2005-09-29

How do you star your iPod

I still have my uncrackable color iPod with 60 GB drive.

The question is, how do you star your music?
You know, the 5 stars you have to rate your songs.
I dump all sorts of music on my iPod and when I listen, I star like this:

5 stars:

Music I like to listen to again, I got a 5 stars playlist that I play if I don't feel like choosing the songs and just want the good stuff.

1 star:

Music that i want to delete off my iPod as soon as possible. I listen to it and say, "what was I thinking, this is crap" and then hit it with 1 star,

or maybe its a repeated song,

or its part of a CD where that had only 1 or 2 good songs, and the other 1 star songs where fillers. Especially for those 1 hit wonder groups.

4 stars:

For talk, like audio books, comedians, and other speeches.

3 Stars:

For correction, some songs are misnamed, or have the wrong genres

2 stars never used by me.

iPod nano, just say naNO

Cracked Nano - Ouch!

I was going to buy myself an iPod nano for my birthday tommorow, but after reading that the color screens are cracking under pressure, to paraphrase Nancy Reagan, iPod nano, just say naNO.

Cracking article here.

The Dream Factor

A friend of mine was planning on buying some stocks in India and China because of the impressive growth there. He is a very conservative investor and wanted to buy sure things like electrical utilities, water plants, infrastructure companies, etc.

My advice to him was that these companies costed x amount, generated y income and therefore where easily valued by knowledgable investors. If he bought these, those stocks would stay flat or increase by the standard inflation rate yearly. No big returns.

His stocks lacked the dream factor. When you own a stock, you immediately become a seller. You want to own a stock that people want to have. You want a stock that generates excitement. You want people to throw their life savings at it, resulting in a giant increase in price. Internet stocks did that, technology stocks do that, oil stocks are doing that. People dream of gargantuan growth, the sky is the limit, billion dollar contracts are signed and more will come. Hence the dream factor.

That does not mean you buy a crappy company, it means you buy a fundamentally sound company but with the element of dream in it. People want to believe this company is going to grow forever, make billions of profits, has technology that is going to chage the world.

He needs to look for the dream factor in a company.

His whole concept of stock buying changed after our converstation.

I hope it was good advice.

2005-09-27

Arcade Games Classics

In this day of nintendo and playstation 1 2 and psp and xboxes, you might get nostalgic for the older games where you did not need to be a kid or a rocket scientist to be able to manipulate the zillion button controls. Well here are a few classics for your playing pleasure:

Space Invaders, with its sinister dom dom dom dom aliens destroying your 3 houses and you.

For the ladies, pacman, which allows you to eat anything and not gain a single calorie.

More games found here.

Demi accepts beau's decent proposal

Demi and Kutcher are getting married, I give it 1 year then he does a Woody Allen and marries one of her girls.

The relationship between Moore and Kutcher has been seen by some in Hollywood as evidence of a liberating new trend in which older American women are dating younger men, challenging the convention of May-December romances.

Full article here.

2005-09-24

Your Birthdate: September 30

Your Birthdate: September 30

Your birthday on the 30th day of the month shows individual self-expression is necessary for your happiness.
You tend to have a good way of expressing yourself with words, certainly in a manner that is clear and understandable.
You have a good chance of success in fields requiring skill with words.

You can be very dramatic in your presentation and you may be a good actor or a natural mimic.
You have a vivid imagination that can assist you in becoming a good writer or story-teller.
Strong in your opinions, you always tend to think you are on the right side of an issue.

There may be a tendency to scatter your energies and have a lot of loose ends in your work.
You may have significant artistic talent and be very creative.


All true, cause it sounds good ;-)

Diet to lose 4 to 6 kg

I am starting a diet. Not to say I am badly overweight but just to get back to my trim self.

I went to this Doctor and she asked me if I was a determined person, I answered yes and she gave me the following diet:

Day 1: All day fruits. (orange and carrots, or apple and prunes) all you can eat.

Day 2: Green salad all day

Day 3: Fruit and Green salad all day

Day 4: 1/4 grilled chicken = 1/4 piece arabic bread + selected fruits

Day 5: 8 bananas and 1 liter of milk all day

Day 6: 1/4 kg grilled fish + green salad all day

Day 7: Fresh juices with no added sugar (orange or grapefruit)

for lunch for any day, clear vegetable soup. Just hot water and boiled vegetables.


I will let you know if I survive or not.

2005-09-23

Millionaire CEO and his CFO gets jailed for minimum of 8 years

Tyco international is a conglomerate that deals with electrical and electronics componenents, it also deals with electronic security systems, fire detection systems, and suppression systems, as well as fire extinguishers and related products. Tyco is a $53 billion company that made profits of $8.23 Billion EBITDA.

The Tyco executive Dennis Kozlowski, 58, former chief executive officer, of Tyco and Mark Swartz, 48, the former chief financial officer, both got sentenced for stealing from Tyco, the company they managed and where told by the judge told to pay back $134 million and Kozlowski was fined an additional $70 million. They both where led out of court in handcuffs and where sentenced to minimum of 8 years at a New York maximum security prison.

The court heard how they stole $170m from Tyco by lending themselves company money and then cancelling their debt. The pair also made $430m by selling shares at prices which were artificially inflated because they had lied about the state of the company's finances.

Kozlowski became famous as the "ultimate corporate raider" as details emerged about how he had charged his $31m Manhattan apartment to the company, replete with a $6,000 shower curtain, a $15,000 umbrella stand and $2,900 of coat hangers. His wife was treated to a $2.2m birthday party in Sardinia.

Now reflect on the millionaire and billionaires we have in the third world, not the honest hardworking ones, but the ones that use their position and power to enrich themselves.

How many got 1 day jail time for taking what does not belong to them ?


Read more about Tyco from Forbes and the Telegraph.

2005-09-18

Crazy Driving in Kuwait

First I thought it was a bad accident stopping traffic, but then I realized the wanette was driving normally and just wanted to take the left side of the road. Extreme between, I guess.

Crazy Wanette

2005-09-17

Photos from the Kuwait Deep Sea

Here are some pictures taken from the Kuwait sea by my friend who went scuba diving yesterday. Enjoy.






















2005-09-15

Free Internet in Starbucks Kuwait

I am sitting in starbucks right now. I bought my Espresso and my 1 hour internet card and surfed for 1 hour. My card ran out after an hour and I got the splash screen on my browser where you enter your user name and password.

I was just going to buy a new card, but instead I reentered the user name and password of the expired card and .... I got an extra hour!

I don't know if it is a 1 time SNAFU or not, but try it yourself. If you get extra time, you know who to thank.

2005-09-13

5 Laws of Life You Can Depend On

1. This, too, shall pass.

Nothing stays the same. The only constant in life is change. With every decision we make, we initiate change. Even when we decide not to decide, life still goes on, and changes still occur. When we are in a state of discomfort, sadness, grief, or pain, we know that because life goes on, change will bring us some kind of relief. And because even comfort, happiness, and all good things also pass, we know that we need to appreciate and cherish each precious, fleeting moment.


2. Time heals.


The timepiece of life never stops. Neither does it pause for those who celebrate, speed up for those who are impatient, nor slow down for those who fear tomorrow. Time ticks a regular rhythm that steadily brings new moments, new days, and new seasons. As time pushes forward, we take new steps, face new challenges, and create new opportunities. And as life goes on, we are forced to move past our episodes of disappointment, sorrow, or despair. More than anything else, time heals not just broken bones but broken hearts as well.


3. Ask, and you shall receive.


People won't know what you want unless you ask for it. Dreams and goals are just wishes until you act on them, and acting on them often requires that you ask for answers, for assistance, or for something tangible. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help, but when you come forward, only then will the world know what to give you. Just ask and know that miracles can happen.


4. You can have anything, but not everything.


Life offers us infinite possibilities. With hard work, determination, and perseverance, we can achieve anything. If we are willing to pay the price and go the extra mile, we can have whatever our hearts desire. But no matter how hard we try, we can't have everything. Life is a balancing act of wins, losses, and trade-offs... we gain some and we lose some.


5. What goes around comes around.


It's the universal law of nature: do to others what you want others to do to you, because whatever you sow, you reap; whatever you give, you get back ten-fold. It doesn't hurt to smile, or be kind, or extend a helping hand. You never know when or how, but every act of goodness always returns to the GIVER. Give one today and receive ten tomorrow.

Sunset in Kuwait

This is not a romantic sunset with fiery sea and a warm sun slowly dissapearing behind the horizon.

This is a Kuwaiti sunset. Stuck in traffic behind a crazy wanette driver, Road construction ahead Traffic static for miles and an in your face sun blinding you as it goes down.

Have a nice day.

Sunset

The Ring and Sleeplessness

I am sitting at home and had nothing better to do, so I went down to see a DVD movie. I bought The Ring a few weeks ago but did not play it. I put the disc in, laid back on the couch and put the volume on full blast. It started with two girls staying together alone in a big house. They where talking and one girl mentioned something about a tape. The story about the tape is that when you play it, and after the tape ends the phone rings, and someone at the other end of the line tells you that you got 7 more days then you die.

I managed to watch 15 minutes of this movie until I chickened out and stopped the DVD.

Now I can't sleep. I can't watch TV cause I am afraid something will come out and scare me to death.

I know! I can order pizza.

PS

for those of you who have the DVD and want to see the "tape" that causes death then from the main menu, click RIGHT, then DOWN three times. The pointer should disappear, press OK, and you'll get to watch the infamous video.

I am not responsible if anything happens to you.

2005-09-08

Amusement Rides photoshopped

Have a look at these rides, amazing, when I get $1,000,000,000,000 I am going to build a few behind my house. I especially like Extreme bungee followed by giant lick for its grossness factor. Other favorites are endless loop, I would award a free ride if you keep your lunch after riding this.

2005-09-07

Schoolgirl walks on water

Schoolgirl walks on water

A Chinese schoolgirl has invented a pair of shoes that enable her to walk on water.

Wang Wenting, from Chengdu, says she got her inspiration from watching ducks.

The high school girl took nearly four years, experimenting with different materials, to come up with the design.

That gives a whole new meaning to mamsha on the wajha. Could I walk to Failaka and back ?

Original Article Here.

Islamic Trojan "Troj/Yusufali-A" discovered

A Trojan is software that leads you to believe it is something else. You could get it through email disguising itself as an image, document, music or anything else you would double click on.

Well an Islamic virus has been discovered. The Trojan named "Troj/Yusufali-A" is an Islamic Trojan that monitors your browsing and if you try to go to any naughty sites by typing specific keywords in your URL , it would display

Trojan Message

If you persist it would show you this

Trojan Message 2

and force you to shutdown your computer.

The Trojan is not very smart and might be wrongly started by typing something completely innocent in the URL.

For more technical information, you can find it here.

2005-09-06

BBQ. It's the only type of cooking a real man will do.

When a man volunteers to BBQ, the following chain of events are put into motion:

  1. The woman buys the food.
  2. The woman makes the salad, vegetables, and dessert.
  3. The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill -- beer in hand.
  4. THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.
  5. The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
  6. The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer / coke/ mineral water while he deals with the situation.
  7. THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.
  8. The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.
  9. After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
  10. Everyone PRAISES the man and THANKS him for his cooking efforts.
  11. The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off." Then, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, he concludes that there's just no pleasing some women!

Richard Bach. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I would like to share with you the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the story of seagull that was looking for perfection. Very inspirational and deep, if you like reading then you can read the full version here, or if you like a quick review then you can read the wikipedia entry here, for some inspiring quotes, you can read them here.

I reccomend you read the full story, it will change your life.