Technical Support: Bonsoir, keef fiyye se3dak?

Me: Bonsoir, badde 2es2alak iza fi chi machkal 3al internet?

Technical Support: No everything looks normal. What is your account?

(So I gave him my account)

Technical Support: Everything looks normal on my screen.

Me: Great! But everything looks great here too but I cannot go online for some reason.

Technical Support: Hmm, is this happening with you everyday at this hour (around 11pm).

Me: Almost every day yes.

Technical Support: Sorry we cannot do anything about it. The lines are getting overcrowded so some people are left out without internet.

Me: So this means everyone in Lebanon might be having the same issue I have?

Technical Support: I am afraid yes.

Me: And when do I expect to have my connection back?

Technical Support: I am afraid I do not have an answer for that.

Me: Thank you for your time.

I don’t think we should campaign for a faster connection, we should campaign for a connection to begin with!

I’ve been wanting to buy a mobile as a gift prior to Mother’s day but I honestly could not find any decent one except the iPhone and the Nokia E72. They are both of different price ranges but they are the best ones to get if you want an expensive and worthy phone or a relatively affordable and practical phone.

I don’t like how Samsung and Nokia are trying to immitate the iPhone regardless of the fact that they are android phones. They could be better phones for all I know but they just look like cheap versions of the iPhone. (Samsung Galaxy S, Nokia N8)

As far as Blackberry phones are concerned, their service is too damn expensive in Lebanon and you could replace it easily by getting whatsapp application and subscribing to the GPRS service. Therefore, except for corporate use, it’s a useless and expensive phone to get.

The iPhone in Lebanon is too expensive still (Around 1000$) and getting it from abroad factory unlocked is a hassle. That leaves us with Nokia phones and the E72 is the most reliable of them all. The previous E71 was a success and the new E72 is even better.

If you guys know of any phone worthy looking at, please share it with me.

Every few years, I see someone reminding us about the rocket a Lebanese professor called Manoug Manougian created some 50 years back at the Haigazian University. The rocket was called Cedar 3 and made it into the thermosphere reaching an altitude of 145 kilometres. [Link]

It apparently caught the attention of the US and Soviet Union at the time who sent cultural attaches to see what the Lebanese scientist had done.

This year, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first rocket launch, artists and film-makers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have created a set of installations that tell the story of, and reflect on, the Lebanese rocket launches in one of the largest art shows in the Middle East, the Sharjah Bennial 10. [Sharjah Bennial 10]

It is quite sad that we haven’t heard of any valuable invention by a Lebanese scientist since then, as if history has stopped for us back in 1966.

I have a friend who bought a Blackberry one month ago and is now getting an Iphone and wants to sell his BB. It is a BlackBerry 9780 bold3 and it’s been used for barely one month. He bought it at 540$ and will sell for a reasonable price.

If anyone is interested, let me know.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)
(Funny quote from Angie on Egypt’s current situation)

While some countries opt to stop facebook or twitter or other social media networks during riots or protests, Egypt’s leader Husni Mubarak decided to shut down the country’s ISPs and mobile networks!

Nevertheless, it seems Egyptians have found ways to keep themselves connected, which brought me back years back when we still had modems. They are using dial-up modems and calling an international number to reach a modem in another country which gives them them a connection to the outside world.

Reports are saying they are using HAM radios as well to transmit messages. I wonder if any of them will use morse code as well. That would be cool!

I was checking the blog BeirutSpring this morning when I noticed it got hacked. I am not sure but I think it is the same guy who hacked Al-Akhbar website few weeks back, or at least both are Saudis or claim they are.

Hope the site will be back asap and let us know if we can help you in anyway Mustapha.

Update: BeirutSpring is back on!

I know i promised ten days of giveaways and most of you are not expecting any gifts today. Well on the contrary, today we’ll be giving away the campaign’s grand prize:

A Samsung 8.2 Megapixels Digital Camera courtesy of Khoury Home!

Yup, you heard me right. Today’s giveaway is the Samsung L100 8.2 megapixels with a digital image stabilisation and face detection function.

Khoury Home is Lebanon’s leading retailer of household products and was voted the Number 1 Levant Retailer for 2010. Their vision is to become in the upcoming years the clear leader in the retail business of household products and appliances, in Lebanon, the Levant and the Middle East.

Their goal is to support a business environment that provides “best in class” service for our customers delivered by “best in class” professionals.

[Taken from Website]

I mostly go to Khoury Home whenever i need to buy household products and very rarely to other places. I find everything i need there at fair prices and the customer service is quite remarkable. I love how spacious the place is too, you don’t feel it’s too crowded yet there’s everything. Also, Khoury Home is probably the only retailer in Lebanon that allows you to purchase online and deposit online payments for wedding lists.

Last but not least, i wish to thank the Khoury Home staff for their generosity and for this great gift that is “la Cerise sur le Gâteau” that we needed for our campaign.

We will exceptionally keep the post open until tomorrow morning and hold the draw at exactly 2:48am.

Why 2:48am? Well for two reasons:
1- Everyone would be too busy having dinner and exchanging gifts at night and maybe attending the Christmas mass at midnight. That way they will still have time to come back and comment.
2- I am a big fan of the 248am blog and the time fits well so why not?

Good luck everyone!

Update: I am noticing a lot of people posting from the same ip. I will deliberately delete comments that i find suspicious or duplicated or originating from the same person.

Update2: The poll was closed and the winner is [Here]

Comment #46, you’ve got mail!

Alfa Mabrouk to Roniabinader and Merry Christmas everyone!

NB: You need to put your proper email in the email field when commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.

Update: The comments got deleted when uninstalling Disqus. Check [Here]

I have a friend who wants to sell his brand new Ipad as he found no use for it. He bought it from the Apple store in Lebanon for 1389$ and wants to sell it for 1100$.

It is a 64 GB iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G.

If you are interested, let me know.

Since the government decided to plant speed traps everywhere, some people have started downloading and using the Trapster application. My friend called me today telling me he was able to spot 3 of them with the Trapster.

It is very easy to use, you just download it, and post about a radar your spotted on the map, then all other users will be notified of the radar’s location.

According to nowlebanon, 3630 traffic violations were detected only on Monday. Here is a picture of the new anti-speeding radar.

A Lebanese company called DoubleU S.A.L has developed two Itunes applications that provide information on any Lebanese citizen, including his first name, family name, father’s name, marital status, full home address, financial debt status and lots of other information for only 6.99$. [App1, App2]

All you need to query is one’s mobile number or car plate.

Copying or stealing databases is a direct violation of the Lebanese Penal Code. The only people who can legally solicit this information are the police or judicial authorities. “Therefore, any kind of usage of this information…is strictly illegal,” states Dr. Toni Issa, lawyer and president of the IT Committee for the Beirut Bar Association. [NowLebanon]

I personally know many people who have access to those MS Access databases, which are regularly stolen from the authorities and put on a cd and distributed around. I join here BloggingBeirut’s call to all privacy advocates in Lebanon to spread the message on this unethical behavior and serious breach of privacy.

Here is more information about the company, Double U SAL:

Ziad Salameh
DoubleU S.A.L
81St. George Bld. – Maarad Str.
Nejmeh Square , Beirut, Downtown, Beirut 00961 Lebanon
(961) 198-8883

I saw this in a Teletrade’s magazine. Teletrade is a Lebanese company that sells computers and computer parts. Check the price on the workstation to the right.

Whenever i call Alfa support, i keep hoping that this time they will be able to actually help me but in vain. I am not quite sure why i bother try calling them again.

I called this morning to activate the GPRS on my phone. It took few hours to work and i started browsing the net and adding few applications. I downloaded Live Messenger application among others like two hours ago. Since then, i got no phone calls nor messages and received an email from a friend asking me why my phone is closed.

I call Alfa to ask them if there’s any problem with my line, they answer me that everything is ok and i should try it on another phone.

I explain that i had this issue before with the WhatsApp application. They answer me that i have to visit a cellular store to resolve the issue.

I guess we all know now why the support line 111 is for free, simply because no one would ever pay money to listen to meaningless B.S.

PS: I removed the MSN application and restart my Iphone. It worked fine.

The United Arab Emirates, citing security concerns, said Sunday that it would suspend BlackBerry mobile services like e-mail and text messaging beginning in October, the latest high-stakes clash between governments and communications providers over the flow of digital information.

And it looks like other countries will follow.

The decision could have significant implications for BlackBerry use in the Persian Gulf region, where Saudi Arabia has been closely studying the issue and may follow suit. Other countries, including Kuwait and Bahrain, have also raised concerns.

[More]

Here’s also an ad that was banned in the states but not because it includes a blackberry.

So much for this much expected internet cable that will enhance the download and upload rates and make our lifes better. Yesterday, there was a press conference at the Ministry of Telecommunications and the outcome was as expected, talks and talks and empty promises.

According to Matt Nash, a blogger on nowlebanon who attended the conference, Lebanon is still awaiting a response from Egypt indefinitly. It appears to me the Egyptians emailed us the response with a large attachment and our ministry needs few weeks to download it!

However, until we receive an answer, the government will increase in the next 18 months bandwidth at 42 Ogero central offices by 15 Mbytes, which is better than nothing.

On a final note, and this is addressed to Matt Nash, he seemed pretty upset by the addition of only 15 Mbytes and justifies his anger by giving the following example:

With a BlackBerry plan you get 50 megabits of free downloading per month. And that’s for one person, not the whole damn neighborhood. Good god.

Bandwidth rate has nothing to do with how much mbytes you are allowed to download per month. If the whole Achrafieh area has 500 users who presumably download at 512 Kps rate but can only reach 394 kps, adding 15 mbytes to the whole Achrafieh Bandwidth will allow those users to maybe reach the 512 kps as it is spread among them.