Ayman Elkhidir

2 weeks ago I was nagging and ranting about how hot this summer is going to be. And I even suggested to have (water coolers) instead of water heaters. Now I admit that was a stupid suggestion because there are even better ways to beat the heat in Dubai. Just take off and have some good chocolate ice cream in a temperature of -6 Degrees Celsius.

 

Yes, this is the new “cool” hang-out place in Dubai. It is frigin’ cold. It is called Chillout ice cafe, located in the new Times Square Mall. This restaurant/cafe is freezing at -6 C. Everything in it is made of ice; the chairs, the tables, the plates, and the glasses. Even the chandelier is made of ice. The place also has a gallery of ice sculptures of Dubai landmarks, and an ice portrait of Sheikh Mo himself.

Once you reach there, you are handed your thermal gear to protect you from the sub-zero temperature. It comprises a hooded parka, disposable woolen gloves and a pair of shoes. You are advised to stay for about 5 minutes in an area called (The Buffer Zone) of which temperature is +5 degrees to get acclimatised, then you head into the dining area of freezing -6 degrees Celsius.

You might think that since everything is made of ice, it will be dripping wet. Well, that’s not true because…

“It is a popular misconception that furniture at an ice restaurant is wet. It is the moisture on the surface of ice that gives it the wet feel. There cannot be any moisture at minus 6 degrees. Every bit of it turns to ice,” Sspokesman, Sharaf Group.

The lighting over there is made of LEDs because these don’t emit heat as the conventional lighting does. The place includes also some (intimate) table for two arrangements for couples. Well, I can’t imagine what sort of intimacy would survive that temperature.

It is advisable to spend a maximum of 30-40 minutes inside the restaurant and the restaurant workers are all from cold countries like Romania and Russia and they are instructed to step out to normal temperature at regular intervals.

Now if you’re wondering how much this would cost you, well, the cover charge is Dh60 (about 16 US$ or 38 Sudanese Pounds), includes thermal gear and a free mocktail. I haven’t been there yet, but I certainly will very soon.

Now talk about being cool!

Pictures courtesy of Xpress Newspaper

It’s been a while since there were good movies showing, but last week was different. I had to go the movies twice over the weekend and I still missed one good movie. So, I was able to watch Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ocean’s 13 which I was waiting for for a long time. Still, I missed Nicolas Cage’s new movie (Next) even though I liked its idea.

Ocean’s Thirteen

I’m a big fan of this series, since Ocean’s 11 and 12. The great thing about them is the twist that explains the whole movie just at the end. If you’re going to watch Ocean’s 13, you can’t lose your concentration on the screen. Nothing in this movie and in these guys’ plan is actually what it looks like. This movie is not for everyone, that’s why it was showing in the smallest theater in Cinestar Mall of the Emirates. It makes sense because with all these starts in one movie, you imagine people will be in long queues for tickets, but that wasn’t the case. Let’s face it, it’s a movie that wouldn’t be fun for most of people, but will be extremely fun for the few who like this kind of twisty, tricky movies. I would recommend to go in a group, because you guys will be talking about it for2 hours after the movie, as everyone will miss something.

What I liked about it:

• Al Pacino and Andy Garcia together again (Remember Godfather III ?)
• The Gilroy
• The closing scene

What I didn’t like about it:

• Julia Roberts (Clooney’s wife a.k.a. Tess) didn’t appear in this movie, even though she was mentioned in the beginning. Seems that Julia is out of the cast of the movie.

My favorite quote:

Willie Banks (Al Pacino): This town might have changed, but not me. I know people highly invested in my survival, and they are people who really know how to hurt in ways you can’t even imagine.

Danny Ocean (George Clooney): Well, I know all the guys that you’d hire to come after me, and they like me better than you.

 

 

 

 

 

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

This comic superhero movie is one of those movies that totally depend on your expectations. Don’t go there expecting an edge-of-the-seat thriller or an adventure movie with a good story. In order to enjoy the movie, you have to feel like a 10 year-old kid. Don’t look for the story or the act. Just admire those superheros who risk their lives to save the planet. If you think you’re too grown up and mature for this, the movie isn’t worth your 30 Dirhams. Leave your seat for someone else.

What I liked about it:

• Jessica Alba wearing glasses
• The Dodge Fantasticar with a HEMI engine (Good marketing by Dodge)
• Johnny Storm with all 4 powers (That was fun)

What I didn’t like about it:

• The Galactus thing was silly

My favorite quote:

Reed Richards: [to Sue after she switches powers with Johnny] You’re on fire!
Susan Storm: You think?

 

 

 

Well, it seems like the next couple of weekends will be movie weekends as well. Several movies are coming and I just can’t miss any of them.

 

 

Live Free of Die Hard a.k.a Die Hard 4.0 (trailer)

Bruce Willis is back in the die hard series and this time it’s even more messed up. Just check the trailer to know what I mean. The guy actually drives a car into a helicopter!

 

The Transformers (trailer)

Amazing 3D graphics and great muscle cars. Need I say more?

 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (trailer)

Watch the trailer and you’ll know this one is not less exciting that its predecessors.

What a night!

After four years of failure, Real Madrid had finally put their hands on the title of La Liga after beating Mallorca last night.

Coming back from their loss of 0-1 till the 68th minute when Reyes started to lift the spirits by scoring the equalizer on his first touch of the ball after substituting Beckham. That was not enough as the Madridistas had to win this game to win the league, while news was coming that Barcelona is giving Gimnastic hard times, scoring 4 goals already.

 

It was a very tough time on all Madrid fans while clock was ticking and it was obvious that Mallorca was concentrating on their defense. Then, out of no where in the 80th minute, comes the Malian midfielder Mohammado Diarra to score a header that got all Madrid city on their feet.

Still worried about any surprises in the last ten minutes, the team was trying to secure their back with aggressive defensing. Three minutes later, 83rd minute, Reyes comes again with a marvellous shot from far to score the third goal and seal teh victory. At that point I was jumping up and down screaming  my lungs out of joy.

So, let there be no more talk. Pictures shall say it all.

 

 

 

The extremely hot and humid weather in Dubai in the last few days resembles a clear sign of warning that summer 2007 is going to be friggin hot. Not only heat is the problem, but humidity has been very high as well.

The Met office at Dubai International Airport yesterday recorded a maximum humidity of 94 per cent and minimum of 45, said forecaster Amna Yaseen. “The normal average humidity in June is a maximum of 70 per cent and minimum of 45. But this year, it has gone up drastically,” Amna said.

 

I hate humidity. I hate the feeling of stickiness that makes every particle of dust in the air stick to your arms and face. And to make things even worse, shower water is always boiling so that bathing itself is a nightmare.

How come we live in a desert city where temperatures are above 40 degrees in most months of the year and we still find water heaters as a standard bathroom fixture, but we never see “water coolers” in bathrooms at all?

At least, there is one good thing that happens in Summer. Most people actually escape this taste-of-hell place to cooler regions, which reflects on the number of cars on Dubai roads and we usually have 2 month of freeways in July and August.

Personally, I decided to join the clan of escapees this year, even though Sudan is not a much cooler place, but August in Sudan is the rain season which is locally called Autumn (for reasons I still don’t understand).

No tears spilled on missing Dubai Summer Surprises this year.

 

 

It’s been some time since I wrote about technology, so here we go.

Introduction

A format war describes competition between competing, and typically mutually incompatible, electronic media formats, usually very costly to the format-owning parties involved. It results from a failure to agree on a technical standard.

It all starts in those underground, well-secured R&D labs of every major technology or electronics company. These companies spend huge amounts of money on R&D in order to develop new technologies hoped to create a new market. It is not all about selling better or more impressive products, but rather about a very big source of cash; Copyright.

A format war-winning company (or an alliance of companies) that comes out with a new technology that gets very popular, forcing other manufacturers to include it in their products. Preserving the copyrights, all other companies have to pay due to the inventor company to include that feature in their products. Examples of these companies are the Philips-Sony alliance that came up with Compact Discs back in 1980. Just try to figure out how many CD players were sold afterwards either as PC accessory or stand-alone Audio CD player or car audio player or hi fi, etc.

In most cases, in early stages of development, several or most of the big manufacturers form an alliance to split the expenses of R&D while having the rights to use the technology afterwards free of charge.

So it is like a bet. If the company’s management is sure that the new technology those freaks in R&D labs are developing is going to be a big hit, they might consider not joining forces with anyone in order to gain a lot after this technology get the huge demand you’re expecting. But still, marketing a new technology is a tough job. That’s why we usually see those alliances. So when it came to DVD, it wasn’t just Philips and Sony but rather Philips, Sony, Panasonic, and Toshiba.

Let the War Begin

In some cases, two new competing technologies are developed. Each of these technologies (a.k.a. formats) have their own advantages over the other. Then, we usually find two “camps” of alliances with each backing one of the formats. This is when we reach the stage of format wars, because these companies start spending more and more money on a format which will be obsolete if they don’t win.

VHS vs Betamax

The most famous example of format wars was the Videotape Format War in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The competition was between the rival VHS and Betamax Videotape formats.

A Betamax cassette (top) and a VHS cassette (bottom).

Betamax was developed by Sony in 1972 and was quickly followed by VHS which was developed by JVC (which is owned by Matsushita, the mother company of Panasonic). By 1984, forty companies utilized the VHS format in comparison with Betamax’s twelve. Sony tacitly conceded defeat in 1988 when they also began producing VHS recorders. This was one of the most famous format wars in the 20th century.

An ironic aspect of format wars is that perceived technical superiority does not always win. Though Betamax was perceived by consumers to have better picture quality than VHS, a number of factors including VHS’s longer recording time, wider range of models and suppliers, and lower cost eventually relegated Betamax to a niche market in Japan.

And there is more…

There are lots of format wars going around. You might not notice them easily but they are there and there are intense. It might not affect you directly, but it means a lot to those who spent billions developing them

Other examples of format wars are:

• Broadcast television systems (PAL vs SECAM vs NTSC).
• Audio Broadcasting formats (FM vs AM).
• Digital Audio Data Compression formats (MP3 vs OGG vs WMA vs AAC).
• Digital Video Formats (DVD vs DIVX).
• Memory Cards Formats (CompactFlash vs Memory Stick vs MultiMediaCard / Secure Digital card vs SmartMedia vs XD-Picture Card).
• Recordable DVD formats (DVD+R vs DVD-R).
• High-definition optical disc formats (Blu-ray vs HD-DVD).
• Display Panel technologies (CRT vs LCD vs Plasma vs DLP).
• Videogame consoles (PS3 vs XBOX360 vs Wii).

I will be writing about some of these format wars in more detail once I get time for it. For the time being, class dismissed…