Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Time stamp mystery

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Time stamp mystery

    This has nothing to do with Kubuntu, or Linux for that matter, but I'm baffled by something and thought the brilliant folks here could offer some ideas.

    After posting some pictures I took of the space shuttle Columbia's contrails in another thread, I decided to clean up the directory all of my images from that day were in. I had duplicates and even triplicates. Some were because of downloading the same pictures on more than one day (having forgotten to delete them from my camera's card the first time), while others were the same pictures but that I had renamed (from their original names on the camera to descriptive names), but for some unknown reason I didn't ACTUALLY rename them, because I still had originals plus the ones with new names. (Confused? That's okay, so am I. Nine years down the road I have no idea why I did what I did.)

    Okay, so here's what I found. The images with the original names were time-stamped 02/01/03 @ around 3:13am. The exact same photos but with descriptive names were time-stamped 02/01/03 @ around 1:44am. I *KNOW* unequivocally that I did not take the pics at either of those times! The Columbia exploded over Dallas right at 8:00am (Dallas time), so my pics were taken a few minutes after I heard the sonic booms.

    I don't recall right now which Linux distro I was using at the time, but it doesn't really matter. Obviously, my camera's time was off, although I don't know why as I'm SUPER meticulous about stuff like that. Fine, so that accounts for the incorrect time on the originally-named photos...but how did the renamed pics get a totally different time, 1-1/2 hours earlier? There's no way the computer they were on had its time set incorrectly.
    Xenix/UNIX user since 1985 | Linux user since 1991 | Was registered Linux user #163544


    #2
    Re: Time stamp mystery

    Are you looking at the metadata info within the image, or the timestamp on the file in your filesystem? The metadata for the image should never change, unless you deliberately mess with it. The filesystem timestamp is normally applied when the file is initially saved, and stays the same until it gets saved again in some other filesystem.

    Originally posted by DoYouKubuntu

    There's no way the computer they were on had its time set incorrectly.
    The computer's time and date is irrelevant to the image metadata. (Or it should be .....).

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Time stamp mystery

      Right now I've only looked at the file system's date/time stamp. When I copy files from one computer to another I do it preserving the files' original attributes, so what I'm seeing now on my newest laptop is the info as it would've existed on the original computer the images were stored on.

      I'll be back after I look at the actual EXIF info...
      Xenix/UNIX user since 1985 | Linux user since 1991 | Was registered Linux user #163544

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Time stamp mystery

        The "touch" command can change the timestamp.
        "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
        – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Time stamp mystery

          Okay, here we go...

          After looking at the photos' EXIF data, I found that the camera's time was one hour fast. I know that from pics I took of TV reports, which happened to have the current time on the screen, and my camera's time was exactly one hour later. (That camera didn't auto-adjust for daylight savings time, and I guess I didn't care enough to do it manually.) BUT, the file system timestamps are several hours BEFORE that. And as I said originally, the very same photos, but with different names, are dated 1-1/2 hours apart, all of which are several hours before the pictures were taken. There's simply no way my computer's time was off like that.

          PS I don't know why I hadn't looked at the EXIF data before posting...I just didn't. Oh well.
          Xenix/UNIX user since 1985 | Linux user since 1991 | Was registered Linux user #163544

          Comment

          Working...
          X