A Tip for Flying Emirates (and avoiding lazy service)

On more than one occasion, Emirates has messed up my seat. I like to wait to the last minute (or rather, my schedule and lifestyle is such that I'm always trying to buy tickets at the last minute), and use miles to upgrade a lot, which means ever so often there aren't any seats in business class and I get stuck in economy. This is fine when flying from Dubai to Bahrain, or even Yemen - then I'd rather save the money than pay to fly business. When flying to Sydney or New York however, both a little over fifteen hour flights, that extra leg room becomes a real issue and a full business class is a painful thing for my long-legged self.

I am a gold member at Emirates, which basically means that I fly a lot. I get preferential requests for bulkhead and emergency seats through this, which is nice. However, on three I have been given the seat behind the bulkhead, which is actually the worst, as the space underneath the seat in front of one (the actual bulkhead seat), is full and one can't even put one's feet there. One time I was traveling with a friend (who turned out to be a rather nasty person, but that is a whole other story and unrelated to our seating requests), who was rather injured falling off an elephant, and they messed up out seating, causing her significant additional pain on the Sri Lanka Dubai route and her return to the states Dubai to New York flight. When we complained, the stewardess said "it is easier for them to lie and tell you what you want to hear, because when you get on the plan it isn't their problem."

The last time I got stuck in economy was in March, but they were able to give me the bulkhead, which was good. However, there was a rather irate (and tall) Englishman in the aisle who had the same problem. He booked the bulkhead and got the seat behind. In his case, the stweardess was telling him that the reservation staff generally know which seats are the bulkheads, but they tend to vary by one number for different aircraft, but that said staff doesn't always check before reserving the seats. So apparently this whole "we reserve you a seat" thing is a bit of lie. Its more like "we promise you we'll get kind of close, but we also promise we won't make the full effort."

Which is why I have now started using the online seat reservation tool. One accesses this through a link on the confirmation email, and it shows a map of each plane, as well as your seat. I did manage to upgrade three of the four legs on my upcoming marathon trip (almost fifty hours of flying total), so I did that online, and then I went on to check that I did indeed have the bulkhead (and the window for the business class segments) I reserved. Which was good, as I also checked that the vegetarian meal I requested was confirmed, and it was not. This also happens quite a bit on Emirates.

Russian Govenrment Cracking Down on the Internet

First the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs established the Россвязьохранкультура, or Rossvyazkhrankultura, which roughly translates as the Russian Online Culture Protection Service. Among other things, the Rosokhrankultura will eventually use data mining (now it is still done manually) to identify sites which carry “extremist” material (which is already illegal in Russia).

Note: in Russia, the definition of what is extremist is somewhat open to interpretation. The news and human rights site Ingushetia.ru is currently fighting the Moscow courts to avoid being declared extremist and closed. In November 2007 the site was closed more directly, when local ISPs blocked access and redirected visitors to a p*rn*graphic site). Their court case, which is was set for April 11 in a Moscow court (the government appealed after the Supreme Court of Ingushetia refused a request by the Ingushetian Public Prosecutor's Office to close the site), but that court refused to hear it on the grounds that the case was not within its juridiction and instead directed it to the Kuntsevo District Court, where Magomed Evloev the owner of the site in question, is registered. That it in the courts at all instead of just closed is because of timing; the case predates the creation of the Rosokhrankultura, which can simply declare sites “extremist” without any court involvement. The entire investigation is reported to have been initiatead by the FSB. The English news articles I could found about this have since been taken down, but here is a cached version of one. The same applies to coverage of the hearing itself.

The role Rosokhrankultura is not purely cultural of course (otherwise it would have bee formed as part of the Ministry of Culture, as opposed to the security-minded Ministry of Internal Affairs), but technically it has no power beyond identifying the sites. Enter the General Prosecutors Office; they were just given the power to close “extremist” sites. This is not the most important part, however. They were also given the power to suspend operations of Internet Service providers (ISPs) that host such sites. The option to shut entire businesses if they do not cooperate is a strong incentive for cooperation, as well as for ISPs to self-police.

Within days (on April 8) of gaining those powers, the General Prosecutor’s division of St. Petersburg temporarily suspended the operations of ten Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in that city, although the exact sites for which they were being punished for hosting is unclear. Even the exact companies are unknown. The police stated that they closed the ISPs only very briefly, which looks more like they did it as a warning to ISPs across Russia that their operations could and would be damaged should they choose to host such sites.

Should ISPs not police themselves as well as the state would like, there is a back-up plan: Deputy General Director of the Russian general Prosecutor Alexei Zhafiarov also called for legislation mandating such involvement if self-policing is not instituted. According to his reasoning, it is not always possible to determine who posted extremist materials, but it is possible to determine who is hosting it, and as such they should be held responsible.

UAE Community Blog Temporarily(?) Blocked by Google

The UAE Community Blog, is blocked for being a spam blog. How Google's automated tools got that idea, I have no idea, especially given the age of the blog and type of traffic it attracts. I review of the block was requested last week, so hopefully the Powers That Be will remove the block soon. Bizarre.

Ships Impounded for Middle East Internet Cable Cuts

Although Egyptian authorities said that satellite imagery showed no activity around the cable that was damaged off of their coast, Dubai disagrees.

It looks like last week Dubai authorities impounded two ships who were spotted in satellite photos near the damaged cables around the time that they were cut. The ships were identified by Reliance Globalcom, whose FLAG Telecom unit maintains the cables, and which in turn notified the Dubai Port Authority.

Officially, the two ships, the MV Hounslow and MT Ann improperly dropped anchor near the cables and accidentally severed them. When they arrived in Dubai on February 19, the Iraqi and Korean ships were seized. Reportedly, the Korean ship paid 60,000 USD in compensation to FLAG Telecom for repair costs while the Iraqi ship is sitll being held.

Whether other ships accidentally cut the other three cables serving the Middle East and caused a loss of power to a sixth is yet ot be determined. ;).

I Get the HIjab (a bit anyway)

I like Facebook. I joined it over five years ago (I am so very old ;)), and it is a useful little thing, mostly for getting/stay in contact with people. I also like to play ATTACK, which is a Risk-clone Facebook application. This is usually also a good thing. However, on occasion I get really harassed. ATTACK players can see your profile picture, and up until yesterday mine was rather flattering. It is isn't racy, or provocative (its me sitting at the kitchen table in a cowl neck sweater). I got hit on, friend requested, poked, complimented (heavily and oppressively) and just generally bothered. I don't know why, but every single time it was a Turk or Egyptian (with the exception of two times, once when it was a man named Manooj and once when it was a guy from Croatia). Yes, I can say I'm not interested, but it is a real pain. I even told one guy who is 7 years younger than me my age, as in "I am too old for you go away," and he told me I was lying and still kept bothering me. I wasn't, but if I were lying to divert his interest, wouldn't that be a sign to leave me alone? I want to be polite and nice and not hurt anyone's feelings , but in most cases they don't listen if I try that tack. Usually at that point I'll tell them to leave me alone more stridently, and often one of the other players tell them to shut up even less politely, and that often works, but not even always. In one case another player was typing STALKER STALKER into the chat window and the guy in question was still telling me he loved me and that I he wouldn't attack my pieces in the game if I would accept his friend request.

I thought about just not playing, but avoiding something I like because of there's bad behavior doesn't sit right with me. I have now changed my profile pic to one of just my shadow to avoid this fuss. It just wasn't worth it, and my friends can still see my pictures on my profile page.

So I get the hijab, at least a little more. I still think it is the men's fault for behaving so disgracefully, and their bad behavior should be controlled, not the women's, but I would much rather have a shadow profile pic than deal with that stuff or restrict my activities.

Facebook hijab

Obamania Theme Song

Don't get me wrong, I'll vote for the man, but the who Obamamania (an actual word in use in the US) is a bit much.

UAE Internet to Be Liberalized, Sort-Of

Business 24-7 recently ran a story on plans to "liberalize" the Internet within the UAE, specifically the system of blocks which restrict residents' access to websites which are "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values United Arab Emirates" or compete with the two state-dominated Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which coincidentally also provide all land and mobile phone service in the country as well (which is why VOIP is banned). Sensitive political sites are also blocked, particularly those which highlight problems within the UAE itself.

Some of these are criminal (phishing sites, for example), or truly objectionable by any measure (I am 100% for blocking child pornography sites, for example, and although I disagree I see their point about regular pornographic sites or pages that are both untrue and nasty), but a lot of it is frustrating and overly controlling. An art site (with no pornography, but with the very occasional nude) is among the blocked, as is the photo sharing site Flickr, which means that I can't email my father a link to my latest vacation pictures (he's not the sort to VPN). Which is just as well because if he saw me and the Dear Sister feeding the elephants apples all sorts of mayhem would break out. Facebook was out too until public outcry forced it back on the .ae net.

Which is why I found it so interesting when the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), which oversees these blocks, announced that they are in the process of developing a plan to "liberalize" Internet access. In a way they are right; the new plan will permit them to block only sub-sites, for example those pages on Flickr showing "objectionable" images or the Facebook pages related to dating services. This could open up the rest of Flickr and other such sites, which I like. It will however bring in new controls to popular sites which are currently entirely open, including Facebook.

It also makes me wonder what exactly will be blocked? Any profile listing the member as interested in dating for example? Random play? I think that latter option is stupid (are you really looking for "random play" on Facebook?) but a lot of people list those. What about people who just list themselves as "single" or give each other virtual alcoholic drinks?

Even more concerning are plans to institute these new blocks on the services provided by Du. Right now Etisalat provides all coverage in the UAE except in some free zones, where Du provides unblocked access to the foreign companies and their employees which operate therein. These new restrictions will apply there as well, thereby closing the last avenue to free information available to those who lack the technical understanding to circumvent the blocks.

The TRA also promises that the plan will include measures to improve Internet service and lower prices in the country. Neither is that great right now, and real improvements are sure to be welcome, which is why I'm sure this topic, unrelated to the issue of censorship in terms of applicable regulations or economic measures, was included in the "liberalization" plan.

Photoshop madness

After writing my last entry about real estate companies Photoshopping out neighboring buildings and Photoshopping in plants, greenery and waterfront, I cam across a new blog (or at least new to me), appropriately titled Photoshop Disasters, which showcases Photoshop errors in major publications. Whereas this blends my two interests of graphics design and advertising/PR/media agenda, I thought it might be fun to show a few as well as two videos showing how it is done.

Decapitated Observer

I know moving her waist in makes her look thinner, but either someone was lazy with their distortions or Ann Coulter is part scary monster. Which would explain a few things.

I am sure that the two photos were taken at least a few months apart, but still, the difference is less than natural.

And two videos on how it is done (body and face). Warning: the body video (the second video) includes the image of half of a woman's naked derriére, and so may not be suitable for playing in some areas, such as that big conference or your three year old's birthday party.

The Face


The Body

Obvious Statement of the Week Award

Six cables damaged in under two weeks and you think it may have been the work of saboteurs? At least the story is getting out there.

Undersea Saboteurs May Have Been Responsible For Cable Cuts

Some highlights:

Reports from those vessels have apparently indicated that the may not have been caused by accident or through natural events. According to the ITU's (International Telecom Union) head of development, Sami al-Murshed, "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago,"

"Do not rule out," doesn't carry quite the same weight as "have proof of sabotage," but of the five cable cuts, only one (the link between the UAE and Oman) is definitely established to have been an accident. There are doubts regarding the others, as some experts feel that the cables were too deep to be cut and lie outside of normal shipping lanes. The short period of time between the other four failures may also be indicative of deliberate action, as its unusual for multiple critical cable breaks to occur that close together. Four of the five cables have been repaired at this point the repair status of the fifth cable is unknown.

Just because an abandoned anchor was found at the damaged point of one cable doesn't mean that it was an accident. It is possible that one of the cables providing connectivity was damaged by accident on the same day that another, distant, cable providing connectivity to the Middle East was also damaged, but somehow I doubt it. I don't know who or what was behind the cable breaks, but six cables down in under two weeks is not an accident, especially compared to the previous record - the last serious damage to a cable was in 2006, when an earthquake disrupted (just) one cable serving parts of Asia.

The damaged anchor discovered at the site of one of damaged cables.
This photo comes from the FLAG website, two of FLAG's cables being among those damaged.

It Wasn't Just One Cable

This month brought a bit of drama as damage to undersea cables providing service to the Middle East severely cut Internet access in many countries and weakened telephone capacity as well. Affected countries included the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Iran.

The most popular story appears to be that only one cable was damaged, possibly in two places. This cable is roughly 8km off of the Egyptian coast, near Alexandria. Although true press accounts do exist (see here, here, and here), the majority seem dedicated to preserving this fiction. They mention two cuts, both at that one site, and both taking place on February 1, 2008, but make it sound like they were both near Alexandria. They do mention the other cable cuts, but make it sound as if these were just rumors which "could not be confirmed."

Even those news outlets covering more than the official two cuts seem willing to chalk the entire thing up to an “unfortunate," as were the conspiracy theorists. A poll (translated version) of visitors to the Egyptian site Filbalad.com accepted the story of just two cable breaks near each other, and 13.36% saying they believed an accident caused the cuts, 17.26% thought the damage was due to the natural breakage due to aging infrastructure (which shows you Egyptians' expectations from their infrastructure. Of all the possible explanations I considered, it never occurred to me that such vital telecommunications equipment was just falling apart due to age and poor maintenance).

Mini Cable Damage Timeline
23-Jan-08: The Strait of Hormuz - Off Iran, near the UAE
25-Jan-08: Off Malaysia
30-Jan-08: Mediterranean - off Egypt
30-Jan-08: Mediterranean - off France
01-Feb-08:Off Qatar
01-Feb-08: Off Qatar- connecting to the UAE

Neither explanation is plausible when one considers the high number of broken cables in such diverse locations, but they are if you believe the only damage took place off in one area off the coast of Egypt. Another 52% thought it was Israel, a knee-jerk reaction I'm inclined to disregard as one of many uneducated knee-jerk reactions (blaming the Jews for the Asian Tsunami comes to mind). That said, unlike the Jews-caused-the-Tsunami insanity, this particular conspiracy theory is based on a bit of fact, namely that the cable serving Israel and Iraq remained untouched while so many cables targeting the rest of the Middle East were damaged, and much of the diverted Internet traffic was routed overland through the US. This does not a conspiracy make by any means, but in the absence of a more rational explanation, US and/or Israeli involvement sounds just as reasonable as all the other improbably explanations out there.

Of course, given the wide geographic range of the damaged cables and the concurrent timing of several cuts leaves me no choice but to conclude it IS a conspiracy, the question remains what type, and by whom? Was it the Big Bad US and their favorite ally, Israel? Was it terrorists out to cause damage to the hated businesses and governments in their own region? If so, why didn't they claim credit yet? Was it the US, seeking to weaken Iran, or at least test that country's ability to recover ahead of an attack?Was it Alcatel-Lucent, who signed a 125 million dollar deal with the less than wealthy Telecom Egypt two days after the last cuts (Egypt had several cable connecting it to Asia, four of which were cut)?Dragging a few old anchors over some cables is a fairly inexpensive way of gaining multi-million dollar contact from a country with dire infrastructure development needs and several undersea telecommunications cable already connecting it to the outside world. And why is there this fake cover up? Lazy journalism? A true conspiracy? It all sounds so crazy but something is up.

I am usually so disdainful of those that believe in the unseen hands (the conspiracy kind, not the economic one) and one time even subjected a poor Afghan coworker to a four hour history lesson on the origins of the American Civil war beginning in the late 17th century (he thought it was the creation of the Rothschild family so that they could get wealthy on contracts) in my quest to end them, but in this case, I am willing to make an exception. Games are afoot, I just don't know which. Which is rather frustrating. Further inquiry is required…