July 2008 – woowoowoo

Radio Parts have a customer service problem…

… and sadly, I appear to be the victim.

About 6 months ago, I bought a PVR/set top box. I went with Wintal for a few reasons: I already had a non-recording Wintal set top box which had given no trouble; and the retailer, Radio Parts Group, assured me that they have their own repairers and could offer great backup. I have to say, apart from a slightly mystifying interface, the unit has been great… well it was great until it stopped. Don’t know why, but one day it just wouldn’t turn on, so it was time to try out Radio Parts’ great backup.

Semacode vs QRcode

This week has been a big one in the mobile phone world. Debate about the iPhone and the plans available to use here in Australia has been everywhere. At the same time, however, Telstra has been heavily pushing its venture into barcodes with the introduction of QRcodes to the Australian market.

I say introduction because that is the word Telstra are using, but in reality the technology is not theirs and has been around and freely available for download and use on java capable mobile phones for the better part of a year. They are characterising it as some sort of breakthrough, but of course, it’s not.

That’s not to say I don’t think these things have merit – I believe the concept is great, in fact, I use it regularly at work when testing sites on mobile phones and I don’t want to type in long URLs on the keypad, I just load up a code, snap it with the camera straight from the screen and it takes me there.

What is not well known is that there are two commonly used types of code: Semacode and QRcode, both seem to do the same thing and there’s no reason why you can’t have both readers on your mobile phone, so I am curious about the pros and cons.

QRcode seems to be the underdog, being mostly confined to the Japanese market and (in my simple test at least), almost half as efficient as Semacode in rendering a URL (841 pixels vs. 484 pixels), but it still seems to work well though in use, I find Semacode better.

Comparison of QRcode and Semacode

Efficiency is a key factor for usability where conditions are less than ideal – dodgy cameras, poor lighting, movement and parallex – all make it harder for the software to recognise the patterns, so it’s a given that the less pixels you have to capture and interpret, the less mistakes you will make.

Semacode also seem to be doing interesting things with Social Networking tools and have a Facebook app, so you can generate your own personal card that others can ‘grab’.

The good news is that you don’t need to make a decision. Telstra are saying in their ads that you ‘get the software from your Telstra dealer’, like it’s some exclusive deal, but in reality you can download both readers freely: I’ve been using the readers from Semacode and Kaywa, but I’ve just found this one called beetagg which apparently reads both.

You can also create codes easily, with loads of open source libraries and online tools, once again from Semacode, Kaywa and there are generators that do both from Nokia and Beetagg.

Enjoy 😉

the appstore door is open

Not officially launched yet, but if you search for likely keywords (try ‘photo’) in iTunes Music Store, your results might include some applications.

app store

Click through to “see all” and you’ll be presented with a heap of apps you can download and install – yay! I’ve only been getting the free ones, but there’s loads in there to buy also and not stupidly priced either – I think this is going to be a hit. How do Apple keep pulling this stuff off?

your mileage may vary

Watched a very interesting documentary on SBS the other night: Car of the Future, where two charismatic brothers – one a host of a radio car show, explore future trends in car design in a lighthearted, but well informed way. It was certainly entertaining, but I want to share the two big points that came out of it.

1. Around 1% of the fuel we put in our car is actually used in moving the driver. What? 1%?? are you kidding? So while we’re howling about paying $1.75 per litre for petrol, the way we use it means that we are essentially burning $1.73 of it for nothing? Well, not quite – the waste is in moving the car – friction, heat, and of course, the engine itself cannot perfectly convert petrol to motion. All the same, it’s an incredibly sobering to realise just how far we’ve got to go with fuel efficiency in motoring.

2. We blew our last big chance to build more efficient cars. Yes, back in 1975 the world experienced its first major oil crisis. Legislation was introduced in the US to mandate minimum mileage efficiencies and between 1975 and 1982 the average mileage increased from 13mpg to 22mpg. During this period, the price of oil actually fell!

Unfortunately, instead of continuing with these gains, having achieved the required standards, future efficiency gains were used to increase speed and vehicle size. The average mileage has not increased since 1982, in fact, it’s gone slightly south, to about 20.8mpg, while fuel prices have steadily risen.

So there it was, as clear as day, the correlation between demand and price, and yet we still have brainless, populist fools like the RACV, and the opposition (my favourite targets), as well as many others, who think that cutting fuel taxes to provide a few weeks price relief is a good thing. How stupid and short-sighted can you get?

The lesson to be learned is clear, the only thing that is going to make drivers and manufacturers change their ways is to allow market forces to take their toll. Market forces that include the true cost of fossil fuels, and include a carbon tax. It’s going to hurt, but it must be done.