Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

QR codes and apps for everything is making it increasingly impractical for me to have a flip phone instead of a smartphone, and I'm bummed about that because not having a smartphone with me everywhere I go has vastly improved my quality of life.

I have smartphone (an older android) and QR codes never seem to work. It's weird being at a restaurant with a QR code to see the menu when there's no backup option (esp during Covid when some places are opting not to use physical menus).

I haven't seen or used a QR code in a few years now. I remember the game Guacamelee included a useless one as a joke just to troll players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5v8D-alAKE

based on my experience university librarians circa 2010 fucking loved qr codes and put them on everything they possibly could

― joygoat, Thursday, March 25, 2021 1:37 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha i remember those years. my librarian boss was obsessed with them. afaict no one cared at the time.

then i noticed realtors and developers getting really into them.

i haven't been budged into using them for anything yet. i like urls tyvm.

I needed to show a QR code for my vaccine appointment. Would have been a pain if I didn't happen to have a printer.

i had to make QR codes for work and all the QR code generators on the first page of Google are spam of one sort or another - you have to pay to get the code, or it has a redirect which means it expires unless you pay them, or something else equally shitty. I asked on Quora which ones were free and got the response of "duh, they are all free, morran!" then had my question deleted for being spam. at which point I just picked one and went along with the nightmare. fuck everyone involved. it's as bad as trying to deal with feedburner.

I guess if you're comfortable dealing with Python packages, there are some QR generator packages.

i for one am super comfortable dealing with python packages

There’s a free illustrator plugin if you have Adobe stuff.

I only have free usually-malware-ridden apps on my PC and I haven't a clue about java

python sorry

but you get the idea

I don't use them very often BUT

This weekend, I found a funny cat video (on my desktop) that I wanted to show my daughter. BUT she doesn't really use any email, so I wanted to text it to her. BUT the url was something like catvideo.com/post/video/1546843654646354163546254, which I knew I would misspell if I tried to enter that into my phone.

What OLD PPLAINS would've done is copy and paste the url into an email, send it to myself and then copy and paste it out of the email on my phone and then text it from there. BUT this time! I copied the url into one of those QR generators that's on the front page of Google. Then I scanned the monitor with my phone. And then I shared it via text with my daughter.

I guess I could've gone upstairs and just showed the video to her from my phone, but that would've been ridiculous.

Here's a standalone one written in javascript, you just download the folder, unzip it, and it runs in your browser:

https://davidshimjs.github.io/qrcodejs/

There's also a free QR generator in the Windows app store.

there is a windows app store?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/qr-code-generator-for-windows-10/9pc44cj7vcg4?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

I guess Windows 10 only.

i for one am super comfortable dealing with python packages

― John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Monday, March 29, 2021 4:21 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

cant believe no one is commenting how great and horny this is

lol!

i had to.

InDesign has one built in.

That's for sure.

One of our editors wanted to make sure to include a QR on each profile of one of our digital magazines so people could find it online.

https://i.imgur.com/O9gQt6d.gif

uh

I guess the idea is that person B can scan person A’s device to get the magazine?

I... guess.

Another easy way to make QR codes is with iOS's "Shortcuts" app. Open up the "Shortcuts" app, hit + to create a new one, search for "QR" and select "generate a QR code". In the first step you can decide how you want to provide the data to the shortcut. You could use the clipboard or just choose "ask every time" and enter the text manually.

The next step be the output, which I just use an image file for. Here's what the whole thing looks like:https://i.imgur.com/eiIJfBJ.png

If you want to get fancy, in the input step next to Clipboard, add "Shortcut Input", then
go into the shortcut's options by hitting the "..." next to its name and enable "Show in share sheet". You can pick share sheet types - you might want to pick text and urls - and then the next time you want to share text or url via QR code, you can just find your shortcut in the share menu.

Holy... sorry about the formatting and huge-ass image.

USB-Cs and having to use dongles with them is fucking rubbish

https://i.imgur.com/7aIcA48.jpg

har har

* Getting an email from whatever dumb website/service/subscription informing you that you have a new secure message in your inbox, followed by ten to fifty clicks and login screens to actually get you to some bullshit that wouldn't have even merited being put into a straightforward plaintext email in the first place

YES

* businesses, institutions and offices that self-evidently must have a phone number, but do not list it on their website, forcing you to write an email or fill out a form, then wait hopefully and indefinitely, rather than getting your basic query answered in a three-minute call

I'm not sure if that's better - in the past you'd get the listed phone number, but nobody would answer it.

huh, not my experience most of the time.

Not sure which is worse:
Businesses not posting opening hours/holiday opening hours on their website.
OR
Businesses not posting opening hours/holiday opening hours on their website BUT posting them on Instagram/their Facebook page/ as a Tweet instead (or menus, closures, or any relevant and timely information).

Well done, you recognised that was helpful information yet assumed everyone would scroll through your social media feed to find it instead of putting it in one central place for all to see.

(^^ probably more for a 'Did Social Media Ruin Everything' thread than this)

the sad truth about that is probably that social media solved something in this case...a lot of businesses hire someone to make their website and it's not easy for them to change/update, whereas any employee can post to social media. Squarespace/Wix and the like should create small business websites with and easy and quick interface for updating key information.

ugh yeah, so many times with menus/hours and shit it's "okay hrmm... maybe it's under 'about us'... no? no go back. i mean go back to the top page, i thought i saw a link to... oh. hrm. maybe try their facebook?...." and then the facebook hasn't had any posts since 2018... etc......

There’s a restaurant in queens, arguably the best Chinese restaurant in New York, and they only take pick up orders via Facebook message. If you call them you usually get the owner who doesn’t speak English but send a Facebook message and the daughter who does gets tight back to you. This started with the pandemic.

I take it back looks like you can order through google now.

there are businesses (mostly like crafts/clothing type places that are etsy stuff) that do their sales via Instagram ...

* Touch/swipe controls on headphones are, in all but a few cases, unreliable enough to be consistently annoying and disorienting. I suspect they're being rolled out less because of user demand or cool factor, and more because they let manufacturers avoid headaches related to moving parts and button contacts.

(not one we all just accept, just yet, but certainly becoming more and more common, such that otherwise Really Nice headphones have them, and it's increasingly difficult to find similarly-nice models that DON'T have them)

yeah I'm constantly turning off my earbuds by mistake

I'm about to return a pair that, among its other "features," pauses/unpauses your music whenever you take them on/off. Which, if you've already paused by pressing the pause button means the music comes back on. So every time I took them off, I had to then lean my head down and hold it near the headphones to make sure they hadn't started back up again. Insane.

Noooo that's so dumb!
I haven't bought headphones/earbuds in ages, why are they doing this

When I park at the supermarket I switch from listening on the car stereo via bluetooth to listening on headphones, and every time my phone helpfully pauses whatever it is I'm listening to, so I have to find the app to unpause, doesn't seem to be any way to turn off this "feature"

never switching from a phone with an audio jack and wired headphones if i can help it.

I like the pause-on-removal feature on my new earphones. On top of being convenient: When one of them falls out of my ear in the middle of running across a busy street; I don't miss any of my podcast!

I will say that I was a firm anti-wireless crank when Apple first got rid of the jack, but after finally taking the plunge and coughing up for some good Bluetooth cans, I don't think I could ever go back to having a wire connecting my phone to my head or ear phones. Especially for exercise.