Tag Archives: Michael Jackson

Backup

Bargain or White Elephant?

Leave a comment

I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to create a bootable clone of the MacBook hard drive as additional security in case of drive failure, so in order to do that I needed to grab a new external hard drive. Whilst I do have space on other drives, one of the key requirements is to reformat the drive to MacOS Extended (Journaled), the same as the internal drive, in order to produce the clone. Doing that means the drive is no longer useful for swapping files from Mac to PC and back.

Anyway, I’ve previously bought a Samsung S2 USB 2.0 Drive for copying video sequences from the DVR attached to the CCTV system at Church, and really happy with the performance of the drive I thought I’d go for one of those again.

The drives are available in a variety of capacities and colours, however whenever you search Amazon for the Samsung S2, this is what comes up first – the Samsung S2 500GB Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive With Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” Full Length Movie Pre-loaded – Limited Edition. Alongside their regular colours Samsung have produced a number of special editions when they load a movie onto part of the drive, however whilst you have to search quite hard for the others this one keeps coming up at the top of searches, and did so several months ago when I bought the previous drive. The other interesting thing to note is that although it is a 500Gb drive, it is retailing for less than the 320Gb drive – the only difference between that and the regular drive is having about 1.17Gb of space given over to the movie, and the design.

So is this a bargain or a white elephant that is proving difficult to sell? If you’re a Michael Jackson fan it could be a great purchase, although I’d expect you’d either have the Blu-ray or DVD versions of the movie. If you’re not a fan, you could just buy the drive delete the movie and use it, but the interesting thing is that people don’t seem to be doing that, myself included.

I bought a White 500Gb drive first time around, and a Red 320Gb this time – I guess maybe I’m a little influenced by not wanting to go through an explanation every time I pull the drive out, and since the movie is apparently encoded in a Windows Media file that would need converting to watch on a Mac anyway, plus the other colours were on next day delivery and this one isn’t, and in both cases I needed the drives relatively quickly, hence I passed.

However, if you’re wanting a bargain, I can certainly recommend the S2 drives, they are pretty sturdy plastic, with a leather(ish) pouch and a short USB cable – so everything you need – and if you want a bit of a bargain, or are a Jackson fan then the Michael Jackson Special Edition is for you!

Computers/Technology, Current Affairs, Web/Internet

Where can you find Michael Jackson Moonwalking?

Leave a comment

Now maybe I could understand not being able to pull the printed version of the summer arts guide that was published yesterday. But I do think the Independent could have shown a little tact and diplomacy in rewriting the online version, which currently is highlighted on their front page right alongside a report about the ongoing aftermath of the death.

Since I assume that at some time they will sort it out, below is a capture of the page.

Where can you find Michael Jackson Moonwalking?

General

Will Michael Jackson be Back in Court?

Leave a comment

As has been widely reported, Michael Jackson has been cleared on all charges, bringing an end to the four month trial. However is it an end, or will Jackson be back in court at a later date?

I watched the coverage of the verdict, and was intrigued by the interviews with members of the jury, firstly because it is not something we see after a British court case, but also from what they said. What I think it boils down to is the fact that Jackson was found not guilty beyond reasonable doubt, rather than totally innocent. With the evidence presented, and the big doubts over the reliability of the prosecution witnesses, the jury felt they could do little except clear Jackson, despite a careful review of all they had seen and heard. Whilst to my mind they did what was right given the evidence with which they were presented, the media weren’t expecting the verdict, and many are saying that this won’t be the end. As friends with children have said to me today, they were concerned that he was cleared totally, but equally given the evidence they didn’t think he could be found guilty. Basically the verdict has done little to stop many peoples suspicions.

Jackson has now said, through his lawyer, that he will change his lifestyle, however how long will it be before someone else comes forward and tries to prosecute him again? As the Santa Barbara District Attorney has said, if someone came forward with evidence:

“We would review it like every other case we review in our office, just like we reviewed this one, I probably would not shy away from it if another case came forward.”