Shooting the Moon With a Game Boy Camera Is Really Hard. By modern standards the Nintendo Game Boy Camera is crap. It takes 2- bit 1. Intended to be viewed on the simple display of a Game Boy, the images the Game Boy Camera takes are always super pixelated and often require squinting just to figure out what the heck the subject is. Unless you get a really nice image with lots of contrast. Then, as with traditional black and white photography, the Game Boy Camera can resolve some pretty cool images. Astronomy student Alex Pietrow suspected as much when he strapped a Game Boy Camera to the end of a 1. I like to tinker, especially with old technology,” Pietrow told Gizmodo by email. He had plenty of access at the Leiden Observatory (colloquially known as the Old Observatory) where he works as a tour guide. After first figuring out how to save the images from the Game Boy Camera to a PC (a trial in and of itself according to Pietrow), he put together a camera rig involving a Game Boy Advance SP, a Game Boy Camera, a smartphone mount meant for astrophotographers, and a 6- inch Fraunhofer telescope from 1. I did a lot of astrophotography with proper cameras so I had a rough idea of what was possible, but the 2 bit nature of this camera made it a wonderful challenge.”After getting his rig set up he waited. It took a few weeks of patience to get the above shots, and afterwards Pietrow considered another subject popular amongst astrophotographers: Jupiter. Jupiter, to the naked eye, is just a big blob of light that’s virtually indistinguishable from the field of stars to a layman. Which is why Pietrow is so proud of this shot he grabbed. Quite impressive for a 2 bit camera, as Jupiter is more than 6. Not all of Jupiter’s moons (there are 6. The shot of Jupiter above is actually blown up nearly nine times its original size. It originally came out of the Game Boy looking like this: Pietrow isn’t done with the 2- bit astrophotography game either. Before heading to Stockholm in September to study for a Ph. D in Solar Physics, Pietrow is planning a few more long nights tucked into the Leiden Observatory. Humans may have big, bulbous brains, but when it comes to pure muscle power, we’re often considered the weakest of the great apes. Even chimpanzees, who are. Nokia's revised 3. The tech giant Nokia has announced plans to release a new version of the old classic 3.
The original handset was popular at the turn of the century. The revised version will be a simple device that can make phone calls and send text messages, and not much else apart from play the cult game of Snake. So why would a phone company move away from the traditional route of making smart phones more smart and opt for this retro technology? We tend to appreciate technology if it allows us to lead an easier life by relieving us from undesirable, laborious human- work. Think about this next time you push the auto sensor button to cook your microwave meal, random play your digital music collection or look on with astonished fear as experts talk of the potentials of artificial intelligence (AI). ![]() Herein lies a conundrum: the more human- work we outsource to technology through advances driven by automation and digitisation, the further we distance ourselves from our innate human existence. The desire for control. While many of us are grateful for technological progress, the apparent recoil of others is hard to miss. Take the enthusiasts of instant- print Polaroid cameras and SLR film cameras. Nokia 3310 Launched in India: 5 Reasons Why You Should - or Shouldn't - Buy the Phone. When asked why Nokia is targeting the under Some people still love to use manual typewriters, maybe even as old as the one used by Mark Twain. Flickr/Artotem, CC BYOthers seem to enjoy typing on a typewriter, and probably take pleasure in using white- out to correct typos. The security benefits of typewriters aside, why would anyone use a technology that mesmerised writer Mark Twain nearly 1. There is also the resurgence of vinyl records and revival of cassette tapes. These playback formats were replaced by supposedly better technologies, such as the CD and MP3, precisely because the latter made our lives easier through downloading or streaming music with a handheld device. So why do people yearn for technologies of a bygone era? The love of vinyl. To answer this question, we conducted a rigorous, quantitative study of discussions appearing on a prominent online LP- related forum, Vinyl Engine. Vinyl records make a comeback. Flickr/Marc Gautier, CC BY- NCWe monitored the conversations of LP users and analysed their expressed sentiments over an eight- year period. We captured a total of 2. Our results paint a stimulating picture of contemporary vinyl users. They are individuals who like to express a much higher degree of control and interaction than modern technologies would allow them. They are technically competent and sophisticated, and willing to spend quite a bit of money to enjoy using and interacting with the technology. They appreciate the essence of a technology rather than just wanting something to get the job done. In other words, vinyl enthusiasts do not use the turntable technology in the conventional “application- centered” sense – that is, just to listen to the music. Rather, they use it in a “technology- centered” sense; they chose to use the technology for its own sake. As we move to a more autonomous world, some people prefer to keep control of technology – and they’re prepared to pay for it. Shutterstock/Milan Ilic Photographer. Interestingly, we found that these individuals, whom we may describe as “retro- adopters”, are not that different from the “early- adopters” tech companies often target when launching their new products. Early- adopters form a small but lucrative market segment because they are daring and risk- averse, have access to financial resources, and are able to deal with complexities embedded in technology. These attributes make them willing and able to purchase new products – a perfect target for a tech company trying to get market traction. A new market for ? Could Apple, Tesla or Nokia access the looming business potential in this market segment? Our answer is a definitive “yes”, and here is how they could do it. Step 1: Develop a new and improved product model for traditional market segments. It could be a new mobile phone with augmented reality applications or an autonomous electric car. Step 2: Now focus on the retro- adopter segment by identifying product features that can be designed backwards. In other words, bring signature features of classic technology back into the new product. Give people more control over the options on their smartphone cameras. Flickr/PROAntonio Delgado, CC BY- NC- NDFor example, make sure the built- in camera of the smart phone requires plenty of optional manual settings such as aperture size and shutter speed. Or that the autonomous electric car requires some form of manual servicing and repairs along with manual map navigation. Step 3: Implement a premium pricing scheme. While this may appear counterintuitive, our study indicates that retro- adopters are relatively price- insensitive. It is this aspect of the retro- segment – no matter how small it may be – that is likely to make it attractive for businesses. If current technological trends do continue, we expect to see a larger number of retro- adopters in a wider scope of markets. This means businesses should probably start paying more attention to this segment by designing products for it. Nokia’s revised 3. Striking this balance is imperative for satisfying our need to be in control, a fundamental aspect of being human, and for rekindling our appreciation of technology at the same time.
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