My Apple Backup Plan (Mac)
A few weeks ago, whilst browsing the internet on my beloved unibody Macbook Pro 17” (early 2009), I suddenly postulated the thought of what would happen if the hard-drive were to suddenly crash. The result for me would be unthinkable; losing years of music, each song fully named with artwork and rated with the all important play counts; losing all my memories in pictures, my iPhoto library is nearly 9BG full of lifelong images; all my documents, university work, CV, cover letters etc…
Anyway to cut a long story short, I began the long journey into researching the best backup plan for me. I have spent many hours browsing internet forums and various ‘Mac sites’, all of which have provided me with a wealth of information on different hardware and software available as well as what backup strategies to consider.
Below I explain (in detail) MY backup strategy. I think it will provide a very good model for most people. I must firstly note that I will not be discussing ‘Time Machine’ here, for information on this pretty good Apple backup-software go here. I will provide brief comparison between the various hardware, software and online services I researched in enough detail to be somewhat knowledgeable about.
The Layout for this article will be as follows:
Hardware – Which External drive should I get?
Software – Which software should I use to backup my files?
Online – What is online backup and why is it worth considering?
Hardware – Finding the perfect External Hard Drive
This decision will be made by considering a number of smaller questions?
- How much can I afford to spend?
- Do I require portability of the the Hard Drive?
- How much will I be wanting to backup?
- How important is the speed of the backup to me?
I will not be comparing different hard drives here, for advice on which one is right for you I suggest you read Macworld’s article.
My answers to the above questions:
- No more than £130 (approx $180)
- Yes, I think a portable hard drive would be very convenient, especially for around campus and when I go home during school holidays.
- My Laptop has 320GB capacity, but I have a 100GB Windows7 Bootcamp Partition, which I will not be backing up atall. I have a 30GB iTunes Library, 50GB Movies Library, so I figured 500GB would alright, although I am certainly flexible depending on whats available and for what price.
- Speed is pretty important to me. I can be bothered to wait ages for backups.
My Options: Below are the four most popular hard drives satisfying my criteria (A portable, 500GB hard drive with FW 800)
LaCie Rugged 500GB (£150)
A very impressive looking and compact portable hard drive, with firewire 800.
Check out this very old review by CNet: here. I think the smallest version they offer now is 250GB.
Why this was NOT the hard drive I ended up buying:
Overpriced in my opinion, the protection offered is little more than a little bit of rubber with some foam padding around the internal drive. It looks pretty nice, but it is not fan assisted and tends to overheat (according to forum reviews). It does have firewire 800 however, for rapid transfer rates. But at £150, I think its not worth its price.
Iomega eGo Triple Mac Edition 500GB (£110)
Check out this nice video review on this product by CNet: Iomega eGo Review
Why this was NOT the hard drive I ended up buying:
A very reasonable price for the product. I was very much put off by a number of forum reviewers, complaining of overheating, often resulting in the top plastic panel falling off as the glue securing it become softened by the extreme heat. It seemed the least structurally sound, compared to the other hard drives, the brittle plastic outer body, could easily get cracked by a small fall from my desk or whilst in my school bag.
Wester Digital My Passport Studio 500GB (£120)
Macworld has a very nice review of this product here; or check out the CNet review.
Why this was NOT the hard drive I ended up buying:
There are few reasons I can give. I was very close between this and the hard drive I DID end up buying; which is below. After visiting my Apple store, I had a good conversation about all the portable drives available and which ones he thought were best; we discussed rpm speeds, FW800 vs usb, price, durability, and more (the conversation was very ‘nerdy). The conclusion of the conversation was that this was the second best portable hard drive available for the Mac. It was bettered only by……..
G-Technology G-Drive Mini 500GB (£130)
CNet Video Review (This is for the Triple interface version (FW800/FW400/USB2.0) and is for the 7200RPM version).
I went for the version with two FW800 ports which will allow me to daisy chain (connect it) with other hard drives; and 5400rpm, which should be sufficient, (people generally overestimate the performance benefits of 7200 vs 5400, for most uses, it makes only a very slight difference, maybe 5-10%).
The model can powered directly though the FW800 port, so no additional power cable is required (this is called ‘BUS’ powered).
The heat-sink at the bottom of the drive provides an excellent cooling system.
This drive is also extremely rugged; G-Technology claims one could drive over it with a car and it would still be functional.
One additional benefit this drive has than none of the others have is the ability for self upgrade. If I wish to backup more than 500Gb of data, I could fairly easily, unscrew the casing, and install a larger 2.5″ hard drive that you can buy from any computer shop. The prices are also extremely reasonable. A 500GB 7200rpm is around £100 i believe. And Im assuming 1TB 5400rpm are around the corner and will probably be around £150-200.
I will stop here. I will post the ‘Software’ portion of this post soon.
Quentin Tarantino :
Anatomy of a Tarantino Film
Taken from http://www.brokenprojector.com/wordpress/?p=18
The Tarantino World
The layout of a Tarantino world finds itself somewhere in the intersectional setting of a classic Film-noir and a cult Pulp novella. All his stories take place in a single big city, a tradition which he broke with his Kill Bill duology. There is always an air of crime in the atmosphere, with all characters with a default inclination towards crime and fearlessness. All these elements essentially form the perfect characteristics of a black city.
The characters are very basic and the typical lot you’ll find in any crime-movie with the exception of a certain added depth to their persona. There is the usual gangster duo or team often dressed in sharp black and white, there is the femme fatale, the ruthless big-boss and a McGuffin. This basic layout spreads over several Tarantino films in the following manner:
Film
Gangster Team
Femme Fatale
Big Boss
McGuffin
Reservoir Dogs
Colour-coded robbers
None
Frank
The Diamonds
Pulp Fiction
Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield
Mia Wallace
Marsellus Wallace
The Briefcase
Jackie Brown
Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara
Jackie Brown
Ordell Robbie
$50,000
Kill Bill
Deadly Viper Assassination Squad
The Bride
Bill
None
The objects in the Tarantino universe are also quite characteristic. The black and white suit worn by Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction finds its way to Jackie Brown; similarly Butch Coolidge’s white Honda from Pulp Fiction becomes Jackie’s Honda in Jackie Brown. The Samurai-sword used by Butch in Pulp Fiction is re-incarnated alongside several others used by all the major characters in the Kill Bill movies. Fictional consumer products and services are common to all Tarantino films. Characters always smoke Red Apple cigarettes, eat Fruit Brute cereal or Big Kahuna Burgers and listen to K-Billy Radio Station.
The Tarantino Story
Pointless Conversations
In every Tarantino film, we find the characters often involved in one or more conversations that seem completely pointless. What initially seems like a cheap parlour trick to extend the running time of the film later turns out to be an essential part of a sudden shift of mood. Examples include Vincent and Jules discussing the science of foot-massage followed by the killing of three double-crossing thieves from Pulp Fiction and The Bride and Vernita Green discussing a setting for their battle followed by The Bride assassinating Vernita Green in Kill Bill volume 1.
But there are other times when these pointless conversations don’t lead to a following change of mood; instead they tend to push the story forward. Examples of this variation include Mr. Brown explaining his take on a Madonna song in Reservoir Dogs, Ordell explaining Louis about ‘Chicks with Guns’ in Jackie Brown and The Bride and Hattori Hanzo discussing ‘Sake’ in Kill Bill volume 1.
Toilets
Tarantino uses toilets as an important point in the story where the main characters go and upon their return find themselves in an unexpected change of events. Pulp Fiction uses several instances of this point, all involving Vincent Vega. When Vincent goes to the toilet the first time, he comes back out to find an unconscious Mia Wallace. The second time he goes to the toilet, he comes back out to find Pumpkin and Honey-Bunny holding up the Diner they’re in. The final time Vincent visits the rest-room and comes back out, he finds Butch Coolidge pointing a gun at him which eventually leads to his death.
Instances in other Tarantino films include Mr. Orange finding three policemen and a dog in Reservoir Dogs (but nothing happens here because Mr. Orange is lying about this incident), Inspector Ray Nicolette hiding inside the toilet to come out and shoot Ordell down in Jackie Brown and The Bride visiting the restroom in Oren Ishii’s club to prepare for her oncoming assault on the Crazy 88s.
Non-chronological Narrative
Almost all his films have an unconventional narrative structure. Reservoir Dogs makes massive use of flashbacks, Pulp Fiction follows a severely fractured timeline, Jackie Brown, though initially seems like a straightforward narrative, makes effective use of Time-twisting towards the end and Kill Bill is entirely told in anachronistically placed chapters.
Tarantino the Director
In the role of the director, Quentin Tarantino achieved a certain kind of boldness that is both astonishing and unconventional at the same time. He made up for his severe lack of text-book knowledge by observing the methods of his long list of favourite filmmakers.
The Trunk Shot
This signature shot, even though not invented by Tarantino, was perfected by him. This infamous shot, now closely attributed to the director finds itself in several instances through Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill.
Passenger-side Window Shot
Tarantino frequently places the camera at an angle through the passenger-side window of a car. This shot occurs with the characters Nice-Guy Eddie, Pink, Orange and White in Reservoir Dogs, Vincent and Jules in Pulp Fiction, Ordell and Louis in Jackie Brown and The Bride inside the Pussy Wagon in Kill Bill.
Dead Body POV
Most Tarantino films feature a shot from the point-of-view of a dead body with several characters around the body speaking either directly to the body or among themselves. The shot from Ordell’s point-of-view after he is shot in Jackie Brown and the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad talking around The Bride’s comatose body in Kill Bill are two such situations where this shot was effectively used.
Long Takes
Tarantino uses the phenomena of long takes like none other. The incredible long take in Jackie Brown towards the end in the mall, follows the lead character from one point in the mall to another and for some reason absolutely hypnotises the viewer in its immaculate camera work, leaving one wondering how such a take was achieved. The same applies to the follow-shot of The Bride entering the club preceding the climatic scene in Kill Bill volume 1. Yet another example would be the camera following Mr. White and Mr. Pink back and forth between the two rooms in the warehouse from Reservoir Dogs.
Film Stock
Tarantino reportedly uses 50ASA film stock (Pulp Fiction) which “is the slowest stock they make. The reason we use it is that it creates an almost no-grain image, it’s lustrous. It’s the closest thing we have to 50s Technicolor”.
Death Proof and Upcoming Projects
Tarantino’s latest film Death Proof is omitted from this study because it marks what seems like a new era in the career of Quentin Tarantino. It’s seems like the first of a new direction that Tarantino is taking. He even modified his signature Trunk shot in ‘Death Proof’.
Looking at the projects that currently lie on Tarantino’s table like the WW2 epic saga ‘Inglorious Bastards’ and the English language re-make of the far-eastern 1966 classic ‘Come Drink with Me’, it feels like Tarantino is making a bold move away from his beloved Pulp-Noir world and into new territories. Needless to say, the spirit of Tarantino will make a documentary on Kangaroo Rats seem like a roller-coaster ride. And with this faith, we await his upcoming endeavours.
In closing, here’s a brilliant long take from the film Kill Bill volume 1, reportedly filmed in one single take.
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Watch Films on Youtube
YouTube are adding tonns of films that you can watch for free.
Check it out:
They also have many TV Shows:
My Favourite Movies: 2 – The Insider 1999
Here’s another of my absolute fav films.
The Insider
Check if this link is still active: CHECK LINK
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=3ce8499
Password: Random
Neat Automatic Rapidshare Link Checker (Firefox Add-On)
See: http://www.bloggeraz.com/automatically-rapidshare-links-checker/
How to check your rapidshare link valid or not before you download. First you must have the latest version of Mozilla Firefox Installed. ( Download Firefox )
Next download the extension for it called “Grease Monkey”. ( Download ) . Grease Monkey allows you to customise the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Finally visit userscripts.org and install this script into grease monkey. It will now scan every page you visit for rapidshare links and it checks them automatically before you even visit them. I can check a page with hundreds of links in just a few seconds. The image below shows what it will look like when it scans the links.
Hilarious Facebook Status Updates
Inglourious Basterds Script
To follow up on the previous post about ‘Inglourious Basterds’, here is the script:
Inglourious Bastards Script
And to wet your appetite, here is a short clip from the film. This scene stars Mike Myers, who plays a very cle-chéic british General.
Kickass Torrents – A New Way To Download Torrents
I stumbled across this new torrent site today, “Kickass Torrents”. What they do is allow you to download torrent files without going through the whole torrent thing.
Kickass Torrents has partnered with httpTorrents to offer this fantastic service.
“The integration with httpTorrents gives users the option to download the files directly without having to use a BitTorrent client. Music tracks can also be streamed directly from the site itself. The service works in a similar way to most other files hosting services such as Rapidshare, but only works with torrents and doesn’t allow users to upload files themselves.
The owner of the site told TorrentFreak that direct http downloads may be useful to users who have restricted access to BitTorrent, such as those whose ISP or firewall blocks or slows down transfers. There are currently 4000 files available as a direct download, but this number is growing rapidly.”
Im not quite able to see how this can be done legally, but as a free market economist, and a lover of getting things cheap/free, i dont really care too much.
Below I have made a little walkthrough for how to use the site and download the files on it, via HTTP.
Downloading HTTP Files on KickassTorrent.com
Begin by navigating to : http://www.kickasstorrents.com/direct-download/ for the full list of files that currently offer direct download.
You will be greeted with this window;
Click on one of the results, to be taken to that files page:
Notice the download options, click one of these to download the corresponding file via HTTP:
After clicking download you will be taken to the httpTorrent page to download the file, httpTorrent works exactly like Rapidshare and Megashares, the simply host files on their server.
All you do is click on ‘Download’ under the free account heading and voila. The file begins to download, at a not too shabby 160kb/sec.
For more info on Kickass Torrents, check out their site, or this good blog post from TorrentFreak.
Some of my Favourite Movies (Part 1) – Rapidshare Links
I figured it might be worth posting my favourite films of all time, along with some rapidshare links for your viewing pleasure.
Forrest Gump
Forst Gump 1994 DVD-Rip
http://rapidshare.com/files/267677383/Forrest_Gump__1994__5warez.com_.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/267679755/Forrest_Gump__1994__5warez.com_.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/267681818/Forrest_Gump__1994__5warez.com_.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/267686636/Forrest_Gump__1994__5warez.com_.part4.rar.html
Please copy and paste all these links into http://tubenow.net/link-checker/ so as to check that they are all still active, and also it will save you having to copy and paste each individual url into your browser window : )
For those high-def people, here’s a 6.6GB BluRay rip, for your viewing pleasure.
Forest Gump 1994 720p BluRay (High Definition)
http://rapidshare.com/files/297288828/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297288589/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297287150/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297286085/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297285946/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297288085/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297288626/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297290668/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297285932/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297291543/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297283880/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297287615/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297292921/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297293112/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297283055/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297291905/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297294114/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297290913/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297285179/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297289301/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297289301/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297289676/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297290912/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297286051/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297294585/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297285140/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part25.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297286092/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part26.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297291911/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part27.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297293003/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part28.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297289471/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297290243/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part30.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297286282/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part31.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297289509/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297288784/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part33.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297293695/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part34.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/297284117/Forrest.Gump.1994.720p.BluRay.x264-SiNNERS.part35.rar
Whats does does the IMDB (internet movie database) think about Forrect Gump
Apple 10.6.2 Update No Sound
For those of you experiencing no audio after the latest 10.6.2 Snow Leopard update, here is a simple fix.
Simply goto: System Preferences>Sound>Output, and select “Internal Speakers” as the sound output device.
This should fix the problem.
