Hard Drive Destroyed

August 03, 2011

Up until recently i never had any problems with hard drives in any of my computers. At the beginning of this year i bought a new MacBook Pro and whilst deciding what extras to add into it, i skipped the larger hard drive and ram since i could buy the extra upgrades for half the price from third party vendor versus buying from Apple.

Three months after i bought the MacBook my friends bought me a new, much larger hard drive for my Mac. I was delighted to have the new hard drive as i had managed to fill my current one which was half the size of the new one. Since my birthday falls in March, it was right around the time where i had a lot of work to get finished for college including assignments and getting my Dissertation finished.

CUPERTINO, CA - OCTOBER 20: Apple CEO Steve J...

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Since i was so busy with college work at the time i put off installing the new hard drive until i had finished all my college exams, i didn’t want to feel like i was wasting time upgrading my computer and not studying, so the guilt won and i studied instead! Usually i wouldn’t put things like that first, but in this occasion i did.

No sooner had i put in the new hard drive that disaster struck. The MacBook fell and hit hard against a locker leaving a giant dint on the bottom of it. I thought it would be ok, i took the dint out and powered the MacBook up and then realised that something wasn’t right. It was taking forever to load the boot menu, then once i finally managed to log in, still everything dragged when opening, i tried everything to fix the issue, running disk repair etc, and then i ran some diagnostic tests and realised that nothing could be done, it was ruined.

Luckily i have cables that i can connect to internal hard drives to make them work via USB, and i was able to retrieve most of the data i needed, some of my important folders and applications could not be recovered, but i reckon i can replace them over time.

I am currently downloading the new mac operating system, Lion, i intend to run a clean install once my new replacement hard drive i ordered arrives later this week. I have done a little research and found out how to perform a clean install, which i think will be the best option. Since i cant wait though it is likely i will install Lion once its downloaded on my old hard drive as an upgrade and then again with the new hard drive as a clean install.

 

Welcome to Pottermore

August 03, 2011

Now that all the books are written and the films have been released and even a theme park has been opened! It is time for the publicity

team behind Harry Potter to try and cling on to the success of the series for a little while long, and why shouldn’t they! Harry Potter brought about a fantastic storyline of fantasy and fiction and was the first book that really took my interest.

So how are they going to keep the hype about Harry Potter? The answer is Pottermore, for those of you who dont know what Pottermore is, it is a new service coming out later this year which will offer audiotapes and a new experience of the books, also there will be new information released about the books that J.K. Rowling didn’t add into the book, watch this video below to hear all about what Pottermore is.

As the video says, a lucky few will get early access into the site. Luckily for me i am one of them! For 7 days anyone can try and get early access to Pottermore, all you have to do is go to the website and answer the clue that is up on the site. The thing is the clue is only available for a short time each day and the time it is shown is random. Today the clue was released at 11am, and gone by about 11.30! I had tried yesterday to answer the clue, but i was too late by the time i woke up!

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 07: **UK TABLOID ** L-...

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Today the clue asked what was the score that Gryffindor were on in a game against Slytherin in the Prisoner of Azkaban, then you had to multiply the answer by 35. If you knew the answer then you had to append the answer to the end of the URL for example todays URL looked like this: https://quill.pottermore.com/2100.

If you typed in the correct URL then you would be brought to a page where you had to carry out a task, today we were brought to the Guardian (english newspaper) website, and instead of a normal advert in the sidebar, it was replaced by a pottermore box where you had to levitate a feather and if you managed to do this then you were given a link where you could sign up with your details!

I managed to register three accounts today! One for me and then two spares for my friends. The site receives a lot of traffic, the site ended up putting a landing page with a countdown of 15 seconds before it would refresh so that it would not cripple the server.

On another note, each clue relates to a differI am looking forward to the early access now, once the invite stage is over they will be sending out emails saying when the early access begins.

Movie Monday – Sherlock Holmes

August 02, 2011

Over the last week i finally got to watch a film which has been on my ‘to watch’ list for a long time. Ever since Sherlock Holmes first came out in 2009 i had wanted to watch it, but for some reason i didn’t make it to the cinema in time and for some reason it took until now for me to get around to watching it!

Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)

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I was really looking forward to watching this film, myself and a friend sat down on Saturday night to watch it. From the very start i could tell it was going to be a great film. The way the sets and locations were decorated and with the brilliant cast including Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams it was acted perfectly and just like i imagined Sherlock would be, i had never read anything relating to Sherlock before, but knew what he was about.

The fight scenes were very well done, Sherlock at one stage found himself in a boxing ring (underground as it seemed) and was taking a fairly big beating. Suddenly the film went in slow motion and explained step by step how to disable the opponent then would replay the moves in real-time speeds. Simply excellent camera work and acting by all the actors involved.

The plot of the film was that Sherlock and his partner Dr. Watson had to prevent an overturn of the government by a man who they thought they killed at the start of the film.

I really enjoyed this film and am certainly looking forward to the second film in the series coming out later this year (December), i am sure that i will definitely make it to the cinema this time to see it!