Geek Stuff

The above block o' stuff is material encoded using a so-called "QR Encoder." QR Code, for those non-geeks among you, stands for "Quick Response" Code. It was invented in Japan for use in car manufacturing. See, here's the thing: Traditional bar codes like this:

carry a lot of information, as you know if you've ever watched that pimply teenager scan your groceries. It tells what the product is, what size it is, and how much it costs, all based on what is essentially a serial number on each item.

Useful, but what if you wanted to put a buttload of OTHER information in there, like your company website, contact information, and any of an infinite number of other useful text items? Can't be done, or at least not without a barcode that inconveniently runs to several thousand characters.

So the Japanese, who are into this sort of thing, invented a so-called 2-dimensional barcode, which is to say that the information is contained in a matrix that reads two directions (up/down and left/right) the combination of which allows for a LOT more information to be encoded, not least of which is Japanese characters, if you're so inclined. That's what they call the QR code, or QR encoding.

It will allow you to embed V-Cards (phone/address cards) web sites, addresses, or text. The Japs have cuddled this to their little yellow techie hearts, and practically everyone there has an application on their smart-phones which will decode/translate this stuff. They have it on business cards (so you can just scan in the card information) on advertisements, on buildings, t-shirts (where something pretty shocking might be encoded, or it might just be a V-Card or website) and tattoos. All of it is instantly translatable/downloadable by just pointing a phone at it and taking a picture. They're nuts for this stuff.

Americans, on the other hand, seem to be a little slow on the draw.

Again.

I don't know why - and they DO seem to be coming up to speed rapidly.  This is actually some pretty cool tech, and you'll be seeing a lot more of it - SOON.  For example, you can decode the QR block on the right side of my page for information not contained on my profile, or the one in this post just to see how it works. Best application for it (IPhone anyhow) is QuickMark  Mobile Barcode Reader. If you're using something other than IPhone, there is/will be an app for it.

In Our Next Episode: I ruminate on hot geek girls. I LIKE hot geek girls.