APN: hspps
Username: hspps
Password: hspps
Authentication Type: PAP

That’s for the Zain mobile carrier of Kuwait.

Location: Cinescape 360, 360 Mall
Date: May 18th, 2010

Agenda:
01:45 PM – 02:00 PM | Registration
02:30 PM – 05:15 PM | Presentations
05:15 PM – 05:30 PM | Break 
05:30 PM – 07:20 PM | "Robin Hood Movie"

Register and book your seat here.

For the first time, the ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Contest is coming to Kuwait by the American University of Kuwait. The contest will be held by May 1st, 2010. The opening ceremony and the practice session will be held two days earlier. More information will be revealed soon.

This contest is a good opportunity for students to prepare for the regional contest ACM ACPC formally known as (ACM ICPC ANARC).

Check the PDF for the “Call for Participation” letter: Q8CPC Call for Participation.

Since the released of Zune Software 4.0 and the integration of Zune Marketplace to the Xbox 360, Microsoft has stepped a big leap forward into the Music and Entertainment industry. The Zune Software 4.0 is user-friendly and much more responsive than its competitive the iTunes in the Windows platform and the Zune HD device is awesome and feels much more robust than the current iPods. And thanks to the Zune Pass, the Zune Marketplace now provides unlimited number of music at the tip of your hand to listen to or download, of course, with DRM lock. The Zune Pass cost only $15 USD monthly but the problem is that if you are not based in the US, you won’t be able to enjoy the Zune Marketplace, heck, you won’t even be able to buy Zune. To be fair to the Microsoft folks, I think those roadblocks were necessary for license music in the Marketplace whether the Zune team really wanted to block international users or no.

In this article I’m going to talk about how to own a Zune HD and get yourself hooked up with the Zune Marketplace with the full features of Zune Software 4.0 just like living in the states.

Get the Zune HD

Officially the Zune HD is supported and sold only in the states but you could find sellers in ebay that would happily sell it and ship it to your country but for an extra profit.

Another alternative is to buy Zune HD through Amazon or any other retailer and ship it to a “shipment forwarder company” in the states that ships anything they receive under your name to your home address. Basically, those types of companies will provide you with a US mailbox and an address, and if anything is mailed/shipped to that address it will be forwarded and shipped to your home. I personally use Aramex’s Shop&Ship but if you cannot use Aramex for any reason, you could always use DHL since they provide a very similar service. This kind of shipping service is available in my country and I’m not sure if it is available everywhere.

Grasp the Full Potential of the Zune Marketplace

Zune HD can play all music and videos in that’s already in your hard disk and playable by Zune Software 4.0. Now, here what really made me ditch iPod and iTunes, it is the Zune Marketplace. The main reason I made the move from iTunes to Zune Software is that I can get unlimited music with Zune Pass as I mentioned previously.

Now it is time to do some changes in your computer. Follow the next instructions before opening the Zune Software for the first time. You can download Zune Software from here.

Accessing the Zune Marketplace

In a typical non-US computer you won’t see the Marketplace & the Social tab in Zune Software, however, you could easily solve this by setting your location to US. To do that, go to Control Panel –> Clock, Language, and Region –> Change location, then select your location to “United States” [Windows 7].

Now you should be able to see the Marketplace tab after restarting the Zune Software.

Get a Windows Live Account

Now you need to register for a Windows Live ID which is the generic account for all Microsoft services, or you could just grab a new Windows Live or Hotmail email which is also considered as a Windows Live ID. You could use your existing Live email.

Just ensure that in your profile your home address is set to US. You could use any US-based address you want. Heck, you can use any of Microsoft offices address

If you followed previous instructions you should be able to browse the Zune Marketplace and play with it. But wait! We are not done yet. Follow next instructions if you want to be able to buy Music and download them.

Note: To login successfully in your Zune Software, your PC location has to match the location in your Windows Live profile which should be US by now.

Purchasing Music from the Zune Marketplace

To purchase Music from the Zune Marketplace you’re going to need Microsoft Points which is the currency being used for the Zune Marketplace and it is also the same currency being used for the XBox 360 Marketplace. You can purchase Microsoft Points online by the Zune Software but the problem is that Zune Marketplace only accepts US-credit cards. Fortunately, I was able to overcome this roadblock with the Xbox point card.

You can purchase an Xbox point card by either asking a friend from US to buy one for you and send you the card code, or you could head to ebay and buy one. Some sellers in ebay will just email you the card codes regardless of your location which is perfect for a fast solution. I personally buy from GSG online retailer because I’ve bought several Microsoft Points from him already so I trust him, and he usually send the code in less than 24 hours.

Now that you have the card codes, launch Zune Software in your PC then go to Settings –> Account –> Redeem code. Enter the code and you’ll be redeemed with Microsoft Points which can be used to buy anything in the Zune Marketplace.

You could also use those points to purchase videos on the Zune Marketplace but you’ll need to workaround it more to download videos. I’ll talk about it later.

Zune Pass

Want to enjoy the ultimate experience of Zune? Then Zune Pass is your salvation.

Again, the Zune Marketplace will not accept a non-US credit cards so you won’t be able to purchase Zune Pass on your own. It took me a lot of Googling (Bing suck!) to figure out alternatives which is the Zune Pass Anywhere retailer. It provides you with a Zune Pass but for a higher price and they will need to access your account so you’ll have to submit your password. Basically, they will access your account and buy a Zune Pass.

Alternatively, if you have a friend in the states you can ask your friend to buy you a Zune Pass card from Best Buy for $15 and email you the card code.

Videos

So far you should be able to download music yourself with no problem. The experience is not complete without the ability to purchase videos from the Zune Marketplace or downloading it. Easy, get a VPN (aka Virtual Private Network) for as low as $40/year from some firms.

I use Witopia but there are many other companies that provide VPN and you probably could even find lower prices. But you have to ensure that the VPN is based in the states. By the time I write this article it seems that the video download works even when the VPN service provide you with an anonymous-IP.

As soon as the video starts downloading, you won’t need VPN anymore. If your VPN connection is slow, you could pause the download then disconnect your VPN connection and resume the download with your regular connection.

After doing the first download, it doesn’t seem to need VPN anymore to download any additional videos. I don’t know the actual reason behind it but I can guess that because I have already purchased a Zune HD and linked it to my account.

Finally…

What Microsoft has done with Zune HD and Zune Software 4.0 is really incredible. If you were one of those lucky people who own a Zune HD and Zune Software, you officially own the sexiest device and software. They are both much user-friendly, easy to use and feels much more modern than the iPod-like interface. If you are a tech-savvy you are probably bored from the iTunes and iPod interface which feels really out-dated. You would also notice the big gap in performance with Zune Software 4.0 compared to iTunes 9.1.

You can connect to my profile:

Happy Zunning!

The following test is based on my connection which is an HSDPA connection from Viva Telecom in Kuwait. According to the carrier, my subscription speed can reach up to 7.2 Mbps. I bought the device from Cameo store which is located in Hawalli, Kuwait, for 72KD. And it comes with various wiring options and a small how-to-get-started print.

Speed Test

Here comes the speed testing in Salwa area, but keep in mind that lots of variables can game here. I just want to give you a sense on what this device is capable of. I’m not doing a scientific or geekish connection test, I’m just doing the regular method of quick speed testing for a regular web citizen to understand.

I’m going to do the speed testing with both the Mifi 2352 and my old USB dongle Huawei E180 for comparison. I’ll use the same sim card on both connections. Note that both devices supports up to HSPA speed, that’s up to 7.2 Mbps for both devices and it’s stated on the datasheets of both devices.

The image above represent the status of the connection on the Mifi 2352 device. As you can see, it is connected by HSPA technology (HSDPA & HSUPA). I did the test to a server located in Washington DC by Speakeasy. The first test of the Mifi 2352 resulted about 1.74Mbps download and 0.27Mbps upload. I switched back to the Huawei USB dongle and the tested result was 2.19 Mbps for download and 0.24Mbps for upload.

I did both tests again and the result was:

• Novatel Mifi 2352: Download 1.09Mbps – Upload 0.28Mbps
• Huawei E180: Download 2.92Mbps – Upload 0.21 Mbps

Definitely there are differences in the performance of both devices. It seem that the USB dongle is faster on downloading. Again, this is a quick-test to have a sense of what to expect from the Mifi 2352. It’s not a scientific test and it is not reliable testing method and I’m doing this in uncontrollable testing environment.

I’ll do more testing later and then I’ll report back.

Microsoft has a program called MACH (Microsoft Academy for College Hire) to hire fresh graduates. As a Microsoft Student Partner, Microsoft has informed me that they are looking for fresh graduates and senior students in Kuwait University who would like to take part in this program. Participants will be offered a full time employment opportunity at Microsoft.

In order to qualify you have to meet the followings:

• Be a final year student of an IT-related degree (2009 graduates will also be eligible)
• Have a GPA equivalent to 3.0 or above
• Be able to demonstrate a passion for technology
• Speak and write fluent English and Arabic
• Possess excellent communication and presentation skills as well as strong interpersonal skills
• Be a strategic thinker
• Be able to balance individual creativity with working as a team
• Have a high degree of customer focus
• Be available from July 2010 to take part in our summer internship.

For more information and to apply, read this document: Job opportunity from Microsoft

Kuwait University ACM Student Chapter Board of 2009

Chairman: Saleh Alsaffar

Vice Chairman: Mosa Alsulaimi

Treasurer: Ali AlSahaf

Public Relation: Taleb Behbehani & Shatha Shameya

Media Coordinator: Areej Hamouda & Faye Altammar

Membership Coordinator: Mohammed Ghazall

Cultural Coordinator: Yacoub Dashti

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Mohammed Jeragh then Dr. Abdulla Mutawa

It took us time to organize ourselves and then we ended up with three events being held during the first semester.

Trip to KNPC

The plan was to do an education trip to KNPC’s I.T. department and gain more knowledge on how I.T. professionals work there. IT happened so fast and easily since a volunteer named Bader Alnaser has a relative who works there and which made it easy for us to contact them.

A very informative trip to Kuwait National Petroleum Company located in Alahmadi area.  At 12:30 we gather at the parking lot where the buses were waiting for us. Later on, at first sight, the building looks really astonishing and huge. We’ve started off with an introductory seminar about KNPC and the a quick glimpse of the I.T. infrastructure of the company that took about half an hour.

The seminar ended and there was a buffet where we had our lunch and in the same time they‘ve interviewed me for the local KNPC magazine. After we filled our stomach with tasty lunch they guided us to the upper floor where awesome servers were running in a room. They’ve divided us into three groups and showed us the aim of each server, how they are connected and lots of other information.

The going back trip was quiet and we have really enjoyed the trip. We were talking about it on the way back to the campus. Students were provided with snacks and drinks on the bus. By 3:30 we were back to the campus and the mission was a great success!

Trip to Kuwait Airways

We wanted this trip to be a technology demonstration of Kuwait Airway’s infrastructure but unfortunately they’ve decided to show us their safety measurements instead. We headed to Kuwait Airways and learned the types of planes in service and their safety which is, according to them, the reason why their tickets are expensive!

CCNA1 and 2 Courses

We provide student with an official CCNA1 courses almost every year but this time we added CCNA2 courses to satisfy the growing number of CCNA1 graduates. This is an official course from Cisco and has been introduced to Kuwait University by Dr. Fawaz Alenezi. The course costs only 30KD to 40KD which is cheap compare to the original price of 150KD. Of course, this course is only for Kuwait University students and staff.

Around 50 students were registered for the CCNA1 and 13 students for the CCNA2. First class kicked off by the Winter vacation of February 2, 2009. The course ended with the final exams being held by March 15, 2009 and all students who passed the CCNA1 and CCNA2 exams had their certificates printed and signed by Cisco.

The History of Computer Engineering Societies

The ACM Student Chapter of Kuwait University is officially known as CpES, the Computer Engineering Societies, and we are the only student club for the Computer Engineering department of Faculty of Engineering and Petroleum. The society was founded in 1993 under the supervision of Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed with 6 board members but unfortunately, the chapter was engaged for only one semester because all members were at their senior year. I do not have any picture or publication that were published during that time nor that I have any more information about the members.

ACM is the world largest and oldest educational and scientific computing society founded in 1947 and serves all professionals and students in the field of Information Technology.

The chapter remained idle until 2000 and they managed pull one successful activity which is a trip to the Scientific Center of Kuwait to reestablish the chapter. The students who were involved were: Mohammed Al-Kanderi, Mai Al-Sharhan, Abdullah Al-Bloshy, Othman Al-Failakawi and Basma Al-Jenae.

The chapter went idle, again, until September 2001 were five officers (board membes) arise to lead the chapter. Those students were: Bashar Al-Finaini (Chair), Bashayer Al-Awad (Vice Chair), Nada Shishter (Treasurer), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Secretary), Deena Rabee (Media Coordinator) and Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator). The chapter during that time was under the supervision of Dr. Amar Al-Hosaini, and according to what I have found in the chapter’s achieves that during that time the chapter registered officially as an ACM chapter. I’m not sure if that indicates that the chapter wasn’t officially registered post 2001.

Their first event which was called "Computer Engineering Student Week of Information Technology" and followed by series of ‘special’ events according to the archives.

By Spring 2002-2003, there were seven officers and 50 members under the supervision of Dr. Hamed Alazmi. Two new positions were integrated to the board which were the Chapter Coordinator and the Webmaster. The officers were: Bashayer Al-Awad (Chair), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Vice Chair), Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator), Nada Shishter (Webmaster), Abdulla Al-Meer (Secretary), Abdulla Al-Qitifi (Media Coordinator), Mohammed Al-Meer (Chapter Coordinator) & Motlaq Al-Rahely (Treasurer).

And through the years, new positions were added and revoked and board members were changing constantly as follows:

Fall 2003-2004: Dr. Mohammed Al-Failakawi (Faculty Supervisor).

Spring 2003-2004: Bashayer Al-Awad (Chair), Ahmad Al-Qaoud (Vice Chair), Dalal Hasan (Cultural Coordinator), Abdulla Al-Meer (Secretary), Mai Al-Shayee (Treasurer), Abdulla Al-Qitifi (Media Coordinator), Anfal Meshari (Webmaster), Ahmad Al-Furaih (Chapter Coordinator), Mariam Bishara (Chapter Coordinator), Sadiq Torabi (Membership Coordinator) & Asmaa Al-Najem (Membership Coordinator).

Fall 2004-2005: Hamad Al-Ghemlas (Chair), Abdilhadi Jeragh (Treasurer), Maryam Bisharah (Secretary). (I can’t find anything more about this period so I don’t know the rest of the officers)

Fall 2005-2006:  Abdilhadi Jeragh (Chair), Hamad Alghemlas (Vice Chair), Malek Alrabea (Media Coordinator), Hesa Albalol (Cultural Coordinator), Yousif Alzanki (Secretary), Hisham Farahat (Treasurer), Majed Bassam (Webmaster), Huwai Aljurais (Public Relation), Asma Alosaimi (Membership Coordinator), Dr Mohammed AlFailakawi (Faculty Supervisor).

2007: Malek Al-Rabeea (Chair), Hessa Al-Baloul (Vice Chair), Bader Al-Khazi (Media Coordinator), Asma Al-Osaimi (Secretary), Ahmad Ashkanani (Treasurer), Bashayer Alarbeed (Membership Coordinator), Hamad Al-Meer (Public Relation), Duha Shubai (Cultural Coordinator), Amir Ahmed (Webmaster), Nosayba Abubakr (Cultural Coordinator), Omaima Al-Osaimi (W.E. Coordinator), Dr Fawaz Alenezi (Faculty Supervisor)

2008: Hamad Almeer (Chair), Abdulla Taha (Vice Chair), Taleb Behbehani (Treasurer), Mosa Alsulaimi (Public Relation), Ali Alsaffar (Media Coordinator), Ali Alsahaf (Cultural Coordinator), Dana Khalid (Membership Coordinator and WIE), Saleh Alsaffar [me] (Webmaster), Saad Alwatyan (Secretary), Dr Mohammed Al-Failakawi (Faculty Supervisor) then followed by Dr Mohammed Jeragh (also Faculty Supervisor). Total chapter members 115.

2009: Saleh Alsaffar [me] (Chair), Mosa Alsulaimi (Vice Chair), Ali Alsahaf (Treasurer), Taleb Behbehani (Public Relation), Shatha Shameya (Public Relation), Areej Hamouda (Media Coordinator), Faye Altammar (Media Coordinator, dropped by mid-term), Mohammed Ghazal (Membership Coordinator), Yacoub Dashti (Cultural Coordinator), Majed Alqabandi (Webmaster, dropped after first event), Dr Mohammed Jeragh (Faculty Supervisor) then followed by Dr. Abdulla Almutawa (Faculty Supervisor). During that term we had an outstanding 264 members within 3 months of registration.

2010: Majed Alqabandi (Chair), Mansi Elenezi (Vice Chair), Mohammed Rajab (Secretary), Mishari Alomran (Treasurer), Bader Alnaser (Public Relation), Fatema Abdulkareem (Public Relation), Mahmood Shaban (Media Coordinator), Sara Fahad (Cultural Coordinator), Shefa’a Ahmad (Membership Coordinator), Hussain Buhamad (Webmaster), Dr Abdulla Almutawa (Faculty Supervisor).

Activities

I’m going to list all events we have done during the 2008 and the 2009 terms. I don’t have the list of all events before the 2008 period. I’m going to update the post when I have the full list of activities that have been done before the 2008 term.

2008 Events

1. Notes and files handout day
2. Web design tutorial
3. CCNA1 and 2 courses
4. Global Awareness seminar
5. Trip to Wataniya servers in the Liberation Tower
6. Trip to Ministry of Communication in Liberation Tower
7. Graduating Adivising Sessions with CpE Department
8. cPanel workshop
9. Open Day at KSE
10.   HTML Workshop
11.   Javascript Workshop
12.   Informatics Day 2008
13.   Islamic Day Seminar
14.   Trip to Kuwait’s smartest building: Permanent headquarters of the Arab organizations
15.   Web design workshop
16.   Distribution of the Year Book.

2009 Events

1. Trip to KNPC
2. Programming contest
3. Intel i7 Processor Architecture seminar
4. cPanel session (twice)
5. CCNA1 and 2 courses
6. Entertainment Day
7. Trip to Kuwait Airways
8.   Petroleum company session
9. Ramadan Open Day with KSE
10. Session with freshmen in association with the CpE department
11. Alternate Energy conference
12.   Java Beginners session
13.   Java Intermediate session
14.   Informatics Day 2009
15.   Installation Festival
16.   Java Advanced session

So I have listed the events during the 2008 and the 2009 periods. Of course we did have some other activities we have done like handouts and participating in CpE department events.Coming up a blog post with details about each event.

What about going to a subway and waiting to reach your destination then people start pouring in to the subway train with no pants?!

Those are the kind of scenes that Improv Everywhere does. They are based in New York but because their popularity, their missions inspired many groups world wide leaded by undercover agents like the Sydney Flash Mob Freeze and the Michael Jackson tribute flash mobs.

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.

One of their most known scenes is the No Pants Subway Ride. My favorite prank is the Food Court Musical.

There are many great flash mobs being done globally and historically it being done since decades ago. I’d like to share some flash mob videos: Michael Jackson tribute in Stockholm, The T-Mobile Dance in UK, Sound of Music in Antwerp, Supermarket Flashmob and Consider Yourself.

Enjoy your weekend with this playlist. 

I’ve decided to buy a high performance PC for gaming and heavy tasking that would last as long as possible and could play the latest games with the highest graphic settings. And since I’m from Kuwait I have limited choices as the online markets are off-limit because of the customs here and the extremely slow mailing system. After purchasing all parts and finish building  the PC all by myself, I’ve decided to share my experience for whoever is looking to buy a new gaming PC in Kuwait.

Since I went to college my need for better and faster PC grows at a greater pace. For the second year of college (2005) I bought my second laptop which is Fujitsu Siemens M4348G for the pure purpose of gaming. It was a big mistake because it was heavy and bulky and it is pain to carry even for short distances venturing within the college walls. And the 17 inch laptop looks stupid on me since I’m a short guy.

The year after that (2006), I’ve learned from my mistake and bought an Asus A8js which was the best laptop performance and graphic wise within the 14 inch range and it weights around 5.5 pound which is considered great for travelling or, in my case, the need for the laptop almost all the time in college. I was able to stick with this great laptop for 2 years which is the average age of laptops nowadays.

By 2008 I’ve decided to buy the Vaio Z laptop which is according to my research, it is the best suitable laptop for me! Great specification for such a small laptop (13.3 inch). Decent graphic card, 6 hours of battery life, very lightweight, core 2 duo and 2 GB of RAM… what more could I ask for? Luckily I was in Toronto, Canada, that time and they do sell new Vaio PCs early at a good price compare to Kuwait’s prices. I grabbed a laptop from the store few days before it was displayed in the store… and I lived happily ever after!

By December of 2009 I was about to explode of anger due to performance problem I’m facing playing new games and with my regular usage of a computer. I’ve decided to get a new PC and my aim was to use it for the following:
 

1. Gaming, thus I need a better graphic card.  The Geforce 9300 GS for my Vaio Z laptop wasn’t able to play even some of the old games with decent graphic settings which really suck. I’m a heavy gamer and I love games and my laptop isn’t nearly enough to satisfy my appetite for new games. After playing Dragon Age: Origins for awhile tweaking settings and all it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The bad frame rate even with the lowest settings and it still go for 10 FPS or less. I had to go for a new PC with better graphic card, I don’t want to play the upcoming games like Supreme Commander 2, Command and Conquer 4 and Final Fantasy XIV with low frame rate.
    
2.  Browse smoothly! Nowadays websites are more complicated and requires more resources than old days with all the Flash, Javascript and rendering duty it perform. Google Reader is a performance hug when there is hundreds of articles awaiting in the stack. Working with multiple browsers is required for an I.T. professional.
    
3. Multimedia. I can’t complain about Vaio Z when it comes to play HD content even in stamina mode. I’m an HD freak and I watch every show and movie in HD and Sony geniously created this laptop to fit a heavy multimedia user. Amazing HD playback capabilities, built-in Toslink/Optical audio output, decent speakers and full HD HDMI output port.  The only drawback is that I only have 240GB of HD space which get filled with the basic applications and music files that I install as soon as I format my machine. So, with the new PC I need to go up one more level of home entertainment with enough amount of disk space.
    
4. Virtualization… RAM killer! Virtual machine eats a lot of memory and when you’re only with 3GB of memory, you won’t have enough memory left to work within the main OS smoothly. Windows 7 comes with a new feature called Windows XP Mode which allows you to run Windows XP on top of Windows 7, it could be helpful when you are running applications that are compatible with Windows XP only but you’ll need a chip-level virtualization which is supported in the Vaio Z.
    
5. I’m a programmer. Programmers and web developers generally do not need cutting edge CPU and high amount of RAM except in some situations, however, a smooth working environment for a programmer is certainly a big plus. It is not like I’m developing a game or something big but it feel more comfortable to work when you run your website on a GlassFish or MAMP local server and it executes fast enough to do a fast testing and get done with your work quickly. Some big IDEs like Netbeans and Visual Studio 2010 requires more resources when you start developing a mid-sized applications because of all the background processes happening during the development period. I know some programmers still uses Pentium 3, but I’m not really patience when my fingers start writing codes.
    
6. Designing. I use Adobe Flash, Flex, Photoshop and Swift 3D. Photoshop is pain in the ass when I start creating posters and flyers. It starts getting slow when I go to large designs and as deep as 300 DPI and beyond. Certainly a memory of 3GB is not enough with all other applications working on the background. Also rendering is freaking slow on my Vaio Z which is another drawback.

To be continued…

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

That’s around 170KD which I think is still expensive. There should be a student registration with cheap registration fee or maybe make it free since Microsoft are marketing their products after all!

Installation Requirements:

Build 9.0.30729.XX of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 SP1 must be installed before installation can continue.  See <A HREF=”http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122094″>http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122094</A> for download information.

I’ve done much research to resolve this problem but I couldn’t find any helpful information. However, I’ve been able to find some hints here and there and I’ve came up with the solution after playing around with it for awhile. But first I should clarify few things before I continue with the solution:

• I’m using an early version of Windows 7 Professional since it was released 3 weeks ago by the time I’m writing this post.
• I have Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Professional Edition and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed.
• The VS2008 build is: 9.0.21022.8 RTM which is the latest update I can get from Windows Update and it cannot detect any more updates for the VS2008.
• I have Expression Studio 3 already installed.

Okay, so now to overcome the installation error of Silverlight 3 Tools follow up these few steps:

1. Download Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 from here. The download file name should be: Silverlight3_Tools.exe by default.
2. Download WinRar from here. Winrar will be used to extract Silverlight3_Tools.exe since it is an archived file. The reason I mentioned Winrar here is because I’m not sure if there is any other application that supports extracting EXE files. Feel free to use any other app that could do the job.
3. After installing Winrar or any equivalent application, right click on Silverlight3_Tools.exe and extract the archive file.
4. Finally, go to the location where you have extracted the file and execute the file VS_SilverlightTools_Setup.exe to install the Silverlight 3 Tools.

You could also download Flash Builder 4 beta 2 directly from Adobe and for free.

You better register now before they run out of seats. There is also a quiz to win a laptop or an XBox 360.

Microsoft’s premier technical education and networking conference is coming to the Middle East.
Connect one-on-one with Microsoft insiders and IT peers, get your toughest questions answered and hear
expert advice – right from the source, right in your region.

The conference will start at 1st of March in Dubai World Trade Centre and for 3 days.

I’ve always wanted to attend one of these events to get into the community and talk about programming and technologies with others especially about those exciting new technologies from Microsoft.

Fore more information, check out the official website.

According to the website, it supports over 500 devices and services which makes it very appealing to use. It also get rid of duplicated contacts so I don’t have to worry about my address book getting messy. The only annoying service to be used with Soocial is Live because you’ll have to reauthorize your Live account to be integrated with Soocial every month. Duh!

According to Microsoft, it is design to run quietly without affect the system performance much like what many other security applications that users complain about. I haven’t tested it yet and I don’t think I will do it soon since I’ve already installed Avast free edition and I don’t feel like formatting my PC anytime soon. However, since it is made by Microsoft itself, it should integrate well with Windows but you have to have a genuine copy of Windows XP (SP2 or 3), Windows Vista or Windows 7 to work. It is also compatible with Windows XP mode in Windows 7.

For more information about it, check out this blog post from The Windows Blog.