In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first ‘SUPER’ computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored a ‘whopping’ 5 MB of data.

Via The Next Web

Watching the video above is like having déjà vu with what happen 6 months ago here in Kuwait. A 100KM winds in Lubbock, TX knocked down power lines and even flipped airplanes.

Kuwait march 25th 2011:

The video talks about how “Al Khwarizmi” invited the decimal and how he translated the Indian arithmetic.

The video shows round 8 of the fight, Ali was using his rope-a-dope technique for almost 7 rounds. He then unleashes hell with only 20 seconds to go in the round and knocks Foreman out regaining the heavyweight title once again.

]]> http://uptill1.com/2010/06/07/rumble-in-the-jungle/feed/ 1 http://uptill1.com/2010/02/22/the-internet-bah/ http://uptill1.com/2010/02/22/the-internet-bah/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000 N http://uptill1.com/2010/02/21/the-internet-bah/

Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping–just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet–which there isn’t–the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

That’s just an excerpt of a Newsweek article written in 1995. Its an interesting read.

Link

Yes, the fall of Catalonia.

On January 14, 1991, Asrar Al-Qabandi was murdered. She was shot five times – four bullets to her chest and the fifth bullet between her eyes, and her head sliced in two by an axe as her body dumped in front of her family’s home by the Iraqi’s. This was the fate of one of the braveset women of Kuwait… of the world. She saved hundreds of Kuwaiti’s during the Gulf War, and came back to Kuwait to save more lives even though she knew the Iraqi’s had found out what she had done. This woman has been dead exactly 19 years. And this is the least we can do in saluting the woman who had died saving lives.

I recieved the above as a message yesterday and thought it would only be fitting we remember and recognize Asrar Al-Qabandi’s amazing feats and life saving actions.

Some of her other victories include smuggling weapons from Basra to Kuwait, money and more weapons from Saudi Arabia, single-handedly destroying the monitored telephones and communications set up by the Iraqis, providing targeted Kuwaitis with new ID’s to protect them from harm, providing foreign families with food and money, and taking care of 65 foreign hostages, risking a guaranteed execution.

Read this article to refresh your memory on some of the other stuff Asrar Al-Qabandi had accomplished in this time of vain and anguish.

Khaleejesque link

I saw this canon-like Courvoisier Cognac bottle in a random store with lots of old and vintage stuff. I regretted not buying later actually because it does look pretty cool. I also found some really old wind up record players that still work which was also interesting. Click below to see the rest of the pictures.

These are supposedly vintage/antique Afghan guns. They did have some engravings with some weird scriptures on them but you can never be too sure. There were many different sizes and kinds of guns in this shop, as well as coins and other Afghani items.

With Avatar hot on the heels of Titanic as the number one grossing movie of all time, does it mean these classic “bufak” chips (or bofaki as written on the packet) will be replaced by ones with characters from Avatar in the near future? I wonder what Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio would think of their snack!?

Last but not least, in the “bishts” section i found this men’s jacket/bisht with its very original tiger/jaguar/cheetah print. Sorry about the hazy picture but if you notice in the top right of the picture, the owner was looking at me puzzled as i was autofocusing for the snap. But seriously, Denzel Washington would have looked much better in this than his Chinchilla in American Gangster.

On a more serious note, i enjoyed it and might actually go back in less than a year to buy some classic/vintage junk.

So, Avatar is nothing but a futuristic Pocahontas eh?

History is made in the USA with the inauguration of the first black president, for the first time in a while, many Americans are optimistic. Is it too much pressure on one person to heal the world? Check the rest of the entry below.

After Mad Cows disease, Bird Flu, etc. Swine Flu creates panic and horror around the world for billions of people. Was it blown out of proportion?

The near demise of Dubai, a horror story in its own. It may have been barely saved, but will this be a lesson, or will they continue to push the envelope in 2010?

The less ups, and more downs of the Kuwaiti Parliament, hopes and projects being shattered on a regular basis.

Is he black or is he white? Michael Jackson left behind a legacy with his death in 2009.

Mohammed Al-Juwaihel’s antics taking sleaze to an all time low, did the Kuwaiti people really need someone so outspoken and sleazy to reunite the population?

The smartphone wars. iPhone taking on all comers. Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile to name a few, all taking large steps and closing the ever-so-small gap between each other. 2010 will continue to be a battle for phones.

elwehbi reminded us also of the Mishref sewage disaster.  So much money put into the project,  yet so much negligence.  So many people hurt yet few actually gained from it. The question is, at what price?

Let’s hope that we will never see such times again and hope for the end of all suffering in the whole world.

Why? because of 2 reasons.

1. The Winter War

On November 30th 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland with the intention of conquering it. The Soviet Union had 4 times as many soldiers, 30 times as many aircraft and 218 times as many tanks.

What the Russians thought will be a quickie, lasted all winter till march 12th 1940 and both signed the Moscow Peace Treaty when the Finns gave up 9% of there land and 20% of their industrial capacity.

During this short lived war, the Soviet Union preformed so poorly that Adolf Hitler thought he might take a swing at them him self.

So for every 1 dead finn there was 3 dead Russian, and for every 1 captured Finn there was 40 captured Russians. The Finns killed more than 80,000 soldiers, more than 700 of those were killed by one man….

2. Simo Hayha

Ya I know, the dude doesn’t look that scary but he has the coolest real world nickname, “White Death”, because of his white camouflage that he used to wear in -40 degrees temperatures while killing hundreds of Russians all in 100 days of war.

The Russians literally tried everything to stop Simo, including sending a whole task force after him, a team of counter snipers and artillery. He either killed all of them or just chewed off there heads.

On March 6th he was shot in the face with an exploding bullet Crushing his jaw and blowing of half his face BUT NOT KILLING HIM, this guy was so badass he had bullets for breakfast, literally.

He died many many years later, April 2002