me, on why are you trying to build the team. why are you worried about your team members…. are you emotionally weak?

it got me thinking… is it right to be worried about bringing your team to the same level? same gain, same level of being praised? or should i take it all and dont bother…! am i emotionally weak that i must bring my team together? or am i just being helpful?. Would it be rude that i run my own show….. im quite lost…

is there a border line between these 2 inert feelings ? …. what say you?

India is really advancing, keeping in mind the extreme complexity of Natural issues like hills, valleys, rain and humidity. BSNL seems to be able now to pump in max 500 GB through their lines. im not sure how much the old copper lines in india can handle. but i know that one of my offices is running currently on a 8Mbps internet connection over our weak copper line.

Today i was shocked to see their latest offers for both home and business users. 
http://bsnl.co.in/service/new_BB/BB_COMBO_Unlim.htm

So they say, they will provide from 4 Mbps upto 500 GB.. so seriously .. even i get 50 to 100 GB.. i would be maxed out with my downloads… that too for KD 97 per month?…i hope they didnt make a mistake of MB as GB, but if no, then Kuwait needs to catch up.

We got a talent photographer, who handles our Photo shoots in Goa. As his first shoot, we told him to get some shots done of my office in Goa. The above is one of the shots he took. The logo is stuck on our tinted Glass Window at our office entrance, which reflects the garden and the parking.

Some programmers have a lot of time in their hands , how i wish i had too. i found this AI chat script done a couple of years ago when i was searching for Artificial Intelligence Programming. I had a friend requesting a one on one chat with God. So i had sent her this

http://www.titane.ca/igod/main.html

What surprised me is their database has increased with relatively close answers and humorous statements. So if you have had a bad day and need to vent out.. take your shot!

btw: this is not for hardcore religious folks, who has no time for humor! and yes.. this is not a replacement for the real faith

I found this on the web over a random search. im not sure who took the shot, or who to give credit to, as it is a direct link. But what surprised me is that in 1961, Kuwait had street lights, well done roads  and more… it shows how much the country was developed then. Secondly the layout of the church where the walls were low, so that we could see people and the faithful from a far, to what it is today.. that is  more of a fortress!   with huge walls etc…

Update: i just found that this photo was taken by Verity Cridland’s family , a British family who used to be living in Kuwait in the 60s. i will be putting more of her online shortly after necessary permissions. Here is one more of them..

As a kid, when we were messing with MS DOS.. one of the games i was hooked on to, was Wolf3d. I used to sit nights just searching for the secret door for stash of guns, ammo and health. The Game play was straight forward..i.e., “Kill the nazis and complete the level”…

Back at college, or at the labs, we used to discuss this in maps, strategies and more. So that we know how to do our next more. Then Rush home to continue on the game. if im not mistaken the complete game used to fit into a floppy as a compressed zip file and when we used to unzip it into our pcs and type “wold3d” on dos prompt to run it.

Here are some more screens if it brings back memories

A small research into this…i found out it was developed by ID software and published by Apogee Software. Apogee software came out with many publications like Dukenukem, SuperNova and Biomenace. Will do a write up on them shortly.

You can find an article on Wolfenstein 3d here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein_3D

When i change OSes , im usually very careful, but my migration from Windows XP and Linux to Windows 7 has been forceful as the frequent issues with latest updates have slowed down my work process. So i started with moving my Laptop to windows 7 Professional. the installation was done via a USB.. and was FAST about 40 mins. My laptop now seems extremely stable and windows 7 doesnt seem to have the bugs that was carried by Vista.

Today i got my home PC moved from windows xp 64bit to windows 7 professional  64bit. the installation took over and hour. im having minor VGA issues but it seems ok so far. i had picked up additional 4 GB ram to make it total to 8 GB, but somehow my bios wouldnt boot.. so im back on 4 GB for now.

i will review windows 7 shortly.!

im back .. more revived! , more determined and more!!!! Promise to update the blog daily!!!!!

Having worked on Linux intensively on servers & networking. i decided to push it into a desktop mode, where i wanted to see how far i could make it go and how practical it would become for a normal windows user to migrate to this strong OS.

Well, my conclusion on this was bad. Even though i love linux alot, but i find it not-practical at all for the desktop user. the amount of customizations, plugins, etc to make it close enough to windows is basically a lot of effort. i thought of many users when i was making this study and i find it impossible for them for to just directly start working on linux.

i will be having various parts to this article, on what issues i faced as compared to windows. Please do note, this is not a windows is better than linux battle. but rather focus on user-ability and functionality. If the linux community could focus on these points. it would be great.

A very common thing in Kuwait amongst smaller companies especially SMB, is the concept of  ‘delayed salaries’ to employees. i can understand if salaries are delayed for 2 to 4 days due to technical issues, but i dont understand, how employers can delay employee salaries for 15 days to even 3 months.

During the last 4 years, The Shoon(Legal enforcement department), has made it mandatory for companies to deposit salaries to the employee’s bank accounts. This process has helped employees ensure they have their pay . but the shoon has given a notice period of 3 months to any employer to pay any pending salary.  So i have seen many friends and families complain that they havent got salary for the last 2 months to 3 months. and on the fourth month the company decides to pay just 1 month to ward off the ’shoon’.

What i dont understand is that employers take their staff for granted and delay the salaries. I would understand recession, no business, lack of sales etc. but ensuring your employees are paid is the highest priority!. If you didnt have that in mind, why was the company formed in the first place?. Companies faithfully pay their legal fees, telephone bills, electricity.. in the fear of shutting down. but they rather loose good employees than ensure confirmed satisfaction.

Any Expat or human being in general, working in Kuwait, needs atleast his/her salary on time, as thats their confirmed benefit of working in foreign lands!. Majority of the workforce dont get any other benefits , including no medicals, tickets, etc. So why not give them their salary and let them live.

The concept of delayed salaries, is as good as not having money at all. When an employee doesnt have his salary for the month, due to any delays.  He/she cannot delay his rent, food, and other fixed expenses for that month. He/she would either take a loan from a friend, family, loan shark  or eat into his savings. They then mentally note,” when we get our salary, we will pay back the person,shark or into our savings”. and probably they must be doing so, but in this bargain, we must note,  that the process of repaying will always continue non-stop and the consequences are very bad, both mentally and physically. It keeps the person in a state of mind, that they are always ‘indebt’ to someone at all times.

Companies that do this, put their corporate image at risk. 10 years ago, an employee would faithfully join them, today employees research the web, check blogs, forums, puts the word around. Usual comments like, “they dont pay well”, “they delay salaries”, “they have deductions” is very common in today’s tea-time discussions.  They brings down the image of the company and is very bad for its growth. Employers must understand, that a satisfied employee is their Greatest Assets.

My Philosophy to company owners is that you need to ensure that your biggest confirmed costs every month is salaries, so you need to ensure that this is there at all times. Lets say for whatever reason, salaries must be delayed. it must dutifully notified to the employee’s with a confirmed expectation date. Also with a reason for this delay. Employees usually take these reasons and inform their expense sources about it. For example, “Hey Landlord, i will pay on this day as the company delayed the salary and will pay on this date”. Majority of the time the expense sources agree, if you have confirmed dates and stick to it.

So companies, pls dont delay your employee’s salary. They put in the hardwork. More than any benefit, is that they need it on time.!

I remembered this Quote from xXx the movie…where Samuel jackson, tells Vin diesel, on why he should support the US special forces for the Russian operation.

"You ever watch lions at the zoo?
You can tell which were captured in the wild by the look in their eyes.
The wild cat.
She remembers running across the plain, the thrill of the hunt.
Four hundred pounds of killing fury locked in a box.
But after a while, their eyes glaze over...
...and you can tell their soul has died.
The same thing happens to a man."

As i said in the past, 2010 will be a major change for me. Years of being out there in the wild, have slowly caught up and now im old, at a desk!. Years have gone by where the window of opportunities was endless. Now my only window is through the LCD of my laptop!.

A new environment, a new avenue is what i am in today! it might similar what everyone else is doing in Kuwait. but it was never this, for me in Kuwait.  So i need to struggle, to fight back and to ensure that the opportunities still remain though, via a single window. Those who know me well over the years will definitely understand what i mean!