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Hyperlinks In The Meat World
Once&FutureRocketman writes "The New York Times has this article (no login required) about a technology that allows publishers of paper media to embed hyperlinks directly in the article in machine-readable format. The system is a little clumsy at this point, but the intent is clear: a seamless integration of the Internet and Real Life."
It seems like this is:
(a) archaic (I remember barcode programs from the days of Commodore & Vegetable Games)
Huh? Sure barcodes have been around for a while. There`s a reason: they work. The latest barcode technology I've seen isn't really a barcode, but rather a 2D bitmap. (There`s one on my stick of deoderant.) That way you can increase the information density. (This bitmap is about
Just because a technology has been around for a long time, doesn't automatically make it archaic, I submit:
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(b) prone to errors (even barcodes on TV guides are little more than a cute gimic) and
This can be fixed by high-definition printing. It`s simply an engineering problem.
(c) entirely the wrong way round.
What would be better, then? What about thin plastic newspapers, using that fluid LCD technology that got posted a while back?
Yeah, I'll don my crash helmet and aluminium foil jumpsuit, jump in my atomic powered hovercar and go out and pick one up.
Yes having flexible color screens that can be folded (just imagine the paper airplanes!) and bound would be idea;; but this is 2000. They don't exist in any meaningful way yet (by "meaningful", I mean "commercial ready at a damn cheap price"). If you want to have offline links, you have to go with what's available today. Barcodes and webcams are it.
Personally I like the barcode idea better than the webcam idea. By holding up a page infront of a cammera, there's no way to have multiple links on a page. Sure you could look for the hand, and then the finger, or have the user point with a flourescent orange pencil, but these solutiions either take too long or are awkward. (I have a hard enough time keeping track of my palm stylus, I don't want to have to search my apartment for another stylus whenever I want to read a magazine.)
The problem with barcodes is you need extra hardware, but that`s pretty much inescapable. Now if this technology was implimented in say a PDA, then you'd have something.
What goes around comes around. At least this time the implementation is a bit better. What am I talking about? Well...
... The SoftStrip was heralded as the distribution method of the future! ... MacUser began printing the Softstrips right in the magazine. Everyone waited. Publishers waited for people to begin buying the SoftStrip readers before publishing the Strips, and users waited for the Strips to be published before buying a Reader.
In the late 1980's, there was a device called the Cauzin Softstrip Reader. As told in MacWorld Macintosh Secrets:
A softstrip was a one-inch-wide strip of printed computer dots, looking like the tire tracks from a [toy truck]. You'd buy a $250 Soft-Strip reader - something that looked like a footlong flourescent light bulb in a plastic hot dog bun - and place it carefully over the page where the strip was printed. Slowly, the Reader would turn the strip into about a 3k file on the Mac's disk.
Needless to say, the device was slow and doomed, and perished not long after. Of course, we're not trying to distribute files this time around...
The peer and editor-reviewed printed word doesn't have enough clarity and depth, so here's a list of links! That TV show doesn't have enough action, so here's a link to a Flash animation! And all you have to do is drag your magazine/newspaper/big-screen TV over to that Dell on your desk!
Thanks, guys -- I really didn't have anything better to do with my serial or USB port. This kind of computing is invasive, not pervasive.
"When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood."
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
For anyone that's interested there's another article about this on Wired. I found it on kuro5hin 3 days ago. I just stopped by there the for first time a couple days ago--very cool site for tech news junkies.
I rarely go to web sites I read about in print or see on TV because most of the time they don't point you directly to the content you want. I always pictured a cheap pen reader hooked to a USB port a good method of getting the URL from paper to the computer. If a web cam can do it that's great, but it will have to be fairly reliable. This technology will be great for business cards too. Especially if you can encode all the printed data on a business card into the barcode.
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(a) archaic (I remember barcode programs from the days of Commodore & Vegetable Games)
(b) prone to errors (even barcodes on TV guides are little more than a cute gimic) and
(c) entirely the wrong way round.
What would be better, then? What about thin plastic newspapers, using that fluid LCD technology that got posted a while back?
Instead of scanning in the URL, you simply press the newspaper in at that point, and it changes to show the contents of that site.
I don't see the problem with that - it'd be cheaper than printing a whole load of newspapers, whilst still giving the "authentic" newspaper L&F. It would also allow newspapers to include breaking stories WITHOUT having to stop the presses.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
They're planning on giving away all of their barcode readers to millions of people. Software for the machine is small and free as well.
Not only will DigitalConvergence's reader read 'special' bar codes, it will read *any* bar code. Imagine linking your bag of chips to see if you instantly won something. This means that the *billions* of products allready on the market with barcode technology are instantly linked to the web. All you need is the database and the method to transfer it to your webbrowser (which, btw, is how the software works. It does some quick two-way comm for the url, and then shoots a location to the browser. Not any worse of a piece of software than WinAmp, RealAudio, etc).
Same thing with the audio technology. All is free with wireless products planned as well (TV in one room, Computer in another).
The possibilities are endless. I don't mean to sound preachy, but I've actually seen it work.
I used to work for DigitalConvergence.com... I was the one who wrote the piece of software they are currently using (still pre-production) that translates the barcode id into a web address. As a matter of fact it is Apache with a mod_perl interface to a memory-resident database (loaded at boot time via MySQL).
:)
The interesting thing about all this including the system that we developed to change "sound tones" into urls is the slashdot effect produced on DCV's servers and on the end clients servers as well.
Imagine watching a large sporting event and all of a sudden a "blip-blip" sounds on the tv, your computer is connected and listening and all of a sudden you and 1,000,000 other people are all instantly trying to connect to the same batch of servers (or many batches of servers!) all over the world. That's a mess and was one of the things I was dealing with before I left.
Even with the transactions down to 150bytes both ways that's a LOT of traffic, not to mention the traffic on the end-client's site.
It's an interesting idea and I hope they pull it off. I'm glad I'm a stockholder.
this technology allows traditional media (okay, forget about the imperfectness of the system for a moment) to become part of the docuverse. this allows for Nelson's concept of "transclusion" to happen. Basically, transclusion is a way for the integrity of original materials to be maintained. for instance, quotes can often be taken out of context in a journalistic article. transclusion would allow the quote to be linked to the full text. okay, that may not sound so amazing, but for an information junkie like me, it's useful.
there's another important aspect of transclusion Nelson talks about that some other posters touched on - automated royalty payments. if you follow a link, a centralized system can track you and automatically charge you (or the author of the article) for use of their original material.
transclusion
ted nelson
Hey, this would fit perfectly if you integrated a bar code scanner into a wireless PalmPilot - a quick scan of the newspaper (or whatever), and then the mini-web page pops up on your PalmPilot for further mastication.
Seems to me that your uses (and the ones in the article, and the ones others have posted) are innovative and exciting applications... of the Web. I don't understand how they're enhanced by the use of a code that allows the computer to read the location itself. Perhaps I'm too hardcore to understand the average user, but is it really that painful to type in a URL?
I suppose one advantage of non-human-readable links is that it might reduce the value of domain-name squatting. . .
- Michael Cohn
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Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Forgive me for asking this question, as I have been up all night working on a term paper, but ...
What the hell does this have to do with meat?
Maybe I'm just tired and confused, and I can't figure it out. I just can't see the connection between this story and butchered animals. Systematically butchered and processed animals, for that matter. If somebody could please help me out here, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Cross (makers of pens with three-or-more-digit price tags) makes writing pads that are a step towards smart paper; look here. The technology they use is a few years old, licensed from IBM. I believe they're also priced sub-$200.
"uh, yeah... i'd like to... integreate myself..."
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Details at eleven...
They describe it as a barcode type of data. Barcodes are VERY cool, can be printed out on any printer (or even written, if you know the characters). There are wands available that are passthroughs for your keyboard. With a properly written application (and some creative codes) you can do some real nifty things....
I wonder if they'll use the barcodes to track readers who view certain ads, articles, etc. Maybe they just licensed the old PIII serial # technology after Intel "abandoned" it and decided to make a newspaper form...hehe. At any rate, I doubt it'll be successful. Who (excluding us, of course ;) would want to scan a barcode every time they wanted to visit a webpage related to the article?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...now we are going to see newspapers that look like this.
One Microsoft Way
My plan is to pimp before they realize I'm a jackass. Hit 'em hard and fast.
Vannevar Bush's device he described in his article "As We May Think" from 1945.
Read about it here
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
This sounds like the stupidest thing I can think of.
Okay, so I have to have my webcam (windows only I am sure) hooked up then I have to hold the page up to the camera and hope that I have it focused properly and in the camera's view. Egads!
I remember back in the early 80s this one outfit had this barcode reader and "magazine" for the Atari 800 series of computers. You got your magazine, then swiped the barcode reader across everything, then you got to use the wonderful (ha!) software they wrote. But there was no way to save the software you just spent 20 minutes barcoding, so if you ever wanted to use the program again, you had to go through the same process. The thing sold for like $150 back then. I think the whole thing folded after a few months.
This thing sounds just as useful to me....
Replace "partners" with "www" in the URL to get the special Login Required version:
Like so.
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As some of you so rightly pointed out, it would be tough and expensive to do. However, it *is* still possible to do - and if a publisher did this one time a year for say, Time Magazine, or once every few years for something like Wired, the economics would be a lot easier to deal with.
After reading everyone's comments to my post, I do agree with the fellow who suggested that it would most likely just be easier to make the user enter their identifying stuff themselves.
The problem as I really see it is that this contributes to a loss of privacy a lot better and faster than even Doubleclick.net could hope for. What a field day this is going to become for Madison Avenue.
Let me give you a little insight as to how the lithographic printing process works: a series of copper/aluminum plates are etched to varying degrees representing the amount ink they will hold. There are four plates per page: one for cyan, one for magenta, one for yellow, one for black. These plates then functions as big "stamps" that stamp a piece of paper with their respective color ink. To make magazines like wired, these plates stamp up and down several times a second on a moving piece of paper. You've all seen those classic shots of the newspaper press and the single, long strip of paper hauling ass through it. Same idea. Then it's chopped into pages and bound.
The idea here is that it is functionally impossible to customize or personalize the barcodes. Each plate produces many thousands of copies per hour, and they are all for the most part exactly the same - they all come from the same generic stamp. It would be impossible to alter the plates in some way from issue to issue, especially when you are on a tight print schedule and must literally crank out several million issues in the span of a day or two. First, the plates cost a ton of money to make, and the average issue of Wired already has (number of pages x 4) of them - ~800? Second, it's totally impractical. It would cost tons of money and would take the magazine weeks to come out. Neither is acceptable.
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I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Same for hyperlinks embedded in TV signals as sounds; your cable set-top box can add a unique code to the signals. You can be directly presented with a "Click here to buy this product and bill it directly to your cable bill/credit card" page...
Scary.
The article talkes about tiny "smudegs" of mineature UPC that are no larger than a U.S. penny. I'm wondering what's going to happen when the printing press smears that. I don't know about your local newspaper, but mine often has pages that are diffcult to read because if ink smears/runs/blots/etc. I would think that you'd need a very percise printing process to make this work reliably.
-- TravisM
Barcodes? Ha! I've got this neat little chip implanted in my hand - it tells me, via a color-coded display embedded in my palm, exactly how long I have to live!
Hmm, it seems to be blinking red. That's not right! I have more time! No, not yet! Wait!!!!
-Denor
In other news today, "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" announced his intention to change his name to "|| || | || || | || || ||", as part of a marketing deal with online CD retailers, which will allow readers to buy || || | || || | || || ||'s records simply by scanning in his name.
Said one recording industry spokesman, "We look applaud Mr. || || | || || | || || ||'s move to make it easier for consumers to purchase his CDs". Sources claim that such industry pressure is behind the recent name changes of such young stars as Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera to "|| | || || || || || | ||" and "|| || || | || | ||| | ||". Representatives for Ms. || | || || || || || | || denied the claims, while Ms. || || || | || | ||| | || was unavailable for comment.
Reading the article, I a number of thoughts crossed my mind, most of them revolving around possible additional uses of the technology indicated:
* Allergy information on food -- I have allergies to several foods, many of which are life threatening. However, many of them are quantity based -- I can eat a small amount without getting sick, etc. I'd like to see a small handreader that could read a barcode similar to the above, and would instantly display exactly HOW MUCH of each ingrediant there is.
* Movies - Link me instantly to several online reviews, baby!
* Games - One swipe of the barcode, and my PDA will tell me what the latest version is, patches that are available, all retrieved online as I stand waiting in line at Future Shop, purchase in hand.
* Medical Information - RE: Allergies, (Above) I also wear a Medical Alert bracelet -- it lists all my allergies on it. What I would like to see is also have a little link that somebody could use to get emergency treatment information on the fly.
Does anybody else have any ideas?
.- CitizenC (User Info)
Ahhh, yes, the Softstrip. MacUser's 1986 Eddy Award winner for Most Innovative Concept. No, seriously (check near the bottom of the page)
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
All this stuff requires software to decode the barcodes. Has anyone considered what could be done with this?
Each hyperlink could very easily be traced back to a person. For example, the article mentions that Wired is thinking of using this system. Well, Wired wants (or wanted, I don't know for sure now because I dropped my subscription a long time ago) more money for a subscription for a business than from an individual because more people would be reading it.
So, along with the URL you imbed in this barcode, you also imbed a unique ID. Who's gonna know, right? Well, the software is gonna be closed source, I am sure, so who would know. Anyway, the software sees this and says "UID 4738925867 wants to go to slashdot.org from piece of software 583735". Well, I give my copy of Wired to my dad to read, he wants to go to the same url.
"UID 4738925867 wants to go to slashdot.org from piece of software 483902". A few days later I go to my mailbox and there is a bill in there from Wired magazine wanting me to now pay the business rate for a subscription.
Maybe I am just being a bit paranoid here, but after seeing the doubleclick thing, the stupid looking webpage cursor that tracks you thing, the TiVo thing, etc., I see no other reason for these "Great Convienences" that are being promised to us other than for marketers and ad execs to get their mits on yet more information about us.
Rob and Pater, take note of this idea...
Anyway, I submitted an "Ask slashdot" about the same concept being used as a replacement for PDF just yesterday. Markup language generally does a good job being rendered onscreen, and the print formatting is getting better. PDF is almost invariably unpleasant to read without being printed.
One thing markup lacks over PDF is the ability to embed content -- if there was a way to do such a thing, PDF would be a thing of the past.
Microsoft has already done this somewhat, in what they alternately call "Compiled HTML" when used in helpfiles, or a "Web Archive" when all the contents of a web page are saved in a single file. It appears to be nothing more than a gzip of all the files that compose the page, with some built in referential integrity.
My question was whether any attempt to fully reverse engineer this or a completely different format to accomplish this had been made, so I guess this is the answer...
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