It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

du’s recent decision to block Flickr has pushed a lot of people’s buttons. Here’s how to quickly and easily use Flickr in the UAE without changing your proxy settings. This Firefox only add-on was created by Hamed Saber an Iranian who was having issues with accessing Flickr inside Iran.

1. Update to the latest version of Firefox.
2. Go to Tools > Add-ons and search for ‘Access Flickr!’
3. Alternatively go here to reach the Access Flickr! Add-on page.
4. Install and Restart Firefox.
5. Hit www.flickr.com and you’re good to go!

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a device agnostic short messaging service, available where and when you want it.

In Internet terms Twitter has been around for a while. After dealing with issues of stability early on, the service has begun to hit the mainstream. With U.S. based traffic hitting 4 million in February, Twitter’s traffic has grown 55% month on month, as reported by Techcrunch. With celebrity Twitterites like Lance Armstrong hitting 300,000 followers (The Twitter lingo for individuals who may be reading your feed), Twitter feels like it’s about to take off.

What is making Twitter tick?

More..

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad visits Dubai and has an alternative take to all the glitz and glamour.

This article struck a note with me. I find it disturbing that we live in a society where we experience the exploitation through sight and smell on a daily basis, yet we tend to ignore it. Crowds of workers ride past us in buses, but we barely give them a glance. We see them at the interchanges, building roads, building the metro, building everything.

It makes you wonder how we continue to allow ourselves to think of the next thing that we want to buy, where we want to go out for our next meal, how much more we want to earn, without every really appreciating that which we already have. Without ever being thankful. Without ever looking down towards those that do not have what we have been blessed with.

Look down. Have humility.

Update: I am yet to hear anything further on this. Possibly just another ‘Dubai’ rumour.

There has been a strong rumour that Commercial Bank International is on the verge of collapse. CBI is said to be letting go of a number of staff and may look to either wind down it’s operations or at the minimum scale down it’s activity.

Earlier this year, Qatar National Bank aquired a 23.8% in CBI at a price 1.1 billion Qatari Riyals (approximately USD 300 million). The market is suggesting that this deal may not take place.

Unfortunately there is not a lot to go on at the moment, more information as I have it!