- Can Rupert Murdoch redeem us all, or at least keep the media / internet professionals among us gainfully employed? Today in The National, I ask whether the Sun King's absolutely mind blowing, out-of-the-box concept of charging people for your sevice could be an online game-changer. If anyone can do it, its Lord Murdoq, who like me, started out in the sleepy Australian town of Adelaide.

- Those begging for one more sweet speculative bubble (and who aren't already buying up .ae domain names) might have to wait a fairly long time, but if you're desperate for a fix of the good stuff, there is an IPO coming on the Dubai bourse, Al Ittihad, via Business 24-7, reports. No details yet on the company, industry or anything, really, but according to the paper, it will happen after Ramadan, and is one of three IPOs that have been proposed to the market regulator.

- In truly shocking news, "the local PC assembly segment has no potential for growth in the UAE," Business 24-7 reports, blaming "a lack of government support and changes in customer purchasing patterns." There's a local PC assembly industry? They want government support? As the market floods with cheap laptops and netbooks, the whole idea of a desktop computer is seeming more niche by the day, let alone a desktop that someone goes to the bother of custom making for you.

- Orange has won the rights to operate Jordan's first 3G mobile network, after a long, kind of complicated tender / bidding process. Of all the people in the Middle East who deserve to be blanketed by a lovely high-speed mobile network, Jordanian's take the prize, what, being in the heartland of Arab geekdom and all. As said before, Beep Beep is a big Jordan fan. According to ITP.net, Orange has six months to roll out the network, after which it will get to enjoy a one-year exclusivity period.