Julio Garcia

I hate hard drives // July 28th, 2006

My hard drive, which was throwing a huge fit this last weekend and caused me to lose 3 days of productivity to work on one of my 6 side-projects, looks to have finally died sometime late last night. The failure of this drive as well as the drives on my last two iPods has made me start to hate hard drives and their fragility. Sure you can have 100, 200, 300 gigabytes of storage on your computer, but what are you going to do when those crash? What are going to do when you need to back up all that data? Buy yet another hard drive? Then what about backing up that drive?

One solution is on-line storage and for me, that’s the direction I have chosen to take. Using Amazon’s S3 (simple storage service) I backed up most of the data from my notebook computer before the drive failed(I think I am going to lose the last 4 days of emails and a few Photoshop comps) to the S3 servers where it sits, encrypted.

S3 is a web service currently geared towards application and web developers who need a lot of storage for their projects but don’t want to, or simply can’t pay for space they may not need or use. S3 provides unlimited storage at a low price, $0.15 a gigabyte a month stored. Good enough for me, but since I didn’t have the time to code something to use this service, I looked for existing tools.

Enter JungleDisk, a software application that will upload and encrypt your data to the S3 servers which you can then access from any computer with JungleDisk installed. What you need is simply sign up for access to Amazon’s Web Services, and you can use JungleDisk. JungleDisk is a small app the creates a network connection to S3 and maps that connection as a folder. All you need to do is just drag and drop your files to that folder and they are moved on over.

But JungleDisk isn’t the only player to utilize Amazon’s S3, there are other applications that do the same, and more are presumably coming. A few of them, as listed on TechCrunch, are Altexa, ElephantDrive, and MediaSilo. None of which I have tried as of yet, but may in the near future.

This current solution won’t be for everyone. I’m not using S3 as a network drive (I need a lower price to access the data more frequently), it is just my backup drive, where I will place files I will access, probably rarely, at a later date and time, but still need to keep a hold of. Having said that, I will still look for some sort of on-line storage for use of a network drive, you know, because I hate the hard drives now.

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Latest Movie Trailers // July 21st, 2006

Here are some movie trailers that were released recently that I find interesting and plan on checking out the feature in theatres.

The Fountain

Starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.
“Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.” [- IMDb]

The Prestige

This movie also stars Hugh Jackmam with Christian Bale
“Bale and Jackman will play rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London who battle each other for trade secrets. The rivalry is so intense that it turns them into murderers.” [- IMDb]

The Illusionist

Starring Ed Norton
This is another magician story, but the similarities almost certainly end there. “Director Neil Burger’s screen adaptation of Steven Millhauser’s short story ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’. Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a magician in early 1900’s Vienna, who falls in love with a woman well above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to a Crown Prince, Eisenheim uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna.” [- IMDb]

Volver

Starring Penelope Cruz
“Raimunda lives in Madrid with her daughter Paula and her husband Paco who’s always drunk. Her sister Sole is separated and work clandestinely as a hairstylist for women. The two sisters lost their parents in a fire in La Mancha their birth village years ago. In the village remains only their aunt Paula that continue to speak about her sister Irene, mother of the two, like if she is still alive. When the old aunt die the situation change and the past come back (Volver) again, in a twist of mystery and suspense.” [- IMDb]

Miami Vice

Starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell and directed by one of my favorites, Michael Mann
“Miami Vice, as a large-scale feature film, liberates what is adult, dangerous and alluring about working deeply undercover… especially when Crockett and Tubbs go to where their badges don’t count…” [- Miami Vice.com]

The Oh in Ohio

Starring Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Mischa Barton, and Liza Minnelli
“Priscilla Chase seems to have everything going for her - the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect husband - except for in bed, where sex has always left her a bit short of the finish line. When her husband (Paul Rudd) unexpectedly leaves her to regain his manhood, Priscilla embarks on a wild journey that ultimately leads her to love in the most unlikely place…”

Spider-Man 3

Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace
“After finally winning the love of his life Mary Jane, Peter Parker and his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man must also contend with not only his former best friend Harry, but the criminal Sandman and a strange organism that lives on the emotions of its host body.”
[- IMDb]

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More Fun at Archstone Willow Glen // July 13th, 2006

It didn’t happen at 3 am like last time but the fire alarms went off again for no reason. And this time the alarm noise came in waves, started off at one building, then to another, on to mine, then on to at least one more. I wouldn’t be surprised if the alarms go off again tonight. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the building management gives another another lame response as reported in the comments.

Thankfully I gave my 30 days notice and am finally moving out next month.

( watch your volume levels )

video at YouTube

This one is out my apartment window.

video at YouTube

Special thanks to YouTube for handling my phone’s 3g2 video file format with no problems. And, of course, Corona.

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RocketBoom Changes & A Bet with Jeremiah // July 6th, 2006

RocketBoom, the daily videolog, lost their on screen talent when Amanda Congdon left to pursue her career in Los Angeles. This has been discussed a lot across blogs, so I decided to make a bet with Jeremiah about RocketBoom… The bet is that in six months time RocketBoom will be better off than they were with Amanda. And by that we mean they will have and maintain an increase in traffic.

A lot of people think this will be the downfall of RocketBoom, I beg to differ. See… most people say they probably won’t continue to watch with Congdon leaving. Let’s look at why they watched in the first place. The reason, even though many people wish to deny, is because she appeared to be an attractive girl dishing out geeky news. That is it. RocketBoom was successful because an attractive female was doing the talking. It is as simple as that. Would it have been as popular if someone like this were hosting the show? Of course not.

I hate to be the one to say this, even though this is not personal but a skill critique, but Amanda didn’t really exude any remarkable talent, acting or comedic. It would not be difficult for RocketBoom to find another pretty face, with a more natural, less exaggerated on-screen persona. Amanda on the other hand heads to Los Angeles where very attractive women with more talent are a dime a dozen.

This split showcases to other would-be Congdons that they too could be a sensation as well, and now in less time. This gives RocketBoom a larger pool of candidates and the best to come out of that pool will be something worth watching. And that is why RocketBoom will be doing better in six-months.

UPDATE (7-12-06): The new RocketBoom has finally launched. Already the new host displays more talent and a more “real” on-screen persona. Jeremiah should probably just pay up now.

UPDATE (7-13-06): Oh nevermind with this RocketBoom crap, The Show with Zefrank is better (subscribed).

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Happy 4th of July // July 4th, 2006

As seen from my apartment window, Church on the Hill fireworks, San Jose California - July 4th, 2006. Photo courtesy of my girlfriend.

My so-so photos can be found on Flickr.

Feel free to leave a link to your firework photos in the comments.

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