AWFUL SERVICE ALERT: RTA's buses

I went to a bus stop according to RTA's Wojhati (Journal Planner) online (along with a printed map of the stop's location), checked its location with 2 RTA personnel at the nearest Metro station, checked its location with 2 specialized RTA Wojhati personnel via phone while waiting at the stop as to its location, but no bus stopped for around an entire hour even though I waved and made sure the bus drivers saw me!

Don't ever take the RTA buses! They'll make you wait for eternity, in the scorching desert heat!
MoWrOw

AWSOME SERVICE ALERT: RTA's Dubai Metro

I tried out the Dubai Metro yesterday, and it really IS awsome! It's very safe, smooth, clean, and easy to use.

It's very safe because there is no gap between the platform and the metro, and there is no way to access or fall into the track without because it's layered by glass-doors that slide only whent the metro arrives.

It's very easy to use because of the regular speaker announcements in Arabic and English updating on the next stop, and simple metro station map in each metro in each cabin.

It's very smooth and clean because of the high restriction on food and beverage inside of the metro, and because it's fully mechanized!

The only problem is the difficulty of recharging the payment card (called Nol) due to lack of conventionality, costing time needed for learning and que-waiting. I also heard that it is a little too easy to call for a false alarm by pulling some lever or breaking some emergency-glass. I didn't notice how easy it is to do either.

MoWrOw

AWFUL SERVICE ALERT: Etisalat Messed Up With Blackberry

A person that I know got the Blackberry Bold, and soon after that, the poor thing would run out of power in no time, even shortly after the power is actually turned off! It appears that despite all of Etisalat's (the main telecom provider in the United Arab Emirates) adequate services, it installs a program - which can be best explained as a Trojan horse - as soon as the Blackberry owner requests the roaming service, and accepts the file to activate it. 

 I really have very little to compain about when it comes to Etisalat, and of all the great services that it has offered and still does, it actually chose to try out a program made by somebody that stated to Etisalat to try it out, claiming to enable them to track any Blackberry user wherever he is. Perhaps this would've been a good security enhancement for the government, but it should have been tested first. 

Apprently the solution to this is either to remove the roaming service and the file in association, or to format the entire thing. However, the amount of frustration and time this costs the subscriber, and amount of reputation that this costs Blackberry is quite immense. Etisalat, why? 

MoWrOw's Biz&Tek BLOG

AWESOME SERVICE ALERT: Dubai Metro's Virtual Transport

As if having a Journey Planner that cost around $3 million to make, RTA (Roads & Transport Authority) unleashed a Virtual Metro!!! Virtual Metro is basically a 3d sim game that allows anybody to explore the entire metro system as a tutorial!!! I already tried this and it's bloody fantastic, and FUN! It is mentioned in Gulf News that it cost the RTA $165,000 to make this in just around 5 months. The game is embeded with marketing polls to collect more info about Metro users. If that's enough wait till you check out the Video Trips and Dubai Metro Trivia Games (for increasing knowledge and for RTA's marketing). Check it all out at http://virtualtransport.rta.ae/ !!! I am completely dumb-founded! MoWrOw

AWSOME SERVICE ALERT: Wojhati & Dubai Metro

RTA' (Road & Transport Authority)'s Journy Planner named Wojhati (my point of view in Arabic) is aweseome! I've never seen anything like it XD

With Wojhati, you can plan public-transport (inlcuding Taxi actually) route from anywhere to anywhere in Dubai, and it will tell you exactly where to go, using which medium (which you can specify), how long it will take, complete with map, interactive map, and even animation map!

I read it cost RTA 3 million 270 thousand dollars to make. Check it out at http://wojhati.rta.ae/dub/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en ! I read the Dubai Metro cost around 8 million dollars to make, and is projected to make 4 million a year, and has already made 1 million 300 thousand from advertising (including by station-naming) fees.

I haven't tried it yet, but read that it is cooler than any other metro in the world. It afterall is the biggest fully automated metro in the world, and has the biggest underground station in the world (named Etihad)!

Dubai rawks!

MoWrOw