Chris Saul's Blog

Wednesday October 15, 2008

Speed up, slow down

I was interested to read this article, which states that the speed limit on the Dubai-Al Ain road will be reduced from 160Km to 80Km.

It used to be 120Km, but was raised after people complained they were getting speeding tickets. Now it appears to have swung right down again.

My feeling is that 80Km is too low. You'll have a mix of people ignoring it completely, regardless of radars, coupled with people driving at the speed limit. A return to 120Km, combined with a police presence, enforcing proper driving standards at any speed, would be welcome. Driving to Al Ain at 80Km would mean three hours of mind-numbing pootling along in a straight line on an often near empty road. Without cruise control, it'd take a strong will not to find your speed creeping up and up.

When the speed limit on Sheikh Zayed Rd was reduced to 100Km, I welcomed it, predicted problems for a while, followed by acceptance and a safer road. We definitely have a safer road now. I can hardly believe that we all used to race along at 120Km, with the usual nutters whizzing by on the hard shoulder at 160Km. That said, a lot of the more dangerous driving occurs during rush hour, when people are moving at way below the speed limit, but are either driving in the wrong lane at the wrong speed, cutting in and out of lanes, not using their indicators, pushing in, etc. These guys deserve a strong police presence.

Mac bother

Bother! No sooner do I get my lovely MacBook, than Apple release a new range.

Instantly my old black Mac will start to look hideous and deformed in my eyes, whilst colleagues in the Sun office gloat over their new models, just after their old Toshibas mysteriously start breaking en masse.

Apple's ability to make their older models look completely dated each time a new version comes out is simply amazing.

Jamie's school dinners

I'm three years late watching 'Jamie's School Dinners', but have finally got around to it. When it first came out I remember reading the reviews, but nothing prepared me for what's in the actual programmes. (Jamie Oliver is a young British celebrity chef. In the series he sets out to get British kids to have healthier meals at school).

The kids in the schools he's trying to help are literally being poisoned every day - all they eat is complete and utter junk, day in, day out. The alternative school meals that Jamie prepares all look good to me - I'd have eaten them when I was at school. The pupils simply won't touch them though!

Some things that particularly struck me -

- Jamie's constant effing and blinding isn't necessary. He comes across as earnest, but a bit of a twit who swears pointlessly.

- If he wants to persuade them to eat better, he should focus on the health aspects. Tell the girls they'll get fat and they'll switch pretty quickly. Tell the boys about the kids in the local hospital literally vomiting their own faeces after months of junk builds up inside them and they'd switch as well. This persuasive stuff doesn't seem to be put to the children - he doesn't sell it to them.

- The children won't even eat curry and rice - they're totally addicted to complete rubbish.

- All the children in the school in Greenwich school he's at seem to speak the same faux Jamaican patois, regardless of their background, do you know what I mean man, innit?

- Some of the kids can't even recognise common vegetables. They think leeks are onions.

- Parents are amazed when their children behave better when they're not fed caffeine filled, sugary drinks.

Incredible stuff.

Monday October 13, 2008

UAE Banks protected

This news is welcome. Guaranteeing the deposits of banks in the UAE puts my mind at rest, for the moment. I dread to think how you'd actually get your money back in the event of a bank failing though.

My vast wealth can reside with my bank here for the time being. We were on the verge of raiding every local ATM and using the cash to fill my failing mattress.

In other banking news, a friend of ours told me recently that his mortgage is collected by monthly direct debit by his local mortgage company. I had to write 72 cheques for my monthly payments, with the difference apparently being totted up every two years, followed by either a refund or my paying the extra. Not particularly clear or efficient for either party.

False travelling economies

Today's trip to Algiers has to be the most miserable journey I've had to undertake when working at Sun.

I had the choice of two carriers and chose the one I thought would be more convenient - nicer arrival time back on Thursday, fewer stopovers, cheaper for Sun, etc.

I got to the airport at midnight, only to be told that the plane would be late. I was given varying information on how late it would be, so decided to stay at the airport, rather than go home to sleep for a bit. In the end, after a nightmare checkin and boarding, we left at 0800, five hours late. Thankfully, the gentleman from the airline managing the checkin process took pity on a poor Englishman and bumped me up to Business Class. This made a world of difference, the principal advantage being that I was able to sleep and I had the use of a toilet on the plane that wasn't awash with water and still had some toilet paper. And a working toilet seat.

On the plus side, the passenger mix was one I'm not used to at all, so I got to see some new faces. A lot of the passengers were en route to Niger and other countries in French speaking Africa. One African chap was wearing what I, in my general ignorance, would describe as a wraparound, Touareg style, headdress. The picture here doesn't really do it justice, but it was this kind of thing. It looked quite cool.

Passport control was rather slow, but I did have a good chat with the immigration officer about which languages people learn at school in Algeria and the UK whilst he tidied up my bad handwriting on the immigration form. Apologies to the people behind me in the queue. I promise to fill the form in more clearly next time if you promise not to smoke and spit phlegm on the floor next to my luggage.

When I arrived at my hotel, there was no booking for me, but I managed to get a room.

I'm going to ask my travel agent if I can be booked on a business class seat when flying back. I generally don't mind slumming it and economy is usually fine for most of the routes I do, but this one was really rather tough. Once everyone's seated things tend to be ok, but getting to that stage can somewhat trying.

I'm hoping that I'll be home to Mrs Saul on time on Friday morning.

If I come back with a successful meeting in the bag and a smiling customer and partner, that'll make it all the more worth it. Let's see.

I am now a real executive

I bought my first BlackBerry today, which surely qualifies me as a fully-fledged important executive. About time too.

I had been told 'Company A' had the new BlackBerry Bold in stock. Due to the recent, washing machine related, demise of my old Sony and the need for something to be able to use to do email on the move, I'd decided a while ago that this was the model for me. Lots of my colleagues have got earlier models - the general feeling is that whilst they can be a ball and chain, if you can manage the addiction the advantages of being constantly callable, sms-able and email-able outweigh the disadvantages.

Whilst I could have bought an iPhone and cracked it, I wouldn't have been able to make use of the local UAE telco's fixed price international GPRS roaming. Being ever considerate of Sun's opex and shareholders' interest, coupled with the fact that I want something that's excellent at email and ok at multimedia, rather than the other way around, it had to be a BlackBerry.

I duly called Company A at Mall of the Emirates, only to be told that they and all their other stores were out of stock. Undeterred, I passed by MoE to see if I could pick one up at another shop. Thirty minutes of being told that the Bold was 'not coming', I was walking back to the car and passed by Company A's place. During my call in the morning I had broken my local rule, which is to ask again if you don't like the first answer you get. I decided to pop in to see if they had one. They did - two, in fact. I bought one. Always ask twice.

I still need to do some fiddling to get it set up with email, as Sun don't let you use the default BlackBerry client, but I've been happily playing with the GPS, synched it without any problems and have even sent a few text messages. First impressions are excellent. Easy to type and navigate, beautiful screen. I will see if it might be a better choice for videos than my iPod. I'm looking forward to having email up and running - I expect it to save me a lot of time, save a lot on wifi hotspot costs and stop me having to use my laptop on the move. The latter point is quite important - a hot laptop on your suit trousers simply ruins the crease.

It always surprises me that Sun don't use the BlackBerry, or something similar worldwide. There isn't even a recommended phone or PDA either. The phone you get, at least in the Dubai office, is whatever's mid priced. This usually means that you get a rather ugly Nokia or something similar, which is never quite what you want.

I find all this odd - I've spent my whole career at Sun giving the 'golden pitch' about how Sun's strategy is all about the network and how mobile devices, rather than a laptop or PC, will be ubiquitous, connected and rather useful. Despite this, I am probably the last out of most of my 'career' friends to have a BlackBerry, or mobile email capable device - and I had to pay for the thing myself. Hmmph.

Expect me to be even more responsive via email and to add yet more value on a global scale, moving forward. I, in turn, expect disapproving frowns from Mrs Saul as I attempt to send surreptitious emails under the table when we're out at the weekend.

Sunday October 12, 2008

Noise

I'm getting a bit worried about the amount of noise coming through to our bedroom from next door.

Considering this is meant to be a high quality, live-your-dream-burble-burble development, I don't think I should be able to hear someone next door moving a chair around or saying 'coochie coo' to their baby in the morning. Our neighbours don't seem to be being particularly noisy or anti-social at all - they're just going about their daily business.

Mysteriously, all this extra noise seems to have started just after the warranty period expired. I should have logged a pre-emptive call the moment I heard a door bang during the time that the warranty was still valid.

Having the air-conditioning on makes a difference - hardly surprising that air blowing through the vents masks other noises.

I suspect that I'm noticing the noise now as both we and next door are no longer keeping the AC on during the day. I'm wondering if the difference in noise is simply due to the lack of fans blowing, or whether vents face in different directions when the fans are off, allowing sound to pass through. Having bathroom doors open seems to make a difference as well - noise seems to travel through bathroom vents particularly efficiently.

I expect that the answer from the developer will be along the lines of 'we don't care, you've made money on it so why are you complaining, we're astonished you actually want to live there'. I also expect that we'll get helpful suggestions about simply leaving our AC on whether we need it or not, as well as keeping our bathroom doors shut.

Either way, I'm not impressed. Building the development we're in is an incredible achievement, but surely the aim is to build quality residences that people will want to live in for years to come. I don't think being disturbed by noise from next door every morning represents quality workmanship.

I will start saving egg boxes to stick on the wall of our live-your-dream-burble-burble apartment.

(PS - I do love living here, really. I just get fed up with the lack of attention to detail and the silly decisions that get made which make such a difference to long term quality of life).

Right - that's one rant over. I will now call the maintenance people to chase up the water heater that's still not working, several weeks after the old one failed and the ceiling was ripped down to replace it with a new one which doesn't work either.

Ouch

6 months ago we got an amazing new mattress - no turn miracoil remembering moulding back loving wondressnesss. I'd been waking up with my back aching, so we'd decided to splash out on something better for me to sleep on than the 7 year old cheapo I'd bought when I got here in 2002.

At first, the new mattress was a revelation. Firm, comfy, no back stiffness at all. A great side effect is that one person can get in or out of the bed without the other side of the mattress moving at all. Great for not disturbing a sleeping Saul.

Since coming back from Las Vegas though, my back's started to ache in the morning again. Ouch - I call it traveller's back, where the top part of my back aches after too ling in an economy seat. It looks like my side of the amazing no turn miracoil remembering moulding back loving wondressnesss has started to sink. It's not remembering or remembering or loving my back particularly anymore. Is this because I'm too heavy? Surely not!

This shouldn't be a problem, as it came with a guarantee. Although we're usually careful with receipts, this one seems to have gone walkabout though. I'm sure the company has a record of our purchase and I'll be able to find it on my credit card - that said, this kind of thing is usually difficult in Dubai.

I predict two outcomes. One involves going to the shop where we bought the mattress and getting a replacement sorted out instantly. The second involves a lengthy battle, which will finish with getting a replacement sorted out.

I will keep you updated on my thrilling mattress story.

Wednesday October 08, 2008

Pakistan, here we come

I've just learnt that there's no travel ban for Sun employees going to Pakistan.

I was a little surprised, I have to say. The reason for the lack of ban is that the Marriott attack was a targeted bombing of a specific target, namely the various politicians who were expected to be there at the time, but who weren't.

The other hotel we stay in, the Serena, is actually much nicer than the Marriott. It's also more secure, thanks to a greater distance between where cars park and where the actual hotel is - the driveway from the main entrance is now closed and you have to walk up a small hill to get to reception.

All that said, the Marriott attack was obviously rather unsettling. I would prefer to stick to day trips for now, if at all possible.

Tuesday October 07, 2008

Desert or water?

I have to plug my father's photo blog again.

When I first saw this photo my first thoughts were that it was of a dried riverbed - possibly a natural assumption for someone living in Dubai. It's water, of course. I like the extreme difference between what my eyes thought they saw and reality.

Washing machine 1, Mobile Phone 0

The results of a scientific study were published in Dubai today.

The study, which aimed to find out whether a Sony k610i mobile phone can survive spinning around in a washing machine for fifteen minutes, yielded clear results.

After being left in the pocket of a pair of swimming trunks and duly placed in an Electrolux 2000 Washer Dryer, a washing cycle was begun. Fifteen minutes into the cycle, the phone's owner realised what was happening the experiment ceased.

On retrieval, it was discovered that the phone no longer functioned correctly. This continued to be case after leaving it to dry for several hours.

The SIM card, however, continued to work when placed in an antique phone used by the laboratory for just these kinds of situations.

The phone's owner will wash his own swimming trunks in future.

A side effect of this experiment is the release of budget for a replacement phone, expected to be a BlackBerry Bold, due to be released locally during Gitex, an IT exhibition held in Dubai during late October.

Monday October 06, 2008

Shuffle - an Apple mag for the Middle East

Thanks to the efforts of editor Magnus Nystedt and his wife, Crystal, the Middle East has a grassroots magazine for Apple users.

Shuffle Magazine has now gone professional, after being freely distributed for a number of months.

I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to September's issue, with an article on Sun and Apple. You can read that article here! You can buy future editions in various outlets across the Middle East or visit the website.

Congrats to Magnus and team.

Property spam reaches new levels of sophistication

Today's tenth property email spam reached new levels of genius.

Instead of the usual outpouring of badly written, luridly formatted nonsense about living my dream, this particular person decided to go minimal. No subject, no actual email text - just a blank space, with a signature at the bottom, informing me that whoever had sent this blank communication was a property consultant.

It's important to make yourself stand out from the competition. I will follow this person's dramatic lead and send everyone in my addressbook a completely blank email - once the recipients read my signature and notice that I am in desktop virtualisation sales, the orders will doubtless come flooding in.

Sunday October 05, 2008

Fixing fixing nears its end

Today is the last day of warranty for our apartment.

There are still several calls open, including the water heater, which is still not working properly, more than five weeks after the other one broke. I am convinced they will have to rip the ceiling down again and replace it.

Once all these calls are attended to and signed off once and for all, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have to have anyone around for a long, long time. Having people shuffling around, failing to fix simple things repeatedly, smiling at me as water spurts across the room or as they paint something into its socket is draining me.

The guys who do the jobs are mostly very pleasant and seem genuinely to want to help, but the general lack of skills and a common language between us makes the whole process incredibly frustrating.

Some of my newly developed fixing fixing vocabulary -

After colour same same:

After the paint's dried, please call us to come back as we've doubtless missed a large and very obvious section.

Tomorrow we are coming:

We will turn up at some unspecified date and express surprise that it's not convenient for you or that you're not actually there.

Yes:

No.

Fixing fixing?:

Good morning gentlemen?

May I surmise you are here to rectify the wrongs currently plaguing my humble dwelling? How super!

Shoes:

I say, Old Chap, would you mind awfully leaving your muddy boots at the door? Lovely!

Madame check? See previous post :)

Racing drivers

Every time I'm about to write about driving standards in Dubai getting better, all the nitwits seem to decide to pop out at the same time to dissuade me.

This video doesn't fill me with joy, either.