Here I am, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Waiting for the new school year to being.

Yes, I’ve transfered from SFSU to Colorado State University, and I did it because my major, which is Computer Engineering, as I mentioned before, isn’t accredited at SFSU. As I was asking the Cultural Division about the whole moving-to-another-state thing, I was told by my adviser that they’ll refund 60% of the price of the ticket that I bought, which is a one way ticket from San Francisco to Denver, but I didn’t get the money back yet. ;D

I’ve took about 15 Credits last semester (Spring) and three credits during the summer. Colorado State University only transferred 6 credits out of the Spring one’s because the other classes that I took which are Algebra 2, ENG 204, ENG 212 aren’t counted as college level classes. As for the summer Class, which is Astronomy, I believe that it will be added to my school record as soon as they get the transcript from San Francisco State University.

That’s all for now. I’ll be posting more info soon, stay tuned. ;)

• CSU has all the rights to the logo.

]]> http://www.q8abroad.com/2008/08/25/a-new-chapter-begins-tomorrow/feed/ http://www.q8abroad.com/2008/05/21/its-my-birthday/ http://www.q8abroad.com/2008/05/21/its-my-birthday/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 04:45:29 +0000 Midoe http://www.q8abroad.com/?p=97

The new fixed iPhone Arabizer application is here!

Click on the picture for the link.

Link

Special thanks to my brothers Tareq (iPhoneislam) and Waleed for all the hard work on the project. They stayed up for many nights trying to solve the Arabic problem. Please help them by donating.

I know, I know! I didn’t post for a long long long time! I’m ashamed of my self because the whole idea of the website is to let you guys know how it is like for a Kuwaiti to study abroad, and so far, I sucked at doing my job. I’m sorry!

It’s just that my days were really busy. I live in the dorms, and that explains it. Friends are always in the room playing PS3 with us ( Me & My cousin ). My schedule isn’t much of a busy schedule, but I do get a lot of homework.

So, Here’s my schedule:

• Monday: 8AM Class (ENG Adv Grammar), 10AM (Intro to comp engr “Robotics”), 1PM (Oral Communications), 2PM (AlGebra 2 “So Freaking Easy!”).
• Tues & Thurs: 1 Class only @ 2PM till 3:30 (Eng 204 - Summeries & Essays).
• Wed: 8AM Class (ENG Adv Grammar), 10AM (Intro to comp engr “Robotics”), 1PM (Oral Communications), 2PM (AlGebra 2), 3-5PM (Intro to comp engr “Robotics”).
• Friday: 8AM Class (ENG Adv Grammar), 1PM (Oral Communications), 2PM (AlGebra 2).

So yea, the semester is almost over. I’m planning to go to Miami, Florida for the summer and stay there for 8 days then get back here for summer school. Expect more posts soon people. And again, I’m sorry!

I might start next week as I’m having too much work to do for school this week.

I’m really sorry that I didn’t post for a while, please try to understand.

And Ohh, for the laptop, here’s what I got:

Specifications:

Display: 15.4″ WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p) with Clearview Technology
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Blue
Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8700M GT
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
Turbo Cache Memory: Intel® Turbo Memory (1GB) – Accelerate Data Transfer Speed
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
System Drive: 200GB 7200RPM (16MB Cache)
Optical Drives : Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Keyboard Options: AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard

I went to the airport at about 10PM in order to have some time to check my bags in and get my boarding pass. The flight was supposed to leave at 12:40AM. At first, I had to wait for a really long time to get to the check-in counter. It was a pain in the #$@.

I ended up at the check-in counter about an hour and half later, which was the boarding time. I asked the guy if the flight was delayed and he said yes, it’s delayed for 3 hours. He told me that he’ll change my transit flight as I won’t get there in time. I was supposed to be in DC at 6AM and catch the 8AM flight to San Francisco.

As soon as I got the new boarding pass I went to the food court with my dad, bro, and friends to get something to eat. My dad and bro left right away and then my friends left about 40 minutes later. I ended up waiting next to the gate for about 2 and a half hours. Had to sit on the floor as there was no available chairs.

I got to Washington DC about 16 hours later. Got out of the flight and went to the Immigration counters. I was taken inside into the “Secondary Inspection” room as they had to register my I-20 because it wasn’t registered. I was done in an hour. Had to go strait to the gate as the boarding time was really close. I got there on time and waited for them to start boarding but unfortunately a problem appeared. There was something wrong with the flight engine. They were trying to fix it but they failed. They ended up canceling the flight. We were told to go to the United Airlines customer service to get a new boarding. I was one of the first people to get there. I asked them for a new boarding so they gave me a boarding pass for a flight that leaves in 4 hours. That just pissed me off, seriously, because I was dead tired and really wanted to get to California as soon as possible but they made me wait again. So, I went to the gate and stayed there for 10 minutes then got back to the customer service counter to ask if there was any flight to San Francisco that leaves in less than an hour. The answer was YES! So I asked why the heck didn’t they give me a boarding pass for that flight. All what they said is sorry and gave me a boarding pass that says i’m on the waiting list for that flight. About 30 minutes later the flight was full and the waiting list was canceled so I went back to the other flight that I was supposed to be catching as I have a reserved seat in it. After waiting for the boarding time I was told that there’s a problem with that flight too and they’re working on it. About 20 minutes later they said that the flight was changed as they couldn’t fix the problem and that everybody should go to another gate as the flight is waiting. I was like WHAT THE HELL?!

Anyways, I went directly to the flight and got in as soon as they started boarding. Slept for 2 hours but felt like I was sleeping for ages. The flight was long. Really long…

I was really happy and glad as I got into San Francisco safely at 8PM when I was supposed to be there at 11AM. I just prayed that what happened in the past 24 hours doesn’t happen to me again. It was a nightmare!

Posted from my iPhone.

Pictures after the break.

Never travel without this thing! =Pp~

“Bo9alah”

My Main Bag

I just don’t really know what to say. I’m getting some weird feelings. I’m sad, nervous, worried, and excited all at once. I do and don’t want to leave at the same time. 2 years ago I didn’t feel that way as I was with a group of 13 Kuwaiti students and I didn’t know how it is to be far away from Family, and friends. I’m just getting a terrible feeling as I’m visiting my family and friends and saying goodbye to them. It’ll even be worse when I say goodbye to Mom and Dad at the airport. God help me! =(

It’s just so hard to say goodbye, I swear!

I love you all. Sorry If I ever hurt any of you. Please forgive me.

• Copy-Paste
• Google Maps (Hybrid view and localization)
• Mass SMS sending (Sending SMS to multiple people at once)
• Ability to edit home screen (You can move the icons around)
• Ability to add a bookmark to the home screen

Man, I’m so looking forward to this update! Hopefully they’ll be able to hack it.

May you all have a fun year that is filled with joy and happiness!

I’m just as excited as you guys are!

WOOOHOOO!

My dad visited them about 4 days ago and they told him that they’ve told the central bank to transfer the money on the 11th of December. Why the heck didn’t they transfer it yet? Is it because of the Eid vacation? This is just WRONG!

Thank god that we get the monthly salary through the Cultural Office at the Kuwaiti Embassy, otherwise, most Kuwaities would go broke and homeless until MOHE transfers the money! GAAAH! >.<”

I’ll be buying the ticket today anyways..

Update (12AM): I’ve just checked. It appears that they’ve transfered the money. At last!

Now that I’m leaving to the US soon, I’ll need to get a laptop as I can’t live without a computer for more than 4 days (it’s true! LOL). Right now, I have 4 companies in mind and they’re: Alienware, Dell, HP, and Apple. I chose them because their laptops are good for my needs except the Mac. The problem with it is that it doesn’t support my favorite computer game which is Team Fortress 2 as it runs on Steam, and Steam works on windows only. The reason I have the Mac in mind is because I really want to give it shot and try it as I hear that its pretty handy.

Basically I need the laptop for:

• Playing games (that require a good gfx card).
• Editing audio and video.
• Some programming.
• Designing web pages.
• Listening to music.
• Surfing the net.
• etc..

I have some specifications in mind and I won’t pick any laptop that doesn’t have them. Here they are:

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0GHz Processor.
• 1GB of RAM (DDR2 at 667MHz).
• 200GB for the Hard disk (7200 RPM).
• 256MB of ram for the Graphics Card <- I prefer 512MB but the Mac doesn’t have it.
• 8X DVD+/-RW (With LightScribe if possible).
• HDMI external port.

Now that I have decided what my needs are I’ll start reviewing the laptops (No review for the Mac). I’ll start with Alienware.

Alienware Area-51 m9750

Alienware has 2 types of Area-51 m9750. One of them is the Quick Ship Edition which you can’t customize as its ready-built with the following specifications:

• Dual 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX.
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0GHz Processor.
• 2GB Dual Channel Memory.
• 160GB of Storage For All Your Multimedia Needs!
• High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound.

Price: $2,799

The other one is the regular edition that you can customize. The price starts from $1,699. I’ve done some customization to it so that it matches my need and here’s what I got:

• Video/Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8700M GT.
• Chassis: 17″ WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology.
• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 2.16GHz 4MB Cache 667MHz.
• Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 1024MB.
• Operating System: Windows Vista® Ultimate.
• System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 200GB 7,200RPM (16MB Cache).
• Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW Burner w/ LightScribe.
• Sound Card : Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.
• Wireless Network Card: Internal Intel® Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card.

Price after customization: $2,943.00

I don’t think that I’ll choose that laptop as alienware announced that they’ll release 2 new laptops soon: Area-51 m17x and Area-51 m15x. Pictures available in their site.

Dell XPS M1730

What’s good about the XPS M1730 is that it has a Physics Game Accelerator and here’s what it does: With the AGEIA^® PhysX^TM on your Dell XPS^TM system, you can experience dramatic dimensions in gaming physics, with amazing effects for Auto Assault, Unreal Tournament 3 and many more.

Now, after customization here’s what I got:

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache).
• Genuine Windows® XP Professional.
• 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz.
• RAID Performance: 400GB (2×200GB) 7200RPM.
• CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive).
• NVIDIA®GeForce®8700M GT graphics.
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card.
• Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR).
• AGEIA PhysX™ 100M Processor.
• Logitech® GamePanel Display .

Price after customization: $2,949

HP Pavilion dv9700t series

Man, I really loved that one! It’s cheap, very good, and powerful. Anyways, let’s get to the point. The price starts from $999.99 which is pretty good!

Specifications after customization:

• Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit).
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB).
• 17.0″ WXGA+ High-Definition Ultra HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900).
• 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm).
• 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS.
• HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone.
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM).
• 240GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120GB x 2).
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support.
• HDMI external port
• High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery.
• 1-year HP Accidental Damage Protection with Pick Up and Return.

Price after customization: $2,107.98 (Good Deal!)

I think that I’ll go with that one. Still not sure. What do you guys think?