Replay of October 2007 CBS "60 Minutes" Report on Dubai

This is a very interesting report on Dubai and it’s visionary… Sheikh Mohammad. I’ve not completed both parts but it’s a great summary of what’s happening here in the city.

The CBS website won’t let me embed the part 2 video. So here’s a link to it:

CBS 60 Minutes – Dubai Inc. Part 2

Just For Fun: World Golf Tour Game

Not much time to blog lately… my parents are in town. But I thought I’d share a fun link with you. This game was just mentioned in Fortune Magazine. It’s really fun and looks beautiful. Check it out here.

Screenshots for your viewing pleasure

My Experience on G4tv’s Attack of the Show

A few weeks back I did an interview on G4tv’s Attack of the Show – Global Loop interview segment. It was an interesting experience doing live television via satellite linkup pulling together a guy in Dubai, a guy in Tokyo, and the show production in Los Angeles, California. Click below for a report on how the early morning went for me that day.

Until about one hour before the interview all my communication with the G4tv people had been via email. No voice contact whatsoever. The guy at G4tv had gotten in touch with me via the comments section of this blog.

The show segment was to take place at 4:30pm Pacific Standard Time which is exactly 12 hours behind Dubai time. So that meant I would have to be in place and ready to go with the interview by at least 4:00am Dubai time. Ugh. But I thought the experience interesting enough to try it at least one time.

A week before the show I knew the general topic of the questions they would ask me. Then the night (LA morning time) before the show they tightened up the questions and narrowed them down. They also made a tentative plan for which of us would get which questions. I also didn’t know the location of the Dubai studio until a day before the interview. But I had recommended Media City so I knew the general area.

Last minute changes in the show also included the people being interviewed. Originally it was to be a woman in Argentina, a guy in China, and me. But the satellite setup in Argentina didn’t work out and the Chinese government put the brakes on the interview from China. So the show ended up being just me and a guy who runs a Gaming website in Tokyo.

I got an email around 9:30pm Dubai time on some final show details and then I went to bed around 11pm. I slept lightly and woke just before the alarm (unfortunately this seems to happen in middle age at 3:15am. I got dressed in a blue dress shirt since I had been instructed to not wear anything green as I would be interviewed in front of a “green screen” in the Dubai studio. The green screen is what you actually sit in front of but then the computers are able to superimpose an image behind you so that I would appear in front of say, a picture of the Burj Dubai. They ended up using an Emirates tower/Shiekh Zayed Road backdrop.

I drove down an almost completely empty Zayed Road (never seen it like that!) and was pulling into Media City when my phone rang and I spoke with the Producer of the show. He just wanted to make sure I was on my way and he asked me to feel free to engage in lively discussion during the interview.

I had a little trouble finding the building but eventually parked just outside the CNBC building where I go for McDonalds sometimes. There were two tech-looking guys standing outside the doors when I walked up and they asked me if I was there for the television interview. A little surprised, I said I was and they escorted me up to the 2nd floor studios.

All the newscaster/reporters desks were empty but all the tv’s were turned on and CNBC Arabia was running. We walked past the main newscasters desk with cameras in front of it and huge wrap-around screen behind where I imagined they’d be broadcasting from later that day.

They opened the door to a small back room which had several cameras in it and a blank screen behind the single chair in the middle with bright lights shining down on it. An immediate problem presented itself.

The screen was blue not green! My shirt was blue. This meant that anywhere I had blue on would appear transparent or at least translucent on screen. Argh!

The tech guys asked if I had another shirt with me. No, I didn’t! Could I go home and get another? No, interview time was in 30 minutes and a fast round trip run back home would take at least 40 minutes. So they began rifling through the dressing room closets of some of the newscasters! A couple of times there was laughter as they pulled out women’s clothing and held it up for my consideration and I waved it off with a snide comment and a smirk. Finally, they found a whitish men’s dress shirt that came close to fitting me and I quickly put it on and moved toward the camera room.

There was only about 5-10 minutes left as I settled into the interview chair, got my ear plug speaker adjusted (so I could hear the other interview participants and the interviewer) and my microphone set in place on the front of my shirt. The camera height was adjusted as well. The only thing on a tv screen I could see was my own image in front of me and just off to the side of the camera. I realized then that I would not be seeing anything other than the camera that I could fix my eyes on and respond to… no interviewer nor the other interviewees. In addition, the camera man, after he had adjusted the camera height, told me not to look at myself in the monitor next to the camera. This would be difficult not to do as it was a bright colorful image with some movement set just next to the black, round, and “dead-looking” camera lens. I immediately asked if he could turn the monitor so that I couldn’t see it and wouldn’t be tempted to look at the image as I spoke. He agreed it was a good idea.

Then they all left the room! For some reason I had imagined more personal interaction but it wasn’t to be. I was there alone in a empty small room and I was supposed to engage in “lively” discussion with people I couldn’t see. Pretty weird.

There were some sound transmission problems just before the show was to go on and it took a few confusing discussions between G4 talking in my ear and the Dubai tech guys just in front of me. Eventually they got it worked out and I could hear the tv show audio in my ear in the last 5 minutes before the show. I also met the show’s host over the audio feed as well.

There was one moment that has really stuck in my mind since that early morning. With just a few minutes to go before the airing, G4 did a little promo of an upcoming show they’re doing on a pornography convention happening sometime soon in the U.S. It seems they regularly report on the adult media industry and they portray it in a positive light. I don’t approve of the pornography industry as I think it’s only destructive to those who make it and those who consume it. I had second thoughts of being on the show at that point. Since that time I’ve thought that I would consider doing more “Global Loop” interviews despite G4′s coverage of the pornography industry. I’m still mulling this over though and it’s weighed on my mind.

Finally, the were a few minutes before the segment was on and it was clear that the audio feed between Tokyo, LA, and Dubai had some significant latency or delay in transmission. Have you ever tried to have a free flowing conversation over an internet connection with a delay? Yeah, it’s kind of impossible. But that’s what we had and pretty soon there was one last Dubai tech guy in the doorway saying “30 seconds til broadcast…” and then he backed out the door and closed it.

The rest you can see on the embedded video that I posted a few entries earlier. The delay was difficult to deal with and I found myself a couple times talking over the show host and my other interview partner. It made for awkward conversation as I tried without success to interject comments somewhat spontaneously.

At the end the show host thanked us on air and they went to a commercial. The earplug went silent. I sat there for about 15 seconds and then said, “hello?… anybody there?” No one answered. An inauspicious ending.

The Dubai tech guys asked if it went well and I told them I had no idea since I’d not done it ever before. They shrugged and began to lock up and head out the door. I walked toward the door and drove home in the dark as it was still only 5am.

All in all, it was very interesting and I think I’d do it again if it didn’t happen too often. I learned that live television is very difficult and multi-site satellite linkups are even more prone to problems. No surprise there.

Later the show producers emailed me and said they thought it went well all things considered and they’d like to try it again in the future. Let’s see what happens.

G4tv Global Loop Interview

Well, I appeared on the cable channel G4tv Global Loop interview. It was a very interesting experience and I’ll blog about it in the next couple days. But here is the video of the segment. The segment is an international view on pop culture issues that Americans are interested in. Originally it was to be me from Dubai, a guy from China and a girl from Buenos Aeres. But the Argentina situation had technical difficulties and China had government approval problems (communism!). So it ended up being me in Dubai and guy from Tokyo. We had tech difficulties too as you’ll see if you watch but in the end I think it came off ok. As I said, I’ll blog more later.

International Interview on G4tv

This is the home page of the cable channel G4tv. I’ll be interviewed live on one of their best rated shows Tuesday at 4:30pm PST. The show is called Attack of the Show and the segment is called “Global Loop”. There will be someone from China, Argentina, and (me!) from Dubai. We’ll be commenting on everything from inflight internet service, the shortage of the Nintendo Wii gaming system, to world opinion and popularity of American movies. It should be fun. I’ve included an embedded link of the last “Global Loop” episode so you can see what it’s like. If you’re not able to catch the show on air I’ll try to post the segment here later.

Article: Fatwas (Islamic religious decrees) and the Internet

This is a fascinating article on the effect the internet has had on Islam and it’s practice of issuing religious decrees or “fatwas”. Here’s the first several paragraphs to the article…

Cairo: The internet, satellite television and even the telephone are increasingly being used in the Muslim world to issue fatwas — religious decrees — on issues as varied as whether women can pluck their eyebrows or good Muslims should read Harry Potter.

A fatwa is a ruling by a recognised Islamic scholar, often on a weighty matter. But the traditional definition is becoming blurred as Muslims turn to Islamic websites and “tele-imams” for advice on how to live their lives.

For example, going online turns up the fatwa on British author J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, banning reading about the boy wizard because of his ties to witchcraft.

Another says plucking women’s eyebrows is “haram,” or forbidden, because it alters God’s creation. One exception: if the lady’s bushy brows displease her husband.

Tracing Your Family Tree… Online

I’m not very good at remembering family stories and histories. But I’ve always wanted to have it recorded so that I could look at it and learn anytime I wanted. That takes a lot of time though and now that I live on the other side of the planet from my family it seemed even more remote that I could make it happen.

Then I found Geni.com.

It’s an amazing (and free) website where, after registering, you begin by putting in the most basic of your family tree. I started with myself, my wife, my kids, my parents, her parents, then my sister, and finally her sisters. Each time you enter someone in the tree you can invite them via email to join in the task of adding to the family tree. Everyone can add pictures and each person has a profile they can fill out too that others can view.

I set this up in December. No activity took place for a month or so. Then family members began to join up and started adding to the tree. In February the tree was up to maybe 100 members or so… and growing. By early April it was up to almost 250 family members in the tree. Then, in two days, the tree went to almost 500! Incredible.

Today I checked and the tree has 556 family members in it.

It’s an novel use of the internet. Now and then I go into it and learn about distant family members who’ve uploaded pictures and information about themselves.

For my Muslim friends from Arabia and elsewhere, the staff at Geni.com are trying to implement it in different languages and include features that take into account things like multiple wives. I encourage you all… give it a try!

Below is an example screenshot from my family tree.

Native Deen Interviewed on CBS in the U.S.

I noticed the other day that the Islamic rap group from the US that had come through Dubai was interviewed on CBS, one of the major US television networks. I had registered at the groups website to be notified of news about them. These are the guys that I had been invited to go hear here in Dubai back in the Fall. After the show we had about an hour of interesting conversation about Christianity and Islam; particularly with the groups lead singer Joshua. He’s the first interviewed on the CBS special report. I had written him but haven’t heard back. I’m busy too so I understand.

I’m really interested in guys like this and the blending of contemporary culture and religion… particularly with Islam and Christianity. In traditional Islam songs and singing are not allowed. I’ve not had much conversations with my Muslim friends about why it’s allowed for groups to exist like this. What do the detractors point to in Qur’an to prohibit singing/music? And how would groups like Native Deen argue for the validity of their music from an Islamic perspective?

Here’s the CBS interview if you’re interested.

Making fun of Facebook

Online Videos by Veoh.com
I recently got onto facebook.com. This is hilarious.

Tech Tip: Using Google Reader

Would you like to be able to quickly scan headlines from a number of websites across the internet? Do you know of a handful of blogs that you’d like to easily keep track of?

Google News Reader can do this for you easily. Google news reader is a webpage run by Google where you can add the web addresses of multiple sites and then see them quickly and easily… choosing to skip the ones that don’t look interesting and choosing to investigate the ones that do.

Here are some quick steps to get up and running with it…

1. You need a Google account. If you’ve got a gmail account then it’s likely this is your Google account login. Go to the Google home page and click in the upper right hand corner on “My Account”. Follow the directions to set up the account. No money or big commitment necessary.

2. Go back to your Google homepage at Google.com and click on the “more” link just above the Google search entry box. You should then see a page of all of Google’s offerings. Click on “Google Labs”.

3. Here you’ll find another list of Google’s offerings. Look for Google Reader and click on it.

4. To tell Reader to track a website or blog you’ll need to click on add subscription in the left column. It is on a green background. A pop up box will open and you can enter the address of the webpage/blog. Why don’t you try and enter my blog (you can delete it later if you’d like). http://padandpen.blogspot.com …

For others I like to navigate to the sites I want to track, copy the address in my browser address bar and finally paste it into the “add subscription” popup box. If the site has some kind of rss feed (it pushes or announces it’s headlines and content out to the internet) then Google Reader will pick it up and you’ll see all the headlines from the website/blog.

5. You can also create folders for different categories of sites… i.e. News, Sports, Religious, Etc.

6. Lastly, I recommend that you bookmark your Google Reader page so you can easily visit it and see the headlines and lead-in content from all the sites you’ve told it to track.

7. There is a lot more that Google Reader will do and you can explore them in the Google Reader tutorial and help pages.

Let me know if this is a helpful guide if you’ve tried to follow it.