The right way was left behind

I own a radio, a double din Radio from JVC to be a little more precise and I installed it in my 2005 Mercedes SLK four years ago. What i didn't install in my SLK was proper wiring and so after a few years, cables came loose and everything went haywire or without exaggeration, my speakers got confused.

You see, I didn't order one of those fancy connector harnesses that snap right into the original Mercedes radio plug. (unlike what i did for my wife's car a month ago). So I did the good old McGyver, the "I take some spare parts, and make my own little plug." thing.

(sorry for the pictures.. they do suck!)

It ended up looking like this.

It worked, but wasn't great as some pins constantly came loose. So four years later, I finally got myself to do some research on what to get, to make it work.
I searched the net for a proper plug but never found something that appealed to me. Most of them were either too expensive or to complicated to come across so I gave up ... for the meantime...

Until Our office took delivery of a few hundred "Mate 'n' Lock" Plugs.

Mate 'n' Lock plugs are a professional solution for cable connections similar to the ones you have on a Computer Power Supply.
Basically you have a female plug, a male plug and pins which you crimp directly onto the cable ends after that you just slide the pin/cable into the plugs and that's it. No soldering or Screw Terminals, proper secure, plug, click and fast, done!

My first approach four years ago, was meant to keep the original cable intact so that I could re install the old Radio in my car if ever I desired to do so. However after the long time that I've spent with the car, I decided, that this is no longer really required and decided right then and there, I'll just snap them off! But integrated a Mate n lock system on the original wiring, so that IF I had to get them back together ... all I would have to do is just plug it back in and tada! all is safe without any extra work.

Everything snaps right in and I'm so happy, finally the sound is secure and correct, as a little bonus, I got the correct wiring in as well, as the old diagram I used seemed to be for a different system?

Rear left was Front right and  all was messed up! But now, wow... Bass is all Bamm and VROOM... you know what I'm saying!

So let that be a lesson, McGyver never build anything to last forever! So if ever you McGyver around, please make sure to get it fixed before everything goes haywire and maybe your car would short.

Also I got a new Alternator for the car, although when I got the cables out, I checked that the cables didn't do anything to cause my alternator to go "poohf".

so all is good there, still had to pay for the damned alternator as the warrenty of the car expired .. a very ... long time ago!

So please excuse me, I'll go to my car now to hear my car go boom.

Until next time. Game On!

-Alex

The Act of Game...

Games!A whole universe, an entire industry built upon the thought of "game".From throwing a ring over a pole, to tapping a button till it either breaks or your fingers hurt, games are huge in this world.

I would even go so far as to say games are enormous in this entire universe but I think this might be a little far fetched. Hey, some of us say they were abducted by aliens, maybe they just had a fun little game of scrabble before they got their memory wiped and put back on the ground.

Games follow us our entire life from childhood when this little blue plane is an entire fleet of passenger jets landing at the busiest airport in the region to 30 year old men comparing their iPads and Motorola Tablets to the byte.

I'd like to think of myself to be a gamer, not hardcore, but core. Important here is the genre of games as, action figures and Monopoly are very different types of games in general, but I concentrate more on the few acceptable types of games in my age range league thing. The Virtual Gaming genre. PC/Playstation Gaming to be more precise. And I gotta say, its fun and it always will be no matter how old i get to become.

It started when watching my brother play "International Karate Plus" on the Amiga system around 1994, which slowly turned me into a player, very slowly. Seeing pixels jump around in the shapes of little Karate people ... I liked that!

Several years on, and my brother turned me into a Potion taker for his Hero in "Diablo" around 1996. Why just potions? Cuz I was too wussy to play Diablo by myself pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were my strengths!

The first "Sony Playstation", was my very first REAL gaming "rig" and brought me a lot of pleasure for about 3 weeks, until my "Gampad-Port" broke. How? I have not the slightest clue. It never got fixed and it ended up in the eternal darkness of garbagetown, as for some reason; which I cannot recall - the warranty was void. Did I open it up? I do not remember!

Next up was my very first very own PC back in 1997, it was a left over System my father used to use in his production company before upgrading to the new Pentium II Dual CPU Systems. So it was only natural that it came with Photoshop 3.1 and a software then called " Kinetix 3D Studio MAX" of which I had no clue how to use. And never really understood WHY I should. Now I know!

A few years have passed, and I bought myself my very first very own PC game, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six in 1998. "Low" were the settings I played at and the resolution I had to choose was 800x600. The game looked awesome and was choppy as hell, as I only had a 166 MHz Pentium MMX and an ATI Rage Pro with only 8MB Ram.

I still remember my bothers best friend at the time, "Marc" laughing about me and my eagerness to play the game at a maximum of 15 FPS, but I had started a passion .. and felt that nothing was supposed to stop me. I had a short run with The first Playstation and I hoped the PC wouldn't let me down! It didn't!

It continued with Final Fantasy VIII, SWAT3, Blade Runner and a few more games that changed the way I viewed the world, still... at a max of just 15 FPS.

A few years have passed and I finished Final Fantasy VIII, 3 Times, on 3 different system each giving me an increase of 10 FPS, when I finished the game the 3rd time, Squall finally decided to run smooth. And so did every other new game on everyone else's system, but mine as I never seemed to be able to get on the technology train that said "Next Stop, Upgrade Town"

By 2002 I had saved enough money, to buy myself a PC, a system I was able to configure, a system that ran games at their preferred Framerate, for maybe 3 weeks.

Sigh, I almost had it, almost had i had the coolest Gaming Rig...
I had only enough cash for a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB SDRam and a Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 with 64 MB of crazy Graphic Ram. In the meantime, my friends went out to get the Ti 4800 Series. Sigh, I was behind again!

For the following years my Graphic Settings were set to Medium; which was a big improvement to the previous years but still not what i suggest to be a Eden of Graphic Heaven.
My system now is an Intel Core 2 Duo with 2.6 Ghz and a Nvidia Geforce 280 oh and 4 GB Ram, is it enough to Game on it? Sure it is, to me at least. I have long decided that i don't need to Play on "High" settings.

For Gaming now, I use the PS3 my family bought me 3 years ago, and it still provides "Oh wow" moments, any Computer would have been long outdated by now.

So here I am, 17 years later still enjoying the act of Gaming. not far from teaching my son, that the bad bytes are the ones to shoot!

And until he takes the controller to himself, I shall enjoy gaming for a while longer.

that's it from me, Have a great week ahead, Game on!

-Alex

Get in "touch"... literally ...

Since I sold my Nokia N900 - the last hope I had for the manufacturer - I have basically given up on researching info or products from that Finnish company, as the world of Nokia is slowly decomposing and the products they seem to be shooting out every month are aimed at people that want to feel like lab-rats, I simply lost all interest.

There used to be a time of great innovation and slick communication, I still remember my first Nokia, the 8110 or as many people liked to fittingly call it, the Banana.

It's the phone Morpheus used to contact Neo in "The Matrix" in this Office just before he was ambushed by Agent Smiths' Crew. It was a cool phone. It worked too, just like the good old Communicator or the 3210, 3310, 3330 and one of my favorites the 6310i.

It was when Nokia said, "I have an Idea, let's try this", that everything started going to shits.

Now back to the topic at hand, Nokia. As I've said 13 lines above, I stopped researching stuff on the Company, however every now and then jobs slide through, for promotions on new Nokia phones or offers, it is here where I have to do a little research to make sure i get the correct logos, in the correct format and texts in their correct fonts. As this requires me to read a few product infos as well, I basically fall into this hole of knowing stuff about nokia and where the company is heading. Microsofts' Windows phone 7 for Nokia, Nokia N8 and other products I have learned about over that same route.

So here I am basically writing stuff about Nokia, because... you've guessed it, I'm working on a promo right now. It includes a Nokia Phone that includes a Tech that made me start this post in the first place.

Near Field Communication... or NFC, is a technology, that allows transactions, transfers and pairing of stuff, by just simply holding 2 devices, for instance 2 phones, a headset, or a wireless bluetooth speaker, to one another, making them... touch.

So for instance you want to pay for your new Shoes you just found at Prada or Nike or wherever you buy your shoes, and you'd like to pay for it, all you gotta do is hold the phone close to a device to do a transaction from your mobile phone, to your favorite retailer. Making it possible for you to NOT bring any cash or credit cards along.

Pairing works exactly the same way. Hold your phone to your Bluetooth headset, and it automatically pairs.

Sending Pictures too. Let's go with a little example here, Gregs ex-girlfriend just got this new 8MP Mobile phone from Nokia that apparently does great pictures. Now Gregs Girlfriend, seems to like to tease Greg so she decides to take pictures in "suggestive Poses" with her new boyfriend and sends them to Greg to upset him.

The reason Vanessa and Greg are no longer a couple? Vanessa decided to cheat on Greg at this "rad" party down in Miami or Abu Dhabi .. or Mumbai, it doesn't really matter.

Now Greg is still upset with her, and thinks to himself "you know what, I don't care for those pictures, but my friends at this bar might like them." So he asks them to activate "NFC" on their mobile devices and just taps them one by one, sending over an archive to each of their devices,without the need to first pair each phone separately in this lengthy process of passcode exchange and so on.

So NFC seems to be useful... It's NOT an invention of Nokia, it's just a technology nokia decided to pickup on to "attract" customers that they previously lost, but until they decide to actually develop a proper OS, use decent hardware in their mobile phones and offer a "Blackberry type" Service where internet, emails, and other services are being bundled in a decently priced package... they won't win me back. in fact, I don't think they'll win anybody back anytime soon.

So we'll see how NFC develops here in the Middle east, as this phone seems to be the first here in the middle east that officially advertises this feature in their add campaign.

Just don't forget your Mobile phone or get it stolen... you won't be able to call your bank to block it as it's ... gone!

Until next time, Game on.

-Alex

Cars

My wife and I often debate about the quality of cars and if their materials justify their price. Her opinion differs greatly from mine as I love quality cars, and her views are more of a "cars are tools that get you from point A to point B" view, with a little bit of "that car looks really nice".

My love for cars was never really "great" until I turned 15 and "The Fast and the Furious" hit the silver screens. There i started thinking .. "cars are cool!" From that point on I loved cars, however my views were biased and limited as I only got to really appreciated those pieces of meticulously engineered machines from a movie that depicted Cars not in their original form but more or less modified to a point of no recognition.

It was cool! To be honest it still is, to some degree, now however Car manufacturers have started saying "let's release cars that are already modified or at least look to some extend as such and gear in all the money! ... Oh and while we're at it, we offer tuning parts as well." so now all those Chargers, Challengers, GT-Rs and Mustangs look modified when you buy them.

I am growing up, also if I don't look the part, I still am and along with that my opinion toward Cars does too. I have started looking at Materials, Colors, Workmanship, Finishing, Amount of Detail and many more aspects of their combination cleverly engineered into what today we call a car. The problem is, with today's society we tend to ignore the amount of effort that goes into the production of any car. From a "Chery QQ" to a "Maybach 62 Zeppelin" all these cars have been thought of, designed, developed, built, tested and produced. Each manufacturer follows his own little way of testing and manufacturing, the effort is still the same none the less and this is where the question if the materials and their usage are necessary and if they justify a cars price.

Take a Hyundai Coupe as an example. It looks sporty, it is pretty and it has a fair amount of engine-space. The materials used inside of the car however aren't all that pretty, or well processed. the Dashboard is made of a hard plastic, the steering wheel is made of a rubber that will start breaking and crumbling after a couple of years. The seats are made of synthetic leather which turn into a heating compound, heated by your body temperature and the materials slowly generate a plastic smell, have absolutely no soundproofing. Also they start deteriorating after a couple of years and the standard issue of the car doesn't even come with Airbags or any other safety features other than partial ABS. This is not at all a "cheap car" the Coupe starts from Dhs95k! With a little extra you can get safety features, maybe real leather seats and that is it.

And now for comparisons sake let's take the Audi A7. Audis pretty much top of the range Coupe. It looks sporty, Very pretty design and has a pretty good engine, (not more liters, just supercharged).

The interior, is of impeccable quality in comparison to the Hyundai. The Dashboard and Panels are made of a rubber foam compound which keeps heat in and cool out or the other way around, it absorbs sound (both ways) which helps the car to be more or less sound proof, while inside you don't hear annoying Road noises. At the same time, it doesn't feel hollow.

Think of it as a pillow, where the Hyundais interior is a Plastic pillow which is filled with air and the Audi A7s interior is a Fluffy Goose Down pillow. It gives me that feeling at least.

The mentioned interior material also helps in distributing and damping audio from speakers within the car, which guarantee a much clearer sound.

Also, don't forget all of the interior is finished with Nappa-leather and your choice of wooden or synthetic material Panels.

The steering wheel is also leather trimmed and hand stitched, surely giving it more room for error, but not if 3 people check the steering wheel there after.

The basic model comes with all airbags, full ABS and ESP an Anti Theft system and Alarm. And of course, the Brand name. However, the A7 starts at Dhs250k... there you have it, it's an expensive car but with an insane amount of detail, high class materials and a brand name.

My opinion is pretty much explained with the above. A quality car does not come cheap, but not just because of its brand name! Because it has an insane amount of detail. Materials that are produced and used to last for a very long time and you do feel more comfortable while traveling, as you don't have to deal with noise or low light, the chair you sit in is ergonomically shaped and all the buttons and functions are located on the dashboard in a way that you can access them easily and without distraction.

But take it as you will expensive cars are not for everyone. As obviously the price tends to matter a lot when buying a car.

I for one as mentioned before, love quality cars and to me, quality is not engine power or boot space.

I'll go drool over the new Range Rover Evoque for now. Until next time, Game on!

-Alex

Book your customer for a service!?

”Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
Walt Disneys

When I was younger, I wouldn't really be bothered with bad customer service, I would pretty much ignore it, try to figure out why the engine was broken, and then just fix it myself. Nowadays however, everything revolves and evolves around customer service. Yes!, pretty much everything, from buying that burger to finding the right toilet paper.. for afterwards.

Over the 5 years that I've spent here in Dubai, I have encountered cases of probably the worst customer service experiences in my life, forgetting to plug in your Blu-Ray player and folding an after sales representative for your own stupid idiocy is almost nothing against what some customer services deliver to your face.

Anita is 24 years old, and has a college degree in Medicine which makes her a Professional Nurse... at Friday's... taking your order.

Truth hurts, but the way I see it, is that the error doesn't lie within the representative herself most of the time; as far as knowledge is concerned, but more in the Company that is meant to provide training to the person. In Customer Service, it's important to distinguish these 2 elements, Knowledge and Attitude..

Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!
Gene Buckley, Sikorsky Aircraft

The biggest problem I see when it comes to Customer Service, is Knowledge, as attitude is an individuals issue. Knowledge is as far as I can see, not ;at least in a serious manner, provided to the Representative. How often has it happened to you, that you ask a customer service representative a question they seem to be unable to answer. Only to be then destroyed by the person who needs support (who is already angry) because the representative is unable to either answer your question without asking you 500 first, or because he has no idea how to solve the problem. And the sad thing is, this is not only related to Techsupport, this ranges from a restaurant that cooked your steak too well done, to the Clothing store which doesn't seem to know that their new collection has already been advertised.

Companies that hire people here and I suppose in many more countries of the world, do not provide proper training to their employees to make sure that their customers are getting their questions answered properly.

When it comes to attitude than I have to say a good representative, also if his girlfriend broke up with him, or if her boyfriend cheated on her, should always try and keep a happy face. after all, it's the face of the company! and that's what they are being paid for. However I don't wanna be the critic ass here! People have a bad day all the time! And if you aren't polite with the person that is trying to help you, (even if the other person is being a b***h) than you are up for a slap-fest! without a fun or productive experience! Give them the benefit of the doubt, at least the first time!

One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.
-Lewis Carol

I'll go call the telephone company now! Until next time, Game on!

-Alex

They have faces?

L.A.Noire was released on PS3 a while ago, and I love it, sure the game gets repetitive and the main Character seems to have an anger management problem, sure you can't ACTUALLY tell if someone is lying or telling the truth and the game somehow ALWAYS gets you to solve the case (to progress in storyline) but I still freaking love the game.

I got so annoyed from all the unrealistic "I will fight for our freedom" type games that I see a fresh change in mood when playing L.A.Noire. You are a cop! A COP! Not the "True Crime: Streets of LA" type cop who is just another "Grand Theft Auto" style guy who happens to fight crime with ... crime, but a type of cop who, sure has his anger management problems, but who solves cases by going through evidence and stuff... yes, even when handed over to you!

Did I mention the facial Animations? I was following L.A.Noire since the first time I saw the first trailer and the facial animations have been a huge reason for that. Everything from eyebrows to cheeks to chin and throat muscles while talking move in such a realistic way that when looking at it, you get the feeling it's real (please look past the obvious fact that the textures aren't all 100% accurate and all the tech blah!) I'm looking at this from a gamer perspective where nitpicking is "fake and gay"... period! I hope they will continue making games with that technology and not sit on their a**es and pretend this never happened.

Just like Heavy Rain... It was one of the most interesting games I've played in a very long time, or Mirror's Edge. It just seems that Huge Gaming companies seem to have decided to just ignore their gamers opinions and go ahead with what seems to make more money.

I'll go play a little more Cop & Killer. Until next time, Game on!

-Alex

Bloggin'

I said it before and I'll say it again "Blogging" is not easy. Especially if you have a "fanbase" which I don't, which in turn seems to make life so much easier. This however does not make writing any easier as I seem to have the words for the new blog entry 30 minutes before I write .. and once I start jotting all of this stuff down, I can't! It just doesn't come out. I don't think it's a writers block. As I'm no writer, I guess it's just my longing to write something useful something that when people read it, they say .. "oh! that made sense!" but instead I seem to write how blogging is difficult... so I'll stop that now and get back to the task at hand. Blogging!

For a while now, the world is testing our ability to do stuff. Not only is it hot as "hell" out there but also we tend to become lazy. (people here call it the dubai stone) <-- which I think is a lazy excuse for not having gone out enough to exercise. I admit, I admit! I have not exercised much myself in all actuality, I haven't exercised at all successfully. My wife and I plan to go jogging in the morning to push our Stamina, buuuuuut, we are too lazy in the morning to get up.

"This has to change! This has to become a routine" she says. and I agree! So starting from tomorrow I'm going to get up at ... 5:45? OH MY GOD! And run! Every day! We can do this! I know it.

I started making breakfast in the morning which is a good practice, especially for the future. My argument here would be karsten as we want him to grow up in a more or less organized environment. The kind of environment, where the entire family sits together at the breakfast table in the morning before the boy goes to school. That's the goal! and it is to be achieved! Lazy is not an argument and lazy is not an excuse!

I'll sign off now! Until next time, Game on!

-Alex