From: Asma Laghari
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
How to Check your Jawazat Fingerprints Enrolment Status in Saudi Arabia - Step by Step Guide with Snapshots (Updated)
Originally Posted on 21 April 2014
Saudi government has recently made it compulsory for everyone above the age of 18 (males and females) to provide fingerprints to Jawazat.
Fingerprinting a must for all expats above 15 from Jan. 21 (Last updated: Wednesday, November 05, 2014 1:03 PM) - Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — The General Directorate of Passports has made fingerprinting mandatory for all its services for expatriates from Jan. 21 (Rabi Al-Thani 1). This will be applicable to all expatriate men and women above the age of 15, said Ahmad Al-Laheedan, spokesman of the directorate, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
All expatriate women must have mandatory biometric data for services such as exit and reentry visa, profession change, and transfer of passport information (naql al-ma’lumat) effective from Nov. 23 (Safar 1), he said.
“Fingerprinting will be a must for their iqama (residence permit) renewal from Jan. 21. After this date, no passport services will be offered to expatriate men and women who did not record their biometric data with the directorate,” he said.
There are facilities for fingerprinting at all the branch offices of the directorate as well as at specially designed centers across the Kingdom. More details about it can be had from the directorate’s website www.gdp.gov.sa.
Fingerprinting was made mandatory for expatriate men earlier. As far as expatriate women were concerned, biometric data was mandatory only for obtaining a work permit effective from March 31, 2012, and it was optional for all other women.
Al-Laheedan said that the directorate is keen to record biometric data of all expatriate men and women with its central network system. Therefore, the directorate started making fingerprinting for women mandatory for all passport services in phases.
In the first phase, it was applicable for issuance of new iqama and a final exit. Earlier, it was only optional.
The directorate made it mandatory for issuance of new iqama and final exit effective from March 23, this year.
To check if your fingerprints are already with Jawazat or not, you can check it online using the following guide:
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Related Links:
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-urShadow
Monday, December 29, 2014
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Status Update
"All you need to know about life is retained in those four walls. You will notice that one of your personalities is seduced by the illusions of grandeur: the gold packet of king-size with a regal insignia, an attractive implication towards glamor and wealth, the subtle suggestion that cigarettes are indeed your royal and loyal friends - and that, is a lie. Your other personality is trying to draw your attention to the flip side of the discussion: written in boring bold black and white, it's a statement that these neat little soldiers of death are in fact trying to kill you - and that, is the truth. Oh, beauty is a beguiling call to death and I'm addicted to the sweet pitch of its siren. That that starts sweet ends bitter, and that which starts bitter ends sweet."
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Status Update
' In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark. I laughed and blew it out.' - Joker
Friday, December 26, 2014
Status Update
"As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away"
- William Hughes Mearns
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away"
- William Hughes Mearns
How to check your Company's Nitaqat Category (Red / Yellow / Green) in Saudi Arabia (Updated)
Original Article Published on Tuesday, May 13, 2014
2 years back KSA started another wave of Saudization in which they divided all companies into 3 categorizations with respect to the company’s compliance with Saudi Government’s Saudization Policy. In a nutshell, your company has to be in green category in order to survive properly.
If your company is not in green category then you should check with your company about their plan on getting in green category, else it can effect your job sooner or later. You can check your own company’s category by following the guide given on the below link:
You would also have to enter the CAPTCHA on the first page to move forward. The page is only available in Arabic language.
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If your company’s category appears as very small green then that means the company has 9 or less number of employees.
There is also another category ‘white’. It seems this category was allocated to companies which were given grace period before they were changed to red.
More details can be found on this doc: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23723725/English-final.pdf
Another Guide:
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-urShadow
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Get yourself some free apps with the S4BB Holiday giveaway
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It's that time of year. Holiday season. If you're looking for some free gifts, there are some apps you can avail for free from S4BB. They're giving away 10 apps, 2,200 copies of each. All worth $100,000. I use a few of their apps and like many of their offerings. If you've been wanting to give these apps a download, now is your chance. The promo runs until December 26th or until all copies run out. Here's a list of the free apps included in this promo. |
How Much of a Worrier Are You?
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Status Update
"Joker: Ceasar Carlini, my old pal! Why I haven't seen you since... wait, I've never seen you, have I? You need to get out more." - Extract from World's Finest
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Up to $220 worth of apps are now free via Amazon's Appstore Christmas bundle
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Amazon's holiday Appstore promotion is now live, and includes over $220 worth of apps that are being given away for free. The highlights from the giveaway include apps like Plex, and games such as Angry Birds Space, Colin McRae Rally, Worms 3, Cogs and more. |
Status Update
"Joker: Pay me one billion dollars, and I'll kill Superman!
Lex Luthor: What makes you think you can kill Superman when you can't even handle a mere mortal in a Halloween costume?
Joker: There's nothing mere about that mortal!" - Extract fromWorld's Finest
Lex Luthor: What makes you think you can kill Superman when you can't even handle a mere mortal in a Halloween costume?
Joker: There's nothing mere about that mortal!" - Extract fromWorld's Finest
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
10 Factors Affect Tire Using Life
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Status Update
"In Dino Mera sikka wazni tha. Or abhi mehakma azdawaj mei iski devaluation nahi hui thi. Mei chahti tu Shahab k sath Ashfaq ko na janay deti lekin jab currency taqatwar ho tab ksi hakumat ko fikkar nahi hoti. Saray fikar tu is waqt partay hain jab apne rupay ki qeemat bairoon market mei char aanay reh jati hai." - Extract from Mard Abre Raisham
Monday, December 22, 2014
How to Write a Successful Blog
| In 2004, I left the corporate world and started this tech and how-to blog called Digital Inspiration. I have been blogging for more than 10 years now and lot of things have changed in these years. Back then, there were few blogs, there was no Twitter or Facebook and the only way people could subscribe to a blog was through RSS or email newsletters. Bloggers maintained Blogrolls and Linkrolls and would generously link to other blogs. Google search results were a collection of 10 blue links and getting a slot on the front page wasn’t so difficult. I am no expert at blogging but probably the only advantage I enjoy is that I have been in the business for longer than most. There are no secrets or magic wand that brings success in the world of blogging but I think it is combination of good luck, hard work and consistency. In one of my recent interview with Lifehacker, they asked me how I work and my answer was “enthusiastically” and “diligently”. I enjoy what I do, I do not see this as work, I am always thinking about ways to improve, to learn and I look forward to working on labnol.org every morning. I think this attitude has helped me keep going all these years.
Blogging Tips and AdviceHere I share some of my learnings and blogging tips that will probably help take your blog to the next level. The video also available on YouTube. Let’s get started. 1. If you are on Blogger or Tumblr or another blogging platform, do your blog a favor and move to WordPress. The process isn’t complicated and will definitely help you in the long run, especially from the search perspective. Blogger is powerful and easy-to-use but the big drawback is that it blocks everything from bots that’s not a post. The other concern is that Blogger is a Google product and they have killed products mercilessly in the past even when they had a substantial user base. Remember Google Reader? 2. They say content is king but other than content, you need to develop a good and interesting writing style to attract a global audience. Good writing is a gift that comes naturally to some of us but if you happen to be in the other half, get some books. The Elements of Style, Stephen King’s On Writing, and On Writing Well offer good advice on writing. Compose the drafts in a proper editor – use Word, Google Docs or Poetica – they will highlight all the typos and grammatical errors that otherwise convey a bad impression. You can also get a style guide from The New York Times or the Associated Press and they’ll help you develop a consistent writing style. These guides have accepted writing rules for journalism and you can apply them to your own writing style as well. 3. Do not imitate someone’s style. You have your own personal style and your readers are following you because they love your style. You need not imitate someone nor you have to write as if you are writing for a news agency. Make your writing personal. 4. The most important part of a blog post is the headline and suddenly everyone is trying to do Buzzfeed style headlines. “This is why the Apple watch is not round.” “You’ll never believe what Facebook will unveil next.” With such headlines, you raise the expectation level of the audience and when they read the actual article, they are often disappointed. Go for boring headlines that may not be cute or clever but accurate. Your readers should be able to guess what the article is all about by looking at the headline itself. Also see: Create Good and Effective Web Content 5. There’s lot of noise in the blogging world and there’s a mad rush to report something new. Take a step back back and think – are you really adding any value or just contributing to the echo chamber? It is probably the job of the mainstream blogs to publish news as it happens but for the rest of us, blog only when you have something interesting to say. You won’t lose much if you aren’t among the first few to report something. 6. Just say no to guest blogging. Yes, it would help raise your profile if you manage to write for a reputed and authoritative site but 99% of the guest blogging is done with the sole purpose of gaining links and that’s just waste effort. Also, as your website grows popular, you’ll find the big sites approaching you to for permission to republish your stuff. They will promise you eyeballs in return for your content but that won’t actually happen – people will just read your content on their site and move. 7. Always use a good images or screenshots with your blog posts. This helps for two reasons – one, when people share your content on social sites, your story may stand out in the crowded news feed because of that image thumbnail. You can use images to draw the visitor’s attention to any part on the story that you want to emphasize and if you are articles are long, images can work as visual breakpoints. And it goes with saying that you should only use free images that are in the public domain or under Creative Commons. 8. Search is definitely import but none of us really know how Google works. They have 200+ factors that decide the ranks of pages and we only know about a few of them. The fact is as long as long as you have the basics right, the cream will automatically rise to the top. Here are a few things that I would suggest as far as SEO is concerned.
9. Do not use an RSS to Email service to prepare your daily / weekly email newsletters. Instead, spend some time and create your email newsletters manually. Alway put a summary in the email subject – this will vastly improve the open rate of your email newsletter. 10. Think of the reader first and the revenue later. Advertising is important but if you only focus on the commercials, it will be difficult to build a loyal audience. AdSense, BuySellAds, BlogAds are good ad networks but stay away from the networks that allow scam ads. Remember, you are responsible for what ads are shown to visitors on your website. Also see: How Bloggers Make Money on the Internet 11. Good and useful content will spread on its own but, occasionally, you can also pitch other bloggers in your niche. The other set of people who you can help spread the word are your blog commentators and people who have previously shared your stories on social sites. They love your blog and will happily evangelize your content. 12. Your “about” page is your chance to convert a new visitor into a regular one. Show off your best stuff, link to your popular stories, make it easy for people to subscribe to your content and include mentions in the mainstream media – this will make your bio more credible to someone who doesn’t know you. 13. Lists, or listicles as they are better known in the world of blogging, are the easiest way to generate traffic. They are easier to scan and hence people enjoy reading them. Lists are easier to create too but if all you do is publish lists based blog posts, that may have an opposite effect. 14. This is your personal preference but I suggest you keep updating your old articles so that they stay relevant and up to date. If something is useless, it can be removed permanently. For instance, I had a few Orkut related posts on my blog. They were relevant when I wrote them but now that Orkut is gone, I got rid of them and directed all the juice to something related but more relevant. 15. Google is no longer sharing the search queries with you but the internal search data, that you can grab from Google Analytics and Google Custom Search, will help you understand what kind of solutions are people looking for on your website. You can then go a step further. Use the annotations feature of CSE to automatically highlight important pages in your internal search results. 16. If you are new, you can attract attention of other website owners by linking to them – your blog posts will show up in their traffic logs, they may check out your blog and help spread the word among their audience. Like the BBC, You can also add depth to your posts by linking to other sites that have written on the same topic but may have a different perspective. A web page that cites source and links to research may also be seen as more authoritative and trustworthy by search engines. 17. Page views give an ego boost the more important metrics are the returning visitor count, the bounce rate and the amount of time that people are spending on individual pages. If they are landing on a page and leaving in a split-second, you should to diagnose the reason – maybe they aren’t finding the information on the page, maybe the title does not accurately tell what the page is all about, maybe your site is slow or the typography is to be blamed. 18. Plagiarism is a problem and will continue to be. You can get the content removed through DMCA but, unless a popular site has done it, I would not worry too much about plagiarism. Instead, that energy can be focussed on creating more content. 19. In all these years, I have tried to harness various channels and I think that also helped in the growth of the blog. I have written an ebook for the Kindle, I have a YouTube channel, I do a podcast on iTunes which is essentially my YouTube videos in downloadable format, I curate on Flipboard, I upload my slides on Slideshare and have Chrome apps for the blog. Only a few hundred thousand people probably know about my website but these channels are known to millions of Internet users. It thus helps to have a presence there. 20. Everyone can have a blog but what separates you other blogs is your expertise in the field, your writing skills and most important credibility. The editorial should be complete separate from the business side of the blog. Be transparent and abide by the journalists code of ethics, much like the team at The Verge and ReCode. Also see: 25 Tips for Tech Startups
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Sunday, December 21, 2014
Status Update
So there were a few things common b/w me and Ashfaq Ahmed Khan:
"Ek roz mujhe Khan Sb ne kaha "bhii Kal sham shahab or iffat khanay pr arahe hain, tum koi intezam waigheira kar leina"
Mere chehray pr mehman ki khabar lagtay hi jo khushi phaili hogi Usay dekh kr khan satpata gaye "dekho qudsia kch barha charha kr na krna....shahab aisi baton se ghabra jata hai, hum bawarchi khanay me khana khayain gay. tum poriyan achi bana leti ho bus wohi Theak ha. Alo ki poriyan chanay waigheira... ziyada kch na karna"
"Lekin bawarchi khanay me kiu khan sahab...? hamaray pas tu total 4 dugdugi morhay hain. Ek choti tapai hai, tail ka cholha ha...yahan wo kaisay khana khaian gay?"
Khan sahab me ek bari ziyadti hai. Wo ksi ki khatir na apni zindagi ka pattern na apne maamoolat na hi apne mizaj ka zawiya badalte hain. Wo jis trha baithay hun gay waisay hi mehman se milne chalay jaian gay bulke isay apne pas bulaian gay. Jo kha rahe hun gay is chatni roti mei mehman ko shamil kr lain gay. Jaisa mood hoga is k mutabiq amal krain gay. Inke pass khanay or dekhanay k lye ek hi set Danton ka hai. Daftar, ghusal khanay, bazaar, radio station, television, studio me ashfaq Ahmed girgit ki tarha rang nahi badalte bulke har maqam or jaga pr inka sirf role badalta ha wo khud wohi rehte hain. Agar wo ksi adbi mehfil mei Pakistan ya Islam ki kheir khwahi mei ksi se ulajh jaian tu mei lakh hath bandhon wo apna nazariya kar k rahain gay. Agr wo kitabon wali almari ki janib chehra kar k kitab parhnay me masruf hain or koi mehman ajata hai tu wo bhagam bhag na apni necar jacket badlain gay na hi apna andaz e nashist. Bus Isi andaz me baithay baithay kbhi guftugu k sath, kbhi khamoshi samait mehman k pala gin rahain gay....darasal is andaz ae khan sahab ki Murad yehi hoti hai k mehman mukammal tor pr apne ap ko Ghar ka fard samjhay. baithna chahay tu baithe, bawarchi khanay me kch khana peena chahay tu zahe naseeb....VCR ya television lga kr Chotay khano se gup shup ki khwahish ho tu or bhi acha ha. kothay pr charh kr kabotaron ko dana dal kr razi hota ho tu ksi kisam ki mumaniat nahi. Bahir zawiye mei baith kr ksi se lambay lambay fone kr k khush rahe tu ksi ko aitraz na hoga. Aisi fiza me azad mansh log in se ziada hil jatay hain lekin formal log jinhe drawing room, numaish ki guftugu, saji sajai troliyan, tissue paper, quarter plates, guthnay se guthna jor k baithne ki adat ho, in se ziyada dair razi nahi rehte." - Extract from Mard Abre Raisham
"Ek roz mujhe Khan Sb ne kaha "bhii Kal sham shahab or iffat khanay pr arahe hain, tum koi intezam waigheira kar leina"
Mere chehray pr mehman ki khabar lagtay hi jo khushi phaili hogi Usay dekh kr khan satpata gaye "dekho qudsia kch barha charha kr na krna....shahab aisi baton se ghabra jata hai, hum bawarchi khanay me khana khayain gay. tum poriyan achi bana leti ho bus wohi Theak ha. Alo ki poriyan chanay waigheira... ziyada kch na karna"
"Lekin bawarchi khanay me kiu khan sahab...? hamaray pas tu total 4 dugdugi morhay hain. Ek choti tapai hai, tail ka cholha ha...yahan wo kaisay khana khaian gay?"
Khan sahab me ek bari ziyadti hai. Wo ksi ki khatir na apni zindagi ka pattern na apne maamoolat na hi apne mizaj ka zawiya badalte hain. Wo jis trha baithay hun gay waisay hi mehman se milne chalay jaian gay bulke isay apne pas bulaian gay. Jo kha rahe hun gay is chatni roti mei mehman ko shamil kr lain gay. Jaisa mood hoga is k mutabiq amal krain gay. Inke pass khanay or dekhanay k lye ek hi set Danton ka hai. Daftar, ghusal khanay, bazaar, radio station, television, studio me ashfaq Ahmed girgit ki tarha rang nahi badalte bulke har maqam or jaga pr inka sirf role badalta ha wo khud wohi rehte hain. Agar wo ksi adbi mehfil mei Pakistan ya Islam ki kheir khwahi mei ksi se ulajh jaian tu mei lakh hath bandhon wo apna nazariya kar k rahain gay. Agr wo kitabon wali almari ki janib chehra kar k kitab parhnay me masruf hain or koi mehman ajata hai tu wo bhagam bhag na apni necar jacket badlain gay na hi apna andaz e nashist. Bus Isi andaz me baithay baithay kbhi guftugu k sath, kbhi khamoshi samait mehman k pala gin rahain gay....darasal is andaz ae khan sahab ki Murad yehi hoti hai k mehman mukammal tor pr apne ap ko Ghar ka fard samjhay. baithna chahay tu baithe, bawarchi khanay me kch khana peena chahay tu zahe naseeb....VCR ya television lga kr Chotay khano se gup shup ki khwahish ho tu or bhi acha ha. kothay pr charh kr kabotaron ko dana dal kr razi hota ho tu ksi kisam ki mumaniat nahi. Bahir zawiye mei baith kr ksi se lambay lambay fone kr k khush rahe tu ksi ko aitraz na hoga. Aisi fiza me azad mansh log in se ziada hil jatay hain lekin formal log jinhe drawing room, numaish ki guftugu, saji sajai troliyan, tissue paper, quarter plates, guthnay se guthna jor k baithne ki adat ho, in se ziyada dair razi nahi rehte." - Extract from Mard Abre Raisham
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
BBM Update Addresses Default Stickers Issue (Sort Of...)
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We all are aware of it. The issue of BBM bringing up your stickers as the default. It's annoying as hell and people voiced their opinion to BlackBerry and BlackBerry responded with another update to help fix the dissatisfaction that people showed. It really hasn't worked out as BlackBerry has wished. |
'Tis the Season for the next round of free apps in the 'Festive Giveaway'
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BlackBerry kicked off their 'Festive Giveaway' earlier this month whereby users could download a selection of premium applications and games for free. The first batch of applications included in the promo ran until December 17th, with another one set to begin on December 18th through Christmas day. Now that the new second week has begun, there is a whole new selection of popular and useful apps and games to choose from. They run the gamut in terms of categories whereby you have your choice amongst workout apps, utility applications including backup, to-dos, profiles, and browsers to games aimed at the whole family. However, please be aware that availability depends your device and region that you are located in, and as such, is subject to change. To view all of the apps included in this promo you can click on the link below to be taken directly to BlackBerry World. View all apps available in the festive giveaway |
