When I was faced with the potential loss of a bunch of photos from a concert I attended, I looked into how to recover photos from a formatted or corrupted memory card. Since it was commonly asked question on my favorite photography forum, I decided to do a little write up for future users encountering such a problem. Originally it was to be posted to the forum, but I figured it might be more useful to others if I made it available on my blog instead.

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This is a great read. I don’t want to ruin it at all so I’m just going to post the link and let you check it out. Here’s a bit of the beginning to get you interested.

I wake. For a moment, I stare at the ceiling trying to remember something. Something important. Something important happened last night, but the details escape me. Something fascinating yet sinister, like touring the CIA offices. Something exotic yet somehow familiar, like putting hot sauce on meatloaf. I wonder if I have a hangover. I wonder why I am thinking about the CIA and meatloaf. I roll onto my side.

There is a strange woman in bed with me.

A lot of things happen at once. First, I realize that this is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and I am a lucky, lucky man. Second, I realize that this is not my wife, and I panic. Third, I realize that she’s awake, has been watching me sleep. Fourth, before I can really react to thoughts 1 and 2, she smiles at me and speaks with a lovely accent I can’t quite place: “So. You like new wife, yes? Yes. Up now, I make breakfast.”

Hah so I was wandering the news sites when I came across a post by Ryan Block on Apple’s DST update for the MacOS. I suppose the update covers more than just the operating system, but it’s still kind of amusing

I own a Canon 350D and shoot exclusively in RAW format. I love having the ability to save my photos if I screw up in the initial shoot like exposure or while balance. My only beef is that sometimes it’s a bit of a pain to have to open up Digital Photo Pro just to find an image when all I want to do is look at the thumbnails in Explorer to find a file. Microsoft must think so too since they have an answer in the form of Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP.

The program not only allows you to view your RAW files in a quick and easy window similar to the Windows Picture and Fax viewer, it adds thumbnails to your RAW files in Windows Explorer (in thumbnail and filmstrip views). Personally I say this is a must-get for any photographer shooting in RAW be it Canon or Nikon.

The next program is directed to those who are very concious about colour profiles and want an easy way to adjust their colour spaces. The Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP adds an icon to your control panel giving easy access to colour management options such as adding/removing colour profiles, assigning profiles to specific devices, and even setting up reminders to recalibrate your profiles at regular intervals.

Windows Genuine Advantage is required to download these programs.

By the way… Does anyone know if there is a colour profile available for the ASUS W1N laptop display? It would be greatly appreciated!

Who says games don’t have anything good to teach us? John August, a screenwriter with a number of movies to his name such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and Charlie’s Angels, has Seven things that World of Warcraft has taught him which can be applied to the real world.

For those of you out there in the US or Canada, just a reminder that the US changed the date that Daylight Savings Time occurs. Instead of the first Sunday of April, it is now the SECOND Sunday of March and ends on the FIRST Sunday in November instead of the last Sunday of October.

Windows XP SP2 users just need to do a simple Windows Update if they’re not automatically doing so already to get the patch. SP1 users will need to make they upgrade to SP2 before being able to apply the update. Vista users will not need to do anything since the patch will have already been applied for you so you’re already good to go. Outlook 2000, 2002, and 2003 users will also need to download the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook to ensure that any appointments in your calendars get updated as well.

Source: Microsoft

UPDATE: Anyone who is looking for the update for Windows XP can go here for KB93183.

People born in the Year of the Pig are chivalrous and gallant. Whatever they do, they do with all their strength. For Boar Year people, there is no left or right and there is no retreat. They have tremendous fortitude and great honesty. They don’t make many friends but they make them for life, and anyone having a Boar Year friend is fortunate for they are extremely loyal. They don’t talk much but have a great thirst for knowledge. They study a great deal and are generally well informed. Boar people are quick tempered, yet they hate arguments and quarreling. They are kind to their loved ones. No matter how bad problems seem to be, Boar people try to work them out, honestly if sometimes impulsively. They are most compatible with Rabbits and Sheep.

Source: Chinese Culture Centre of San Francisco

This is a fun screensaver for the geeks out there. The Twingly screensaver recieves a constant stream of RSS feeds which get mapped to a globe on the screen. The more activity in a region the larger and greater the number of bars on the globe. There’s not filtering of the RSS feed so you never know what you might see. You can even enter an interactive mode where you can spin the globe yourself to see fees for that area and even click to see a little but more info on the RSS feed.
While you may not use it full time on some computers (mainly laptops), it’s definately worth checking out and makes for a good time waster