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If there's any silver lining to COVID, it's QR codes being normalized. I remember trying to use a QR code in 2015 at a crypto meetup so I could buy a beer with

If there's any silver lining to COVID, it's QR codes being normalized. I remember trying to use a QR code in 2015 at a crypto meetup so I could buy a beer with Bitcoin (they organized with the bar that they'd get cash at the end if they played ball). After downloading a QR reader app, taking a picture with my phone, uploading the picture to the app, then realizing there was too much glare and trying again, they eventually just gave me a beer and put a tally mark on a notepad. Just a few weeks ago I used a QR code to join a WiFi network and it took like 2 seconds (it found the network and entered the password for me). We've come a long way.

UpstandingUser 4y ago
> they eventually just gave me a beer and put a tally mark on a notepad oof
systemvoltage 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tirusaquce 4y ago
  People have been claiming society is degenerating for as long as there's been society. It may not be proceeding in a direction you like, but that doesn't mean it's degenerating.
  - collyw 4y ago
    Society objectively degenerated since the start of the covid scam. To pretend otherwise in being willfully blind to the changes we saw. Unchecked authoritarianism in democratic countries. House arrest of healthy people. Telling people that they do not have the right to run a legal business. Heavy censorship and lack of debate. Treating others as vectors of disease instead of fellow humans is not in any way positive for society. Coercion of a rushed, not fully tested "vaccine" onto a general public, the vast majority of whom did not need it. We have demonized having a common cold, while at the same time normalized young people having heart attacks and stokes. Since the vaccine rollout excess deaths are not notably down, so it's very debatable that they have "saved lives". https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality All for what objectively amounts to a bad flu - age adjusted 2020 showed the same number of deaths as 2008 in the UK. 2003 in terms of non adjusted numbers.
latchkey 4y ago
> QR codes being normalized I also became aware of the possibility of people putting their own QR code sticker over another. Quite easy to send people to a phishing site... enter your credit card to "buy" that beer...
- djbeadle 4y ago
  This has been a problem with NYC's bike share program, CitiBike. The solution was to add an alert when your phone's location is far from the location of the bicycle you are trying to unlock. > Citi Bike says it is aware of a scam in New York City in which thieves are switching the QR code stickers on rental bicycles in order to steal bikes unwittingly unlocked by customers. The scammers wait for a renter to unlock a bicycle using the QR code, then ride away on the bike to which the code actually belongs, officials said. https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-nyc-state-wire-34d4ecd5dcd3821ddd6e9a308834a16b https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-nyc-state-wire-34d4ecd5...
  - latchkey 4y ago
    Yes, that's where I heard about this problem. Sketchy indeed.
  - CamelCaseName 4y ago
    This is why Toronto's bike share requires Bluetooth to be turned on. At worst, you might end up unlocking another bike at the same station. (And you'll hear it!)
  - bobbylarrybobby 4y ago
    Easy (conceptually) solution: a button on the dock that you need to press to complete the unlock. When you scan the QR code, CitiBike looks up which dock it thinks the bike is in, then waits for you to press that dock's button before releasing the bike.
    - hyperhopper 4y ago
      The thief would just press the button.
s1mon 4y ago
Yes, this is very true, _in the US_. In other parts of the world, QR Codes have been ubiquitous for many years. In China, Alipay, WechatPay, UnionPay, etc have made QR codes for payment expected and common, to the point that many places don't take cash or credit cards, but you can pay with the right phone app and account.
- woutr_be 4y ago
  Which is also annoying, since it’s pretty hard for a foreigner to set up WeChat and AliPay in China. Before covid, I had to repeatedly ask friends to pay for me, and give them cash in return.
- collyw 4y ago
  Why do we think emulating China is a good thing? The covid response showed that it was probably the worst possible thing to do.
  - s1mon 4y ago
    I didn't say that the emulating China is what should be done in this case. I much prefer the UX of Apple Pay with my watch - it still feels magical. It is interesting how much cheaper the QR based payment schemes are in China. Payment processors in the west charge 2-3% typically for tap/dip/swipe. In China, the QR transaction fee is a fraction of that. Also, a bunch of the infrastructure for printing, displaying, and reading the QR codes is pretty cheap.
    - collyw 4y ago
      Imagine how much more magical a chip implanted under your skin would feel.
hbn 4y ago
Did covid really do that? The iPhone camera app has been able to read QR codes out of the box since iOS 11 (released in 2017)
- moduspol 4y ago
  To my memory: the timing was off. QR codes (in the consumer-facing context) kind of peaked and died out before the iPhone camera app would scan them in large part because non-techies would not download an app just to scan a code. Apple added support, but there didn't seem to be enough emphasis to revisit them until COVID.
- mbesto 4y ago
  Adoption != technical capability. The OP is talking about adoption.
  - hbn 4y ago
    Apple wouldn't implement the capability if they didn't think it had the adoption
    - mbesto 4y ago
      Just like when they automatically added the U2 album to everyones phone? Apple isn't immune.
LtWorf 4y ago
I had seen them in museums before 2015… the fact that you specifically didn't manage to work them means nothing. My symbian phone could read them in 2010.
- furyofantares 4y ago
  Yes they were out there and readable by lots of phones in 2010, and very few people used them. They weren't convenient to use and didn't tend to direct you anywhere useful to begin with. The running joke for a decade (here in the US anyway) was that nobody had ever actually used one.
- wartijn_ 4y ago
  I've looked into this a couple of years ago and the problem was that you just couldn't assume people would be able to scan a qr code without downloading an extra app. iPhones could scan them with the default camera app, but on Android it really depended on the manufacturer. So you couldn't just say: "point your camera app at the code and open the url that appears.", which made using QR codes pretty much useless unless you had an app where you could build in an scanner for these codes.
harikb 4y ago
I think there is still a lot to improve. See [1] or [2] Things that become a utility / must-have for daily life (say QR to order food) should have better discoverability and accessibility 1. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253350496 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253350496 2. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250694589 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250694589
VoodooJuJu 4y ago
I still don't like them; http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/120618.html http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/120618.html
schlowmo 4y ago
> If there's any silver lining to COVID, it's QR codes being normalized I'm not sure if I would call this a "silver lining". In parts of Europe (I noticed it especially in Germany and Austria) they were normalized to a point were a lot of non-techsavvy people now think "QR codes" are kind of synonym to successful "digitalisation". It's now even more painful to watch misguided attempts to digitalize shitty (business/administrative...) processes. QR codes just feel like the poor man's blockchain.
- rainbowzootsuit 4y ago
  My child's daycare uses a cell phone app for checking in and out the children. It requires one to scan a QR code, then enter a PIN, and scribble a signature. I am not able to get over this seeming like security theater, not to mention being somewhat indignant to the presumptive ownership of a smart phone to go through this song and dance when a piece of paper would suffice as a record. I've captured the qr code and found that it's not geo-fenced or time-locked so I can check the child in and out in the comfort of my home, but haven't probed the application further.
inglor_cz 4y ago
I attach QR codes to all my invoices and I encourage every business entity I interact with to start doing the same. I had a few successes actually, though the big businesses are more reluctant. An old investor once told me: "Make it really easy for your customers to pay you, and you won't regret it." QR codes make it really easy to do a wire transfer and they prevent random errors from being introduced.
- strobe999 4y ago
  By the end of the month all national non-qr invoices will be deprecated in Switzerland, making proprietary readers obsolete.
collyw 4y ago
I wouldn't say that is a silver lining, quite the opposite. A step toward a digital gulag.

UpstandingUser 4y ago

> they eventually just gave me a beer and put a tally mark on a notepad oof

systemvoltage 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tirusaquce 4y ago
People have been claiming society is degenerating for as long as there's been society. It may not be proceeding in a direction you like, but that doesn't mean it's degenerating.
- collyw 4y ago
  Society objectively degenerated since the start of the covid scam. To pretend otherwise in being willfully blind to the changes we saw. Unchecked authoritarianism in democratic countries. House arrest of healthy people. Telling people that they do not have the right to run a legal business. Heavy censorship and lack of debate. Treating others as vectors of disease instead of fellow humans is not in any way positive for society. Coercion of a rushed, not fully tested "vaccine" onto a general public, the vast majority of whom did not need it. We have demonized having a common cold, while at the same time normalized young people having heart attacks and stokes. Since the vaccine rollout excess deaths are not notably down, so it's very debatable that they have "saved lives". https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps#excess-mortality All for what objectively amounts to a bad flu - age adjusted 2020 showed the same number of deaths as 2008 in the UK. 2003 in terms of non adjusted numbers.

latchkey 4y ago

> QR codes being normalized I also became aware of the possibility of people putting their own QR code sticker over another. Quite easy to send people to a phishing site... enter your credit card to "buy" that beer...

djbeadle 4y ago
This has been a problem with NYC's bike share program, CitiBike. The solution was to add an alert when your phone's location is far from the location of the bicycle you are trying to unlock. > Citi Bike says it is aware of a scam in New York City in which thieves are switching the QR code stickers on rental bicycles in order to steal bikes unwittingly unlocked by customers. The scammers wait for a renter to unlock a bicycle using the QR code, then ride away on the bike to which the code actually belongs, officials said. https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-nyc-state-wire-34d4ecd5dcd3821ddd6e9a308834a16b https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-nyc-state-wire-34d4ecd5...
- latchkey 4y ago
  Yes, that's where I heard about this problem. Sketchy indeed.
- CamelCaseName 4y ago
  This is why Toronto's bike share requires Bluetooth to be turned on. At worst, you might end up unlocking another bike at the same station. (And you'll hear it!)
- bobbylarrybobby 4y ago
  Easy (conceptually) solution: a button on the dock that you need to press to complete the unlock. When you scan the QR code, CitiBike looks up which dock it thinks the bike is in, then waits for you to press that dock's button before releasing the bike.
  - hyperhopper 4y ago
    The thief would just press the button.

s1mon 4y ago

Yes, this is very true, _in the US_. In other parts of the world, QR Codes have been ubiquitous for many years. In China, Alipay, WechatPay, UnionPay, etc have made QR codes for payment expected and common, to the point that many places don't take cash or credit cards, but you can pay with the right phone app and account.

woutr_be 4y ago
Which is also annoying, since it’s pretty hard for a foreigner to set up WeChat and AliPay in China. Before covid, I had to repeatedly ask friends to pay for me, and give them cash in return.
collyw 4y ago
Why do we think emulating China is a good thing? The covid response showed that it was probably the worst possible thing to do.
- s1mon 4y ago
  I didn't say that the emulating China is what should be done in this case. I much prefer the UX of Apple Pay with my watch - it still feels magical. It is interesting how much cheaper the QR based payment schemes are in China. Payment processors in the west charge 2-3% typically for tap/dip/swipe. In China, the QR transaction fee is a fraction of that. Also, a bunch of the infrastructure for printing, displaying, and reading the QR codes is pretty cheap.
  - collyw 4y ago
    Imagine how much more magical a chip implanted under your skin would feel.

hbn 4y ago

Did covid really do that? The iPhone camera app has been able to read QR codes out of the box since iOS 11 (released in 2017)

moduspol 4y ago
To my memory: the timing was off. QR codes (in the consumer-facing context) kind of peaked and died out before the iPhone camera app would scan them in large part because non-techies would not download an app just to scan a code. Apple added support, but there didn't seem to be enough emphasis to revisit them until COVID.
mbesto 4y ago
Adoption != technical capability. The OP is talking about adoption.
- hbn 4y ago
  Apple wouldn't implement the capability if they didn't think it had the adoption
  - mbesto 4y ago
    Just like when they automatically added the U2 album to everyones phone? Apple isn't immune.

LtWorf 4y ago

I had seen them in museums before 2015… the fact that you specifically didn't manage to work them means nothing. My symbian phone could read them in 2010.

furyofantares 4y ago
Yes they were out there and readable by lots of phones in 2010, and very few people used them. They weren't convenient to use and didn't tend to direct you anywhere useful to begin with. The running joke for a decade (here in the US anyway) was that nobody had ever actually used one.
wartijn_ 4y ago
I've looked into this a couple of years ago and the problem was that you just couldn't assume people would be able to scan a qr code without downloading an extra app. iPhones could scan them with the default camera app, but on Android it really depended on the manufacturer. So you couldn't just say: "point your camera app at the code and open the url that appears.", which made using QR codes pretty much useless unless you had an app where you could build in an scanner for these codes.

harikb 4y ago

I think there is still a lot to improve. See [1] or [2] Things that become a utility / must-have for daily life (say QR to order food) should have better discoverability and accessibility 1. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253350496 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253350496 2. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250694589 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250694589

VoodooJuJu 4y ago

I still don't like them; http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/120618.html http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/120618.html

schlowmo 4y ago

> If there's any silver lining to COVID, it's QR codes being normalized I'm not sure if I would call this a "silver lining". In parts of Europe (I noticed it especially in Germany and Austria) they were normalized to a point were a lot of non-techsavvy people now think "QR codes" are kind of synonym to successful "digitalisation". It's now even more painful to watch misguided attempts to digitalize shitty (business/administrative...) processes. QR codes just feel like the poor man's blockchain.

rainbowzootsuit 4y ago
My child's daycare uses a cell phone app for checking in and out the children. It requires one to scan a QR code, then enter a PIN, and scribble a signature. I am not able to get over this seeming like security theater, not to mention being somewhat indignant to the presumptive ownership of a smart phone to go through this song and dance when a piece of paper would suffice as a record. I've captured the qr code and found that it's not geo-fenced or time-locked so I can check the child in and out in the comfort of my home, but haven't probed the application further.

inglor_cz 4y ago

I attach QR codes to all my invoices and I encourage every business entity I interact with to start doing the same. I had a few successes actually, though the big businesses are more reluctant. An old investor once told me: "Make it really easy for your customers to pay you, and you won't regret it." QR codes make it really easy to do a wire transfer and they prevent random errors from being introduced.

strobe999 4y ago
By the end of the month all national non-qr invoices will be deprecated in Switzerland, making proprietary readers obsolete.

collyw 4y ago

I wouldn't say that is a silver lining, quite the opposite. A step toward a digital gulag.