Q8Ba7th Official Blog

The visit before my last, I was so disappointed and distracted all the time by how Marina Mall has turned into, and I can only guess it relates to the Avenues invasion. Each parking lot has small sign before it, that would seem like handicapped parking only at first. Corridors were filled with booths from all kinds, some even blocking the outside view of some shops. restaurant tables are all covered with company ads. Well that last one might seem ok, but over all you get the feeling they’re sacrificing quality for short-term profits.

This last Wednesday however, I’ve seen the worst of all. Big chunk of the booths are gone, but on one of the sides, this is what I saw.

Yes, this is inside Marina Mall. I looked at it today in disbelief again. How could they allow it to go this low? Is there no limit to how bad the mall can get if it makes few extra bucks today, never mind tomorrow?

Sad really.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I started receiving several copies of this spam email in the last couple of days. I’m not sure how many of you have had as well.

Now I have safely ignored it for the first time, but as it kept receiving more and more copies, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Regardless of the supposedly opt-out message at the bottom, I want to know how did I get added in the first place to this acs-newsletter.com. I also got a similar email from acs-ads.com. Both of which have no launched site. How did they get my email then? Doing a whois on the site, you can tell they belong to a company called Absolute Career Solution.

And Googling for the Absolute Career Solution name, I came across one company in Kuwait with that slogan, namely Wazeefa1. But that might just be a coincidence. But once you whois Wazeefa1, things become so clear.

Clearly belonging to the same owner, Nedal, and under same company name, Absolute Career Solutions, a.k.a Absolute Spam Solutions. I did a search on my email, and no, I do not see any record of me registering with Wazeefa1. And if for the sake of argument I did register (to seek for jobs), why would I receive Sultan Center restaurant spam ads?

So do your self a favor, and stay away from this site. Nothing good can come from a business being run this way.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Ministry of Education in Kuwait have released electronic versions of the Kuwait public school course materials and made available for download from their website as PDF files.

I’m not sure if this includes all of the material, as I saw some First Episode books without the second, but it’s still a very good move for both students and teachers, to gain easy and quick access to the material, even if it’s late on print (like always!).

Now the real bad thing about it is how they decided to split it into chapters, and you will have to download each chapter separately.

I wonder why, as the size is really just a few MBs and bandwidth is less of an issue now. Worst case is allow for chapter or full book download. So if you really want it as a single document, follow the two simple steps:

1. Download all PDF files manually, or I suggest you use DownThemAll add-on for Firefox to retrieve all the relevant PDF files. Put them all in one directory.
2. Use MergePDF.net or else the steps described here to merge all the files in one. Make sure to keep them in the right order though.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Name: Al-Bairaq Mall Cinema

Type: Cinema / Shopping Mall

Location: Egaila, Block 4

Brief: The newest cinema in Kuwait, from no other than Cinescape ofcourse, opened in the recently opened Al-Bairaq mall in Egaila, featuring 3 screens only, compared to the latest brand openings in 360 and Avenues.

Review: Being few minutes drive from my place, I was still hesitant to try this cinema out. Alas, Cinescape had a clue people won’t favor this place, and showed Toy Story 3D exclusively there for a whole week at least. Being a favorite for my kid, and for the love of 3D I hold, I decided to try it out.

Parking: First let down is that, unlike 360 and Avenues, this mall has zero shaded parkings, and all parkings are outside. So you will be parking your car under the sun.

Friendliness: For the first time really I encountered some rude guys at the snacks stand. When I was standing first inline before they opened, and they started serving others from another line. I pointed that I’ve been standing here first and I shouldn’t be asked to line behind others, the Philippine seller rudely replied that this is the open cashier and they start with it. It’s not the waiting but the principle of respecting a person’s turn that would piss you off even before you start enjoying the movie.

Cleanliness: Having been opened for a week only, and being on the first show of the day, I really don’t see any explanation for unclean seats and some left overs on the floor. It wasn’t quite filthy, but not clean as well.

Disturbance: During the show, it was mostly quite. However most people are coming to the theatre to book at last minute, and the guy showing them to their seats doesn’t really care the movie started and you paid to enjoy it. He would stand in your face and point the light for the late coming people.

The Show: 3D glasses are quite as good as the 360 experience, if you have experienced it. Ofcourse it’s not IMAX here but still, the 3D experience is wonderful, BUT! It’s very hard to miss the dirt at the top right of the screen. The theatre is just one week old, I kept wondering how did the dirt make it to the top right of the screen. Doesn’t anybody notice it at least? Or doesn’t simply anyone care.

Conclusion:

Some of the raised points here are common sadly among all cinemas. Others are I think Bairaq specific. And while it’s a 5 minutes drive from my home, I think I’d rather do 30 minutes drive and enjoy my self instead, that is when I decide I want to see the movie in Kuwait Cinema and not at home.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Name: Q8Traffic

Site: http://twitter.com/q8traffic

Type: Twitter / Info / Traffic

Language: English (mostly)

Brief: Q8Traffic is a new simple, yet can be very useful, idea. Q8Traffic is basically a twitter account that retweets all tweets that includes the hash #q8traffic. So by following it, you get what everyone else says about the traffic condition on Kuwait roads.

Example: You’re driving by Road 50 towards Kuwait City, and road jams at third ring road.

You tweet: “Traffic jam at Rd 50 towards Kuwait city near 3rd ring rd.”

As I’m following Q8Traffic, I would get an instant update about the traffic and be able to avoid it. What’s in it for you you say? What goes around comes around, and other people will be helping you as well hopefully.

Ofcourse, we’re not suggesting here you tweet while driving 120 km/h (or more) ofcourse, but if road is already jammed, this update can help others avoid the jam, and minimize it as well.

Snapshot:

Popularity: 4% [?]

Name: Kuwait Restaurants

Site: kuwait-restaurants.blogspot.com

Type: Food / Info

Language: English

Launch Date: August, 09

Brief: Kuwait Restaurants is a newly launched blog based directory for Kuwait restaurant phone numbers and addresses. It has just launched, so far has no photos, has a very ordinary design, and has a listing of 98 restaurants.

Since it turns out we don’t have any comprehensive listing that is constantly updating, it’s good to mark down any site with such listing for when you need it. I personally hate dialing central numbers to get restaurant number I need. I prefer to seek it online always.

Snapshots:

And by the way, you can search for their listing from Q8Ba7th Phones Search.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Name: Q8Stock

Site: Q8Stock.blogspot.com

Type: Blog / Finance

Language: Arabic

Launch Date: March, 2007

Brief: Q8Stock is an unofficial specialized Kuwait Stock Market blog that brings you quick small tips everyday about some of the stocks performance for that day, with little advise on what to do.

What would be even greater is a small quick daily podcast that is released right after market closing, so that people will hear it on the way back from work in their car, and get an idea of the market performance. How wonderful would that be? And we all know how much interested are people into the stock market over here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Name: Our Kuwait

Site: ourkuw.com (Coming Soon)

Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/ourkuwait

Type: News

Brief: Our Kuwait is a new upcoming site, still unclear how the main site will be and what will be it’s nature, but it’s already got a Twitter account, and it’s primarily about latest on the stop Kuwait news in Arabic. I’m not really a fan of local news, but this one is quite good and could help me stay updated without much hassle, I highly recommend it. What’s so good about them is that they give you what they promise… News, rather than opinions which sparkle heated debates, and I hope they stay that way. Just to keep it right, turns out they do give their opinion along with the news.

Just follow them on Twitter, and get updated instantly.

Their website is still under construction, but I’m sure following their Twitter account would keep you updated once it launches.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Name: Art Of Hobby

Site: ArtOfHobby.com

Type: Shopping / Anime

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Art Of Hobby is the official online shopping site of the well known physical store among its fans, Hobby Japan, which started as a physical store back in 2002 selling famous action figures.

Review:

Very few stores offer what thousands love and adore, and this one as far as I know is the first that delivers on online shopping site in Kuwait for anime figures collection. What’s best about it is, it’s from a fan for the fans. You would see a simple design, and even the fonts used are not the professional ones usually used by companies. I think what he’s trying to achieve is a more friendly, anime like look of the site.

Pricing:

Since I’m really not an anime fan, I can have no say on the pricing. So it’s up to you guys to see and decide. What do you think?

Payment:

I’m not sure if this was just left there or that’s the method of payment, but the site shows at the bottom of the page PayPal, VISA and MasterCard as the available methods of payment. I think this was left there from the original ready made template, since PayPal is really not that popular in Kuwait. Also, point # 1 in the Terms & Conditions page seems to suggest a cash on delivery.

Delivery:

This is where it gets confusing, and let’s you feel the site should be taken more seriously. On the main page, it mentions “We deliver to your home for only 1 KWD and for orders over 50 KWD Will be free.”, and free otherwise. Now aside from the high minimum order for free delivery, the terms and conditions page puts it completely different:

3-For orders less than 99KD a customer must pay a 2KD for shipping charge.

4-Orders over 99KD will get a free Shipping.

Quite confusing. But I think the 1 KD is the most updated one. They must’ve forgotten to reflect on it in the terms page. If you wish however, you can place the order online, and pick it from the shop for FREE as well.

Refund & Exchange:

The site offers exchange only for a period of 3 days from the purchase.

Gallery:

Popularity: 8% [?]

Name: Logitech.com.kw

Category: Shopping / Electronics

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Logitech Kuwait is the official dealer from Logitech in Kuwait, and has taken the step of providing it’s electronics offerings online through an easy to use shopping site, with Knet payment and next day delivery through Posta Plus.

Review:

It’s nice to see brand companies like Logitech realizing the potential of online shopping, and going up with their offerings online, with next day delivery. The site design is fairly simple, no cluttered ads to slow down page loading or distract the user. Response is pretty good, and unlike some other shopping sites in Kuwait, you can complete your whole shopping before registering with the site. Registration is only required at the time of checkout.

Pricing:

Pricing of the site varies from one item to another compared to Amazon, and while most of the items end up cheaper at Amazon, the price difference is sometimes small in the range of 5 KD, something that you will end up paying a company like Aramex eventually for the shipping, if not more. In addition, many items on the Logitech site come with 2 years of warranty and product support, as opposed to being on your own once you get it from Amazon.

So next time you wanna buy a Logitech piece of hardware, give this site a look. Seek reviews on Amazon, and compare the price. Put the shipping cost and product warranty in mind as well.

Advertising:

What’s really notable is the intensive smart advertising campaign Logitech is running on Google, and quite custom to your search.

Someone’s been doing real good job at his advertising campaign.

Popularity: 13% [?]