Hey, long time no see? Sorry I’ve been busy with SaudiMac so you will see less updates here. Sorry again. Now on with the show!
The latest victim of the CITC is the popular social bookmark sharing website StumbleUpon. From Wikipedia:
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.
So it got blocked now. Must be blocked by the same guy who blocked tinyurl.
I have been using a Novatel MiFi 2352 for months now (bought it from Expansys but it’s also available from Amazon). In case you don’t know what’s a MiFi it’s a portable 3G modem (think Mobily connect, STC Jawalnet) that’s also a wireless access point, basically you can share a 3G Internet connection between up to 5 Wi-Fi devices. STC, Mobily and Zain all brought the Huawei counterpart instead of the Novatel so I had to buy it online.
Do I need to say how annoyed I am with STC calling their device “myfi” instead of using an original name? All of these models are locked to their carrier.
Novatel doesn’t post the firmware on their website so I had to dig around and finally found MiFi 2352 Firmware version 5.26.2. I put a copy of the file right here: 20418796 MUU MIFI2352 NVTL GENERIC_Pkg. Just download the zip file, extract the executable, connect the MiFi to your computer via USB and run the exe file. Yes it’s Windows only but that’s why we have VMWare and Parallels Desktop.
I noticed an overall performance improvement, I didn’t need to restart the MiFi was often as I did with the old firmware.
All of your settings should be safe while upgrading but just in case: Default WEP key is Set To AB1CDEFG2HIJ3.
Big thanks to R.ALBADER from Kuwait for posting the update.
Are you interested in buying a Novatel instead of a Huawei portable hotspot? You got two options Novatel Wireless MiFi 2352 and Novatel Wireless MiFi 2372 both support 2100MHz so they should work in Saudi Arabia. The battery is made by Sony so just to be safe buy another battery.
Another even cheaper method of buying a Novatel MiFi is this website in the UAE, they are selling the MiFi 2352 for only 799 AED (almost the same amount in Saudi Riyals).
One more thing, Mobily is selling one of the few HSPA+ (Evolved HSPA) portable hotspots in Saudi Arabia. It’s a BandLuxe PR30 or PR39 from BandRich.
Nimbuzz is an instant messaging and Voice of IP service available for many platforms; Windows, Mac, iPhone and so on.
For some strange reason nimbuzz.com has been blocked in Saudi Arabia. As if the recent FaceTime deactivation was not enough.
To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.
The event will be held on 21 and 22 October 2010, it will be online so you don’t have to go anywhere.
Here’s the full info:
Welcome to First Riyadh Online Community Summit.
Riyadh SharePoint User Group, DevLifeStyle, Windows Phone Middle East, SQLPath, Community Leads from Riyadh and MVPs from all around the world are pleased to announce the the first Riyadh Online Community Summit being held on October 21-22, 2010.
The event will cover a wide array of topics ranging from Client to Mobile Programming, Database Development and Administration, all the way to SharePoint Collaboration and Systems Integration.
Eventbrite link: 1st Riyadh Online Community Summit.
Not sure how it’s Riyadh specific since it’s really online 
This has to be said, as a computer enthusiast I am upset with the current state of the technology market in Saudi Arabia. What’s going on in Riyadh’s “Olaya Computer Market” (Gowalla and Wikimapia locations) is just frustrating.
The Olaya Computer Market is a collection of computer stores, it’s very popualar.
Pirated software is being sold there as well.
Even crap is being sold on small stands provided by the owner of the building (according to some). These stands sell junk and have nothing to do with computers, unless they are pirated software.
Back in late 2008 or early 2009 Riyadh Municipally had the “sidewalk fever”: bad attempts at sidewalks everywhere. So they started digging. This next photo was taken by me on February 17, 2009:
These constructions took forever, they were uncoordinated and until today have not finished! I will post more photos bellow. These photos were taken by me unless I say otherwise.
You can no longer browse YouTube videos. For some strange reason the following url has been blocked:
This is YouTube’s directory of videos, could this be the first step to fully block YouTube in Saudi Arabia (again)? Now you can no longer browse videos on YouTube.
To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.
Google Chrome tabs are ugly and can get so small you can’t even read them. Use TooManyTabs extension and with it you can view all the tabs. You can sort and search these tabs.
TooManyTabs is also available for Mozilla Firefox.
Travian.ae has been blocked in Saudi Arabia a few days ago. This noticeably effected the site’s “alexa ranking” as you can see here:
Here’s something weird that I discovered: there is a Travian.com.sa, a Saudi Travian domain! So why did CITC block travian.ae and not travian.com.sa? Saudi players have been playing on the UAE servers for years now.
Here are the WHOIS info for both domains. This is TRAVIAN.AE:
Domain Name travian.ae
Registrar ID 123DOMAIN
Registrar Name Klute-Thiemann Infomationstechnologie GmbH&Co.KG
Status ok
Registrant Contact ID KT-259733205
Registrant Contact Name Travian Games GmbH
Registrant Contact Email domain_master@traviangames.com
Tech Contact ID KT-037219030
Tech Contact Name Siegfried Mueller
Tech Contact Email domain_adminc@traviangames.com
Name Server ns01.travian.org
Name Server ns02.travian.com
Name Server ns03.travian.net
This is TRAVIAN.COM.SA:
domain: travian.com.sa
organization: Travian Games GmbH
address: Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Str.22
address: P.O.Box 305150
address: 80807 Munchen
address: Germany
admin-c: SM187-SA
tech-c: TK27-SA
reg-c: TK28-SA
nserver: ns01.travian.org
nserver: ns02.travian.com
nserver: ns03.travian.net
req-date: 2009-05-27
reg-date: 2009-05-30
source: SaudiNIC
Could Travian.ae be blocked just to boost Travian.com.sa’s numbers? The more players on the Saudi server would mean more money from premium Travian players.
What do you think? What other reason is there to block the biggest Saudi server (Travian.ae)?
Online gaming website Travian has been blocked in Saudi Arabia. At the time only the Arabic interface version (www.travian.ae/) has been blocked. You can still access the original website.
If you really care about it then you know where to fill the forms to have it unblocked. This is one block I do not mind .
Sony is recalling about half a million of their VAIO notebooks because of heating issues. The issue could cause a Sony notebook to “distort the shape” in other words “MELT”.
The effected Sony VAIO models are:
- VPCF11 Series: VPCF111FD, VPCF111FD/B, VPCF111FX, VPCF111FX/B, VPCF111FX/H, VPCF112FX, VPCF112FX/B, VPCF112FX/H, VPCF113FX, VPCF113FX/B, VPCF113FX/H, VPCF114FX, VPCF114FX/B, VPCF114FX/H, VPCF115FM, VPCF115FM/B, VPCF115FM/BL, VPCF116FX, VPCF116FX/B, VPCF116FX/H, VPCF117FX, VPCF117FX/B, VPCF117FX/B, VPCF117FX/H, VPCF1190X, VPCF119FX, VPCF119GX, VPCF119HX, VPCF11AFX, VPCF11AFX/B, VPCF11BFX, VPCF11BFX/B, VPCF11CGX, VPCF11CGX/B, VPCF11DGX, VPCF11DGX/B, VPCF11EGX, VPCF11EGX/B, VPCF11FGX, VPCF11FGX/B, VPCF11GGX, VPCF11GGX/B, VPCF11HGX, VPCF11HGX/B, VPCF11JFX, VPCF11JFX/B, VPCF11KFX, VPCF11KFX/B, VPCF11KFX/H, VPCF11LFX, VPCF11LFX/B, VPCF11LFX/H, VPCF11MFX, VPCF11MFX/B, VPCF11NFX, VPCF11NFX/B, VPCF11NFX/H, VPCF11PFX, VPCF11PFX/H, VPCF11QFX, VPCF11QFX/B and VPCF11QFX/H
- VPCCW2 Series: VPCCW21FX, VPCCW21FX/B, VPCCW21FX/L, VPCCW21FX/P, VPCCW21FX/R, VPCCW21FX/W, VPCCW22FX, VPCCW22FX/B, VPCCW22FX/L, VPCCW22FX/P, VPCCW22FX/R, VPCCW22FX/W, VPCCW23FX, VPCCW23FX/B, VPCCW23FX/L, VPCCW23FX/P, VPCCW23FX/R, VPCCW23FX/W, VPCCW26FX, VPCCW26FX/B, VPCCW26FX/L, VPCCW26FX/P, VPCCW26FX/R, VPCCW26FX/W, VPCCW27FX, VPCCW27FX/B, VPCCW27FX/L, VPCCW27FX/P, VPCCW27FX/R, VPCCW27FX/W, VPCCW29FX, VPCCW29GX, VPCCW2AFX, VPCCW2AFX/B, VPCCW2BFX, VPCCW2BFX/B, VPCCW2CGX, VPCCW2CGX/B, VPCCW2DGX, VPCCW2DGX/B, VPCCW2EGX, VPCCW2EGX/B, VPCCW2FGX, VPCCW2FGX/B, VPCCW2GGX, VPCCW2GGX/B, VPCCW2HGX, VPCCW2HGX/B, VPCCW2JGX, VPCCW2JGX/B, VPCCW2KGX, VPCCW2KGX/B, VPCCW2LFX, VPCCW2LFX/B, VPCCW2LFX/L, VPCCW2LFX/P, VPCCW2LFX/R, VPCCW2LFX/W, VPCCW2MFX, VPCCW2MFX/PU, VPCCW2MFX/WJ, VPCCW2MGX, VPCCW2MGX/B, VPCCW2NFX, VPCCW2NFX/LU, VPCCW2PFX, VPCCW2PFX/L, VPCCW2PFX/R. VPCCW2PFX/W, VPCCW2QGX, VPCCW2QGX/B, VPCCW2RGX, VPCCW2RGX/B, VPCCW2SGX, VPCCW2SGX/B, VPCCW2TGX, VPCCW2TGX/B, VPCCW2UFX, VPCCW2UFX/B, VPCCW2VFX, and VPCCW2VFX/B
If your model number is included then consider contacting Sony’s service centers in Saudi Arabia. More information is on Sony’s eSupport website.
From Cnet via Buzz Out Loud.