Retro Thing

Win a Flip Mino HD Camera

[Update: The winner is Dee, from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. You can read his epic misadventure here. Thanks to everyone who entered - we had a tough time picking our favorite entry. Stay tuned for more contests in the coming months. -JG]

We've teamed up with AXE Canada to give away a shiny new $249 Flip Mino HD video camera. To win, just share a retro-related story in the comments about a time when you could have used a dash of AXE Shock deodorant bodyspray. Our favorite tale will win the camera.

Help Bohus Win A $1000 Video Contest!

 
Here's a question we get all the time at Retro Thing; "What do you do with all that retro junk?"  I can only speak for myself when I say "Well, I use retro junk to enter online video contests..." My lady and I whipped up a quick video extolling the virtues of Dollar Tree, a shop where everything costs one U.S. dollar. The video stars the educational puppets I wrote about a while back, and the little gumdrop shaped puppets will show you a few of the things you can pick up for a buck at the store.

Here's where you can help. Anyone can vote for the video (you don't have to register or leave any identifying information) by visiting the contest page HERE. Mine is the ready-to-play video called "at the movies" all the way to the right, and you can vote by just clicking the green button below it. You can vote multiple times (kind of like in Chicago </rimshot>), once a day until April 2nd. There's a really good first prize, and I'd appreciate your help! If the video wins, I'm sure I can convince those puppets to make a special visit right here on Retro Thing.

 
Thanks for checking out the video, and for adding your votes. Every vote is important over the next few days, and don't forget you can vote every day up until April 2nd. I'll let you know if it turns out to be a success. Now get voting!

link:

Help out Bohus by voting for his "At The Movies" video

8-Bit New York

Eric Brodeur sent us a link to this amazing interpretation of NYC using old-school 8-bit graphics. Click and drag the image to explore the five boroughs like you never have before.

I would seriously be willing to pay for maps like this on my GPS. [8-bit-NYC via TechCrunch]

Retro Thing Pixel T-Shirts Are Back

A surprising number of you asked us to reprint our limited edition 8-bit Invasion t-shirt. So we did. There are less than 50 remaining, available in any color you wish... as long as it's black.

8-bit Invasion pays tribute to the evil aliens that made video games so addictive during the early years.   Screen printed on a 6.1 oz Ultra Cotton tee in the United States. $16.95. Don't see an 'add to cart' button? Click here.

Size: Adult Medium Adult Large Adult XL Adult 2XL

Retro Thing Mystery Countdown

What's this? Those Retro Thing rapscallions ravaging their readers with a rip-roaring macro-focus riddle? What could it be? Have they finally perfected their time machine? Has James figured out a way to get finally get classic retro cars to run on pure salad oil? Or perhaps Bohus has computed the exact formula for a controlled matter implosion so that he can finally fit all that retro stuff in his storage locker?

We're just a few days from the unveiling of the latest from Retro Thing's smoke-filled labs... Stay tuned, Retro readers!

Bohuš In Videomaker Magazine

 
I have an article on macro lens videography in the current issue of Videomaker magazine. I realize that it's not exactly "retro", but 20+ years ago when I was starting out in video, many of the devices I've written about here first appeared in the pages of that magazine. I take a lot of macro photos for Retro Thing (One my photos from this site accompanies the article) with a point & shoot camera, so I'm used to not having exactly the best tool for the job but still getting results.

Perhaps if you're interested in taking some pictures of your own retro things you can pick up a few tips from the article. You can also feel free to rate the article's usefulness, and maybe they'll ask me to come back and write about some of the video gear classics featured right here at Retro Thing. Thanks!

Read the article in Videomaker magazine

related:
Learn from a 1980's Toshiba consumer video camera
Build your own progressive scan camcorder
Jerry Lewis and video assist

Funambol: Open source push email

Funambol is an open source email app for mobile phones. It supports push email, just like Blackberry Mail. It works on hundreds of phones (including Android, iPhone and Blackberries) and automatically syncs to your computer using a "mobile cloud" address book. The big difference is that you don't have to pay a subscription fee every month.

I use Funambol in conjunction with a Blackberry and a dirt cheap unlimited browsing data plan to save hundreds of dollars per year.

To try Funambol, set up a 90-day trial account on the myFunambol portal. It will prompt you to download an app for your phone (hundreds of handsets are supported) and guides you through the process of syncing your contacts and calendar details.

After the 90-day trial expires, Funambol usually directs you to one of their partners to extend the service.

However, Funambol has offered 10 free unlimited myFunambol accounts to Retro Thing readers [update: they're all gone. Thanks for supporting a worthwhile open source project.]

myFUNAMBOL, the free open source mobile cloud sync demo service

Retro Thing Limited Edition Pixel T-Shirts Are On Their Way!

 
A wonderful sight awaited me as I entered the Retro Thing office today - several boxes containing tons of T-shirts! Either that means that our 8-bit inspired T-shirts are ready to ship to our readers who ordered one, or it means that I haven't done laundry in a very long time. Good news - it's the 8-bit T-shirts.

Thanks to those of you who ordered your T-shirt. You're directly supporting Retro Thing, and James and I are both very grateful. We're also grateful for your patience. We were hoping to have these under your Christmas trees, but the elves were clearly hitting the nog a little early this year. But have no fear, we'll ship them out as quickly as possible.

We produced only as many shirts as were ordered, so there aren't any extras if you missed your chance to get one the first time around... but don't fret. The good news is that this project went so well that we plan on bringing our readers other limited edition retro shirts in the near future. Keep reading Retro Thing so you won't miss your next chance.

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Retro Bytes

Some cool things that flickered across our monitors over the past few days:

sammichSID by Wilba: A low-cost DIY synthesizer module built around the Commodore 64's SID sound chip. $219 for the complete kit with 2 6582 SIDs.

Gizmodo's brilliant Video Game Timeline covers a random assortment of home consoles and arcade legends from 1972 through 2009. It'd make a great poster.

Kayla Kromer's ultra-geeky Millennium Falcon bed. I sense a dating nightmare in the making. Just remember that good guys shoot last.

More than you might ever want to know about the 555 timer chip. Tens of billions of these little ICs have appeared in zillions of toys, gadgets and gizmos since 1970. Bonus marks: Inventor Hans Camenzind drew the original chip mask by hand.

Wooden building blocks. With magnets. Sadly, they're ridiculously expensive.

Nifty portable Dreamcasts are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork everywhere. Weird. Must be their mating season or something.

Giving Thanks With 1950's Home Movie Title Cards

 
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., so it seems like a good time to think about what we at Retro Thing are thankful for. Of course that's you - our readers from all around the world! You continue to astonish us with your thoughts on our thoughts on the many and varied things we write about right here.

We hope that you're enjoying the day with friends and family (whether you're in the U.S. or not!), and thank you for making us part of your.. um... extended-extended second-in-law-twice-removed online electronic virtual family. Don't forget to take some home movies - they're easier than ever to create and share these days. You can add these retro titles to your family flicks by clicking on the links below to download larger versions for free. These pictures came from a 1950's magazine that included these title cards for your home movies, so here they are just for you!

We've got some exciting retro surprises for you in the coming weeks, so make sure to keep us close as we head into the holidays. Oh, and let us know if you use these title cards in your home movies! Thanks everybody!

links:

download "a handsome bird"
download "thanksgiving"

related:

Thanksgiving Day parade Rickrolled by... Rick Astley!
The turkey that changed video games forever
Home movie titling sets

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The Real Story Of The "New" Radio Shack

It's always dangerous to generalize, but I would imagine that a large percentage of Retro Thing readers have relied on Radio Shack for some crucial adapter, AC power supply, or spool of silver solder to make some cherished old thing work. For many of us Radio Shack was where our fascination with electronics and computers started. The internet is dotted with many such fans, so you can understand the furore heaved up over the recent news that the store is changing its name.

The story out there is that Radio Shack is renaming its stores "The Shack", and fans of the old brand were furious. I had a hard time believing the reports I was getting - no way would a firm with such hardwon name recognition dispose of it casually. After reading through many angry & confusing posts, I went to the source. That's right, I called Fort Worth, Texas, where all the TRS-80's & those spring-loaded electronics kits came from.

So put aside anything you've heard up until now. What I learned directly from their marketing people is that Radio Shack is not changing the name of their stores to "The Shack", as many panicked bloggers would have you believe. The truth is that Radio Shack noticed that folks have nicknamed them "The Shack," so they are taking on the moniker to use in marketing.

When a brand has been around long enough to become almost like a friend, nicknames are an inevitable mark of fondness. You can probably think of other brands that have taken on these affectionate nicknames. Coca-Cola became "Coke", Federal Express is commonly "FedEx", McDonald's even call themselves "Mickey D's" in ads (let's ignore nicknames like "Monkey Wards", Little Seizures", and "Arf & Barf", okay?). 

So here's the message from Radio Shack and Retro Thing. Attention all you gadget hounds, geeks, experimenters, even people looking for an adapter to go from an X-10 home automation system to an apricot popover... no need to fret. Your neighborhood Radio Shack is still "Radio Shack", and if you're one of those electronics fans who has always referred to the store as "The Shack," you're about to be joined by many more people.

related:
Radio Shack Executive Decision Maker
Pong system with alarmingly Realistic™ gun
How TRS-80 enthusiasts helped spark the PC revolution

My Hong Kong Addiction

I know this has nothing to do with vintage technology, but I'm obsessed with a little mail-order technology shop in Hong Kong called Deal Extreme.

They offer an amazing array of gadgetry ranging from sensible things like batteries and electronic parts to kooky stuff like Neodymium magnetic spheres and magic supplies. Shipping is free, although you'll have to wait a few weeks for packages to reach North America or Europe by air mail.

I couldn't resist picking up the OneStation handheld game console (above). It emulates a variety of classic NES and SEGA Genesis titles and sells for under $30. The company also offers solid deals on flash memory cards. I picked up a Kensington MicroSD card for peanuts recently. It seems to be the genuine article and works perfectly in my camera.

All in all, I'm impressed. I've placed half a dozen orders with the company over the past year and always received what I expected within a reasonable time.

Deal Extreme: Cool Gadgets at the right price

The Emergence of Tool Libraries

Despite the best efforts of kindergarten teachers everywhere, we're conditioned not to share. Nowhere is this more obvious than the garden shed. Most of us own dozens of tools, even though they spend 99.95% of the time sitting alone in the dark. 

Every once in a while we get brave and lend a grubby old hammer to the neighbor in exchange for some time alone with her wheelbarrow, but mostly we keep our stuff padlocked and forgotten. Of course, the helpful folks who run home improvement stores love our deranged selfishness, since it helps them sell boatloads of expensive stuff.

The Northeast Portland (Oregon) Tool Library is a clever solution to the problem. They offer an ever-increasing assortment of household tools. Membership is free for local residents and you're allowed to check out up to seven tools per week during the library's Saturday open hours. Tools are due back by 10:00 a.m. the following Saturday. It's a simple, cheap return to the past that should be emulated by grown-up kindergartners everywhere.

Northeast Portland Tool Library [via Make]