Steve Ballmer to inaugurate M$ Innovation Center in Kuwait

[aljawad]

Its reported that Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation will visit Kuwait briefly on April 25 to inaugurate the MS Innovation Center in the country. The center is located on the premises of the main campus of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).

I’ve posted a few pictures taken today of the activities taking place inside and outside the building where the center will occupy parts of the first floor (sorry about the quality of the mobile phone picture).

As an avid Mac user, I’m frustrated with the status of the Macintosh version of MS Office in comparison its PC sibling >:-< The software suite still does not have native support for "right to left" languages like Arabic and Hebrew. I think when he arrives I’ll strut around with my MBP + iPods, paste some Apple stickers along with some anti-MS slogans ("Zune sux!") at the door - and I'll bring some eggs! :-D

[princealfie]

Originally Posted by aljawad

Its reported that Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation will visit Kuwait briefly on April 25 to inaugurate the MS Innovation Center in the country. The center is located on the premises of the main campus of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).

I’ve posted a few pictures taken today of the activities taking place inside and outside the building where the center will occupy parts of the first floor (sorry about the quality of the mobile phone picture).

As an avid Mac user, I’m frustrated with the status of the Macintosh version of MS Office in comparison its PC sibling :brick: The software suite still does not have native support for “right to left” languages like Arabic and Hebrew. I think when he arrives I’ll strut around with my MBP + iPods, paste some Apple stickers along with some anti-MS slogans ("Zune sux!") at the door - and I'll bring some eggs! :lol:

Can I help you out?

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by princealfie

Can I help you out?

Hehe! Actually, I chatted briefly with him, introducing myself as "an Apple & Microsoft user for almost 3 decades", to which he replied: "I appreciate it"!

I have posted more pictures of the event.

[dmw007]

Oh Ballmer....


In terms of Office for Mac OS, I find it to be better than the Windoze version (but that is in terms of the English version). Granted, I also find Keynote to be far superior to PowerPoint.

[Super Macho Man]

MS needs all the innovation centers it can build.

[redAPPLE]

there are some creepy photos of mr. developers developers developers there.

*shudder*

[Eric5h5]

Originally Posted by Super Macho Man

MS needs all the innovation centers it can build.

Yep. Maybe if they build enough, they'll eventually find some innovation.

--Eric

[pilotError]

should have asked to see the Monkey-Boy dance!

That's pretty cool otherwise.

[dmw007]

Originally Posted by Eric5h5

Yep. Maybe if they build enough, they'll eventually find some innovation.

--Eric

Don't count on it- they will still just resort to trying to copy Apple.

[Counterfit]

Originally Posted by redAPPLE

there are some creepy photos of mr. developers developers developers there.

*shudder*

Any picture of him is creepy.

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by dmw007

Oh Ballmer....


In terms of Office for Mac OS, I find it to be better than the Windoze version (but that is in terms of the English version). Granted, I also find Keynote to be far superior to PowerPoint.

Yes, in many ways the Mac version of M$O is superior to the PeeCee version, but still that doesn't justify the lack of support for "right-to-left" languages while the MacOS X included such support for years now. Incidentally, over the years M$ justified this oversight claiming the alleged small number of Arabic / Hebrew / Farsi customers

Also, the Office installation includes the installation of non-Arabic savvy fonts that render Arabic web pages unreadable (Ariel & Time Roman), but this problem is easily solved by disabling these fonts.

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by Super Macho Man

MS needs all the innovation centers it can build.

Actually, M$ has similar ventures all over the region, and the goal is to block the utilization of other ventures. Here is an article highly critical of Ballmer and Microsoft written by a prominent Kuwaiti writer. He sites the fact that the goal of this venture has nothing to do with benefiting the Kuwaiti people and government, and points out to the increasing number of Mac & Linux users in Kuwait. Sorry its in Arabic, but a mediocre translation is available from Google.

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by redAPPLE

there are some creepy photos of mr. developers developers developers there.

*shudder*

LoL! Actually, we were wondering if he’d forget himself and do something really stupid; like using colorful language. In Kuwait the public use of profanity and cursing is punishable by law - I think for a first offense the fine is 40 KD (about 130 US$) for cursing

One amusing incident occurred when the lady from Al-Arabiya TV interviewed him. She asked him something which I couldn’t hear, and he replied sharply and dryly: "we didn't discuss that", turned and walked away; he broke off the interview without waiting for a followup, the poor girl looked embarrassed. However, he was more cordial with the guy from Kuwait TV.

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by pilotError

should have asked to see the Monkey-Boy dance!

That's pretty cool otherwise.

Hehe. A colleague of mine had a cartoon at hand - I guess she wanted to circulate it if things got, err ..., amusing! Personally, I had this one pasted at my office door, just a few steps away from the event

[yg17]

Soon, M$ will realize that they aren't capable of innovating and this will be turned into a call center to handle failed over-the-web Vista activations

[juanm]

How do you say "developers" in arabic?

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by yg17

Soon, M$ will realize that they aren't capable of innovating and this will be turned into a call center to handle failed over-the-web Vista activations

You know, as far as I know the IT department at KISR still hasn’t sanctioned the transformation to Vista, and I have yet to meet with Windoze users willing to admit to upgrading

[aljawad]

Originally Posted by Juan Moro

How do you say "developers" in arabic?

Hehe! OK, here goes:

Mutaw'wireen an'Nuthom (= "systems developers"), or simply Mutaw'wireen.

So, picture him prancing around going:

"Mutaw'wireen, mutaw'wireen, mutaw'wireen an'Nuthom …"

[Voidness]

Originally Posted by aljawad

Hehe! OK, here goes:

Mutaw'wireen an'Nuthom (= "systems developers"), or simply Mutaw'wireen.

So, picture him prancing around going:

"Mutaw'wireen, mutaw'wireen, mutaw'wireen an'Nuthom …"

No, it's "Defelobars"