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Drop a camera in the Public Garden Lagoon in June, 2010? Company has your photos
By adamg on Wed, 09/19/2012 - 10:48am
Andy Ihnatko reports a data-recovery business managed to liberate the photos on a muck-encrusted digital camera he found in the Public Garden Lagoon this past spring, when it was more of a mud field being readied for its annual cleaning:
In addition to the recovered photos and videos, they were also able to find a evidence of a batch of documents that had been on the card but long-deleted. They had the documents' filenames, though the files themselves were unrecoverable.
The biggest surprise of the report? The camera's time of death. I'd discovered the camera face-up in the mud, in plain sight. I had assumed that it hit the water sometime during the 2011 season. But the most recent photo on the card had been taken on the afternoon of June 24, 2010.
With copies of some of the photos, for anybody who might recognize them.
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Comments
Conventions and Conferences that week?
I know of one that was held in Boston around that time - I will put the word out through the sponsoring organization.
But it wasn't the only one in Boston that week - it might be good to find out what other organizations were holding events at the convention centers and hotels in the area.
Not "data recovery"
"Data recovery" in this case consisted of popping the card out of the camera carefully, and then inserting it into an SD card reader. And then double clicking.
Solid state memory cards don't require any special treatment except being dried out and a basic cleaning so you don't muck up your reader.
Did you read the article at
Did you read the article at all? The card didn't work and no double clicking was to be had.
Many newer cameras allow you
Many newer cameras allow you to save owner info in the camera settings. However, for the last few years (after reading an article similar to this one) I have kept an image on the memory card with my contact info. Assuming an honest finder of my lost camera, they will be able to track me down right away.
Just write your name and email address on a piece of paper and take a picture before going on your next trip. Easy insurance.
June 24, 2010 was the day the
June 24, 2010 was the day the iPhone 4 was released... guess they weren't in town for that auspicious event if there were no photos on the camera of them standing in line at the Apple Store. (Or maybe they headed over to get one after they dropped their camera in the water.)
Apropos nothing...
I remember Andy Ihnatko from the brilliant "Dysfunctional Family Circus," which I first viewed as an alt group in 1992, during a summer program where we learned how to use the internet on enormous Sun computers. I still consider DFC the height of comedy, and now I'm all nostalgic at work. Takes me back!
DFC Rules
Nice to hear somebody else was a fan as well. I knew his name sounded familiar.
You guys are obviously not Mac nerds :-)
Andy Ihnatko is a technology columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a general Public Mac Nerd.
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Ihnatko
In spite of writing for a newspaper in Illinois, he lives in Massachusetts.