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.