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It’s pretty damn cool to see QR codes (finally) skyrocketing in popularity here in the ‘States. I’ve been seeing them all over the place – in magazines, on signs and displays, winking from TV commercials, backing people’s business cards, even on bumper stickers. Unfortunately, as is usually the case as any new technology makes its way into the worlds of marketing and advertising, there are bound to be some people who get the “You’re doin’ it wrong” stamp. It’s to these ambitious QR code rookies that this post is dedicated: avoid the following pitfalls, and I’ll wager your QR code campaigns will go a lot better…

1. It doesn’t help if we can’t scan it!  It’s great that you’ve got an awesome web link with lots of data values hanging off the end, and maybe a nice long tracking ID, and that you’ve turned it into a QR code. The problem is, that code is probably 20 to 30 blocks on-a-side, and unless a user gets right next to it and holds their phone at just the right angle, they won’t be able to scan it. One of our local realtors has taken a liking to just this approach – convert a long, convoluted link into an extremely-detailed QR code, then print it about 4 inches tall and plop it on top of the sign. Most people will see it as a gray square, and the few that do recognize it as a QR code will have to get out of their cars and walk up to it. Congratulations – you’ve provided exactly the same value as the paper flyers stuffed into the box down below. The solution: If you must use a web link that’s 2 miles long, pass it through a URL shortening service like Bit.ly or Goo.gl. In addition to a nice, simple, QR code that doesn’t have to be in spitting distance to scan, you’ll get the click-through counters and analytics that those services provide out of the box.
    
2. Keep it mobile! Few practices in advertising get under my skin more than a QR code that redirects me to a company’s old-fashioned home page. The only way these QR codes are going to be scanned is using a mobile device – most likely a smartphone or tablet. So don’t dump me to your boring, slow-to-load, optimized-for-1280-pixel-screens home page. You know I’m going to be visiting from a mobile device, so send me to a mobile web page that my device can consume. If I have to double-tap, pinch-zoom, scroll around or squint to see the page you’re sending me to, chances are my interaction with you is going to end almost immediately after I scan your code.
    
3. Consider the context! QR codes are great, but there are some places and times where even the staunchest techie will admit they don’t work all that well. It’s really hard to scan a QR code in a dimly-lit room. Same goes for scanning from a moving car or aboard a bouncing bus. But my favorite example is the web link QR code (a long, convoluted link, of course) proudly displayed on a NYC subway car. Yay! You’ve given me a link! On a subway car where there’s no freakin’ data service! Unless that train car happens to go above-ground (which, I admit, does happen occasionally in the outer boroughs) I can’t even visit the site you want to share with me, let alone take any action on it. Which leads me to…
    
4. There’s more to QR codes than URLs! It’s exceedingly rare that I encounter a QR code that contains anything but a web link (a.k.a. a URL). But there are lots more things you can stuff into a QR code! A quick look at the options on the ZXing QR Code Generator indicates you can store calendar events, geographic locations, e-mail addresses, contact info, or even just raw text. Mobile devices know what to do with these different types of codes – scanning the QR code on the back of my business card, for instance, will net you all my encoded contact info that you can pull into your device’s address book with one click. That NYC subway ad – which was for a classical music concert – would have been much more useful as a calendar event code: let me save it to my device’s calendar, then I can take action on it later, when I’m back in cell service or sitting at my home PC.
    
5. Make it worth our while! The bottom line and end goal for any ad campaign is to convince the viewer to take action. When you put a QR code in your visuals, you’ve already got your audience taking action – we’re scanning the code! So once we’ve done that, don’t just send us to the company’s home page, or to some boring campaign-specific landing page. Offer some value add. Macy’s hit the nail on the head with this one – their latest in-store campaign offers QR codes that link you to various web videos featuring designers offering fashion advice. Considering QR code early adopters (read: geeks like me) are probably the most likely to need such advice, this is pretty brilliant. Kidding aside, in a huge field of boring QR codes, Macy’s offers a post-scan experience that’s interesting and engaging, and tied directly to the products you’re browsing through and (if they’ve played their cards right) about to carry over to the cash register.

(Happy Earth Day everyone…)

Occasionally, staunch environmentalists make a good point or two. But in many cases, despite their enthusiasm for the term “sustainability”, they’re just not willing to look at the big picture. Case in point? Greenpeace recently released a scorecard for the “green-ness” of datacenters operated by the world’s cloud computing behemoths. Here it is:

“So what’s the problem?” you might ask… According to a Greenpeace quote highlighted by Boy Genius Report, everyone’s favorite eco-terrorism troupe based their siting scores on the typical sources of electricity for the states where the datacenters are located. But if we’re going to talk genuine “sustainability” (which, by the way, eco-nuts are completely uninterested in) then you’ve got to consider a lot more factors than just the makeup of the power grid sources in a particular host state.

If we take a look at an infographic from the ever-so-transparently-named CoolerPlanet, we can see just how “green” the electricity sources in each US state are:

So greener is always better, right? Not necessarily. Greenpeace specifically bad-mouthed Apple for choosing to locate its newest datacenter in North Carolina, where the energy supply is notoriously un-green. But what were their alternatives? A California site would expose the datacenter to earthquake risks – and I’m sure your neighborhood Greenpeace operative isn’t keen on downtime for their favorite iDevice. Coastal Texas isn’t really an option due to the risk of severe weather. That leaves inland Texas, the Pacific Northwest, and New York.

“Great, relocate there!” say our tree-hugging friends. Not so fast – remember that inland Texas can throw down a wicked heat gauntlet in the summer, while Oregon, Washington and New York get downright frigid in the winters. The DOE estimates that almost half of a typical datacenter’s energy consumption is used for climate control – what happens to that number when the ambient temperature is well over 100°F? Or -10°F? Suddenly, choosing a comfortably-temperate and relatively disaster-free state like North Carolina or Virginia – despite the un-greenness of their energy supplies – doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. I’m sure the stewards of these datacenters would much rather not use as much as 10X the total energy – along with all it’s concomitant transmission inefficiencies – and keep their overall consumption low.

When you start factoring in second-order causes and effects – such as the environmental impact of pulling power, water, fiber and vehicle conduits into remote places, landfill and recycling capacities, employee commute emissions, construction impact – the sites that Apple, Google, Facebook and others have chosen start to look even better. As is almost always the case, monovariatic analysis in pursuit of a pre-selected conclusion falls flat on its face when a bigger-picture view is considered.

Unfortunately, datacenters consume a lot of energy. Choosing their sites carefully – not only based on energy sources but also based on consumption – can reduce this. The people whose jobs, reputations and employers’ solvency are on the line have no choice but to look at the big picture. Ultimately the true solution for Greenpeace’s gripes is likely for them (and the rest of us) to give up their iPhones and App Stores – but then – how would they coordinate their naval blocades, nuclear power plant break-ins and cargo ship boardings?

…that I think we can all agree on:

For the last year – including recently, thanks to special a couple of special elections – politicians and their TV and radio ads have been telling us how much trouble New York State is in. Apparently, well over a million people left last year, and from what I hear we’ve got a deficit that puts us pretty high on the list of states that, well, have big deficits. Our new governor, despite the “D” that follows his name, is proposing some pretty steep cuts in his forthcoming budget, which supposedly needs to be passed by April 1st, or (horror of horrors) the state might have to shut down. If it does somehow pass, I’m sure we’ll be left with a lot of pissed-off special interests who’ll gladly spend what’s left of their money baiting public sympathy on the airwaves.

And yet, somehow, our elected representatives have managed to make sure that budget contains over a million clams that are earmarked for the state’s desperately-needy “racino” facilities!

I know first-hand that doing business in New York state is hard. Nobody’s out there wheelbarrowing money to “Impact Aid” programs for companies that innovate and invent. Meanwhile, consider the racino business model: basically customers show up, pay to play some games, and in nearly every case leave with less money than they walked in with. Winning – and therefore cost – is stochastic and controllable. So that basically boils down to owning a business where your customers come in, hand you some money, and leave. And yet somehow, these places need taxpayer subsidies?!

At the lowest level, I’m not sure why racinos shouldn’t have to play by the rules the rest of us on the big New York state business playground have to follow. If you can’t keep the lights on with customers giving you money in exchange for a few minutes with a video poker game, you should close. Which brings me to the larger point, which is purely a matter of my opinion… The honorable senator Nozollio says that subsidies for racinos are important because the racinos create jobs. But for every job they create, how many people’s livelihoods do they impact negatively by providing a convenient place to gamble? And for every dollar that flows into the racinos in the form of the “Impact Aid” program, how many more go into those games out of people’s taxpayer-funded subsidy checks?

It’s one thing for a “racino” to stand on its own two feet, operating as a sustainable business, providing jobs and what all-too-often passes for “entertainment”. But when the state starts writing big checks to that racino out of my tax dollars, someone’s priorities are badly misplaced.

Word on the street today is that the Redmond Behemoth that most folks love to hate has managed to “tag” upwards of 2 billion real-world objects with it’s colorful 2-dimensional bar codes… Hmm – last I knew, a tag was a territory marker that gang members left with spray paint. But I digress…

Personally, I think being able to point your phone at something and learn more about it is pretty cool, especially if doing so makes life easier or faster. That’s why I have a QR Code on the back of my business card – if you scan it, not only do you get a bunch of information about me, but you can also automagically drop that information into your phone’s contact list. In case you haven’t seen one around, QR Codes look like this:

Despite the rather troublesome relationship that Microsoft has with Android, they still want the growing Droid army to be able to consume their tags – so they’ve been nice enough to release an Android app that decodes them. And that’s where things get dicey. You see, when I install the open-source Barcode Scanner app on my phone – which reads QR Codes – it doesn’t ask for much. Internet access is an understandable request, in case the QR Code contains a web address; otherwise the list of permissions is pretty ho-hum. But when I look at what Microsoft wants? Not only do they want Internet access – which, in a closed-source app, could be used for good or mischief – they also want access to my fine-grained GPS location, permission to send and view text messages, and a free pass to view what accounts are set up on my phone. Last time I checked, that stuff isn’t necessary to convert a bunch of colored triangles into something I can use.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a lot more QR Codes in my occasional excursions into the real world than I have Microsoft Tags. Recent sightings have included store displays at Best Buy, banners at the Rochester Jazz Festival, as well as TV, magazine and public transit ads. For all the billions of Microsoft tags that are supposedly swarming around us, I haven’t seen any – and I’m perfectly content to continue ignoring them if Microsoft’s keen to get their hands on my Android phone’s innards.

[Image: MSDN]

Rarely, in the gargantuan literary spittoon of the Internet and the “blogosphere”, I find someone who has said something that I really wanted to say, except in far greater form and with a better vocabulary. When it comes to expressing my frustration in web-culture’s obsession with oversharing, Mark Dery might as well have taken a transcript of my occasional, staccato, minimally-informed and poorly-constructed thoughts on the matter, reduced them to assembly-language and reverse-engineered them into a gorgeous, scathing prosaic treasure.

You can read it here: Have We No Sense of Decency, Sir, at Long Last?: On Adult Diapers, Erectile Dysfunction, and Other Joys of Oversharing

Of course, the fact that Dery’s indictment of oversharing is itself shared by way of weblog, as is my breathless endorsement thereof, isn’t without a passing wisp of irony – but I think we need to focus on the separation of The Web as a medium for the conveyance of the meaningful, from the web as a patient, reliable, pathologically-willing stand-in for actual social interaction, tangible human connection, and genuine real-life experiences.

"Dad, Cool it with the twitter updates."

(Hat tip: Susannah Breslin)
(Image: @Task Blog)

In Tuesday’s edition of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, a letter to the editor was printed that didn’t sit too well with me…

Pedestrians and cyclists a bad mix

On March 24, I took a hike on the Quaker Pond Trail at Mendon Ponds Park, a trail on which bicycles are not allowed, according to the signs. I was unpleasantly surprised to be forced off the trail by two men on off-road bikes who barreled past at high speed. In addition to biking on a trail where they shouldn’t have been, they were quite rude. When I politely pointed out that bikes aren’t allowed on that trail, one of them cursed at me. The wet parts of the trail are being heavily rutted by mountain bikes. The Monroe County Parks Department needs to do a much better job of enforcing its rules on bikes.

I am aware that the county has plans for shared-use pedestrian and bike trails in some parks as a result of intense lobbying by Genesee Regional Off-Road Cyclists. In my opinion, pedestrians and cyclists are not a happy mix. They get in each other’s way, and someone is bound to get hurt.

—JAY GREENBERG
BRIGHTON

So, I decided to write a response. In case they decide not to publish it, I figured I’d post it here as well:

I was dismayed to read “Pedestrians and cyclists a bad mix” in Tuesday’s edition. While Jay Greenberg and other outspoken Rochester Birding Society members have sought to paint off-road cyclists as out-of-control thrill-seekers, experiences in neighboring counties and across the country paint a decidedly friendlier picture: Those on two wheels are just another set of respectful trail users.

While off-road cyclists are the second-largest group of trail users nationwide, one need only look to Ontario County to see multi-use trails enjoyed by pedestrians and cyclists alike. Rather than ostracizing entire classes of taxpayers and creating an adversarial environment via public policy, park officials there welcome cyclists and encourage cooperative trail use.

As an off-road cyclist, I’m disappointed that Mr. Greenberg’s reported experience reflects poorly on the larger community of riders who courteously enjoy the precious few multi-use trails in our region. Before forming an opinion based on his letter, I hope others will take the opportunity to visit the excellent nearby parks that practice inclusion, rather than exclusion, of all who seek to enjoy them.

—DAVID REA
PITTSFORD

The standard yield sign that graces multi-use trails nationwide

This morning, the fine folks at Verizon and Skype unleashed their first attempt at an “official” joint-venture application for Skype on smartphones – including Verizon’s Android-powered offerings. Given the anticipation that’s been brewing, installing the newly-released app was the first thing I did after pulling my Droid from its cradle today.

Unfortunately, seeing the official Skype Mobile application waiting for me in the Android Market was where the positive experience ended. After installing, the app informed me that it wouldn’t work with the phone’s Wi-Fi connection enabled. Odd, I thought, considering that it’s already been well-publicized that Skype-on-Verizon will use the Verizon voice network to deliver calls, but without deducting any minutes from the user’s plan.

As it turns out, this new Skype app will only sign in if Wi-Fi is disabled on the handset – meaning that no other apps can use that Wi-Fi connection, either. Re-activating Wi-Fi causes an automatic log-out from Skype – so much for that “always on” connection that’s advertised in the app’s description!

Fortunately, there are a few ways to enjoy Skype connectivity on your Android-powered device. Rather than installing the Verizon Skype app, check out these alternatives:

Sipdroid

A decently well-integrated SIP client (that is, a soft-phone that can make and receive VoIP calls using the SIP protocol) that doubles as a Skype client.

Fring

A nice multi-protocol chat and VoIP client with a slick user interface; it’s gone through some revision lately, but gets better and better as its user base grows.

Truphone

While this one isn’t Droid-compatible, I tried out an early beta version and found it to be fairly workable. If you have an Eris or are saving your pennies for a Nexus One, HTC Incredible or Devour, this one might be worth a test-drive…

In 1947, the Heathkit company – a formerly-bankrupt aircraft manufacturer – introduced its first electronic kit. The $39.50 oscilloscope became a best seller, a dozen years after the company’s new owners bought Heath for a whopping $300. Back then, hobbyists built ham radios, black-and-white TVs and hi-fi sets from vacuum tubes, soldering fiberglass circuit boards together with glowing guns from Radio Shack, hunched over basement workbenches, surrounded by a haze of blue-gray flux smoke. It was long before the days of microscopic surface-mount components, squirted from machines at tens of thousands of parts per hour.

Not long ago, I wrote here about the atrophy of amateur radio, and inquired (unsurprisingly, unsuccessfully) if there was any hope for that pastime. Most things ham trigger a lot of nostalgia in me – recollections of dad-chauffeured car trips to the city for radio classes with Jason; of my “Elmer”, Ed, N2EH (now a silent key); of good times spent with the other hams at the RIT Radio Club, who were among the best of my college friends; and of countless growing-up hours spent tinkering, building things, and un-building things. For a long time, I thought this spirit of geek tinkering was similarly waning, but recently I’ve had a few reasons to change my tune…

First off, the pieces and parts. In the golden age, resistors, capacitors, coils, tubes and transistors were the parts du jour – and you could do some pretty cool things with them. The 70s and 80s brought integrated circuits – and my generation of tinkerers dove head-first into logic gates, op-amps, newly-commodified microprocessors and LED displays. But as the demands of the tech-buying public called for more miniaturization and richer feature sets, things got more difficult. Ball grid array packages – unsolderable by all but the most-dedicated and well-funded (or craziest?) hobbyists – ushered in an age of inaccessible parts. But now, thanks to projects like Arduino, and companies like Bug Labs and Gumstix, pluggable modules and microcontrollers are becoming basic building blocks in themselves.

But more than just the evolution of what’s available to build with, there has been a renaissance in the builders, too. People like Diana Eng and Jeri Ellsworth, and groups like the recently-formed Interlok Rochester – or, hell, the entire readership of Make Magazine – remind me that the spirit of tinkering is alive and well. Maybe hobbyists aren’t exactly making the next iPhone – though they’re certainly trying and in some cases, succeeding! When you’re faced with the immense complexity that’s possible via today’s gadgets, it’s easy to get discouraged about the potential for electronics as a hobby. But it’s also easy to be hopeful and inspired when you look at what these folks are doing. To the tinkerers: keep up the good work! And to those who’ll bring us the next generation of electronic building blocks, I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store…