You learn something new everyday...

Well, even if you didn't, you must've SEEN something new everyday. DUN you dare deny that...

We learn subconsciously. We never realise that we've learnt something until we were to apply it.

Similarly, we never recognise something until we were to identify it. Den we'll all go "awh damn I've seen it b4... Wut's it called..."

Everyday is full of unexplored territories. Juz a few weeks ago Pluto was 'relegated' to a bunch of space rocks named 'Plutoids', and there were at least 3 plutoids in the our Solar System (have we named our Solar System yet?). We now have 8 planets instead! Yer referin to Ceres as the 9th planet? Nope it's not big enough as well...

The damn good thing about living near your skool is that you get to see new things around your house almost everyday. When yer walking to skool, maybe nothing much coz yer still half sleeping but when yer walking back FROM skool, it's a whole new story.

Observing is one fun thing to do. Observe has it's similarities to'kap', 'kap' as in 'kap lui'. Juz today I saw another prime breed waiting for bus at the bus stop. Cool huh? LOL. There's this stall/restaurant at this junction that we always see, but never thought of visiting. Observing it gives the few of us the thought of visiting it one day. At lunch time there were tables full of dishes mixed rice style. Oh boy I wonder if it's better than those generic 'nasi campur' kind of stuff.

Today I saw/learned/discovered something new. It might sound noobish but I'm really excited about it.

Was bored after finishing up the maths h/w. It was raining kittens and puppies. As usual I would open the window and let the cool air in, and would eventually stare outside thru the gap b/w the row of houses behind my home and my home's row of houses. Then the thought of looking further out with a pair of binoculars popped up. Got my binos and looked around la (not voyeurism laaaa). I started near and went further out to the community hall around 150m away. Then I wondered if I could enhance the view till I can read the words on the signboard. Not surprisingly I could. It was not as easy as expected though coz hands were trembling coz have to hold the bino steady. Then I tried to look a bit further and read the board on the wall of the hall. It is this recycling thingy and I could read the words on it! It's quite small ma...

The bino my dad gave me few years ago. It was said to cost at least RM200.

Then the thought lightbulb lighted up. Is it possible to take a picture thru the bino lens? Like how the eye sees thru it, juz that now the cam is looking into it? Got my phone and after getting both lens alighed, hey Presto! A clear image of a distant object was seen! And it's not juz a blab of colors, it's an IMAGE!!!

Focused on the gold board. Enlarge to read the words.

That pic was taken after several tries and playing with the focusing thingy. It's hard to judge from the phone display whether the image is correctly focused or not. I guess this is how manual focus works?

The half dead tree along the road beside my home. This one still not that clear coz tak mantap lagi...

Then I worked closer. That tree is at least 20-25 meters from where I snap the pic (my room la where else). Not very clear but better than w/o the bino.

Then I focused on something that is man made. The electrical post?

Damn the detail that I got. I doubt the same amount of detail can be captured if I position the camera at where this image would look like in real life on the camera display (being suspended in mid air across the roofs of 2 houses?). This is amazing! Even the number of rings on that white thing on one of the wires can be clearly seen!

The roof behind my house. I was sitting on a chair a good 2-3 meters from the window, at the big table where I do most of my studyin.

The details are stunning! At least to me, hey I'm playing wit a 2.0 megapixel camera, mind you. When you enlarge you can see the details of the tiles inside the frame and everything else outside the frame is blurry. Makes a good effect!

The convection thingy I guess?

Then I looked for stuff inside the room. I'm still sitting on that chair with the binoculars takin pictures. I wonder if it could record the texture of the towel/makeshift curtain, and guess wut?

I swear to god I was a good 2-3 meters away from it.

Then I looked for more detail. Wut about the words on shoe boxes? Printings are the best representations of detail.

Can almost reproduce the barcode. Again still sitting 2-3 meters away.

The downside to this whole bino-camera phone thingy is that your hands have to be damn steady. Steady as a mountain. A little tremble and the focus goes away. Summore the phone and the bino's alignment is CONSTANTLY changing. It's like for every shot you have to realign them coz the alignment moves away. A slight misalignment and no image appears on the screen.

I had fun with my camera phone today. Wut is it that you had fun wit today?

*EDIT*
I juz realised that this is nothing other than substituting the digital zoom for the binoculars' physical zoom or 'optical zoom'. Damn I thought I was increasing the clarity of the cam a while ago...

*EDIT 2*
Can I consider this a hack? I think this is wut they call 'household hacks'? There's a site dedicated to it though...
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