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.
The Saudi MCIT (don’t mind the design) will be hosting a 2 day seminar on PKI (Public key infrastructure). The seminars will be for 2 days starting tomorrow the 15th to the 16th of December 2009. The seminar will be titled “Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges in PKI”.
The following will be speaking at the seminar:
- Dr. Fahad Al Hoymany. Senior Advisor and Head of National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC) , Saudi Arabia.
- Phil D’Angio. Director of Business Development for VeriSign EMEA.
- Dr. Khalid alghonaim. General Manager Alelm company ,Saudi Arabia.
- Eng. Ali alsoma.General Manager E-Government Program “YESSER” Saudi Arabia.
- Ami Azrul bin Abdullah.Chief Technology Officer Digicert Sdn Bhd., Malaysia.
- Youngchul Kang.CEO, National Administration Information System and Security Co, South Korea.
- Sami Ghazali.Chief Executive Officer Certification. National Digital Certification Agency. Tunis.
- Hisham Mohamed Abdel Wahab.Director of electronic signature, ITIDA.Egypt.
- Antti Vihavainen.Business development & professional services manager Valimo, Finland.
- Eng. Abdullah Nasser Alghannam.R&D Deputy Director National Information Centre.
- Eng. Fawaz Al Bassam.PKI administrator Aramco.
- Dr. Tim Moses.Senior Director of the Advanced Security Technology group Entrust. Canada.
- Antonio Colaianni.EMEA Sales Director Corestreet.
- Dr. Sami alhumaidi.Director of ECP Research Program, KACST.Saudi Arabia.
- Eng. Abdullah AlFathel.Head of Architecture & Security Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.
- Eng. Mohammad M. Al-Mandeel.Assistant Secretary General for IT – CIO Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC).
- Olivier Ruff.PKI & SCM Consultant OPENTRUST.
- Dr. Sundeep Oberoi. Global Head of the Niche Technology Delivery Group (NTDG) in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
- Dr. Dhaifallah Al Zahrani. Deputy Governor for Legal Affairs Communications and Information Technology Commission(CITC).
- Ronny Bjones. Security Architect/ EMEA EPG Security lead Microsoft Corporation.
Registration and more info can be found here.
As you know, a tweetup is “n. A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service”. You are welcome to attend the sixth Riyadh Tweetup to be held Thursday October 1st 2009 at Second Cup Cafe after Isha prayer. The tweetup is still a male-only event. Registration here.
Follow @TweetupRiyadh on Twitter for updates. Also make sure to follow @SaudiTech for Saudi TechView updates.
A tweetup is “n. A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service”. You are welcome to attend the fifth Riyadh Tweetup to be held September 3rd 2009 at Second Cup Cafe from 10 pm to 2 am. Still a male-only event.
You can register for it here. Follow @TweetupRiyadh on Twitter. Make sure to follow @SaudiTech for Saudi TechView updates.
A tweetup is “n. A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service”. You are welcome to attend the third Riyadh Tweetup to be held August 6th 2009 at Second Cup Cafe.
You can register for it here. Follow @TweetupRiyadh on Twitter.
A tweetup is “n. A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service”. You are welcome to attend the third Riyadh Tweetup to be held July 2nd 2009.
You can register for it here. Follow @TweetupRiyadh on Twitter.
CodeBetter is a group of programmers who want to “raise software quality in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through sharing best practices related to different Application Lifecycle phases. Community target will be initially Microsoft technologies focus, upon the member’s feedback it can be stretched to other different technologies.”
They are having a CodeBetter June Public Event on Thursday, June 25th 2009 1:00PM at Al-Yamama University, Riyadh. Visit the event page for directions because as we know Google maps for Saudi Arabia is useless. The event will also introduce Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software.
A tweetup is “n. A real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service”. You are welcome to attend the second Riyadh Tweetup:
This is the second Riyadh Tweetup meant to gather people located in Riyadh who use twitter to socialize and meet face to face.
Location is still under consideration and any recommendations are welcomed.
Due to local laws we will have a sexes separated with a female and male gatherings.
This is the second meetup after the success of our first meetup.
If you have any recommendations or ideas for the meetup let me know by emailing me saudi AT asaudilife net
Depending on the event location we may or may not have an hour of lectures and discussions.
If you are interested in sponsoring the event please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Follow us on Twitter for the latest in regards to the Tweetup @TweetupRiyadh
هذا تجمع مستخدمي تويتر الرياض الثاني.
موقع التجمع سيحدد فيما بعد ونرحب باي اقتراحات بالنسبة للموقع.
تطبيقاً للقوانين المحلية سيكون هنالك فصل بين الرجال والنساء ولن يسمح بالاختلاط.
هذا هو التجمع الثاني بعد نجاح التجمع الاول.
اذا وجد لديكم اية اقتراحات فضلاً ابلاغي بها على بريدي saudi AT asudilife net
اعتماداً على موقع التجمع قد نقيم او لا نقيم ساعة من المحاضرات والمناقشات المفتوحة.
اذا اردتم رعاية التجمع لا تترددوا بالاتصال بي.
Thanks Turki for arranging it.
Update: Softland listed as a OCZ distributor in Saudi Arabia (different url).
Softland is one of the older computer hardware stores in Saudi Arabia. I remember visiting them back in 1995 and trying Doom! Their original store in Riyadh was on Tahliah street in Riyadh then they opened a second branch in Olaya computer market (haraj). The old branch was renamed to “Binaries” and was moved to the Olaya computer market as well. They also have a third store named Technology Roof also in the same Olaya computer market. Since they have multiple names we will refer to them with their original name, “Softland”.
Softland is one of the few computer hardware stores that specialize in importing computer components directly from the United States and they don’t usually rely on the Saudi Arabia dealers and distributors. That means that you can easily find the latest high end video cards and CPUs. The only disadvantage of course will be the high price that you will pay but it’s acceptable considering the limited alternatives.
The exception is when Softland actually have a distribution deal with the hardware maker. Softland is the only distributor in Saudi Arabia for OCZ and Thermaltake. The prices for these products are more decent than other hardware that they directly import.
Softland also have the best warranty on all the products that they sell. If they can’t fix the hardware then they are willing to replace it with either the same or a better model (you pay the difference).
Contact info: email: softland@sol.net.sa Tel: 966-1-462-8922 Tel: 966-1-466-5039 Fax: 966-1-462-1387.
A computer forensics course will be held in Riyadh. Titled “SEC 508: Computer Forensics, Investigation, and Response” and will cost $4,500. You can register at this website. From the email invitation:
Government regulations and organizational policy might require computer forensic investigators to investigate intellectual property theft, harassment, and regulatory compliance. Investigators must master a variety of operating systems, investigation techniques, incident response tactics, and even legal issues in order to solve their cases. This course will teach you forensic techniques and tools in a hands-on setting for both Windows- and Linux-based investigations. This course emphasizes a hands-on approach where you will learn in-depth forensic functionality and how to solve a variety of incidents. Most incident response and security personnel will need to be familiar with core forensic techniques in order to respond to a variety of incidents for their organizations. This course teaches investigators how to follow the trail typical for intrusions and incidents that they might encounter. Incident responders should learn how intruders breached the infrastructure to identify additional systems/networks that are compromised. You will learn how to investigate traces left by complex attacks using the latest exploit methodologies. Learning more than just how to use a forensic tool, you will be able to demonstrate how the tool functions step-by-step. You will become skilled with tools, such as the Sleuth-kit, Foremost, and the HELIX Forensics Live CD. We will rapidly move on to advanced forensic and investigation analysis topics and techniques. This SANS hands-on technical course arms you with a deep understanding of the forensic methodology, tools, and techniques to solve even the most difficult case.
It will be a full week starting from Saturday May 23rd to Wednesday May 27th 2009 at Al-Muthana Hotel in Riyadh.