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| Scan Me! |
I am going to level with you guys, up until last week, I dismissed those boxy assortment of pixels known as QR codes as being quite superfluous.
I never really bothered with trying to scan and read them mainly because I felt
that it seemed like just another fad that would fade away. But now after I
experimented with them to see what they can do, I can say that these new codes are
much more versatile than any old fashioned bar codes can ever be. While old
fashioned bar codes can only encode up to 20 digits, a QR code can be used to
encode over 7000 digits or 4000 letters, and with that much storage space one
can use these codes to save many different types of data. With a QR code, a business owner can simply
store a text message that will be printed when they scan it, it can be an email
address to contact the owner for any questions or comments, if you want a more immediate
response you can encode a phone number, or if your business has a website, you
can have your code represent your website’s URL. All of these possible uses
hardly cover everything one can use a QR code for.
For those who are new to using QR codes, there is a very low
barrier to entry. All you need are four things:
1.
A smartphone with some sort of camera(iPhone,
Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone)
2.
Software in the form of an app that can decode a
QR code and read it( I personally recommend ShopSavvy inc.’s QR code reader
available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone)1
3.
An internet connection in case the QR code is a
URL or an email.
4.
This one is optional, but if you wish to start
making your own QR codes, there are many free services out there that generate
codes. http://goqr.me/#text is a free,
streamlined service that I have used to generate the codes on this blog.
When you have these simple tools anyone can take advantage
of the easy transfer of information that QR codes provide. This ease of code
generation unfortunately leads to a very troubling problem: there some immoral denizens
of the internet that could potentially create QR codes that lead to websites
that download viruses onto your device. They can accomplish this by finding a
QR code that is already posted somewhere and stick their own fake code on top
of it. They key to avoiding these types of scams is to find a QR code reader
that displays the URL before taking you to the website to ensure that the URL
goes to a trusted location( the reader I mentioned does this). Also when you
scan a code, try to avoid URLs that are shortened. While many of these are just
harmless links, those scammers can use the smaller URLs from sites like bitly.com
to further obscure their websites. All in all, QR codes are extremely versatile
tools for those who want to provide easy ways of providing information.
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| Don't worry, this just points to my blog! be careful with these codes. |
Hello Matthew,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very informative about the details about QR codes and it was very convenient for you to post a link that could generate your own QR code for free. I liked the fact that you explained the steps needed to scan a QR code and that you have a QR code that says, "Hello World!". You did a great job separating your ideas in paragraphs and it was very easy to read.
There were a few errors with your blog such as fixing the spacing between the parenthesis in number 2 and in sentence two of the last paragraph after the colon, you can add the word “are”. All these errors can be fixed by reading your blog a day or a couple of hours after you have written it. Overall, a very informative blog about QR codes and will continue to read future blogs.
Hi Matthew,
ReplyDeleteYour QR codes post is very well written. I liked your post structure. You started with brief introduction of QR codes, then mentioned using codes requirement and ended with security issues. Technology and security issues always go hand in hand. QR codes are not different. I agree with you QR code user should use a good QR code reader to avoid harmless links.
I think you covered QR codes post very well. Good job.
Nice Blog Post, I really do feel a sense of individuality and quality when I read your blog posts, which definitely makes them more interesting to read. I really appreciate the detail you go into in your blog post. I found all the details included highly useful and interesting as well as on point with the blog topic. Hope to see more of your posts, you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete