If these billions of products were instead marked up with 2D barcodes that provided the same unique identifier, that would be an even better situation, because the crummy cams on current mobile devices would have more success reading them. However, 2D barcodes aren't planned to be used that way. Instead, they're intended to push promotions and other vendor-supplied content at consumers. If you want to benefit from the "pull" model, your phone has to read Ye Olde Barcode from the 1970's.
Just because you can put a URL in a 2D barcode, that does not mean you can't put a simple text code there instead.
The whole point of my post is that it is pointless to build a database to 100% of data that can be accessed by only a limited percent of phone users - because it is based on only one kind of input.
Make it a 1D and 2D barcode database and you still have your 100% of data - AND a greater potential user base. PLUS you get the producers of all those products out there to start competing for not just only that small fraction of consumers that MAYBE have a compatible phone and that MAYBE buy and use their products - but ALL of the consumers with a camera phone (which is about 99.9% now) that buy and use their or similar products.
Product A has a 1D barcode, product B has both 1D and 2D barcodes. Along comes a user X that has a 99% chance of having a camera phone that can read 2D barcodes, but only 1-5% chance that it can read both 1D and 2D barcodes.
Which product has a better chance of relaying positive information about itself to the user X?
Ok... TFA pushes the idea for what would essentially be a product database. You scan the bar-code, it gets sent to the server, which returns useful data to you. OK... I can see how that should be useful to consumers as well as a hypothetical company that makes its living out of contextual commercials.
BUT... The TFA goes on and on about how it MUST be 1D barcodes and NOT 2D barcodes - despite the fact that 2D barcodes are easier to read for mobile phones because of redundancy and greater bandwidth. And since The New PhoneTM has the optics that can FINALLY read 1D barcodes - let us make a database that handles ONLY 1D barcodes. Cause... there is like a lot of them out there.
Hmm... how about this GROUND BREAKING idea I just had. Make the "killer app" capable of reading both 1D AAAND... wait for it... 2D barcodes. HA?! Isn't THAT fuckin' brilliant or what? At the cost of... umm... nothing... you get a "killer app" that works on The New PhoneTM AND all those phones out there already. Which it would be pretty stupid to just disregard. Cause... there is like a lot of them out there.
You are obviously in a state of a illusion of self sufficiency. I can tell, I've been there couple of times myself or seen others doing the same song and dance.
Like the time I dropped floppies entirely, removed the drive from my case and switched to CDs. Until I went to army and found most machines there virtual antiques with no optical drives at all. External zip drive came handy back then, and boy was I glad I didn't buy the new USB version sticking to the good old parallel port instead.
Or having to do on-site format/install of fresh copies of WinXP on PCs that were beyond saving from all the spyware and viruses and finding that SOMEONE decided to dump the floppy drive while including in the configuration a motherboard that requires additional SATA drivers during windows installation - to its one and only SATA HD. A spare floppy drive I lug around for such an similar cases came in handy.
Or when I think about all those wonderful boxes that simply REFUSE to boot from a USB drive.
One of my particular favorites was my bosses dream to go all Apple for all our computers. Which is hilarious since 99.999% of our customers were using Windows.
Or a friend of mine that collected a rather large number of movies and various TV series' episodes (including nearly all available Simpsons and South Park episodes) - in Real Movie format. They were "good enough". You can't notice the difference anyway. Its the story and jokes not the visual effects. Until he got an HD TV.
Are you also refusing to use DVDs because of the DRM and do you request you computer to be equipped with a CD burner AND ONLY a CD burner. Or do you still use floppies for your daily data disk needs?
You do realize that in about a year or two a BD burner will be as common as a DVD burner was a year or two ago?
It is not a straw man argument to suggest that, if the icon is childish then you should blame the creator and publisher of the original artwork, not the site that uses it.
Originally VW Beetle was created and built upon Hitler's request. Which didn't stop anyone to see it as a symbol of a antiwar and hippie generation. Symbol of freedom instead of oppression and genocide.
Now... with or without taking that in account - a one time "funny picture" on the cover of a business magazine and continuous everyday use of the same pic on tech geek site are nowhere near the same. Laughing with and laughing at someone. Said picture on the cover of The Economist can be even considered flattering - "Company that this man runs annihilates competition and it cannot be resisted." The same picture here means something else entirely. Evil empire, badguys, soulless drones... - workers and users alike. You could compare to the use of the word "nigger". Very different connotations depending on the skin color of the speaker.
And again... One time use for a humorous cover, compared to everyday malicious use for every MS topic.
And yet, if you go to any Apple or Linux story, you will find negative posts which make good points moderated to +5, while fanboy posts which contain no content are sitting at -1.
Well.. there ARE limited number of moderation points out there. Getting "negative posts" to -1 the moment they show up leaves no moderation points to lift those fanboy posts back up when someone knocks them down. And those get knocked down cause any thing that has fans also has haters and trolls - even on slashdot. And there is a significant difference between fans and fanboys - those two groups may not see eye to eye on every subject. Umm.. why am I explaining to you how a volatile subject can get (and it tends to) to extremes - in thoughts and words as well as in moderation.
In your first sentence, you take one example of a Linux user who doesn't feel irrational hatred towards Microsoft and then present zero examples of Linux users who do in order to argue your point.
What? I should start a list of anti-MS comments and -slashdotters? Not while there are large rocks that need pushing uphill, thank you very much. I gave an example of general way of thought here and you started dragging it off-topic to a talk about magazine covers and how "If its in Economist - then you must acquit". Smells a lot like straw to me.
It's been a few years since I last used a Microsoft product - I haven't been avoiding them especially, I've just been picking the best tool for the job, and it hasn't been Microsoft. I'm not a Linux fanboy either. The only things I own that run Linux are mobile devices that won't run anything else. I use a mixture of FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OS X because they are the best tools for their respective jobs. I use Keynote for presentations because it has a cleaner UI than PowerPoint (even though I grew up using PowerPoing). Most of my work involves editing text, and Microsoft don't have anything that competes with Vim for this, or anything that competes with LaTeX for typesetting (my book was written in Vim and typeset in LaTeX). I use graphviz or OmniGraffle for diagrams - I used Visio a bit before Microsoft bought it, and while it was nicer in some ways, it wasn't sufficiently better to justify the higher price.
To "set up a straw man," one describes a position that superficially resembles an opponent's actual view, yet is easier to refute, then attributes that position to the opponent.
I say: Borg icon is childish and fanboyish. You say: It was taken from the cover of a "very respected magazine that really smart people read". As its staff are not 9-year-old Linux fanboys (at least we don't associate them with it) - it can't be childish and fanboyish.
And I guess that is also the reason my post above was moderated -1 Overrated (later re-moderated to +1 Insightful by someone else who felt it was unjust moderation)? All that brotherly love and cooperation.:P
Do you perchance have that cover? Or a photo of it? I'd like to see it.
Now... as for staff of The Economist being Linux or any other kind of fanboys... Do they put childish 4chan-like photos of Bill Gates at the top of the article every time they mention Microsoft? No.. They represent a respectable publication. They don't act like nine-year-olds. Or at least they make an effort not to.
Do you by any chance see an icon of Linus Torvalds dressed as a penguin? Here on Slashdot. How about Richard Stallman dressed as a Bedouin, riding a gnu and waiving a katana? Or how about Steve Jobs in a form of a snake? (Garden of Eden... apple... get it?) Nope... none of those exist. Yet... When there is talk about Microsoft - there is the good old Bilgatus of Borg.
Oh... and BTW... mentioning the Economist above... that would be a straw man.
I think you'll find that the majority of Linux people on here aren't fanbois but computer techies who treat Linux as a useful tool to get stuff done in, just like any other OS.
I'm afraid that you are projecting a bit there. At least I hope that you are projecting and not just painting it pink.
Let us disregard for a moment that this is a topic where people ridicule Microsoft.
Take a look at the front page. The left side. Do you see a Microsoft section? How 'bout Apple? Linux? Now... take a look at this post's icon. Bill Gates as a Borg. Apple and Linux meanwhile have their regular logos.
This is Slashdot. It is a social norm to be a Linux fanboy and to a lesser extent an Apple fanboy while hating Microsoft, Bill Gates and everything they stand for. And the best part is - management promotes such behavior. Microsoft and Gates are evil, Apple is shiny and Linux is cute.
Its not a law (yet) but its a very good idea to keep in mind if you like posting above 0 level. Nothing kills karma faster than going to a Apple or Linux topic and suggesting that "it ain't that great". Sometimes, just asking is there something LIKE THAT which is talked about in the post can get you bad karma. This is Slashdot.
They are in plain sight. It ain't like Bushes did even a passable job of covering anything up.
They have their Texan and Saudi oil friends and their boom-boom industry buddies and they did very well for both of them. Choking civil liberties is just an added bonus.
Its not a secret Illuminati-like society ruling the world and hiding the Roswell aliens. Its a bunch of rich old fat white guys with a lot of money and lot more greed for more money.
So this bacteria might need x food, whereas its paint-resistant form might need x+3 food. If there's only x+3 food available to the bacteria, that's all it can do. It can't even reproduce because x+3 isn't enough for the cells to divide. Now, what if you slathered the wall with antibacterial soap? The bacteria would need to have soap-resistance at another +2 food, which isn't there.
And they say that video games are not educational...
You can't believe that the world would be better off with you dead - without giving yourself greater importance than EVERYTHING else in the world. You are SO bad for the ENTIRE UNIVERSE that your death will cause a sigh of relief across the all of the existence.
Hell yeah suicidal people are egotistic! They just express it differently than usually expected.
As for grateful... How about for being alive? Yes. Its a pain and a constant struggle but sure beats the alternative.
...that from the "managing" point of view their demand that "You should be using Dreamweaver. Everyone uses dreamweaver..." is the same as demanding the ability to "write the code to render "hello world" in C, html, php, and pull "hello world" from a MySQL database using a perl script"?
In other words: "Do it like we tell you/according to arbitrary standard." NOT, "Do the job right and in the most productive way".
From my personal experience, bosses with limited to advanced "tech experience" tend to stick to "the old ways" and old tools. For example, coding in C - never in C++, or using ancient compilers.
Bosses with advanced people skills on the other hand manage people - not the code or product that the said people are working on. Mediate between people in the team, steer in the right direction, and help in the communication along the company's and project's "chain of command". Managing code... that is YOUR job.
Slashdot Mirror
If these billions of products were instead marked up with 2D barcodes that provided the same unique identifier, that would be an even better situation, because the crummy cams on current mobile devices would have more success reading them. However, 2D barcodes aren't planned to be used that way. Instead, they're intended to push promotions and other vendor-supplied content at consumers. If you want to benefit from the "pull" model, your phone has to read Ye Olde Barcode from the 1970's.
Just because you can put a URL in a 2D barcode, that does not mean you can't put a simple text code there instead.
The whole point of my post is that it is pointless to build a database to 100% of data that can be accessed by only a limited percent of phone users - because it is based on only one kind of input.
Make it a 1D and 2D barcode database and you still have your 100% of data - AND a greater potential user base.
PLUS you get the producers of all those products out there to start competing for not just only that small fraction of consumers that MAYBE have a compatible phone and that MAYBE buy and use their products - but ALL of the consumers with a camera phone (which is about 99.9% now) that buy and use their or similar products.
Product A has a 1D barcode, product B has both 1D and 2D barcodes.
Along comes a user X that has a 99% chance of having a camera phone that can read 2D barcodes, but only 1-5% chance that it can read both 1D and 2D barcodes.
Which product has a better chance of relaying positive information about itself to the user X?
Ok... TFA pushes the idea for what would essentially be a product database.
You scan the bar-code, it gets sent to the server, which returns useful data to you.
OK... I can see how that should be useful to consumers as well as a hypothetical company that makes its living out of contextual commercials.
BUT... The TFA goes on and on about how it MUST be 1D barcodes and NOT 2D barcodes - despite the fact that 2D barcodes are easier to read for mobile phones because of redundancy and greater bandwidth.
And since The New PhoneTM has the optics that can FINALLY read 1D barcodes - let us make a database that handles ONLY 1D barcodes.
Cause... there is like a lot of them out there.
Hmm... how about this GROUND BREAKING idea I just had.
Make the "killer app" capable of reading both 1D AAAND... wait for it... 2D barcodes.
HA?! Isn't THAT fuckin' brilliant or what?
At the cost of... umm... nothing... you get a "killer app" that works on The New PhoneTM AND all those phones out there already.
Which it would be pretty stupid to just disregard.
Cause... there is like a lot of them out there.
He landed safely at Dover.
It took him about 10 minutes to cross the channel, and about 2-3 more to land.
And here... we... GO!
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8362/bscap007mq8.jpg
What was it again? Wrong copy went to print by accident or...?
National Geographic Channel will be having a live coverage of the event.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/flight-of-the-jet-man-3757/Overview
... to reverse the polarity.
You are obviously in a state of a illusion of self sufficiency. I can tell, I've been there couple of times myself or seen others doing the same song and dance.
Like the time I dropped floppies entirely, removed the drive from my case and switched to CDs.
Until I went to army and found most machines there virtual antiques with no optical drives at all.
External zip drive came handy back then, and boy was I glad I didn't buy the new USB version sticking to the good old parallel port instead.
Or having to do on-site format/install of fresh copies of WinXP on PCs that were beyond saving from all the spyware and viruses and finding that SOMEONE decided to dump the floppy drive while including in the configuration a motherboard that requires additional SATA drivers during windows installation - to its one and only SATA HD.
A spare floppy drive I lug around for such an similar cases came in handy.
Or when I think about all those wonderful boxes that simply REFUSE to boot from a USB drive.
One of my particular favorites was my bosses dream to go all Apple for all our computers.
Which is hilarious since 99.999% of our customers were using Windows.
Or a friend of mine that collected a rather large number of movies and various TV series' episodes (including nearly all available Simpsons and South Park episodes) - in Real Movie format.
They were "good enough". You can't notice the difference anyway. Its the story and jokes not the visual effects.
Until he got an HD TV.
Exactly!
As for DRM... People have been making BluRay MKV rips for years now.
Now if only they gave up that region crap in entirety...
Are you also refusing to use DVDs because of the DRM and do you request you computer to be equipped with a CD burner AND ONLY a CD burner.
Or do you still use floppies for your daily data disk needs?
You do realize that in about a year or two a BD burner will be as common as a DVD burner was a year or two ago?
It is not a straw man argument to suggest that, if the icon is childish then you should blame the creator and publisher of the original artwork, not the site that uses it.
Originally VW Beetle was created and built upon Hitler's request.
Which didn't stop anyone to see it as a symbol of a antiwar and hippie generation. Symbol of freedom instead of oppression and genocide.
Now... with or without taking that in account - a one time "funny picture" on the cover of a business magazine and continuous everyday use of the same pic on tech geek site are nowhere near the same.
Laughing with and laughing at someone.
Said picture on the cover of The Economist can be even considered flattering - "Company that this man runs annihilates competition and it cannot be resisted."
The same picture here means something else entirely. Evil empire, badguys, soulless drones... - workers and users alike.
You could compare to the use of the word "nigger". Very different connotations depending on the skin color of the speaker.
And again... One time use for a humorous cover, compared to everyday malicious use for every MS topic.
And yet, if you go to any Apple or Linux story, you will find negative posts which make good points moderated to +5, while fanboy posts which contain no content are sitting at -1.
Well.. there ARE limited number of moderation points out there.
Getting "negative posts" to -1 the moment they show up leaves no moderation points to lift those fanboy posts back up when someone knocks them down.
And those get knocked down cause any thing that has fans also has haters and trolls - even on slashdot.
And there is a significant difference between fans and fanboys - those two groups may not see eye to eye on every subject.
Umm.. why am I explaining to you how a volatile subject can get (and it tends to) to extremes - in thoughts and words as well as in moderation.
In your first sentence, you take one example of a Linux user who doesn't feel irrational hatred towards Microsoft and then present zero examples of Linux users who do in order to argue your point.
What? I should start a list of anti-MS comments and -slashdotters? Not while there are large rocks that need pushing uphill, thank you very much.
I gave an example of general way of thought here and you started dragging it off-topic to a talk about magazine covers and how "If its in Economist - then you must acquit".
Smells a lot like straw to me.
It's been a few years since I last used a Microsoft product - I haven't been avoiding them especially, I've just been picking the best tool for the job, and it hasn't been Microsoft. I'm not a Linux fanboy either. The only things I own that run Linux are mobile devices that won't run anything else. I use a mixture of FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OS X because they are the best tools for their respective jobs. I use Keynote for presentations because it has a cleaner UI than PowerPoint (even though I grew up using PowerPoing). Most of my work involves editing text, and Microsoft don't have anything that competes with Vim for this, or anything that competes with LaTeX for typesetting (my book was written in Vim and typeset in LaTeX). I use graphviz or OmniGraffle for diagrams - I used Visio a bit before Microsoft bought it, and while it was nicer in some ways, it wasn't sufficiently better to justify the higher price.
Good for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
To "set up a straw man," one describes a position that superficially resembles an opponent's actual view, yet is easier to refute, then attributes that position to the opponent.
I say: Borg icon is childish and fanboyish.
You say: It was taken from the cover of a "very respected magazine that really smart people read". As its staff are not 9-year-old Linux fanboys (at least we don't associate them with it) - it can't be childish and fanboyish.
What would YOU call that?
Riiight...
And I guess that is also the reason my post above was moderated -1 Overrated (later re-moderated to +1 Insightful by someone else who felt it was unjust moderation)? :P
All that brotherly love and cooperation.
Do you perchance have that cover? Or a photo of it? I'd like to see it.
Now... as for staff of The Economist being Linux or any other kind of fanboys...
Do they put childish 4chan-like photos of Bill Gates at the top of the article every time they mention Microsoft?
No.. They represent a respectable publication. They don't act like nine-year-olds. Or at least they make an effort not to.
Do you by any chance see an icon of Linus Torvalds dressed as a penguin? Here on Slashdot.
How about Richard Stallman dressed as a Bedouin, riding a gnu and waiving a katana?
Or how about Steve Jobs in a form of a snake? (Garden of Eden... apple... get it?)
Nope... none of those exist.
Yet... When there is talk about Microsoft - there is the good old Bilgatus of Borg.
Oh... and BTW... mentioning the Economist above... that would be a straw man.
I think you'll find that the majority of Linux people on here aren't fanbois but computer techies who treat Linux as a useful tool to get stuff done in, just like any other OS.
I'm afraid that you are projecting a bit there. At least I hope that you are projecting and not just painting it pink.
Let us disregard for a moment that this is a topic where people ridicule Microsoft.
Take a look at the front page. The left side.
Do you see a Microsoft section? How 'bout Apple? Linux?
Now... take a look at this post's icon. Bill Gates as a Borg.
Apple and Linux meanwhile have their regular logos.
This is Slashdot.
It is a social norm to be a Linux fanboy and to a lesser extent an Apple fanboy while hating Microsoft, Bill Gates and everything they stand for.
And the best part is - management promotes such behavior.
Microsoft and Gates are evil, Apple is shiny and Linux is cute.
Its not a law (yet) but its a very good idea to keep in mind if you like posting above 0 level.
Nothing kills karma faster than going to a Apple or Linux topic and suggesting that "it ain't that great".
Sometimes, just asking is there something LIKE THAT which is talked about in the post can get you bad karma.
This is Slashdot.
...does not use that form of marketing preferred calculation... you insensitive clod!
They are in plain sight.
It ain't like Bushes did even a passable job of covering anything up.
They have their Texan and Saudi oil friends and their boom-boom industry buddies and they did very well for both of them.
Choking civil liberties is just an added bonus.
Its not a secret Illuminati-like society ruling the world and hiding the Roswell aliens.
Its a bunch of rich old fat white guys with a lot of money and lot more greed for more money.
Like that mythical 2$ gallon of gas?
Crude oil going for 60$ a barrel?
Lies! It was NEVER that cheap!
Dick Cheney and the likes on the other hand haven't gained anything either.
Four more years?
Patriot act to control the peasants?
High oil prices? So what? America doesn't prosper from that at all.
Some rich fat Americans in Texas probably had to be sedated cause all that excitement over a 4$ a gallon price was bad for them.
9/11 happened because it was to much of an effort NOT to have a war.
Wait...wha... WHAT?
"Wouldn't you like to be alive?"
The silence of their approval was deafening.
I still can't hear very well with my right ear because of that.
So this bacteria might need x food, whereas its paint-resistant form might need x+3 food. If there's only x+3 food available to the bacteria, that's all it can do. It can't even reproduce because x+3 isn't enough for the cells to divide. Now, what if you slathered the wall with antibacterial soap? The bacteria would need to have soap-resistance at another +2 food, which isn't there.
And they say that video games are not educational...
... to start thinking about the casting for the "Infinite Jest - the movie"?
I mean... Angelina and Brad are not getting any younger...
P.S. Yes. I am joking. Dark humor and stuff like that.
You can't believe that the world would be better off with you dead - without giving yourself greater importance than EVERYTHING else in the world.
You are SO bad for the ENTIRE UNIVERSE that your death will cause a sigh of relief across the all of the existence.
Hell yeah suicidal people are egotistic!
They just express it differently than usually expected.
As for grateful... How about for being alive?
Yes. Its a pain and a constant struggle but sure beats the alternative.
...that from the "managing" point of view their demand that "You should be using Dreamweaver. Everyone uses dreamweaver..." is the same as demanding the ability to "write the code to render "hello world" in C, html, php, and pull "hello world" from a MySQL database using a perl script"?
In other words: "Do it like we tell you/according to arbitrary standard."
NOT, "Do the job right and in the most productive way".
From my personal experience, bosses with limited to advanced "tech experience" tend to stick to "the old ways" and old tools.
For example, coding in C - never in C++, or using ancient compilers.
Bosses with advanced people skills on the other hand manage people - not the code or product that the said people are working on.
Mediate between people in the team, steer in the right direction, and help in the communication along the company's and project's "chain of command".
Managing code... that is YOUR job.