Method one – sector by sector copy – this method would attempt of course to copy the bad sectors, however after a while, this seemed to hang, left for 12 hours to have it progress no further, owch, what to do, what to do….

Method 2 – XXCopy – rendered the system unbootable, attempted to work out how to make a Win7 install bootable after the fact, not much luck… this led me too RoboCopy

Ended up using robocopy (Robust Copy) utility which is available on the Windows 7 boot disk, steps performed:
1) Partition new disk
2) Set active partition
3) Format NTFS
4) Run robocopy with the command string
robocopy d:\*.* c:\ /TEE /S /E /COPY:DATSO /PURGE /MIR /ZB /NP /XJ /R:3 /W:2

The source was D drive (D for Dodgy!) destination being the newly formatted Hard Disk
/TEE – Output to console – this way you can see that it’s changing files
/S – Copy Subdirectories excluding empty ones
/E – Copy Subdirectories including empty ones
/COPY:DATSO – What to copy for the files – (D)ata, (A)ttributes, (T)ime, (S)ecurity, (O)wner
/PURGE – Deletes anything on the destination that does not exist on the source (added this due to having some files from other playing about)
/MIR – Mirrors the directory tree
/ZB – Use restartable mode
/XJ – Exclude Junctions on NTFS filesystems
/R:3 – Retry 3 times
/W:2 – Wait 2 seconds before retrying

This got me a bootable Win7 installation, and a dodgy disk has now been sent for RMA. It failed to copy 17 directories and 5MB of Data, no idea what’s missing, but I’ve experienced no problems thus far (touch wood).

The first thing I did after all this, was a backup, then a full chkdsk – everything has been great so far.

I’m glad I was doing my backups – if I wasn’t I might not have noticed until it was too late.

Beiersdorf: Recently I had my Nivea for men shaving cream can malfunction from new. I let them know and they listened to my feedback, treated my concerns with respect and sorted the situation out to my satisfaction to the point where I don’t feel ripped off and have no problems using them again. 10/10

Pizza Hut: Not such a great experience to report here. Ordered some Pizza online, plugged in credit card details and waited. Driver rocks up and expects cash – call store and they expect cash. Spoke to the manager and said if the system does not print out a credit card receipt is a cash order. Wonderful system, domino’s on the other hand, you order toss in your credit card details and pizza arrives no muss no fuss. Seriously Pizza Hut if you want to make happy customers make this process work better. For now I’ll be using Domino’s for pizza delivery needs.

Book 3 Geosynchron (Book Three of the Jump 225 Trilogy)

Book 2 MultiReal (Book Two of the Jump 225 Trilogy)

(If you’ve not read the series check it, start with book 1 Infoquake (v. 1) [Book 1 - Jump 225 Triolgy] )

Some of the key features of the Kindle 3 that may interest you is the higher contrast screen for that even more paper like visuals, even lighter and smaller than before, a new colour (graphite) which I personally find significantly more appealing. The best feature of the WiFi only kindle is it’s price at $139USD even with currency conversion and shipping to Australia it’s price competitive with the Kobo which was the cheapest e-ink based eBook reader available down here.

Kindle WiFi direct link for Australians

Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor - Fail

Solution:

(Version 1.0.400.5)

This is what I did to get this tool installed:
I ran the setup and again the box popped up saying “This installation requires a newer version of windows”. I did not click “OK”.

I typed %TEMP% in the windows search box and hit enter, explorer opened up a window displaying the contents of the TEMP directory. I then looked inside the two most recently created folders with a name (GUID iirc). Inside one of these folders was a directory of {671EC9B2-A0F0-4035-AA48-729EDC3C59EF} inside this directory are two setup files TurboBoostSetup64.exe and TurboBoostSetup32.exe as I am running Win7 – 64 bit I ran TurboBoostSetup64.exe which installed correctly and I now have Turbo boost tech monitor working.

M

Common sense from a US court, I’m sure that’s one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Night before – cover roast in garlic and leave resting in the fridge – this will give ample time for more than just the immediate outside to get some flavour into it.

Day of cooking – add mint, rosemary or what ever other herbs you are liking to season it with.

Just before popping into the oven – salt the outside of the roast, try and stick to the fatty areas and avoid the meaty bits – as salt will dry out the meat you don’t want to put it on the non fatty bits or leave it too long.

Method (per kg)
Preheat oven to 220-250C
Place roast in said oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on size and shape) this is to seal the outside of the roast and keep the juices inside it.
After this time reduce the temperature to 160-180C (I like 170) and cook for 30 minutes per kg.

I like to leave my roasts in the fat for the flavour during cooking, I’m still perfecting adding the vegetable timings, but have had some success w/ 2kg roasts and lots of vegies @ the 1hour before mark. (Adding at temp reduction point).

Once cooked – remove vegies from pan and put back into the oven, cover roast with aluminium foil and leave to rest (10-15 minutes per KG) while you make the gravy etc.

On the palate – there is fruit starts right up on the front, giving way to smooth grippy tannins at the back end. Some spiciness + pepper also. Excellent long mouthfeel. I can’t help but feel this was some vinfanticide opening it up now, but it at least lets me know this one has some time to go yet. The fruit and wood characteristics are becoming nicely integrated compared to 15 months ago when I last cracked a bottle of this. A little dry dustyness too. Fantastic mouthfeel. Loving every taste of this, a pity the bottle was shared w/ 4 people.

There is nothing wrong with my storage conditions.

Top of leaky cork

So this afternoon I have decanted one of the remaining 8 bottles of St Henri (none of which show any leakage) and what do you know – it’s in perfect condition. It’s not oxidised, it’s not suffering from heat damage, it smells mighty fine – full tasting notes to follow when we start drinking this proper in a few hours.

To Penfolds I say – there is nothing wrong with my storage conditions. There is however something very wrong with the corks you have used in this St Henri vintage. With your recent price hikes for the brand name, I can’t say I’ll be recommending your wines to any one in the near future. Fosters – go back to brewing beer and sell Penfolds to someone who understands wine, for at present, thou art scum.

Penfolds say this is caused by improper storage - rubbish it's their faulty cork.

To anyone who buys wine – check for leakage out of the box – don’t leave the boxes sealed for any period of time.

EDIT: (5h later) I received a phone call from a Penfolds CSU and they’re sending a package to collect the cork and will determine what recourse to take from that point (replacement if 100% sure, substitution if there is some doubt) it’s nice to be taken seriously.