The best time to kick a person is when he is down. This is the beating that Dubai has taken. While I am not a fan of life in Dubai, as seen from my few visits and stories I have heard, I have always been baffled by the velocity of their growth.

Look at it from the other end. A person buys a car and the payments are financed. A year down the line, he falls into dire financial straits. He sells the car or gets the loan to be refinanced and reschedules the payment, if that is acceptable. This is normal.

So what is different in Dubai? They have assets, and they have only proposed a rescheduling of the payment of a bond. In what has been, clear over reaction, by the media and rating agencies which have now downgraded the status of investments in Dubai, its reputation and goodwill has taken a serious beating.

A reputation of sanguine courage fuelled by ambition. You cannot put a limit on resources or time for ambition. Then it becomes a project. Ambition is fuelled bythe inner force of leaders with a vision and as long as that force does not fade, Dubai will continue its growth. The city has come a long way from “humidity & flies’ to a become a metropolis of steel and glass.

The current correction may slow it down, but the show will go on… For those of you who thought that Dubai was over priced, now might be the time to pick up some good buys!

Its a viral video for a reality show!

Movember is a month long event, wherein men grow their moustache for a whole month and raise charity funds to support men’s health issues.
Issues like prostrate cancer and depression in men. Stuff men don’t usually pay attention to. The event was started in Australia in the late 90’s.
The prostrate, is one of those glands that make men what they are and well a cancer is something too small to ignore. Most cancers if detected at the right time can be treated.
As for depression, well I’m sure there’s nothing a strip club can’t solve!!

Schick is having a promotion where they will donate a dollar if people upload their photos with moustaches and Heinz is donating 10c a bottle in honor of the moustachioed Mr. Heinz.

more here

As TV broadcasts move from analog to digital, a large chunk of frequency is expected to be freed. This frequency band in the UHF spectrum will help in spreading broadband access to rural areas at a fraction of the cost, making mobile broadband access for economically viable. The UHF spectrum has better propagation characteristics and represents up to70% savings in cost.

This freeing up of frequency, represents and actual benefit of technology, as it progresses touching lives of the common man closing the gap in the digital divide.

The other day I saw the video of this Kuwaiti short film, Sharq at 248am.com Its all of 20 odd minutes, but full of spirit. Just great! It has subtitles which make it more understandable. Enjoy

I got an email offering a 1 year subscription to the National Geographic magazine for only 15$.
Seemed like a steal, so I clicked on the links and went on to subscribe.
That page, on which I landed had the offer only for the US & Canada.. huh?
OK…there was another link which was for international subscriptions. Great!! they think of everything! So I click that and Kuwait is not there on it. Strange…! Ah yes! they think of everything – ‘If your country is not listed click here for other regions’ So I click again and there is no Kuwait there either, just countries no one would want to go right now!!!…Is this magazine banned here.
I’m going to try writing to them.

Just downloaded an app which allows me to post to wordpress from my nokia E71. This is my first mobile post.
The app can be downloaded from http:// wordmobi.googlecode.com

Still getting the hang of it and will be testing more features soon. Now readers will know the kind of phone I use. Am I taking privacy too lightly..!!

Posted by Wordmobi

Google Wave is supposed to be one of the newest collaborative tools from the Google stable that will merge emails, social networking, IMs and wikis in a forum style room, using text and even video.

This tool is supposed to make sending messages and follow ups easier and more organized. While users can leave messages in response, and view and respond each time they log in, they can also view entries in real time. A wave will consist of blips which users can respond to.

Waves are slated to replace email once the technology is stabilized and becomes popular.

The preview version is now available to invitees and comes with 20 user invites/recommendations.

I have just started creating my list of contacts to test it out… looks good!

The dlna (digital living network alliance) is a standard being used by manufacturers of electronic media devices, which allow them to interact with each other.

Your flat screen would be able to play media or other content from your laptop or other device across a home network. A person could buy a device of any brand and also be sure that those devices would work with each other, seamlessly.

As of August 2009 there were over 5,500 devices certified as being dlna compliant. So the next time you are out shopping, make sure that the device you are looking for is dlna compliant.

DOW chemicals has recently announced their latest product. Solar shingles. Called the POWERHOUSE, this will  lead the way in changing how solar energy has been harnessed. A major part of the cost of implementing a solar power plant, lay in the production of solar panels and their installation. With this new invention there will be huge cost cuts in both these factors, leading to easy accessibility and adoption by the general public.

The shingles (roof tiles) are made of low cost, thin film CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide) technology which is  proven to be cost effective for building integrated photovoltaics. The installation is easier, and is installed along with roof shingles using the same methods for ordinary roof shingles. The arrays are not complicated and would be easily connectible.

Dow invests $1.5 billion annually in R&D and has been the recipient of US government funding up to the tune of $20 million. That is one grant that has paid off.

Up until now, the biggest barrier to installation and adoption had been the cost of implementing a solar generation power plan, but with these cheaper shingles that is all set to change. The new panels are slated to be available by mid 2010. But from then on, it would be green technology in the hands of the common man. If governments are serious about reducing green house gas emissions, then they should subsidize roofing or energy bills for those who adopt the new shingle.