intodimensions.com

From - Arab internet users to reach 50 million:

The number of Arab internet users will double to around 50m in three years, according to Google chief Eric Schmidt quoted by Gulf News. He said there will be more online content available for non-English speakers in the near future. Schmidt will be addressing delegates at the upcoming Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai.

Not sure they’re for real or not, but they are funny.

From Spiegel Online we learn that Swedes trust Volvo, Ericsson, Saab, and IKEA more than they trust the church.

Perhaps the news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, coming as it does from a country best known for its meatballs and the bright blue and yellow warehouses selling cheap and cheerful furniture around the globe. Still, preacher men the world over must be reeling. A new poll taken of Swedes indicates that more people trust IKEA than the church in the largely Protestant country.

According to the poll, taken by the business weekly Dagens Industri, 80 percent of Swedes said they had “much or very much trust” in the world’s largest furniture store chain, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad. But only 46 percent of the 800 people surveyed said they trusted the Swedish church, which counts 80 percent of the 9 million residents living in Sweden as members.

IKEA isn’t the only company Swedes trust more than the church — the list also includes Volvo (69 percent), Ericsson (59), Saab (57) and pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca (47) as well as four other companies that beat out the church on the trust factor. Indeed, the church landed in slot 14, behind Sweden’s public television station, its universities, small business, the central bank and the daily paper Dagens Nyheter.

There was, however, some positive news for the church: It got better marks than the conservative party of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (30 percent). And it fared better than foreign companies like Coca-Cola, which only 22 percent of Swedes said they trusted.

It’s been reported that Tamweelview European, owned by Adia (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority) which in turn is controlled buy the Abu Dhabi Government lead by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has bought some property in Stockholm. It’s a couple of properties which includes a famous mall, and some other rather high-class establishments.

I’m home from work today not feeling too well and I’ve been thinking all day that it’s been a bit darker than normal. A few minutes ago I heard what I thought was thunder but then I figured that they were probably just cleaning upstairs. Then it came back louder and now it’s raining.

Chris Pirillo writes:

Right now, we’re enjoying Maryam’s coffee and sitting around the living room - each on our respective laptops. We’re not saying a single word to one another, although every other minute someone will pipe up with “Hey, so-and-so is doing this.” I’m peeking over Robert’s keyboard and watching him populate his linkblog. So, I guess this kind of silent friendship activity is called scobleizing? Ponzi just sent me an IM a few seconds ago. This is… quite… an exciting Friday night.

When I read it I thought - that seems just like what we do

In the Economist we can read that apparently more and more people are quitting their day jobs and doing blogging professionally.

Until recently, there were two main kinds of blogs. Most of the 57m blogs in existence are personal diaries that happen to be online. These blogs have tiny audiences and make no effort to sell advertising. Services such as Google’s AdSense, which places text advertisements on blogs and generates a few cents per mouse click, might bring in some spare change. But according to Pew, an American research organisation, only 7% of bloggers say their main motivation is to make money.

I would think few people start a blog with the direct intention to make money. But I think it’s true that pretty much anyone could actually blog for a living, but unless you’re incredibly lucky to find a special topic/niche/audience, don’t look for an easy time. It’s probably going to require more time and effort than the full time job you already have. But that’s my guess since I still have that full time job and blog on the side. But often I think that blogging already take up more time and the full time job. If only it would pay as well, then I could also start blogging for a living

We’ve just come back home after seeing the new James Bond movie and I must say I was pleasantly surprised how good I thought it was. We had a similar experience to Samiraisam in that the movie started 25 minutes after the announced start time, which was annoying.

After all the stuff that was written before the premiere about Daniel Craig not being a good Bond I think they can just be quiet. He certainly looks different from the other Bonds, but he has just the right attitude, and perhaps he looks different but he fits right in, I think. There are no gadgets in the movie, which is a departure from other Bond movies, instead the creators seem to have focused on character and story. Without giving anything away (I think) Bond gets to fall in love and lose the love he just found, all in the same movie. He has just been awarded the status of “00″ and the movie lays the ground work for future developments I think, especially in the relationship between Bond and M.

I for one really look forward to the next Bond movie and I hope it’s Craig again. It looks like the movie is getting good reviews so I’m sure there will be more movies. I just hope they don’t keep remaking old ones. Now they need to come up with new story lines and developments and not rehash hold ones.