From the article: Gavin Jancke, the Microsoft Research engineering director who developed the so-called High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB), said the aim was not to replace the current barcode system, called UPC. "It's more of a 'partner' barcode," he said. "The UPC barcodes will always be there. Ours is more of a niche barcode where you want to put a lot of information in a small space."
Of course, since this is/. we should all assume that the new barcode is just another phase of Microsoft's Plan of World Domination, right?
The gloriousness of CD's back int he 90s was that reguardless of the brand of player, location of it, and the age I could play my CD's on it.
Isn't that still the nice thing about CDs? Even in the age of iPods? If we actually buy CDs we can very easily convert the content to MP3s (yes, I know, there are the CDs with rootkits and DRM and so forth... but these are still the exception to the rule) and play them on your digital music player of choice. On top of that, you still have a physical product from which you can make new copies if your hard drive crashes. Plus you get artwork that's larger than 200x200 pixels. Oh yeah, and then you get to own something, rather than purchasing a bullshit license that drastically restricts your standard legal rights? It takes, what, three minutes to encode a full disc, and you get to make choices about bitrate and compression.
For all the bitching about DRM, there's a very simple solution. Buy CDs, or even vinyl. If you don't like iTunes DRM, then don't buy digital music from them.
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There's also an article about this over on BBC News with more information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570871.stm It appears it's not an attempt to replace the traditional UPC barcode.
/. we should all assume that the new barcode is just another phase of Microsoft's Plan of World Domination, right?
From the article:
Gavin Jancke, the Microsoft Research engineering director who developed the so-called High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB), said the aim was not to replace the current barcode system, called UPC. "It's more of a 'partner' barcode," he said. "The UPC barcodes will always be there. Ours is more of a niche barcode where you want to put a lot of information in a small space."
Of course, since this is
The gloriousness of CD's back int he 90s was that reguardless of the brand of player, location of it, and the age I could play my CD's on it.
Isn't that still the nice thing about CDs? Even in the age of iPods? If we actually buy CDs we can very easily convert the content to MP3s (yes, I know, there are the CDs with rootkits and DRM and so forth... but these are still the exception to the rule) and play them on your digital music player of choice. On top of that, you still have a physical product from which you can make new copies if your hard drive crashes. Plus you get artwork that's larger than 200x200 pixels. Oh yeah, and then you get to own something, rather than purchasing a bullshit license that drastically restricts your standard legal rights? It takes, what, three minutes to encode a full disc, and you get to make choices about bitrate and compression.
For all the bitching about DRM, there's a very simple solution. Buy CDs, or even vinyl. If you don't like iTunes DRM, then don't buy digital music from them.
LEDs on a plane? That's dangerous. If it flies over Boston, they might consider it a hoax device.