So, I get to work this morning, and immediately about 10 people surround me to advise me that the data on the main data drive “looks funny”.

I check, and it is indeed “funny”.

It appears that our 24,000 directories (folders to you newies) containing 136,000 files, and around 40GB of corporate data have been deleted overnight, before the two backups (one to another server on a different site, the other to tape) occurred. So, now we’re missing all our data after July 26th. Great.

It took all day from 9:00am until 4:00pm, but we managed to recover the data from 12:30pm on the 27th using the incredibly awesome Shadow Copy that comes with Windows Server 2003. We also restored the tape backup from the night of the 26th over the top, only creating files that were missing (under 200 out of 136,000 isn’t bad).

Half way through the day, I learn that today is Sysadmin Day. Amazingly convenient for such a data loss to occur!

Given that all our backups from last night were completely screwed, I’m impressed that we only lost a few hours of data (and most of a day where people couldn’t use that file share). Stressful but today has certainly gone fast. Maybe I’ll now have a lunch break!

Recently I have been listening to a number of photography podcasts, mostly to and from work. Usually, I just listen to music on the way to work, but I thought I might as well listen to something worthwhile as well.

I have been listening to the Tips From The Top Floor podcast, which is both generally interesting and enjoyable to listen to. I’ve also been listening to the Martin Bailey Photography podcast on Dad’s recommendation. The Martin Bailey podcasts are very interesting, but a little dry and not as fun as the Tips From The Top Floor podcast.

I’ve also had a listen to the Better Photo podcast, which was interesting but I found Jim Miotke’s voice a little annoying.

What podcasts do you regularly listen to (in particular photography ones since that’s what I’m after)? I have heard some great tips from the ones mentioned above.

Yesterday and today I’ve really begun to notice that the colours of photos I edit in Photoshop are not the same colours as photos that end up on the web (either on my photoblog or on Flickr, for instance).

I know it has to do with colour profiles, but I can’t for the life of me get it to work properly. I take photos using the Adobe RGB colour space over sRGB since it provides a lot higher colour gamut (which is not necessarily always desired), and when saving files in Photoshop to JPEG, the colours completely change.

I just uploaded a photo of a brick wall to my photoblog (it’s not there yet, so don’t go looking!), and the colours that appeared on the web version were much “cooler” (or bluer) than the version I could see in Photoshop or even using Windows’ Picture and Fax Viewer. I know it’s definitely not my monitor (whether that’s calibrated correctly is another matter entirely) because I view the two photos side-by-side and can definitely see the difference.

The current process I’ve been trying in Photoshop is to use the Edit -> Convert to Profile method, to convert photos to sRGB (which is used for photos on the web in almost all instances) and then save them out to JPEG. But still the colours change.

Below is a shot which compares the two; the left is the shot in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, the right is on the web.

If any readers have any idea how to ensure the colours stay the same, they would be extremely appreciated. It’s a real drag uploading brilliant images to the web just to see them look dull in comparison to what I saw two minutes earlier.

This morning I was woken at ten-to-seven by Justine who, at my request, woke me up as she got up for work.

As the sun rose at 7:29 (according to Geoscience Australia), I wanted to get down to Brighton to take photos of the bathing boxes and surrounding area. I arrived a little before 7:30, too late to take photos of the sky significantly before the sun came up, and I was a little to early to take advantage of the Golden Hour.

However, I hung around the area for long enough that I was able to take advantage of the Golden Hour and get some great shots. The only one you can see at the moment is a panorama of the Brighton bathing boxes.

Afterwards, I popped in and visited Dad and Cheryl, and checked out Dad’s cool 30D. The most impressive thing with the 30D over the 350D is, for me, the much larger viewfinder. I could probably live without all the other differences, but that is the one I’d like most in my camera.

Ah well, I love my 350D!

Dad has been generous enough to spring for a one-year flickr subscription, which means I now have a “Pro” account on that site? What does that mean? Well, the big thing is I can upload heaps of photos, have more sets, put full-sized shots on there (that will take some getting used to) and replace photos — with the full-sized versions.

Thanks Dad! Cross another item off the ol’ Wishlist.