How to stop viewing YouTube videos in HTML5 and return back to Flash player

If you -like me- joined the YouTube HTML5 Beta once you heard about it, you should have discovered by now how the Flash player is way better. Now to return back to the mighty Flash player, all you have to do is go to http://www.youtube.com/html5 then click "Leave the HTML5 beta".

Websites or Internet Services?

With sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are more commonly used via mobile phones, desktop clients, game consoles, media players, e-readers and TVs; is it still valid to call them websites? or shall it be Internet Services?

Here is what I want (and really need) in iPhone 4.0

After reading the first part of iPhone 4.0 wishlist (A letter sent from TUAW editors and readers to Apple), I decided to contribute. And here is the list I've already sent to Michael Grothaus:

1. Gadgets-based home screen: I want to see my calendar appointments,new messages, today's tasks, missed calls, etc
2. WIRELESS SYNC (It's a shame that I have to use a cable to sync my calendar or a new song!! my Nokia E90 used to sync wirelessly with my computer without me even knowing it.)
3. Bluetooth file transfer, send/receive a contact and tethering
4. Built-in FM transmitter
5. Camera Flash (and Adobe Flash also, of course)
6. Save Email attachment to documents folder (for editing and resending)
7. Contact Groups
8. Send/receive vcard via SMS
9. Traditional SMS view (with Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Draft, Templates and custom folders)
10. Cancel call with SMS (pick from templates folder)
11. Built-in tasks app (integrated with calendar) and syncs with outlook
12. Safari: find in page
13. Email: mark all selected images as read
14. Multi-threading is a most, I want Byline (my RSS reader) to go automatically fetch the news while I'm sleeping so I can read them offline in the morning
15. New business model where device is not bound to carrier. I need to go buy my phone from regular electronics store with discounted prices etc.. and no monopoly.

Problem sendig from outlook if you're connected via TEDATA

If you'r facing a Problem sending from outlook while connected via Egyptian ISP, TEDATA. Here is the solution:

In outlook, replace your corporate SMTP with "smtp.tedata.net.eg". This shall work but I found that this outgoing mail server has got some problems. Mainly I found that my email reaches its destination very late (sometimes it took days) so I talked to customer service for another solution and they advised me to use “out.tedata.net.eg” for SMTP. However, this server requires authentication. The username and password are the same as the id and password of the free email given with TEDATA DSL subscription. If you haven't got such credentials contact TEDATA sales at 19777 so they will create a mailbox for you and give you the credentials.

How Amazon is Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, A Customer Story

The latest emails I received from Amazon.com came with the following slogan under the signature: "We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company". From my experience with them, I can say that they're faithful about that. Like any Amazon customer, I was impressed with how they replace any reported missing items fast and with no questions asked (even better, they now offer you a refund with shipping costs if you're no more interested in receiving the missing item). But what happened to me was beyond that. Here's my story:

As a resident of Saudi Arabia, I purchase items that ships only to US adresses via a shipment forwarding service called Shop&Ship. This service provides me with an adress in New York where Amazon can ship to, the after arriving to my NY adress, the shipment is automatically reshiped to my address in Riyadh.

I december, 2008 I've ordered aorund $600 worth of items from Amazon.Com, and while checking out I discovered that -due to a change in NY sales tax low- around $50 of sales tax was added to my order. Because the items I purchased was still cheaper than retail prices in Saudi Arabia, I proceeded with check out.

After receiving my items from Shop&Ship, Isent an email to Amazon.Com requesting my sales-tax money back because I don't live in the US. After two days I received a reply from Amazon customer service rep with the following:

"I'm sorry if there was any misunderstanding with the sales tax charged on your order. Tax was charged because the shipping address is in New York. If the shipment was forwarded out of New York after delivery, we cannot be responsible."

Ok, no problem with me if these are the rules. So I didn't object or even reply to this message and continued with my life. But after 10 days, I was surprised to find the following message in my email:

"Greetings, Mansour.

During a routine review of our customer service responses, we noticed that your inquiry did not receive a thorough response. You had inquired about whether your purchase could be exempt from sales tax if the purchase was forwarded to Saudi Arabia.

In order to process a sales tax refund, we would need a copy of the bill of lading for your order. This receipt should have been provided to you by your freight forwarder, and should clearly designate the final destination of your order.

You may send this information to us by fax at (***) ***-****.

Please also include the following:

a) Your order number and e-mail address

b) Mark your fax "Attn: Tax Exempt".

I hope this information has been helpful. We value your business and look forward to serving you in the future.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Best regards,

Tax Customer Service Specialist

http://www.amazon.com

Wow, these guys review closed customer problems and see if they received the best possible response or not ?!!! Not just that, they contact the customer who's already received his items, happy with it, not complaining and try to do him more service and make him happier? Who else does that?. 

I faxed my order's bill of lading and after few days I received a full refund of sales tax money. I'm still enjoying what I received from Amazon, both the items and the amazing customer service.

 

Starting My English Blog

Well, after blogging for sometime in Arabic. I thought what if I want to write something in English? I could've done this also in my Arabic blog but I don't like blogs with mixed languages. So, I started this.