Proxy servers

The entire Internet system under the strange and inconsistent control of the monopoly Etisalat runs through a proxy server, which is a single inlet for information from the rest of the world. It is sometimes fun to see what sites are banned and therefore inaccessible. The theory is that all sites with political and sexual content, which are not in line with Muslim thinking, would be unavailable. What actually happens is that there are trigger words that cause a site to be banned. Don’t have a problem with banning sex sites, and it is very good when you have children in the house, but can be frustrating at times. When Vin Diesel was in the film xXx (sic) there was an accompanying web site. Mr. Diesel may not be the best actor in the world, but the site didn’t deserve to be blocked. Could be that XXX is normally associated with X-rated sites. The site became available eventually. Wreckedexotics.com has pictures of badly damaged motorcars. Tried to access it from yahoo image search for a picture of a Plymouth Prowler – no it was not possible! Exotics must be too racy for the proxy server. Oh, and all sites in Israel are banned – so no planning that vacation in Tel-Aviv.

As an alternative to the use of the proxy server, some friend of ours in the UK quite proudly said that their 13-year-old son had been accessing porno sites, showing how grown up he was. Mind you, makes a change from the Freemans catalogue, women’s underwear section, of my youth.

Magic Touch

The thrill of anticipation, the excitement of the review and the disappointment of the results. Yes, I have had a site meter added to the blog. The whole of HTML and java is like some form of magic to me. I know that it exists; I know it is an illusion but I don’t know how it works. (Poor analogy but best I could do)!

It brings you back to earth when you realise that unlike Scary Duck Blog (not scary and not a duck) I am probably the only one accessing the account (sad git).

Raining Again

Travelling into work today and it started raining. Nothing unusual in that you might say, but Abu Dhabi doesn't get much rain especially in March. I put it down to global warming and all the trees planted by the last ruler of the Emirates.

The drivers aren't used to rain and the cars don’t have good wipers as the rubber perishes quickly in the heat. Still it’s good fun to watch all of the minor crashes due to travelling to close and slippery road.

Concert in Dubai

Mark Knopfler

One of the advantages of being in one of the more civilised parts of the Middle East is that Dubai has started to be included in the “World Tours” for music artists. Also since the culture here is based on everything last minute you can get tickets until almost the last day before the show. Unfortunately Abu Dhabi only gets the smaller and less popular performers. Mark Knopfler came to Dubai on Thursday so a group of us went in a minibus from Abu Dhabi.

The show was put on outside in the grounds of the Media City in an artificially created amphitheatre. The performance was brilliant, the sound and video system professionally put together, the stage not so far away as to be invisible and the weather not too hot or cold. They even managed to get the right number of people with no overcrowding and no big empty spaces. He perfomed many of the old classic like Romeo and Juliet and Telegraph Road together with a few new songs. This was two hours of quality entertainment.

There always has to be at least one bitch at any event. The catering and licensed bars were a disaster! The queue of drink was at least 40 minutes. That was before the system broke down completely and people starting ignoring the queue and just pushing in. The Level 42 concert in the same venue had about 6 bars with a lot fewer people. Much more profit could have been made and more satisfied punters watered. Still it kept the toilets free.

The bus journey there and back was also a farce. I’m five foot ten inches tall so about average height. Of the eleven people in the bus 4 men were over six foot three and 2 of them were wide as well. The bus was designed for smaller framed Indians and Pakistanis so it was rather a squeeze. We vowed to get a larger van next time. The 50-minute traffic jam to leave the area can only hint at the absolute chaos to come when the Jumeirah Lakes is finished. Let the buyers beware!