I lost a hard disk today. The Boot volume in my server, I think the data is recoverable, but this drive is definitely screwed. I’ll have to grab another one from work tomorrow, and I keep forgetting to send off my WD Raptor to be replaced – it has bad sectors and fails SMART.

I suppose it’s not a big thing seeing as it’s looking like I will be disassembling this machine in the near future. I don’t exactly have $1000 to throw at a Core 2 Duo system, but I do need to upgrade. The whole Macbook/Macbook Pro thing will just have to wait for now, which is bad considering the depreciation is about $50 a month.

You might notice the site looks a bit different, I updated to the latest version of WordPress and K2 today. I can’t see a whole lot different with this release of WP, although from the changelog it looks like it’s mostly under-the-hood stuff. K2 seems to be evolving quite a bit though, the new custom header image management works really well. Speaking of which, I’ve picked a few images from StuckInCustoms to use for the site’s header. HDR Photography looks absolutely fantastic, I was all ready to give it a try until I discovered you need a DSLR, although our 7.1MP SONY can shoot RAW images in multiple exposures, a tripod is a necessity. Just another item on the long list of things I’d like. Seeing as I haven’t written one of those lists for a while, here’s what I’d buy if I won a reasonable amount of cash tomorrow:

• MacBook Pro 15.4″ Core 2 Duo X1600 256MB
• Sony BRAVIA 40″ LCD TV 1366×768 8ms HDMI
• Core 2 Duo + GeForce 8800GTS
• AppleTV or MacMini
• Xbox 360 + 20GB
• Playstation 3

The list isn’t too over the top because I do actually plan to get these things, all in good time anyway. Some sooner than others, like the Core 2 system. I listed the AppleTV because this is one device that is showing a lot of potential at the moment. Essentially it’s a 1GHz Pentium with HDMI output, running a cut down Mac OSX. If in the future it becomes possible to attach a HD TV Tuner via USB, then I’m sold. I listed the 360 for obvious reasons, and the PS3 for not so obvious reasons. I’ve been following the scene for hacking the PS3 and what can be done with it, everyone’s awaiting the much anticipated Paradox HD Loader, that will allow playing ISOs directly off the console’s in-built 60GB hard disk. Several exploits exist in all but the bleeding edge firmware versions, so a homebrew community is likely to take off.

Received this response:

We apologies for inconvenience.We have transfer data of this server to another higher configuration server, After transfer DNSBOX15 will be more powerful. Transfer process is working on it, & it will be complete within 24 hours.Some time its load suddenly increases.it causes downtime.

Thanks
Ambrish Pachori
YRHost Team

From what I can tell in WHM, the machine has yet to be upgraded, although service has improved regardless. Working in the WP backend is much faster, and site loading times have decreased significantly.

So like, I had a post written earlier, and as soon as I hit Publish, my web server decided to die, as did their support domain / ticket system, so I was unable to yell at anyone.

YRHost were a fantastic host up until January this year, I’ve been with them for over three years now, and basically never had a problem – until recently. Load times crawling to a halt, unexplained drop-outs, and their pricing is about 12 months out of date (compared to the competition). I did actually try DreamHost a few months ago as their reputation was excellent and their hosting plans offer outrageous quota and bandwidth. Unfortunately, their admin panel had been written by a two year old, support was non-existant, and their system doesn’t really cater to resellers.

Anyway, in my (now lost) post I basically just said that Rainbow Six Vegas is a lot of fun online, assuming you can find an Aussie server (yanks kick/ban you for latency). I also spoke of my desire to upgrade to Core 2 Duo, especially due the overclocking potential of their budget chip (the E4300). But first, I’m still looking to get a Macbook Pro. I’ve learned that the Core 2 models have higher clocked X1600s, so I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled (there are some real bargains going on eBay at the moment). I’ll be looking to offload this Macbook, as well as probably my CPU, Mainboard, RAM and graphics card in the near future, so if anyone is interested – let me know.

ReactOS® is an advanced free open source operating system providing a ground-up implementation of a Microsoft Windows® XP compatible operating system. ReactOS aims to achieve complete binary compatibility with both applications and device drivers meant for NT and XP operating systems, by using a similar architecture and providing a complete and equivalent public interface.