Now I'm REALLY Pissed About Not Having a Jetpack

essay

In case you were wondering, this is a QR Code. It's like a Bar Code but better. It holds more data for one thing (over 4000 alphanumeric characters versus a coupla dozen), but this particular QR code only contains one item. Be patient, you'll find out...

Let's have some fun. Take out your smart phone and download a QR Code Reader app. I think they're free. Done? Okay, now open it and point the phone at this code.

Isn't that cool? I bet you didn't know you could do that!

Okay, I won't be cruel. I know a bunch of you don't have smart phones and don't have any idea what I'm talking about. What I've done is reproduce the URL to this blog (Finding The Perfect World in case you're lost) into a QR Code, and by entering it into a smart phone, you will be immediately directed to the PW blog, and can take it with you anywhere you have cell service!

That's amazing. But not nearly as amazing as this: there's a far more detailed and unobtrusive data tag out there. It's a little dot about 3mm (1/8") across called a Bokode.

These are pretty complicated things, not just printed images. Made up of an LED and a lens, they are normally part of something permanent like a sign or billboard. They can be read by a smart phone at a distance of nearly 15 feet and holds thousands of data matrix codes, vastly more information than ordinary bar codes!

These devices are of course primarily used to convey data which will ultimately lead to a sale. I wonder what else could have been invented by now, had profit been the driving force?

Could I have been sleeping to and from work in my self-driving car for the last decade, if not for the fear of creating a job-killer for the mass transportation and livery and auto industries?

Egad. Is it any wonder I want to change our social system? Imagine how we'd be getting around without the effects of money to cripple our efforts!

Copyright 2011 Bruce Ian Friedman