Now this brought back memories, we all got into one car which I didn’t even know that VW sold in Kuwait. It is probably the slowest German car I have ever driven, it is called the VW Polo and it is a 3 cylinder vehicle. We were given zero respect on the road and even the microbuses were going faster then us. Monichum wanted to buy some games, I still had my stash from last time and even then I still wanted more games.

At that point we were discussing how we should take 1.5 months off to stay home and play video games like the good old days. Then we headed over to the Slush Puppy stand to get something to drink, I had the orange but I should have stirred it a little more before drinking. It reminded me of the young days of drinking Slush Puppy and eating popcorn, then we walked around to a few stores before heading out. I will be going back to Rihab at this point since I have to fix my old XBox 360, the one that scratched all my games so I can use it on another screen. There is always something fun about being in Rihab but the traffic is really annoying in Hawally.

Starting Point:

Ducati – Factory
Bologna, Italia
26-11-07

End Point:

Tristar Kuwait
Dasman, Kuwait
28-02-08

I thought the first time I got something through the mail it was slow, but it turns out that items do get delivered in Kuwait but a very slow rate. This was a letter from Ducati Desmo Owners Club welcoming me to the Ducatista Community which is pretty nice, there are benefits to that which I will try to take advantage of. Aside from that is the time it took for that letter to arrive in Kuwait.

Travel Time: 95 Days

I wonder how long it will take for a private company to setup the delivery service within Kuwait, let them make money but lets have a decent Postal Service because this is just getting ridiculous.

6:15 am up getting ready for work

2:10 am Got back from Chamber of Commerce and all results are still not out.

2nd of April 2008 was an important day at the chamber of commerce, lots of people were out voting, contacting people we know to make sure they vote for the the different groups who are there. I was there supporting family and certain groups, it was a long day. I was at work earlier in the morning and got there around 12:20 pm. By 5:00 pm I headed home to get something to eat and take a shower, we are all standing outside so we had to take a break, came back and it kept going.

This time the vote was a manual count due to an idiotic candidate saying that the electronic system lies. This has resulted in a longer process, by 2 am they only finish 2 of the 6 boxes and only counting the full votes not the mixed votes. So this process would easily go past 6 am, I have a meeting in the morning but I decided to come home for a few hours worth sleep before going back there early in the morning. This has been one hell of a hectic day.

Well things have gotten interesting in Kuwait over the past week. Its no news that our government is in shambles and nothing is getting done, but they went ahead and gave up. When the government heads are dissolved then so will the parilaiment, so we might be voting this summer. Thanks to K I managed to get into voter registration at the last minute. Its going to be an interesting year since now the voting areas are grouped into 5 so we are all jumbled up. I wonder what the female turnout will be this year since its going to be very different setting.

Link: Flickr

It seems that Qnet was really having a problem in last couple of weeks that I saw with my connection. So the speed wasn’t consistent throughout the day, and it was mentioned by one of the comments that they are having an internal and external network problems which are being sorted out. That has been sorted out based on the speed connection chart above.

My downstream connection is about 420 to 480 KB/s throughout the day which is fantastic. This high bandwidth connection is very much worth it, I hope they are able to sustain this level of connectivity and keep growing. I am completely utilizing this download with all the movies and anime that I am stockpiling, anything I can think of I am downloading.

I have tried every ISP there is in Kuwait from the low to high speed connections. I have ran into problems with different ISPs and different problems, some reacted quickly, some were horrible, some were a disaster. After going through a few of them over the past two years I have done an evaluation on my experience with them and price.

Ranking:

1. Qualitynet
   • Decent Pricing (Cheapest price for higher speeds)
   • Reaction – Not too bad there is a lot of room for improvement.
   • Services – They are trying to improve their network so hopefully we get to see the results sooner
2. Kems
   • Very Good pricing (Cheap at 2MB and below, if you go higher they are expensive)
   • Reaction – Very good support staff, they really follow up with the customer
   • Services – They have good quality of service and they keep improving
3. UCC (United)
   • Pricing (They aren’t cheap, but they try to make deals)
   • Reaction – They don’t have a clue what they are doing
   • Service – They cap your downloads and sometimes don’t give you the speed you paid for
4. Fasttelco
   • Pricing (Most expensive by far, almost double some)
   • Reaction – Horrible reaction, its a disaster internally they don’t know whats going on in their own network
   • Service – Its a jumble, they don’t know whats going on and they also try to regulate P2P which is annoying

This is my opinion and I’m heavy internet user, some might have a different opinion but this has all been through experience with them. Between UCC and Fasttelco is choosing the lesser of two evils, I would avoid both if at all possible.

Internet Connectivity has been an issue over the past couple of months but it seems things have been ironed out. What I find funny is that ISPs keep blaming the problems outside the country for slow speeds they are having.

I have had the 4 MB connection from Qualitynet for the past month now. I paid 850 KD during the special pricing at the Expo. I was wondering how they would sustain the speed and if my line would be able to sustain that speed. My line has been able to sustain the speed consistantly and it has been an improvment but there also have been a few hiccups.

With a 4 MB connection that means you can download at around 380 to 420 Kbps depending on what you are connected to. I have been downloading from a server with a very fast connection, during the day my connection would hit 400 Kbps and average around that. Then at night it would drop to 100 to 140 Kbps, at best it would reach 200 kbps. It was strangely unstable but that was due to Qnet’s side. I asked them to refresh my IP, and everytime they did it solved the problem until it repeated the next night. Overall I think that the difference in speed is very noticable, and this 4 MB connection is worth for those who download a lot and use it for other reasons such as streaming out, vpn, and remotely connecting to your computer.

It seems that Kuwait traffic month is coming up soon so they have thought to ramp up the fines and punishment for all violations. Some seem reasonable and some are just stupid, the jail time for some of them is pointless except for hit and run, and driving under the influence that deserves that sort of punishment. Just keep this in mind people when you are driving.

Somebody explain to me whats going on, it was damn hot today and it looks like its going to be like that for the next week. Its going to hit the mid 20s and in the mornings its going to be 15 and above. Last week it was cold and I was enjoying it, today I switched on the AC at work which just spit out a ton of dust, didn’t help at all. I have no clue how its going to go over the next couple of weeks, but I really hope that it stays at this cool weather at least until May, so we can ride for a few more months.

A few things have been annoying me with Alghanim Electronics, they have become sort of a warehouse of electronics in Kuwait. They have also recently opened in Avenues mall, and it is a mix of items in that store. If your not sure of some electronic product you want, you can pass by and check out what they have. They have taken the distributorship of different brands from the small places in Kuwait to themselves.

One of those brands is Onkyo, the reason I went through the hectic loops of getting the an Onkyo receiver from outside Kuwait is because they don’t seem to bring the new models which have been out for over 6 months now. It used to belong to ETC the home theater company, and their margins were reasonable but the same product ETC sold, Alghanim sold at another 25% markup. One receiver that I saw they were selling at 1500 KD, ETC was selling at 1000 KD, and even with the 20% cash discount it would be 1200 KD. They would still be making a huge margin, they took away the competition leaving them no room to work. Their pricing is pretty bad on some products and they don’t have the best support, unless you buy their “extra” warranty.

Then there is the cabling, they are the dealers of Monster Cables from the US. They have all the different types of cables for Video, Audio, Accessory Connectivity, and more. This is great as options for us, but their pricing is also very high. They sell 15 ft HDMI cable for around for around 20 KD, and the 6 ft ones for 8 KD, these prices are slightly inflated by 150 to 400% depending on the length. Its just really annoying seeing this type of pricing for all the products, they think people are idiots, they raise the prices high enough and provide a discount making it look like they got it for cheaper.