Genova

After the training sessions, there has been some spare time to walk around in the city. Here are some pictures from Genova downtown:

SDH training in Genova

This week I'm attending a training in Genova. The training is about Network Design and Operation and Maintenance of Ericsson's STM-16 SDH Add&Drop Multiplexers, which are be the Core transmission nodes in the Saudi Railway project. There are around 40 STM-16 ADM's, linking another 140 STM-1 and 20 STM-4 ADM's. Here's a picture of our training room:

FAT in Seoul - Some Pictures

Seoul is South Korea's capital and largest city, with a population of over 10 million. The Seoul Capital Area has 24 millions inhabitants and is the world's second largest metropolitan area. Hereby, I leave you some pictures of my brief visit to downtown Seoul, in between arrival and the factory tests:

Old and new coexist in a harmonious fashion

A typical market...the most weird looking food was on sale here, and people seemed to enjoy it!Lunch with my Korean, Spanish and Portuguese collegues, at a very typical restuarant. I tried almost everything...most of it tasted well (although I prefer not knowing what it actually was) but some stuff was....ARGH!!!!

Busy street downtownOpen air exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean war (1950-1953). This is where I actually spent the most time:)

FAT in Seoul

As I wrote in my last post, last Tuesday we had another FAT, this time in Seoul, South Korea, on the Optical Junction boxes, used to accomodate the optical splices. These boxes have to comply to a series of standards and requirements, as they accomodate very sensitive material (a fiber is thinner than human hair) in a very harsh environment, the Saudi Arabian desert. Everything went smoothfully and the FAT was approved.

Yes, I'm still here

The 3 weeks absence from this blog was due to my 2 week vacation in Brazil. I'm now back in Saudi but just for a couple of days. Tomorrow I'm heading to Seoul, South Korea for another Factory Acceptance Test, this time on the Optical Junctions Boxes, used to accomodate the fiber optics splices, which I will report in my next post. This was just a 'keep alive' post, a very quick one, just before departure.

Karting

This weekend, we discovered a karting track in Riyadh. We were 18 people, did qualifying and a 20 minutes race. Definitely going again!!

Cool dogs

Picture taken recently, somewhere on the highway outside of Riyadh. If the picture is not funny enough on its own, I can add that it was taken while the pick-up was overtaking us driving on the left emergency lane (which is actually no lane) at at least 160km/h. And this was just the first time we were able to capture it on camera, it's far from being the first time we see such maneuvers. And the dogs, comfortable as they look, must also have seen it before...:)

Hannover - Factory Acceptance Test SDH

After a week in Portugal and 3 days in Germany, I'm now back to Saudi, where the temperatures are perfect now, which feels great after 3 days in snowing Germany.

In Hanover, we ran a series of tests in the premises of the SDH equipment manufacturer (which I cannot name for confidentiality reasons), with the purpose of validating a number of technical requirements. Our final customer (Saudi Railway) sent a delegation to witness the tests and I represented Thales.

The SDH network is the core network, the network over which all other systems/networks of this new railway will run, and is the system I am responsible for. SDH stands for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and is a circuit switched approach to networking, opposite to IP which is packet switched. SDH is widely used in mission critical applications, such as railway signalling, power utilities, etc. In total, more than 200 SDH ADM's (Add&Drop Multiplexers) will be deployed in this network, over an extent of 2400km using fiber optics, providing STM-16 (2,5Gbps) to the other 15 systems and sub-systems in this project.

The tests ran smoothly and were all approved by Thales and, more importantly, by Saudi Railways.

Camels

Today, weekend in Saudi, we went for another trip to the desert. We went to the Red Sand Dunes area, 80km West of Riyadh, where we were told we could rent quads to have some quad-fun in the dunes. We couldn't find the place though and, after riding circles, we ended up in a bedouin camp where we stopped to ask for directions. They couldn't help us, but were very friendly and invited us to stay for a while, showed us their camels, let us take pictures, gave us camel milk to drink, and gave us their e-mail to send the pictures to. Yes, they have e-mail!!! And mobile phones too!!

The quads will have to wait for next time...and who knows, stop by at our new friends...

The weather is perfect now...

I'm back in Saudi Arabia since the 9th, after 3 fantastic weeks in Portugal. Trying to get back to normal here. Lots of work was awaiting me and haven't had much time to be writing here. At least the weather is great compared to Europe. January and February are the coldest months here, but the temperatures are still in the 20's during the day...perfect spring weather!!! Today, weekend here in Saudi, my housemates and I had lunch by our pool and invited some other colleagues too.

Scotland again

Last Thursday and Friday I was in Edinburgh, Scotland again. From Saudi to Scotland and back to Saudi. The reason was the same as last time, run a Factory Acceptance Test on fiber optics. Nothing special to mention, the program was excatly the same as last time, same hotel, same tests, same courtesy tour with the customer representatives, the only difference was the temperature, much colder this time. But I have some new pictures. I'm back in Saudi since Saturday and until tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning I have an important technical presentation for the customer and the consultants.

Censorship

The picture below is the visible face of the censorship in Saudi Arabia. This page pops-up when you try to open pages or contens which are on the black list of the Ministry of Interior. Content filtering is applied to all international traffic. All international traffic is redirected through a proxy farm which, apart from filtering the content, blocks a number os sites, according to two lists: one containing 'immoral' sites (pornography, drug use, gambling, religious conversion of muslims), the other based on directions from a security committee, run by the Ministry of Interior.

However, as with many other things here, there is no clear criteria. As an examle, Hi5 is blocked yet access to Facebook is unhindered...

National Museum in Riyadh

Yesterday afternoon (weekend here), I went to the National Museum in Riyadh. Those who know me know that sooner or later I would have to go there...:) And it was great, really worth the 10 saudi riyals (only 2 euro!!!). It gives a very good insight into the history of Saudi Arabia, through as many as 8 exhibition halls. These halls cover the following themes: Man and Universe, The Arabian Kingdoms, the pre-Islamic era, prophet Mohammed's Mission, Islam and the Arab Peninsula, the first and second Saudi State, the unification of the Kingdom, the Hajj and the two Holy Mosques (Mecca and Medina). Each exhibition features different types of antiques, manuscripts, documents and display boards. I was positively surpised by how impartial (for Saudi standards) the presented information was and I will definitely go again. I just went through 5 of the 8 halls, I read everything on display, analyze all maps, etc. How boring does that sound??!! I know, that's why I went alone:)

Hajj

The last couple of days have been of public holidays here in Saudi Arabia because of the Hajj. We have been working anyway though; will compensate these days at Christmas, which for obvious reasons isn't celebrated here.

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and the fifth pillar of Islam, a moral obligation that every muslim must carry out at least once in their lifetime.

The Hajj takes place from the 7th to the 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month is the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, eleven days shorter than the western Gregorian calendar, the Gregorian date of the Hajj changes every year, shifting eleven days.

Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people who converge in Mecca walking couter-clockwise around the Ka'bah (cube shaped building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer), kissing the black stone in the corner of the Ka'bah, running back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinking from the Zamzam well, going to the plains of mount Arafat to stand in vigil and throwing stones in the ritual 'Stoning of the Devil'. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice and celebrate the three day global festival of Eid al-Adha.

Dubai - Pictures

I leave you some pictures of last weekend trip to Dubai. The last one shows a lot of abandoned cars, abandoned by their foreign owners escaping trial and emprisonment as a result of their failure to meet their financial obligations. In Dubai, if you get into bebt and can't pay you go to prison, there is no concept of bankrupcy. There are more lots like this one, like at the Airport departures. In the background stands the famous Burj Al Arab tower, symbol of Dubai and of its neo-liberalism. Ironic...The river shown in the picture, is also artificial, not more than a channel letting seawater go inland.

Dubai

Last weekend, 3 colleagues and I went to Dubai. Much I had heard and read before about Dubai. Now, so close to Dubai, just 1.30h flying, I had the chance to see in-loco this meant-to-be monument to arab enterprise and western capitalism.

In 1971, the British left and Dubai decided to ally with the 6 surrounding states and make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This coincided with the discovery of large oil fields. Dubai only had a dribble of oil compared to neighbouring Abu Dhabi, so Sheikh Maktoum decided to use the oil revenues to build a city to be a centre of tourism and financial services, attracting cash and talent from across the world. A city seemed to fall out of the sky, they fast-forwarded from the 18th to the 21st century in one single generation.

However, the global financial crisis didn't spare Dubai, as the flow of investments dries up, halting the mad burst of construction, the secrets of Dubai are slowly leaking out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades of credit and ecocide, supression and slavery. All efforts are done to hide the foreign underclass who built the city and are hold in absolute slavery conditions. The ecoligical footprint of Dubai residents is the largest inthe world, there are countless buildings half-finished, westerners imprisoned because they failed their financial obligations (there is no such a concept as bankrupcy), etc. Everything is fake in Dubai, from the artificial islands, the worker's contracts, the water (desalinated), to the palm trees.

In short, the dark and disturbing side of the glitter.

The pictures below show a road in Dubai in 1990, before the madness, and the same road nowadays....

The Golden Age of Arabic Science Exhibition

Yesterday I went to the 'The Golden Age of Arabic Science' exhibition, hosted by the King Saud University in Riyadh. For most westerners, and indeed for many Arabs, the achievements of Arabic-language science from the eighth through the 16th century come as a startling discovery. In mathematics, astronomy, medicine, optics, cartography, physics and chemistry, Arabic science was centuries ahead of Europe. Centers for scientific research emerged in baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Samarkand, Shiraz, Bukhara, Isfahan, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada and Istanbul.

Due to decline, however, little has been left over of this flourishing period.

Prayer Room

This is the islamic prayer room at our office in Riyadh. In Saudi Arabia, by law, offices of a certain size must have a prayer room. It came even in the general requirements of the contract, although most of the people working here are non-muslims.

Scotland - Factory Acceptance Tests Fiber Optics

The FAT was a success. Not only did all the tests pass with distinction as the customer was very satisfied with what he saw. The optical cable tested was a glass yarn armoured cable of 36 fibers, organized in 6 tubes of 6 fibers each, according to our request. This is the main fiber optics cable in this project and it will be buried along the 2400km of the railway and the core networks will run on it.

The tests included measurement of attenuation, measurement of chromaic dispersion, temperture cycling, fiber strain, cable torsion, crush and impact resistance, watertightness among others.

FATs are normal procedures (prior to production) when it envolves off-the-shelf equipment and specially when it envolves millions like in this case. The product has been approved now and production will start.

There was also time for a very interesting tour across the factory.

Edinburgh

I arrived in Edinburgh Monday afternoon and we still had some daylight (and no rain) to see a little of the city and go to the Edinburgh Castle. This is a fantastic city, a city that breaths history and tradition. Our hotel is located in the heart of the city and within walking distance from the so-called Old Town, which has preserved much of its medieval plan and reformation-era buildings. Going up the Royal Mile (main artery of the Old Town) we went up to the Castle from where we had an amazing view over the city:

Scotland

I finally got my visa last week. That means I'm going back to Saudi soon. I'm leaving Portugal today but will go to Scotland first for a couple of days. Scotland is where our fiber optics manufacturer has its premises and they will be running the FAT (Factory Acceptance Test). The FAT consist of a series of tests, carried out according to the IEC (International Electrotechnical Comission) standards, stressing the cable and the fiber optics, testing its pysical, optical and mechanical characteristics, like chromatic dispersion, attenuation, tensile strength, watertightness, bending radius, crusch resistance, etc.

These test are carried out before they start the production. I am going as a Thales representative and there will be customer representatives as well. When all the tests pass, we sign at the end and the production of the 2400km of fiber optics will start.

Visa

This is the piece of paper missing in my passport and the reason for not having returned to Saudi yet. I need a new one since this one has expired, it was only valid for 6 months. It's a quite complex process to get a visa for Saudi and fortunately we have people at the company who handle this for us, but the letter of invitation contained inconsistent data and was rejected. The letter of invitation is written by the company in Saudi and submitted for approval to the Saudi Ministry of foreign affairs which, on its turn, forwards it (if approved) to the embassy in the respective country. The first letter cointained a mistake and the second one was sent to the wrong embassy. And each time it takes one more week. This mistakes are all because I'm with the Portuguese team but I am Dutch. But I'm OK with that, enjoying Portugal, the weather, my friends, having a great time!!! Probably staying 2 more weeks!!! And in the meantime have to go to Scotland to accompany the FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) of the fiber optics.

Gas Prices

I'm currently in Portugal and I just came from the gas station to fill my tank. I think I spent more money for gas the last week than in the 4 months I've so far been in Saudi altogether. And that's not because I drove that much, it's because gas in Saudi is so unbelievably cheap: 8 euro cents (10 $cents). In Saudi I fill my tank with 5 euros and the problem is that I get used to these prices!!! This is why American high consumption SUVs, pick-ups and jeeps sell so well in Saudi...you don't have to worry about filling the tank.

A painful reminder of the money our governments are making in taxes.