Bahrain had one of those "mother of all rains" yesterday that lasted just about most of the day. Unlike other countries (in Europe for instance), that much rain is not normal around here. The sewers get clogged, cars break down, the sun is gone making it dark and gloomy (it went dark at around 4pm :-s) and people don't exactly know how to drive in the rain. If you are like me and prefer to stay home, here are some things you can do to pass time:
Read a book! Or to make it more interesting an e-book. After getting my Android phone, one of the first apps I looked for was one of those e-reader apps. The best one I have tried so far in terms of functionality, book selection (lots of free) and interactivity is Kobo eBooks.
Watch a TV show or a movie. This one is pretty old and too cliche. Does your laptop come with an HDMI port or provide connectivity to your TV? Hook it up and enjoy the latest episodes from US channels through SideReel. Prefer movies? Try 1Channel. Note: legal issues depending on region.
Play games! Board games aren't for everyone (they are probably in your dusty closet), given the convenience of having a computer around you most of the time. The easiest way of playing games on your computer without cluttering your computer with lots of software is to install only 1 piece of software: Google Chrome. Once installed, you can access the Chrome Web Store, in there you can find not only apps but lots and lots of games (including Angry Birds!).
Rather look for interesting stuff online? No problem, you will probably "stumble upon" something you interest on StumbleUpon. Prefer more "people news" sort of stuff try Digg. More of a geek? Try Slashdot. Don't try a news site, news ain't that good these days…
Play a musical instrument. I've got a couple of guitar, but when it rains and is cold I'd rather stay warm under covers… Solution, musical instrument apps. My favorite is Guitar Solo for Android (free or paid). The chords by default upon installation are those of Hotel California, so even if you are not a guitar player you can still play something. It can even overlay tabs on screen from Ultimate Guitar .
Chat with your friends online. You might not be able to meet your friends for real on a rainy day, but you could always do it through Skype. You will be able to not only text chat but call and even see them through your webcam. There are versions for portable devices as well (from Android to Windows Mobile).
Got a spare computer lying around? Why not try an alternative operating system such as Linux? How is this related to rain? The time it takes to find a good distribution, downloading, installing and configuring should kill time. You may find an overview of different Linux distributions on DistroWatch, along with their sites, download pages, screenshots and more.
As you have probably noticed by now, almost all of the above requires an electronic device. Hope you don't lose power during the rain !
I thought I would leave a review about my previous host (BurstNET) which hosted this website reliably for just under a year (from last December till the mid of this month, November). BurstNET provide a wide variety of services, however their most popular services are dedicated servers and virtual private servers (VPS). They are a well known, budget provider in the hosting market, running since the 90s. Many are put off by their website design, but don't judge a book by its cover! They provide services in multiple locations, in the US they have their own datacenter in Scranton (Pennsylvania) and (I believe) they lease space in datacenters in Los Angeles (California), Miami (Florida) and in Manchester in the UK.
The primary reason I got a VPS from them was to host this blog, but eventually it also turned into a test box for some application development, VoIP, VPN and other stuff I wanted to experiment. At one point I even added the popular cPanel control panel (did you know that cPanel's lead developer used to work at BurstNET?). Even though they are a budget provider, I've had only a single downtime caused by some problem in the host node's hard drive which did not last long (I'm guessing they did a drive swap). Their network is pretty good as well (BGP info here) and from Bahrain I was able to max out my connection (from Menatelecom it routes through Flagtel > Highwinds > BurstNET).
For $5.95 a month (entry budget Linux VPS) I was getting an OpenVZ VPS with 20GB storage, 512MB RAM, 1TB transfer, 2 IPs (at this price others usually provide 1 IP) and IPv6 on request. The control panel they give to manage the VPS is not the most popular one around: vePortal, but it does its job. Support is great as well, most replies within minutes, the longest was a few hours due to an external licensing issue.
Public relations wise in forums etc (such as in WHT)… the representatives are honest and put it all on the table if they must, to defend their actions ("the customer is always right" is overhyped when the customer is doing something bad…). Most of the complaints are from people who either do not know how to manage a VPS (they are an UNMANAGED provider, basic management means keeping things running, not holding your hand), abuse their allocated resources or are doing something illegal. If you are not doing any of the latter, then you shouldn't have a problem with the service they provide.
If it weren't for me wanting to try out Xen (and cutting down on my VPS addiction…) I would have kept my service with them. I hope they keep it up, I'm sure I'll find a reason to go back to them sooner rather than later !
Edit: As of August 2012 it seems like Viva are once again throttling the already throttled speed once you go over your limit. You will have a few gigs at 512Kbps before getting dropped down to 128Kbps.
Edit: As of January 2012 it seems like Viva is not throttling the throttled speed mentioned towards the end of the review (the 512Kbps throttle speed going down to 128Kbps after going over a certain amount).
Here comes review 2 of the Internet services I have tried. After having some problems with Menatelecom's myKey service and requiring one of their technicians to have a look at the device for something that is probably fixable over the phone, I decided to give Viva's service a try. I am not unfamiliar with Viva's Internet service, since I have reviewed their prepaid broadband service before. This time I was going to try their "unlimited" broadband service that goes upto 42Mbps.
Viva is probably the ISP I have seen take the "upto" claim for real. This was further enforced when I was at their stand signing up for the service, the manager jokingly said "it isn't 42Mbps it is up to 42Mbps!". I had an idea of what to expect taking into account what others have mentioned about the service. The service they provide is over their mobile network which is the newest one in Bahrain and probably the one with most coverage (thanks to 400 base stations). The Internet service provided by Viva is basically the same regardless of what package you decide to take, the only different is how much you can download before getting capped. The device is what gives you the speeds they advertise. I decided to go all out and spoil myself with their 42Mbps device which is a Huawei e372. The price is BD40 if you take it with a 1 year contract (early termination fee between BD30 and BD50 depending which month of service you terminate), or BD100 with no contract. Alternatively you may get one of the other devices they have. Compared to the prepaid's Huawei e172 it is quite big and somehow feels like it has a better build quality (oh and it is shiny!). The image below might give you an idea (e372 on top, e172 bottom):
Like most of these Internet dongles, all the software you need is inside the device, you just plug it in and it appears as a USB flash drive. Another advantage is that it works well on popular Linux distributions. On Ubuntu, it worked out of the box using Gnome's network manager, on Debian however, I needed some help from the famous Sakis3G script. You do lose some features between Windows and Linux: access to advanced diagnostics, sending and receiving SMS (Viva send bill reminders through it) and a decent (slightly innacurate) connection statistics tool. There are probably tools out there for Linux that take care of these extras but I didn't bother looking. The main interface (below) and statistics area (under the main interface) of the connection manager looks like this:
As you can see above, the lower left corner of the main interface lets you know if you are synched (not connected), to a 2G (aka EDGE) or 3G (WCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+). Once you get connected you may get the highest network possible which is DC-HSPA+:
I was actually surprised to know that Viva's DC-HSPA+ network (aka 42Mbps network) was still being rolled out since I had been getting the DC-HSPA+ network no matter where I tried! Good news is that they have completed upgrading their whole network to support the new technology recently. But don't expect to see that 42Mbps speed since it depends on may factors: signal, weather, how many users connected, overall network capacity and of course what you are wearing . For the record, the highest speed I ever got using the 42Mbps network was around 22Mbps (what their network originally supported), on a Friday morning (the equivalent of Sunday here) and in the Diplomatic Area (busy business center on weekdays, ghost town during weekends). The average speed I got was around 14Mbps, depending on location and time, peak time would fluctuate anywhere between 5Mbps and 14Mbps. Upload speeds are also pretty good, I would hit a few Mbps easily.
Update: Here is a recent speed test in the same conditions mentioned above (just slightly less than 22Mbps).
So what is bad about the service? Apart from the fact that it is an "up to" service the speed you get is quite good. However, the "unlimited" package is capped at 60GB of data transfer. Once you hit it you get capped at 512Kbps, still not that bad right? Go a few GBs on that capped 512Kbps connection and you will get knocked down to 128Kbps!!!
For a person that relies on the Internet for just about everything, accessing content on a 128Kbps connection is like hell on Earth! This is the relevant section on Fair Usage Policy (FUP) on their website at the time of writing, as you can see it mentions nothing about the speed you would expect:
I remember a while ago it used to show that the speed will be throttled to 512Kbps. Using one of those site caching websites I dug up what that "Terms and Conditions" section used to look like:
The star on the second point of their previous terms and conditions lead to a tiny fine print at the bottom of the same page with the following:
/StartHypocrisy Those bloody file sharers downloading large files!!! /EndHypocrisy
I decided to give customer support a call, which in my opinion are the best compared to those I tried recently, thinking 128Kbps means something was wrong. I was told that anything between 128Kbps and 512Kbps is normal, since the throttle is "up to" 512Kbps. I was reassured that a few Kbps would mean that something is wrong… It sucks being capped at 128Kbps before the middle of the month…
Verdict: Viva's broadband service is pretty good and has much better coverage than, for example, Menatelecom (178 base stations only). However, given that they do not mention that you may get capped at 128Kbps since it is "up to" 512Kbps, I would knock off more than a star for that alone. After the first month of usage I am seriously thinking of paying that termination fee or waiting for another month to pay a (slightly) lower ETF. The last sentence will pave the way to the third Internet service I have just signed up for, from a familiar provider …! One which I hope will not fail me.
This is the first of a series of reviews of the different Internet services I have used since my last review.
Menatelecom's myKey service is basically similar to what other ISPs in Bahrain offer, Internet through a USB dongle. However, the biggest difference is that they do not use a mobile (as in mobile phone / cell) network, but rather WiMAX. They offer the service under two different sub-service. You can either get it on its own. Or, if you already use the menaHome service, you can get it through the Smart Pack service. The difference between the two is that if you get it under the Smart Pack your download limit (aka data transfer) AND speed will be of your menaHome service. So if you have the 4MB service, all devices under the Smart Pack will be limited to 4Mbps and 40GB of data transfer, all devices will also be throttled at 512Kbps once you use up your limit. Also note that Smart Pack is only available for those subscribed to the 2Mbps Boost package and above, the service costs an additional BD2/device/month up to 2 additional devices. The device must also be purchased in this case (BD24 for either). If you get it as a separate service, the myKey service, you have a choice of 4 service tiers starting at BD5 up to BD28, with speeds reaching up to 18Mbps. Do note that the "unlimited" tier is not really unlimited but rather 80GB, which gets throttled at 1Mbps if you go over. The device can be obtained either by buying it (no contract) or at BD2 installments for 18 months. You have a choice of two different dongles from two different brands. The Motorola USBw 200, works on Windows only, or the Green Packet UH-235 which works on both Windows and Mac. Sadly there is no Linux support and nothing can be done until either manufacturer releases a Linux driver.
This review will be based on two different perspectives: my own experience using the service (under the Smart Pack) and my friend's experience (using it as a service on its own, unlimited tier). At the time I registered for the myKey service under the Smart Pack (4Mbps menaHome) I decided to go for the Motorola simply because it was a brand which I was more familiar with (and which I thought would support Linux some where in the Interwebs…). The device looks like this:
With the USB pulled into the dongle, the device's length is about that of your pointing finger. The USB port swivels up to 270 degrees, which should be enough to position for both comfort and signal. One weird thing about the device is the sticker on its side. Apparently it is not for market placement but rather for demonstration purposes only. I never bothered checking with them if my device was a test / sample device. It's either that or these are devices that come straight from Motorola's drawing board and is missing the service provider's custom designed enclosure.
There is no CD with the dongle, but much like other similar devices today, the software and drivers are built into the device. As soon as you plug it in, Windows recognizes the device as a USB flash / thumb drive. You must install the "Motorola Connection Manager" software before using the service. When you register, Menatelecom provides you with the username and password required to authenticate in the network.
Enough about the device, now its time to go into the service. After registering for the service with Menatelecom, they gave me a pair of username and password to login. After installing the software and drivers, I tried to get online. Unfortunately I kept getting an authentication failure error. I called their customer support center and the first operator that picked up simply told me to go to Menatelecom's Moda Mall (aka Sheraton aka Bahrain World Trade Center) branch "for any problem with myKey". I was disappointed, first hour I get problems, and help was far away (plus this was in March, to those familiar with Bahrain). I decided to wait a bit, hoping that a new shift comes in and call them again. The second call solved my problem, given the information they took from me, apparently the device was not registered in the network… I had a new set of username and password and boom, I am connected! From various speed tests, I was getting the promised 4Mbps from my menaHome tier.
Further tests on mobility around various places in Bahrain (Juffair, Diplomatic Area and Muharraq mostly) did show a shortcoming of the service. In order to connect and most importantly STAY connected I noticed that I needed at least 3 out of 5 bars. Otherwise, I would disconnect if I happened to wave my hand over the device (for example picking a cup) or if something as simple as one of those stand-up menus in restaurants were in front. There were times I would get such low signals even right next to a wall of window. A USB extender helped a bit, but not much. However, over the past few months the signal has greatly improved to the point where I would get 4 to 5 bars out of 5, even in my room (which seems to be a Faraday cage for signals…).
My friend signed up for the service and got the Green Packet device on the unlimited package. One advantage of the device is that a mini USB B wire connects between your computer and device allowing you to move it around. He was impressed with the speed, it would easily reach 16Mbps out of the "up to" 18Mbps when a well seeded torrent was being downloaded. Unfortunately, an experiment we tried left both of us with no Internet… We tried using each other's username and password to see if account sharing was possible on different devices. Yes it did work, however, soon after both devices would fail at obtaining an IP address. This experiment did show something interesting, it seems like Menatelecom limits speed based on MAC address rather than username and password since the highest speed I ever got using his account was 4Mbps (note: I was already capped and my account would go to 512Kbps only). We called them asking if it was possible to change passwords (hoping it would somehow restore Internet) since we "thought" someone may have been using our Internet … They said it was impossible for accounts to be shared due to the way it works… Our experiment had just proven them otherwise… But it wasn't something to explain to a Level 1 CS agent. Calling again, hoping to get someone more experienced simply resulted in the usual excuse "go to our Moda Mall branch". My friend ended up cancelling his service on the first month, and I spent a few days without Internet on the road (every call resulted in the Moda Mall excuse).
Verdict: the service is great when it works and well worth its price compared to the next service I will be reviewing. However, a lack of Linux support (my netbook is Linux) did put me off a bit. Customer support can sometimes be annoying when the fix for any problem related to myKey is a trip to the busiest part of the country…
PS: NEVER TRY SOMEONE ELSE'S ACCOUNT ON YOUR MYKEY DEVICE IF YOU WANT INTERNET!!!
For some reason, to me, this year seemed to have passed real quick. I know its still November, but before I know it, it will probably be December 31. This year was probably the bumpiest one yet for me.
Firstly, there were (and still are) all these revolutions going on in the region. As far as the subject goes I will stop there, I like to keep a politically free atmosphere. After that I spent a lot of time writing papers on cloud computing, went to a university sponsored conference that took place in the UAE and then co-authored with one of my instructors another paper that is going to be published. With that semester over, I decided to (finally) take summer courses in university to speed up my graduation. To me each summer term felt more like a month each, plus Ramadan helped time move real quick (eat, sleep, uni, eat, sleep… ). This has also been the first year I do not visit my family in Brazil, but I plan on going as soon as I graduate mostly for relaxing, or you never know, a job. Now I am on my final semester, a part of me really wants to graduate, another doesn't want to due to the responsibilites that lie ahead. Which comes to the "company" I am attempting to set up with a friend of mine. It has been really bumpy, I am still not certain what will happen, so I probably would start looking for a job once I'm done.
In the gaming side of life I have decided to stop buying games (yes I know Skyrim is out…) to focus on my more serious interests. I went through a more throrough crash course in Java programming, covering areas that we didn't take in university such as GUI building, communicating with web APIs etc… I ended up with two, decent in my opinion, applications: one gets movie names and timings from Bahrain Cinema Company, the other allows you to send cheap SMS from a VoIP provider named Call With Us (I highly recommend them). I am now (slowly) learning Android and have successfully ported my SMS sending application to Android. I have some more ideas for Android apps, but I still need to polish my skills a bit more. I am thinking of getting a developer account in the Market, even though Bahrain can't sell apps.
On the servers side of life, I went on an addictive buying spree of VPS (Virtual Private Servers). About 90% of them are low end VPS with on average 128MB of RAM that I would spend sometimes hours tweaking to use a fraction of that to run a dynamic website or a DNS server or an OpenVPN server or… or… Most of the low end deals I got from a cool site called Low End Box. I found good use of some of the low end VPSes: I built a low cost CDN (Content Delivery Network) which worked out quite well and I am using for my final year project in university. I have also moved this blog from BurstNET (very good budget VPS provider, take the reviews online with a pinch of salt) to a Linode VPS since I always wanted to try a more premium VPS. Cloudflare stands in front of this blog so the change might not have been obvious.
Regarding Internet in Bahrain, I have gone through some services which I plan on writing a few reviews on. Briefly, Menatelecom's myKey service is very good if you have coverage, Viva's 42Mbps obviously does not reach 42Mbps but is still the fastest I have seen and Menatelecom's myFi service is the only thing you can use from them that is portable AND works on Linux. That is the order in which I have gone ISP wise, the only Internet I will keep is a downgraded menaHome and their myFi service (the Viva review may reveal why).
This is all for now, I hope you all have a nice day !
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…! One which I hope will not fail me.
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