Jean Galea

How To Recover Files (including Photos and Videos) on Mac

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mac data recovery

If you ever had the misfortune of having a disk corrupted you know how bad it feels to lose your files. Here are some tips on recovering files on a Mac.

First, a word of advice. Before using your cards on photographic equipment, always format them so you make sure that you’re starting from a clean and well-structured drive. Failure to do so increases the chances of corrupted data and makes it messier to recover files later.

If you’re already in possession of a disk with corrupted data, you need a fix. I analyzed the following software packages in my evaluation:

The first three are premium software packages, while the last-one is open source and is a command-line utility, so it might look a bit harder to use. If you have the patience to learn how to run software from the command line and you have time to read the manual, then you’ll be fine.

In fact, this is my favorite software for recovering files and fixing otherwise broken file systems.

From the other three software packages, only Easeus Data Recovery got me results as good as the PhotoRec and TestDisk combo. I would, therefore, recommend it if you want software that is user-friendly and does the job. I wasn’t impressed with the other two as they were either not that straightforward to use or didn’t recover files as well as my favorite picks.

My Take on Nationality

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For many years I struggled with associating myself with the country where I was born, especially when I started to travel on a long-term basis and now that I’ve lived several years away from that country.

Mine is not an isolated case, and I know many others who have several thoughts and feelings after going through similar experiences.

I do not feel patriotic nor feel any particular pride for the country I was born in. I do appreciate everything I benefited from while living there, but at the bottom of it what I feel is a sense of being lucky to be born in a very good environment, compared to all the other places that I could have been born and raised in.

The concept of the nation state has been very influential in the past few centuries, and has fully taken the place of religion in many parts of the world. I believe that we are seeing the first signs of the fall of the nation state, and more and more people losing this strong sense of binding their identity with their country of birth or childhood. For many people who work in the digital industry, this is already the case. As one of them, I consider myself a citizen of the world. Home can be anywhere where I can find a supportive environment, good internet and the freedom to work and live.

Going forward, nations will have to compete to attract people to live there, by offering the best possible conditions. In many ways, they will be like today’s companies, in a healthy competitive environment. This will cause governments to stop acting in a totalitarian way and focus on actually being efficient and improving their country in order to attract more quality citizens.

Getting Your Priorities Straight

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One question I’ve spent a lot of time on (as in, years of internal thought, research, etc) is how should I spend my time.

I’ve always had this feeling that we don’t give too much importance to this question, and fall into well-defined societal templates without much care.

I think I’ve finally cracked the code and found my own personal answer.

I realized that the question does not involve endless productivity exercises and extremes of lifestyle design and optimization.

It really boils down to what my priorities are.

That might seem like an easy answer, but it was quite a struggle to get to the bottom of it and be honest enough with myself to come up with three main priorities.

Anyway, here they are:

  1. Health and Fitness
  2. Relationships
  3. Wealth Generation

With those in place, it’s very easy to know what I need to do every day in order to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

I need to train with specific objectives in mind, using the deliberate practice theory. Within the health and fitness domain, my main objectives are strength, flexibility and injury prevention. With those covered, I also cover the cardio and play needs through playing padel and tennis. Being in good health and physical shape keeps me lucid and positive, and thus able to reach out beyond myself and move on to my second priority: relationships.

Hopefully, we all know how relationships are essential to leading a good life. The saying no man is an island really is true. I’m not talking about constantly being surrounded by people, but about cultivating deep relationships with at least 5 people in our lives. I know who those 5 people are and make sure that my bond with them stays strong.

And my third priority is wealth generation. Generating wealth in various ways keeps my mind alive and excited. I’ve always been interested in business and ways I could provide value to the rest of society and in so doing generate wealth for my family. It’s not that much fun being very healthy and having great relationships when you can’t provide for your family and enjoy fine things in life like a comfortable and relaxing home, good food and drink, travel, etc.

If you’re not sure about your life priorities, a useful exercise would be to talk to an older person in your family like your grandma or grandpa and ask them what they regret most about not doing more of in their lives. If they’re no longer alive, just read the top regrets of the dying here and here.

Be sure to be completely honest with yourself about whatever your priorities might be, and don’t let others’ expectations define your priorities and the way you live.

Padel Etiquette and Rules For Non-Umpired Matches

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During friendly matches and most amateur tournaments padel matches are played without an umpire. The qualifying rounds of World Padel Tour don’t have a referee either. This means that the players will have to judge certain things themselves in an amicable manner. Let’s talk about some of these things to keep an eye out for and how to behave.

If one of the players hits a shot whereby the ball hits another player, it is usual to apologize, while the person who got hit will acknowledge, knowing it’s part of the game.

At the start of the match it is usual to wish the other players a good match, and at the end all players are expected to approach the net and shake hands amicably, with both sides congratulating the others and thanking them for the match.

  1. Each player is responsible for all decisions in her half of the Court. She should be completely honest on all “calls” but, if in doubt, she should give her opponent the benefit of the doubt and play the ball as good. You should not play a let.
  2. It is your obligation to call all balls on your side, to help your opponent make calls when the opponent requests it, and to call against yourself (with the exception of a first service) any ball that you clearly see out on your opponent’s side of the net.
  3. Any “out”, “let” or “fault” call must be made immediately (ie. made before either an opponent has hit the return or the return has gone out of play); otherwise the ball continues in play. “Calls” must be verbal and clearly audible to the opponent, followed by a signal if necessary. “Lets” may be called by any of the participating players.
  4. On all court surfaces except clay (see (g) below) if a player incorrectly calls a ball “out” and then realises that the ball was good, the point should be replayed on the first occasion (involuntary hindrance) and the point lost on each subsequent occasion (deliberate hindrance). In the case of a point winning shot, a let would not be played.
  5. When returning service, the partner of the receiver should generally call the service line for her. The receiver should generally call the centre and side service lines.
  6. If players cannot agree on the score, they should calmly discuss the points/ games that are the areas of disagreement. If they cannot reach agreement they should replay only the points or games in question. All points or games which the players agree on stand eg. Two players cannot agree on whether the score is 40-15 or 30-30, but agree on the winner of the first, second and fourth points. Therefore only the third point needs to be replayed.
  7. Players are prohibited from checking the mark of the ball on their opponent’s side of the Court, unless invited by their opponent to do so. Ball mark inspections are only permitted on clay courts. On clay courts if a player incorrectly calls a ball “out” and then realises that the ball was good, the player who called “out” loses the point.
  8. Where a ball interrupts play, either by rolling/bouncing onto the court, and/or creating a visible interruption behind the court, a let should be played.
  9. If a player hinders her opponent it can be ruled involuntary or deliberate.
  10. When a player has created an involuntary hindrance (ball failing out of pocket, hat failing off, etc.) the first time a let should be called and the player should be told that any such hindrance thereafter will be ruled deliberate.
  11. Any hindrance caused by a player that is ruled deliberate will result in the loss of a point.

If there are any situations that you’re unsure about, let me know and I’ll do my best to clear any doubts.

How to Find the Best Luxury and Boutique Hotels

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If you’re a discerning travel and you’re very particular about where you choose to lodge yourself during a trip, you will want to make sure you do your research before booking a hotel.

Even 5 star hotels can sometimes provide very negative experiences, so it’s not simply a case of paying your way to a better stay.

I like to search for boutique hotels where possible, as I’m not the type of person who enjoys mass tourism or bland experiences. Boutique hotels tend to have a very strong character which may or may not suit your tastes, so it’s important to pick the right one. In general they tend to take care of their clients better as they give more importance to the overall experience rather than just the basics of clean room and a decent breakfast that most hotels aim for.

You can join a few hotel clubs that can guide you towards a better choice, as they tend to be vetted by a team and also come with some extra small gifts if you book through them.

Here are the websites I use:

It’s also a good idea to check Voyage Prive for any good deals. I don’t usually find good stuff on that site as they don’t really feature the top hotels, but it’s worth checking for the occasional good deal anyway.

If you’re an Airbnb fan but you want a more curated experience, you can also try The Plum Guide to find luxury apartments in various cities of the world.

Jean Galea

Online Entrepreneur. Global Citizen. Padel Player.
Founder of WP Mayor & WP RSS Aggregator.

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