Entries from November 2006 ↓

GITEX, Gulf Info Tech Exhibition is one of the top 3 major IT expo in the world. Even though the entry is Dhs 25 (Dhs15 for GITEX Shopper), it attracts over 1.2 mn visitors.

Shoppers get a good deal, Business soars at this point of time, the “IT section” of this region get bustling with activity. Although I didn’t go to the GulfComms Expo at the Dubai World Trade Center, I was there at the GITEX Shopper at Dubai Airport Expo grounds. It was a fun filled day which I won’t forget as it was my first big outing here in the UAE and I’m a sort of geek and we all like to get pampered to good IT products.

Microsoft announced it’s LOVE (Launch of Office, Vista and Exchange), Sony launched it’s PS3 gaming console, HP announced it’s new range of laptops, etc… We get to see Laptops, Desktops, LCD & Plasma TVs, Digicams, Cell phones, Music Players, etc. under a single roof at a discounted rates.

How to get a good deal at GITEX?

The best possible deal that you can hope to get in GITEX will be on the last day, last hour of the GITEX Shopper expo. You get the so called “Last Day Price” and the deal of the day. Within minutes exhibitors reduce the price of the products. Myself and my friend was rooming around to buy a Nokia N 70 mobile phone. It was costing around Dhs 1170 (~ Rs 14,200) and the N 70 Music Edition was costing around Dhs 1280 (~ Rs 15,500). Then in the last hour of the day, one exhibitor reduced the price of N 70 to just Dhs 999 (~ 12,100)!

Similarly you get good offers on Laptops, Digicams, LCD and Plasma TVs, and other computer peripherals and accessories. So just make sure that you’re in the last day of the GITEX expo to get the best possible deal.

Of Planes Landing in your Dinner Table and Chicks!

After finishing our work there, we all went to have our dinner in a Restaurant near our place at 1 am. We then decided to have it outside the Restaurant (I mean in the pavements). That places is near to the airport. It was great feeling to see Planes come to land (in peak time, there’ll be a plane landing/taking off once in ever 3-4 minutes and you can see upto 5 planes in the sky at a time!). The planes were flying low and it seems as though they’re landing in our tables!

Before I wind up this post, I must say that Dubai’s Exhibitions, Expo and Fairs attract chicks of all kinds. Right from the Desi chicks to Filipino chicks to European chicks to African chicks (!) to American chicks. Most of the saleswomen also look stunning. Perfect sleek look to sex bait! You have to come and see to believe it!

My next stop is the Dubai Shopping Festival to be held for 45 days from December 20th till February 2nd. So long till then…

India is back into cricketing action after the ICC Championship trophy where they didn’t fair well. This is an important tour considering that the World Cup is just around the corner. It’ll be a make or break for some cricketers. Will they perform well?

As usual, I bring in the the links for the link streaming telecast of the India Versus South Africa series. This places will be updated as soon as possible.

[Updated]- 02/1/07

For the Third Test - India Vs. South Africa

Sopcast Link:
** Sop Cast Link - Plugin that has to installed before viewing the match, can be downloaded at that page.

** Sky Sports Link - Worked Yesterday, dunno if it’s working any longer.. but give it a try.

** TVUPLAYER - Free
How to View matches using TVU Player: Download the “TVUPLAYER” and select the channel that you would like to watch. To see what things that can be watched with TVU Player, visit Viidoo. The name of the Cricket Channel is BwT Cricket or it’ll be something related to cricket.

** The Wicket - Free

** Lovelypk - Free

** Willow TV - Paid ; They also provide highlights and scores to your mobile for free. You get Dish TV streams. I think it’s $100 for the stremns and you get the Irani Trophy streams for free.

** 360 Bat and Ball action - Paid ; $20

Audio Commentary
For Audio Commentary of the matches, visit this page: Audio Commentary

Highlights and Clips
There’s this site Crictorrents. They generally have highlights of most matches and popular moments. Registration is free. It uses torrents. If you don’t know about torrents and how to download things using torrents, check here : How to download stuffs using torrents

I will update this space when I stumble on such a link. Sometimes we have Sopcast links for a single day, then you can visit this page to get updated.

Enjoy!

The schedule of the India Vs South Africa ODI and Test series:

ODIs:

1st ODI (D/N) SAF v IND - Nov 19 2006
2nd ODI (D/N) SAF v IND - Nov 22 2006
3rd ODI SAF v INd - Nov 26 2006
4th ODI (D/N) SAF v IND - Nov 29 2006
5th ODI SAF v IND - Dec 03 2006

Test Series:

1st TEST SAF v IND - Dec 15 2006
2nd TEST SAF v IND - Dec 26 2006
3rd TEST SAF v IND - Jan 02 2007

Hope India fairs well at least this time in South Africa.

The largest man-made island and only the second structure that can be seen from the space (The Palm Islands), a plane landing/taking off once in every 3-4 minutes, the world’s tallest tower, roads controlled by radar ….Welcome to Dubai!

It’s almost one month that I’ve been in Dubai. so, how have things been?

I’m not going to repeat thing that you might be aware of them before like roads are good, right hand drive, Fridays are holidays, etc…., but some of the things that you might have know before.

India and Dubai

• There are many Indian (South Indian in particular) restaurants here. Some of them are Saravana Bhavan, Kerala Bhavan, Annaporna, Upidi restaurants, etc.. I don’t know the situation in the other place, but in Deira itself, there are so many Indian restaurants.
• The crowd in these restaurants are more than those in the other restaurants!
• As far as I’ve noticed, things are atleast 2-3 times costly as there in India. We can tell anything is cheap, when the prices are same as in India!
• This place (Dubai) is like India only. There are so many Indians who here wandering, wearing the desi lungis in streets - only that I can’t come to India whenever I wish.

Roads

• 85% of the Dubai roads is ruled by cars only. There are hardly any two wheelers. They say that it’s difficult to get license, and only organizations like Courier firm, restaurants get them as they might need it for logistics.
• The motorist “respect” the pedestrians. They give way whenever the pedestrians want to cross the road.
• The roads (Highways) here controlled by Radar. So need for police/highway patrols.
• The petrol/deisel is measured in Gallons unlike Litres as in India.

Telecom and Internet

• There is only one Telecom company - Etisalat (Govt. owned).
• The signal strength is good and the network strength bar is always full anywhere you’re in UAE.

Miscellaneous

• Many people have the perception that electronic goods are cheap here. I have gone to couple to places here, it’s selling at the same rate as we might buy them in India. Only TVs have noteable price difference. But things can get cheap at this Year End Dubai Shopping festival.
• There are no stray (or even pet) dogs that I have seen. There seem to be only cats straying around in the streets.
• In all this time, I have seen only one Beggar. That he came to the restaurant. He was not persistent as our desi beggars! Really I have not noticed any vagabonds or beggars here.

No place like Home

Have you ever thought why our Bharat Army or members in Discussion boards like BwTorrents BwTorrents are so patriotic? Even if their coutry doesn’t do well, they defend and still support their team?

Only if you’re away from your country, you’ll realize how important our motherland is. You’ll miss your country. The same thing happened to me also. I how good my Broadband connection (BSNL Dataone) was (no fun here!), my parents advice/words, my PC (al though it was old, I had no complaints), my Chennai, everything.

The freedom (that you get in your motherland) is something that’s a luxury once you’re out of your country. Once such simple thing to explain this on the occasion of Diwali. People here were afraid to burst crackers, as there was a fear that it’s not welcome (and in worst case, you might be deported), but the local people were bursting crackers that too in a public place.

Not that I’m homesick (I know people who are homesick even after staying away from home over 6-8 months), but I really miss everything that I used to enjoy and not enjoyed. On the other side, I’m now more independent and do things which I never thought I’ll again in my life. Some example is that I eat Curd Rice and drink Butter Milk which I never did before in my 22 years. After my mother came to know about this, she was really happy!!