The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

This Summer movie season looks fantastic. Generally, I only see a movie in the theater if the special effects make it worthwhile. I have seen some romantic comedies in the theater recently (such as Musc & Lyrics, which was a lot of fun), but I wouldn't have minded waiting for the DVDs. In any case, there're plenty of movies I deem worthy of trips to the theater this Summer.

Here's my list of must-see Summer movies for 2007:

• Spider-Man 3 (May 4th) - Saw it on May 9th: great movie
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (May 25th) - Enjoyed the first, thought the second was over-done, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the third - Saw it on June 21st; much, much better than the second; great fun
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 15th) - Enjoyed the first one and I'm a big fan of superheroes - Saw it on June 15th; it was okay
• Live Free or Die Hard (June 27th) - Yippee-ki-yay!
• Ratatouille (June 29th) - Pixar: nothing else needs to be said - this movie was great fun; I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed
• Transformers (July 6th) - Transformers were some of my favorite toys when I was a kid; plus, this a Spielberg movie and the trailer looks fantastic - the movie was phenomenal
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13th) - Harry Potter: again, nothing else needs to be said - excellent, just excellent
• The Bourne Ultimatum (August 3rd) - I hope this one lives up to the first two, which were very good
• Stardust (August 10th) - This is one of my favorite books and I want to see what this all-star cast can do with it

Undecided:

• Ocean's Thirteen (June 8th) - The first was great, the second was a flop, so I'm still on the fence
• Rush Hour 3 (August 10th) - I liked the first two, but I'm not sure if they can do it again

Wait for video:

• Shrek the Third (May 18th) - The first was OK, the second was boring. Fool me once....
• Evan Almighty (June 22nd) - This just doesn't seem to have as good a story as the first one

What's up with ten of thirteen movies here being sequels? The only original story in my list is Ratatouille. Is Pixar the only studio that can pull-off a blockbuster non-sequel?

My MacBook Pro is quickly running out of hard drive space, so I decided I'd upgrade the internal 80GB hard drive. After a lengthy search, I settled on the Seagate Momentus 2.5" 7200.2 160GB drive with freefall protection (ST9160823ASG). I'll be doubling my current space, getting a faster drive compared to the built-in 5400RPM drive, and I get added protection for my hard drive in case I drop my laptop (which I have no plan on doing, but better safe than sorry). I scoured the 'net today, but alas, couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I finally called Seagate Presales Support and found out that the drive has been delayed a bit, but should be shipping in June or July. Strike one.

While searching for a new drive, I realized that I'd run into trouble transferring my data between my old drive and my new drive. After some research, I decided I'd go with an external hard drive enclosure. I sometimes do computer tech support for friends, family, and people at my church and I find myself doing a lot of hard drive shuffling. I figured an enclosure that works with 3.5" drives would come in handy there, so why not pick up an enclosure that works with both 2.5" and 3.5" drives? Well, no one makes them, that's why. Icy Dock is considering making a tray that will fit 2.5" drives into their 3.5" enclosure. I gave them a call and the tray is still on the drawing board. Strike two.

Finally, I've been searching for a good backup solution. Our household has six computers* and we all really should be backing up our hard drives. The most obvious solution to me is some form of network storage. I'd like something that does RAID 1 for added protection. There are a couple candidates. First, there's the 1TB Western Digital My Book World Edition II. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. Second, there's the Netgear SC101. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. When will a reputable manufacturer come out with a decent network storage solution that offers redundancy, is cross-platform, and ideally doesn't require me to install software on each client computer? Strike three.

I'm just not having any luck.

* Yes, six. I have two: my MacBook Pro for work and my Windows XP desktop (which stays off most of the time); Michael, Emily, and Ellen have Windows XP laptops; and there's one Windows XP desktop for general use. Rebekah and Dale are the ones that use it most frequently.