Sunday 17 October 2021

This action cannot be undone


Are you SURE that you want to delete 58 photos?

I accidentally took 27 photos of my trousers the other day whilst sitting in the car. I used to occasionally take the odd accidental photo of my feet with the old phone, but the new one has a paparazzi setting which fires off what are called 'bursts' at the lightest touch of the wrong (or right) button.

I know that I am well behind the times as far as iPhones go, and that all you youngsters have known about these features on your phones for years, but it is all new to me.

'Live' photos are a bit disconcerting too.  I took a few pictures of the beach at Studland for H.I. to improve some drawings she made there a few years ago, and now when I go back to the album and look at them, the waves move into the shoreline for a fraction of a second, making you think that you are imagining things. It is a bit like glimpsing a mouse in the room from the corner of your eye.

The HD setting on the phone uses technology invented by an American amateur astronomer. He had an idea one day - and it was a day - so he bought a cheap telescope with tracking and an old laptop, then linked the two together.

He set the telescope to track the space shuttle which he knew would pass over his area at various points in the day, then he linked the laptop to it and took a series of photos in broad, sunny daylight as it flew above in the deep blue of the cloudless sky.

He programmed the laptop to overlay the best pictures one on top of the other and produced an image so clear that you could actually read the word NASA on the side of the shuttle.

He emailed the photo to NASA and asked them why they had the bay doors open on the shuttle on that day, and heard nothing back. A day or so later there was a knock on his door and there stood a couple of NASA technicians asking him how the hell he had done that.

He explained what he had done, and now NASA uses a refined version of his software for all sorts of optical procedures as a matter of course.

Where would we be without amateurs?

20 comments:

  1. Tom, I am the visual type, so I modestly refrain from making a connection between your 27 photographs of your trousers and the moving waves.
    On my new cellphone there is a device which asks me if it should - mumble, mumble: I never can memorise if that are Gigabyte or what sort of -bytes ever - well, if it should delete the trash it could find. Without telling me what that trash is. Are they speaking of my WhatsApps? Photos? Sorry - I want to decide that myself.
    Now a video on Youtube enlightened me.

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    1. I would have to look at it to help you decide...

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    2. The trash bin contains what you have trashed yourself Britta and it is asking if you want it emptied never to be retrieved again.

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  2. Haha …. that made me laugh …. I’m always doing that ! There are some good features though and you can take some lovely photographs ….. practice makes perfect. XXXX

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  3. I would never have guessed a photo could be taken by a phone inside a pocket. Shouldn't the smart phone have known it was in a pocket? Very interesting fact about the HD feature.

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    1. It is a good job I didn't say it was inside my pants. No, it was outside of my trousers, but it does know when it is inside the car, somehow.

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  4. A lot of good ideas come from amateurs. Most of the wealth they create goes to professionals.

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    1. They have the resources to develop and market. Not many people take out patents.

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  5. Oh Tasker - you never spoke a truer word unfortunately. Me? what I can do I do as regards modern technology - otherwise I opt out.

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    1. Britain has a lot of innovative technicians but lacks entrepreneurs and investors. I don't know why this area is so underfunded - actually I have a suspicion and it is all to do with giant tech's control over the market.

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  6. My phone camera displays videos ad stills that are jerky. Hate it.

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    1. Most phones are fitted with sea-sickness inducing image stabilisers these days.

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  7. Your Amateur's tale is a great story! ... My phone one day took a photo without my noticing which was a keeper it was so good. I hadn't had the phone very long and I think it was trying to teach me how to take photos, as my earliest attempts were woeful.

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  8. I use my phone to receive and send calls. I use a camera for taking photos. Perhaps I should join the modern set, but why ????

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    1. I know what you mean - I hate multi-tools like Swiss Army pen knives, but a camera in a phone is very convenient. I hate carrying large cameras around in case I need a photo.

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