Archive for August, 2008
Twitter, the pioneer in micro-blogging which now have hundreds if not thousands of clones all around the globe, was always blocked in UAE, don’t ask me why, while other clones like Pownce and Rejaw stayed available. Twitter is not the only blocked website that puzzled people, many other websites that got blocked had alternatives which was accessible and not blocked/banned such as Flickr and Photobucket.
It has been reported few weeks ago that more than 1000, yes ONE THOUSAND, websites will be unblocked/unbanned, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will be instructing Etisalat and DU to unblock the websites as part of a new “Internet Access Management” policy. For full info on this matter you can check this article from The National. Until now there is no list of what websites will be unblocked but I guess eventually we will be having a list either official or non-official during the next few days.
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August 26th, 2008
Update: 11th of September 2008: Bab Al-Hara gets a fourth and fifth Season.
Update: I will try my best to show Bab El7ara here.. I had couple of problems the past 5 days, will be blogging soon. MBC changed the Schedule to 11:00pm Dubai time. thats 7:00pm GMT. More to come soon.
Everybody is waiting for Bab El 7ara 3, after two successful seasons in Ramadan 2006 and 2007 MBC saw an opportunity and jumped on it. They quickly struck a deal with the producer and director of the Syrian TV drama series and even before airing the last few episodes they announced Bab El7ara 3, and quickly created promos featuring the two stars of the series. But later everybody started loosing faith in the success of the 3rd season after it was officially announced on AlArabiya channel that one of those two stars "Abbas El Noori" was not going to be in the 3rd season and his character will die on the first minute of the first episode. Fans of the show got mad and bombarded all Arabic forums showing their anger on the decision which is believed to be taken by the director although he says it was the writer’s decision.
By the end of July 2008 new teasers of Bab El 7ara started showing on MBC and by mid August longer promos aired. Those fans who did not believe the news that "Abu Essam" the character of "Abbas Elnoori" got a clear confirmation that his character is dead.
Here are ALL Promo’s that aired on MBC starting from the oldest ad to the latest one:
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August 23rd, 2008
Expect at least couple of more weeks of slicing and dicing Joe Biden by the media. What’s really funny is they talk about basic basic known facts, so what are they trying to say? all what they are saying Obama already knows and have put in consideration, its good to state the facts for people who do not know, but acting as if Obama’s campaign did not know those facts already and acting as if its NEW that’s what I call MEDIA BS.
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August 23rd, 2008
Just minutes ago MSNBC broke the news that sources told NBC that Barack Obama informed Kaine and Bayh they were not selected for VP. If it is Biden its a good choice, as I said before, I will really be SHOCKED if it was Hillary Clinton. I do not know much about Tim Kaine, but I think Biden is a better choice than Bayh, Evans Bayh would have been a bad bad choice. But who knows Obama could shock us all and choose the newly mentioned shortlist finalist Chet Edwards, the secrecy is amazing, only recently the media uncovered his name.
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August 23rd, 2008
A 35-article law includes all procedures concerning a mortgage in Dubai was issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The goal for issuing a mortgage law is to better regulate the emirate’s booming real estate sector.
According to Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, chief executive of Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority “the law is basically covering the mortgage procedures in Dubai”, this is an effort to protect the rights of lenders and borrowers and to improve transparency. The Mortgage law will come into effect after 60 days from its announcement.
The new law states that mortgage contracts must get registered with the “Land Department” of Dubai. The size of the loan, the repayment period and the value of the property must be specified. The law also states that the mortgages that are taken out on properties in Dubai can only be sold by registered financial institutions and also should be insured.
Full financial documents should be presented by the borrower and lender. “It gives more confidence to the lender and gives more security for banks” Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita said. Dubai started allowing foreign investors to buy properties in Dubai on a freehold basis in 2002.
Since then the mortgage business grew rapidly. Back in July Standard Chartered warned that the prices of the still under construction real estate will be inflated due to speculators in the market betting on quick gains.
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August 21st, 2008
As usual an amazing Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on John McCain’s criticism of the NBC elections coverage and Barack Obama. Keith amazingly gives it to McCain, its worth watching each and every second of this Special Comment. Olbermann always says what is on my mind that’s why am so addicted to watching Countdown.
Keith Olbermann explained this Special Comment in a post on the Daily Kos.
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August 20th, 2008
If you are a politics junkie like me or just a regular follower of news you will always try to find easier ways to access news networks. I watch a variety of channels and on different times, I watch CNN, Aljazeera English, Aljazeera Arabic, BBC World, France 24, MSNBC, Sky News, Alarabiya, and only for laughs I watch FOX News. For a while I used to use P2P programs such as TVU Networks, SOPCast, PPLIVE, PPMate and PPStream to watch various of news channels. Lately I am using LiveStation to watch some News channels, LiveStation provide high quality streaming of a number of news channels and radio news channels too.
For the time being LiveStation provides the following channels:
Some channels might not be available in your location, for example in my location “UAE” the “iTELE” channel is not available, but I guess most of them would be available. The streaming is fast and in great high quality and easy to switch between channels.
LiveStation also allows users to add channels in the website by adding the streaming URL of the channel. You also can add “user added” channels to your LiveStation channels list. Until writing this post 579 channels were added by users, you will find some of those really useful but some might not be in a good video quality like the channels officially provided by LiveStation.
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August 20th, 2008
Well this is not a sure thing, but many many journalists and media sources are either directly or indirectly hinting that Obama might announce his choice for Vice President before the Olympics, the reason for choosing this time is that the media will be focused on the Olympics and the only other time to do that is on the convention. So to take the attention of the media a number of journalists are predicting that it would be on Wednesday, some even predict who it will be, and the name I am reading and hearing a lot these past few days is Evan Bayh the Indiana Senator.
Although I have been following the news carefully on TV, Newspapers and Online Political Blogs, nothing was as accurate and as straightforward as the article I read on the Huffington Post on the 4th of August where Bil Browning states why he predicts that Obama will be announcing his VP on Wednesday and why it will be Bayh. I think the most powerful reason he states is when he wrote:
“I just got an invite from the Obama campaign to attend an appearance on Wednesday that isn’t on Obama’s official calendar. Why not? The campaign said, “I can’t tell you what the event is about, but we want to make sure you have a ticket so you can cover it for the Bilerico Project. We want Bilerico Project to be there for this one.”"
I think Evan Bayh is a good choice for many reasons, and a bad choice for many many reasons too. One of the most obvious reasons why he might be a good choice is ofcourse the chance in turning Indiana blue in November, another reason could be that he was a Clinton supporter, but I think one of many reasons why he is a bad choice is the fact that he was PRO-WAR, and he is a Conservative who was an honorary co-chair of the neocon pro-war Committee For the Liberation of Iraq, with McCain !?!?! Many might debate how Conservative bayh is, but in the end of the day he is a conservative who was with McCain in the Iraq Liberation Committee, what can be said more than that?
So although the scenario depicted by the media is PERFECT and MAKES SENSE, the CHOICE is sort of BAD. Just saying… lets wait and see.
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August 6th, 2008
It has been reported few weeks ago that more than 1000, yes ONE THOUSAND, websites will be unblocked/unbanned, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will be instructing Etisalat and DU to unblock the websites as part of a new “Internet Access Management” policy. For full info on this matter you can check this article from The National. Until now there is no list of what websites will be unblocked but I guess eventually we will be having a list either official or non-official during the next few days.
