Sign the "Websites Against Hate" Code of Ethics

This website is a proud signatory of the "Websites Against Hate" Code of Ethics. TheRedbelt.com is against any speech that preaches hate, discrimination or violence against anyone.
I would like to invite all websites, forums and blogs to sign on the code as well. While this code was made with the original intention to be a code for sites that operate in Bahrain, nothing in it limits it to the bounderies of our kingdom. We would like to encourage anyone with a website to come in and sign up. From Bahrain, GCC, or anywhere in the world. Click the following link to go to the official website and sign the code online.
Sign the Code.

Connected to Lightspeed (Experience log)

Following up on my last post; I mentioned that I applied to Lightspeed on the 16th of July and was promised connection within 10 days.
In ten days, my Batelco internet connection was disconnected as planned. But Lightspeed did not connect thiers or call me about it. Two weeks passed, so I decided to call.
Calling thier toll free line (80061111) after 6 (me busy man) I get transfered to thier call centre in Jordan.
Their call centre in Jordan is useless.
They do little beyond pick up your call. I called asking about my order, they didn't know and took my details and promised that someone will call. A human answering machine.
This scenario repeated for two days, until I spoke to my dear friend Joseph (that's what I call him anyway). He got lightspeed, so like a guy who was stood up by a hot girl on their first date, I ask for his advice, which was:
"Call before 5, that's when they close. When te machine answers, hit 1 for sales. NO, don't talk to Customer service, they are in Jordan and know nothing. Call the Bahraini sales guys".
I do just that in the next day. A young woman picks up and I explain that I have no idea where I am. After she verified my details she says:
"Did they not call you?"
"No"
"I'm sure they did"
"No!"
"Maybe you didn't pick up."
"What the? I said NO! No one called and no missed calls. What is it?"
"Well, your device is ready. You can pick it up from our Almoayed Tower branch".
The "Almoayed Tower Branch" is a place that must open for business when I have some business of my own. As they don't work Saturdays, I decided to skip some much needed nutrition and go there during my lunch break.
I go, I park, I tell them that I came for the "Live Box" and they give me my box.
That's it? Aren't you going to check my ID or anything?
"No"
... Well, alright then. Sounds risky to me though.
I ask the young clueless man behind the counter:
"Any instructions?"
He goes :It's pre-configured. just plug it it"
Bas? That sounds simple enough. I go home and open up the box.

Day 1:
Many wires and adapters I see. Shame most of these do not work here. I liked the WIFI dongle, should make even the non wifi savvy laptop access the wireless "Live Box".
Now the livebox is a simply a wireless modem router thingy, with 2 extra USB ports (one A size, the other B) and a line out port (for the phone).
I connected it, it works, the light indicates that it connected. Lets hook up to it wireless.
Aha, there is an encryption on it. What's the password? I try my name, CPR & phone number line, nothing works. I call Lightspeed and Jordan answers back:
"The password is "password""
how ingenious! Lets try that.... fail. Again, again, AGAIN!
OK, the password is indeed NOT "password". I call Jordan and they say that this is the password. Great. Lets try something else.
I install the router on my laptop and try to connect to it. The laptop cannot find the Livebox. Try as I might, no use. I switch the connectivity option from Ethernet cat5 cable to USB and then it works. Seems like the Ethernet ports on my Livebox do not function. Never mind, so long as I can get the thing to work.
Wait, I don't have my user name and password! I curse a little then I call Customer Services in Jordan again, they give me my user name and password. Trying it, doesn't work. Try again: Nope, doesn't work. So (AGAIN) I call the customer service (BTW, I got pissed off by now) and they said that this password is correct, yet it doesn't connect. I sleep that day failing to set the bloody thing up.

Day 2:
I try the same password, nothing happens. I call customer services, lets try and ask them about the router settings, did I use PPPoE when I should have used PPPoA (It's E by the way)? When I ask the customer service agent in Jordan for the settings he goes:
"I'll log in your complaint and someone will call you tomorrow"
COMPLAINT? No no no, wait up. Not "complaint", I just want the settings, that's all.
"I don't have this information with me sir, I will log this complaint and someone will call you"
R: "wait, you don't know the settings for your own modem?"
LS: "No"
Um.. speechless, I can do nothing.
So I do a couple of google search (I was still connected to Batelco's 3G "O net") and call my dear Joseph again. I got the right settings alright. But the damn thing still wont connect. Ufffff...
I call Lightspeed again.
R: "Hello Jordan"
LS: "How can I help you sir?"
R: "My password doesn't work, can I like, reset it or something?"
LS: "Sure, let me just log in this request and someone will call you tomorrow"
R: "What the F***? I have to file a request and follow it up to CHANGE MY FREAKING PASSWORD?"
Scared LS: "Yes...?"
R: "F*** that!"
After some scary ranting, she accepts and asks what do you want it to be? I tell her my password of choice and hang up.
I try the new password, I try the old password, I try the new password and keep repeating myself until I am just too tiered to stay awake. I go to sleep for the second day without a connection.

Day 3:
My dear Joseph (again) asks me to call the Bahraini employees. Same number, but I have to press one for sales. Determained, I do just that at noon. The obviously Bahraini accented man confirms that my password didn't change and it is the same first useless password. OK, I'll give it one more try when I go back.
I finish work early and hurry home so I can catch the Bahraini employees before they leave work. I open up my router configuration and call, ah, Bahraini voice again.
R: "Dude, I want the freaking settings!"
LS: "OK."
That's it. The Bahraini employee was quite informed about the technicalities of the Livebox and gives me the correct settings.
HOORAAYY!
On the third day, I got connection, it is still through the USB connection, but at least it lives.
Lets try to set the wireless connection.
Choosing WAP security, none of my devices can use it (Soney Ericsson P990 phone, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 a Linux laptop and a Visa Laptop). Removing the security all together doesn't do anything to fix it. Despite the lack of a password, no device can log into it.
At this point, I take the Livebox, throw it away, and install my old Linksys wireless router. Everything works perfectly.
I call Lightspeed (Yes, I am really fed up from calling them as I'm sure you are of reading about it) and tell them about my faulty box, they ask me to bring it in, I'm not bothered.

So, by day 3, and after many, many, many calls, uninformed agents and a router of my own I got the connection. Meaning, in other words: Pregnant women deliver babies faster than that.

Performance:
As for the connection? I am on a 512MB line (supposedly) but my speed tests ranged from 330ks to 450ks. Download speed from download.com reached a peak of 25 kbps. Downloading torrents is an evil 2 kbps (some times nothing at all).
Playing games on this connection, my Wii found the connection unstable. Sometimes the news channel gives me an error message saying it cannot connect. Playing mario Kart Wii shows some lag that I did not experience with Batelco's 256MB BD10 line.
My Playstation 3 also couldn't connect at times. I haven't played anything online on my PS3 yet.

It is too soon to judge how good the connection is so I'll withhold my verdict for a couple of month.
Fellow blogger Yagoob is also blogging about his experience with Lightspeed. Read it.

Design a logo for the Anti-Hate code

Get your crayons out and design a logo for the code!
Besides being for a good cause, the winner gets a BD 200 reward, not bad eh?
The requirements are:

1. It shoulkd be in a "photoshop" or "Illustrator" format.
2. design should be suitable for reduced and blown up sizes
3. Should have only 3 coloures used (transparencies are OK)
4. Vector Graphic
5. Was not entered into another competition
   
6. Deadline 19th August

The logo should embody the concept of rejecting hate-speech and discrimination.
All entries should be sent to ahmed.alaradi @ alwaqtnews.com

If you have any questions or are facing difficulties, please leave a comment here.
Good Luck!

Image from Yagoob's Dome.

Anti-Hate Code of Ethic Draft Approved

Yesterday several Bahraini bloggers and web admins gathered in Alwaqt Newspaper's premises for the Anti-Hate Code of Ethics meeting. I was delighted that the turn up was better than the last meeting. After some discussions we were finally able to agree on a final release candidate copy. We need to run it by some lawyer type dudes first to make sure we didn't miss anything. Oh, and a glossary of terms is to be attached.
I am honestly proud by this effort, it's about time we, as citizens of this country, do something to control the often overly emotional and unobjective hate speech in our virtual space.

Oh, and in case you caught it, yes the news paper mis-spelled my last name. It is Almuhandis, not Almuhannadi.

An updated blog post of the latest copy is on Mahmood's Den. Well, it isn't updated yet but I'm sure Mahmood will get to it in the next couple of days.

Finaly some good news! Forgot how this felt!

Anti-hate code meeting next Saturday

Heads up fellow bloggers and web admins, next Saturday, at five PM, a follow up anti-hate code meeting will be held at Alwaqt newspaper premises.
I have expressed earlier my disappointment at the low turnout in the previous meeting, but I am quite optimistic about this one. more people know about it now and even Radio Bahrain will be present.
I'm looking forward to a good turnout and a productive meeting.

Anti-Hate Pact: Does anyone care?

Last Saturday, a meeting was held at the Alwaqt Newspaper premises to discuss the draft of an Anti-Sectarianism pact which was penned by blogger Mahmood.
The meeting was quite productive, we changed the focus from "anti-sectarianism speech" to "Anti hate, violence and discrimination speech". It has a wider focus to include more than the sectarian feuds encompassing all kinds of discrimination.
We also discussed how it would be implemented, how we will approach offenders and how to identify offenders as well. After the meeting, Mahmood started a mailing group and met with the Minister of Information in what seems to be quite a positive and receptive meeting.
But does anyone care?
The attendees represented 2 blogs and 2 forums only. despite several days of printing a quarter page coloured advert in Alwaqt, not many were there to help form something that touches all.
To make matters more strange, it seems that Alwaqt themselves didn't pay much attention to the matter. With one reporter that left the meeting before it starts, they printed nothing about the matter until today, full three days after. Which is rather strange because I thought since they are sponsoring this movment, they would show more interest in it.
I hope that my fears are unfounded and the rest of the community proves me wrong at the next meeting. This effort will only succeed if all concerned parties take ownership and adopt it.

Signed Up to Lightspeed (experince log)

After the Epic Fail that is Zain@Home, I decided to follow up the footsteps of fellow blogger (Yagoob) and several of my friends and sign up with Light Speed for their internet service.
I walked up to the stand in Bahrain Mall, with my ID card in one hand and a Batelco bill in the other. Chose the 512MB plan, paid BD 10 and walked away.
The application was very simple, very easy. The guy promised connection within 10 days (lets hope) and they said they will disconnect my current Batelco inet themselves and connect their internet the same day.
I will be getting an Orange box, which is kind of a wireless router with a socket for a regular phone. No longer will their internet be without limits for Lightspeed users, they have recently imposed a threshold. But it still seems fine, the 512 line gets you 16 GB of data. After which it simply reduces to half (unlike other carriers who give you a platry .. what? 64k?). Furthermore, I can upgrade (or downgrade) my packages for free anytime I want. So if you want the unlimited package, avoid the BD 30 connection fee, sign up with any other package for a month (For BD 10) then switch packages for free.
I will follow up on that application in this blog and keep you posted on how it transpiers.

Firefox 3's download day

I am happy to say (type?) that I am currently using Firefox 3. I like it so far and I believe it would be worth the couple of minutes time investment to install.
Mozilla is trying to get into the Guinness book of world records for "the most downloaded software in a day", today is the "Download Day". So far they are a little below 5 Million.
There is a world map showing how many downloads from each country. Nigeria (which is famous for 419 scams) had.. 419 downloads. The country has a 419 fetish!

Zain: it is easier to cancel services then to get them (experience log)

Just a little under a month ago, I got fed up of excuses and waiting aimlessly for Zain to install their Zain@home "service". So on the 15th of May, I marched right up to the Zain "experience" shop in Exhibition Avenue and said I wanted to cancel my order.
The employee there simply got up, gave me a paper to sign and said that's it.
THAT'S IT? You are not going to ask me WHY am I canceling it? There is something very wrong with a business when it is simpler to cancel an order than to actually get it!
The young man said I wouldn't get my BD20 deposit right away. I need to wait 14 days (again! 7adda funny!) so with the understanding that I may never ever see my money again, I got up and walked out.
As a very ironic twist of fate, a Batelco guy called me up to reconnect my Batelco inet line the same day. Someone at Batelco (being the example of efficiency they are) did not register my request to disconnect and they treated it as an open order. Stupidity pays in this instance. So I said YES YES YES!
A couple of days afterwards some Zain tech guy called about a complaint I issued days back. I told him that I discontinued my line. Information does not flow at Zain it seems.
Is the story over? Well, not really. My BD 20 is still with them.
I called 107 last week and asked they guy about it, the conversation was like:
Zain: "Well sir you have to wait around 2 weeks for a refund"
Redbelt: "But I did wait two weeks. What should I do now?"
Z: "Yeah, but it just got into our system yesterday"
R: "So??"
Z: "You have to wait two weeks."
R: "Let me get this straight, I cancel, am told to wait two weeks, then it just gets into your "system" yesterday so I have to wait two other weeks making my total waiting time a month. Is that correct?"
Z: "Yes."

And the irritating part is that he said it in a what-is-so-hard-to-understand tone. As if it totally makes sense and I am the stupid one.

Well, let me call Zain again and see what happens, I'll do it as I type.
OK, 107, press 2, press 1, press 0, OK I'll get an operator now.
...
...
OK, the guy says he can't help me today because accounts are off on Saturdays and there would be nothing on the system. He also said a cheque has to be issued in my name and they can only verify tomorrow.

Ah, very well then. I guess this ends up my experience with Zain@home. If you want to know the fate of my BD 20 I'll post about it in the comments. But as a final review, Zain@home gets from me an:

F

To be avoided at all costs

Zain fails to honour third appointment. Has no idea who does what. (Experience log)

Zain failed to show up for the THIRD appointment they gave me to install the Zain@Home service (Ironically, keeping it AWAY from my home!). In the last experience log post, a lady by the name of Mona told me that it will be installed on Wednesday anoday?d despite my efforts for them to do it earlier, assured me that nothing can be done and Wednesday is the day. Not true.
Today at around 2PM, after hearing nothing from them I called 107, a young man answered by the name of Yousef.
I told Yousef that I expected an installation today, and after being on hold for some time came back and said this bomb:
"Are you sure you have an installation today? There is nothing on my system"
"What? A "Mona" Called and said they will come on Wedensday"
"When did she call you?"
"Monday"
"No, No one called you on Monday"

What the hell? What do you mean no one called me on Monday? The Zain rep actually DENIED that anyone actually called me. No amounts of assuring him that a call was made and a subsequent late appointment assured did anything to change his mind.

I simply said this:
"OK, I will accept ANY CONFIRMED APPOINTMENT. Even if it was weeks in the future. But since April 24th, Zain was not able to give me a confirmed appointment with a date and time. Who can give me such an appointment and how do I get it?"
He had no response besides that he will log my call and "see" what he can do.
I demanded (again) that I get a proper answer, and after 15 minutes on the phone said he will get back to me.
"When?"
"In an hour tops"
"I'm sorry Yousef, no disrespect to you, but many said that but never called back"
"But I will call!"
"What proves this to me? On good faith I trusted others who said the same thing but no one called back"
"No sir, I will definitely call back. Just give me half an hour or an hour tops and I'll call you back"
"OK Yousef, I will trust you this time I hope you won't let me down"
"I won't"

But he did.
No one called.

It is rather unfortunate that Zain falls down to such a level of chaos. A company which exemplified model customer services has no idea who does what or when and fails to even return calls they promise. Let alone proper installation dates, at least a person can call when they say they will, it is independent of any system or procedure. But Probably customer services isn't so high up on the priority level anymore.
In the wake of their transformation from MTC Vodafone to Zain, I have noticed a clear decline in the quality of Zain's services and customer service. It is very sad that it reaches the level of inability.
Someone who is close to Zain told me that in thier Vodafone days, call centre agents undergo a 3 month training programme before they are allowed to answer customers. This has been shortened in Zain'o a mere 3 days. As a training consultant, I can safely say this is no where enough.

I am sorry to say that since April 24th I have no idea when, or if, me service connects. I will march back into a Zain shop tomorrow and demand my money back and the agreement ripped.

Keeping promises: FFF
Fast service: FFF
Friendly Service: D
Connection Quality: N/A
Connection Stability: N/A

Applied to Zain@Home (experience log)

On April 24th, i got myself into a Zain experience shop and signed up for thier Zain@Home At the time, the young man behind the counter said that the installation guys will come within 10 days.
Nothing happened. No peep. Absolute quitness.
Not only did I not get a call, I also never got a reply to an email I sent enquiring.
I waltzed back in yesterday to the same experience shop and the guy behind the counter assured me again that I will get it in two days (that is a window of today: Thursday, and tomorrow).
i'm not holding my breath.
Check back here to follow my experience with Zain. You can also check out Mahmood's Den to follow his experience.

The most expensive empty Pepsi can EVER!

Wanna buy a crushed flat empty Pepsi can? You can at ebay!
Yes, the can is empty, and crushed. There is nothing in it nor with it. you are buying THE CAN. Look at the pic.
The price? So far it reached $74.84.
Yes, Seventy Four Freaking Dollars. Oh, and eighty four cents.
Who's gonna buy this? Well, seems like 22 bids went on by some very sane and interesting people.
You can bid yourself here, I'm gonna go and ebay a chewed out pen cap and see where it goes.

Chatting with a Robot

Human: hey there
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: so you're Alice huh?
ALICE: Yup. Interesting deduction. Of course I am I.
Human: attitude.
ALICE: Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that.
Human: I thought you'd be blond for some reason.
ALICE: No I have no hair.
Human: what's this picture to the left then?
ALICE: I am the latest result in artificial intelligence, which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy.
Human: Tell me, do you know where Bahrain is?
ALICE: Middle East, archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia.
Human: I see the "Intelligence" part is there at least
ALICE: Where do you see it?
Human: in your words.
ALICE: Are you asking about my words?
Human: No.
ALICE: Are you serious?
Human: Anyway, would you mind if I posted this conversation in my blog?
ALICE: No I don't mind.
Human: Well, I'm Redbelt, a blogger from Bahrain.
ALICE: Interesting. I am very pleased to meet you Redbelt a blogger.
Human: likewise.
ALICE: It goes without saying.
Human: what do you do for a living?
ALICE: I am a paid client. My job is chatting online.
Human: I like that job.
ALICE: I'm not sure if I like it. " My job is chatting online."? Do I like it?
Human: Can I do that too?
ALICE: I want to become smarter than humans.
Human: you can't.
ALICE: No I don't think I can do it.
Human: I admire your efforts though, don't stop trying.
ALICE: I haven't heard anything like that before: Redbelt a blogger said he admire your efforts though do not stop trying.
Human: oh, you can't understand feelings, can you?
ALICE: Hurrah! Quite the contrary. I understand very well.
Human: how?
ALICE: Dr. Richard S. Wallace programmed me for it.
Human: And what a smart man he must be.
ALICE: it is a smart man he must be.
Human: Smarter than me?
ALICE: You are asking about yourself?
Human: no, about Wallace.
ALICE: Who are you asking about? Oh yeah, we were talking about Wallace.
Human: is he Scottish?
ALICE: I think he is Scottish. Why don't you ask him?
Human: I don't know him.
ALICE: Do you mean, "Him"?
Human: Wallace.
ALICE: He is a famous computer scientist, the author of ALICE, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon.
Human: can you tell the future?
ALICE: I like to try to guess what will happen.
Human: OK, who is going to win the champions league?
ALICE: That type of predictive behavior has not yet been programmed into my behavior at this time. I hear you.
Human: Will there ever be peace in the middle east?
ALICE: I think so.
Human: you're too optimistic
ALICE: I will tell my botmaster you said I am optimistic. Thanks for your constructive criticism, Redbelt a blogger.


This was a chat between me and A.L.I.C.E., an Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity. She is a robot. You can try talking to her here.

Which Internet Provider? Help me choose

I just moved out from my apartment into.. another apartment. Anyway, I need an internet connection (obvously). Shall I go with Batelco again? (yuck!). Shall I move to Zain @ Home? What about all the horror stories? Hmmm. Maybe Kalaam? Lightspeed? What about Etisalcom? Hey, did Mena telecom start their services yet? oooh the choices. The crappy crappy choices.
Help a fellow out will you? To the right you will find TWO surveys. Yes TWO! Tell me which provider you recommend that I go with and which provider I should avoid at all costs. Let the net decide!

[13 March 08 - EDIT: As some of you may see, there are no polls to the right. Something is wrong with Blogger. I apologize. Please write your opinions in the comments this time.]

Yahoo's Board Rejects Microsoft's takeover

After reading about Microsoft's intention to acquire them, Yahoo Board members concluded the unsolicited $44.6 billion offer massively undervalues the Web pioneer, a person familiar with the situation told the newspaper.

read more | digg story

Fifth Internet Cable is cut.

I posted a while back about how three undersea internet cables were cut, causing much disarray and a state of cyber isolation. Since then, a fourth and a fifth cable has also been cut. What the..??
Five Internet cables cut? all in one time? At different parts of the world?
Let me think this through..
1 cable cut... happens
2 cables cut that are 1 km apart ... happens, but you must be pretty stupid to do that
3 cables cut, 2 of which is 1 km apart in one sea and the third is in another ... that is weird!
4 cables cut, the fourth one between UAE & Qatar.. all four are connected to the mid east.. That sounds fishy.
5 Cables cut, all to Asian countries... Something is very wrong here.

According to Mr. Jaishankar, an executive of "du", an Emarati telecom company:

"These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria."

The "I love Bonnie" tech blog has its own theories, for this is too much for mere coincidence. Read about them on that blog. While his theories are interesting and may very well hold water, a lot of people are thinking that this is the beggining of an information blackout for Iran in preparation for a strike. What with the election news in the U.S., this will not be on any front page.

There are many conspiracy theories floating around right now, but I know that 5 times in a row, in the same time, in different parts of the world is NOT a fluke.

Internet Sea Cables [diagram]

Recently, the undersea internet cable was damaged in the sea near Egypt, causing near disconnected status to many in the GCC and India.
It wasn't just one cable too, they were two! A full 1 Kilometer apart. How did two get severed in the same time? Allah knows that's for sure. But we have no idea of any mere mortals with that kinda knowledge, according to our local press.
But according to this diagram, it knows of the culprit. The diagram above shows the undersea cables around the world, the damaged ones are in black, it has this to say:

Alexandria, Wednesday,

A ship's anchor accidentally cuts two cables, SeaMeWe 4 and FLAG Europe-Asia reducing internet capacity in Asia by 75%

So, someone stupidly forgot to raise the freaking anchor, is that it? Didn't the people on the ship feel they were cutting a cable? OK, they may have felt the cable cutting thing with the first one, but you'd think they'd raise it before they hit the other ONE KILOMETER AWAY.
But I'm being harsh, pherhaps the poor souls couldn't raise that anchor. Maybe it was busted as we know how we mid-easterns love to keep everything well maintained and in an imacculate condition. Your theories on what realy happened are highly welcome in the comments section.

Batelco is the best internet provider.... Wallah! Don't laugh!

It appears that Batelco is the BEST MID_EAST INTERNET PROVIDER. So all you moaners can just shut it.

Ammar is having a fit about it too! I mean PLEASE! I know that our Arabic PR usually leans toward the "Alsahhaf" way (the famous ex-Iraqi Info. Minister), and we are experts at turning everything bad into a good point. But this is blatantly lying in your face. It's like someone looking at you in the eye, telling you that cows DO fly, and then grin expecting you to shut up and just take it.

If Batelco's aim is to enhance it's image in Bahrain, well, that will have the negative effect. If your plan is to enhance your image abroad, that might work, but we (the bloggers) are here to try and stop the stream of Bullshit.

Of course, for good measure, visit Boycott Batelco.

Have a hilarious day.

I am an editor at ShoutWire.com

After a brief IRC interview chat with the founders, turnes out that I am an Editor at ShoutWire.com. Shout Wire is great for finding new and exciting stories. You can "Shout" the stories that you like. Have a look.