4 ms·

German man programs "Hello World" into wheat field

37 points by billpg 17y ago

idm 17y ago
This is really neat looking, but ... how exactly do you execute the code? It appears that the release from semacode.com targets cellphones exclusively, so I can't get it to run on the command line. wget http://semacode.com/download/semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip unzip semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip cd semacode_reader_me-1.6 java -jar semacode_reader_me-1.6.jar Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from semacode_reader_me.jar A tip here didn't solve the problem either: http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95131 http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=951... java -Djava.awt.headless=true -jar semacode_reader_me.jar -f cropfield.jpg Anyone out there having more luck with this one? EDIT: Okay... I tried compiling from source, and the problem is that you need the J2ME SDK for the MIDlet libraries.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- teilo 17y ago
  First, it's not code. It's just a datamatrix that reads "Hello, world!" Second, you would need to do some heavy filtering and distortion to process the image into a square, readable form. Here's a 1-bit PNG processed from an image taken from the programmer's flickr site. It scanned on my G1 just fine: http://bit.ly/4lxG4U http://bit.ly/4lxG4U
  - idm 17y ago
    Cool PNG! As an update, I'm still trying to get the semacode software to work in OS X, and it's just not cooperating. Sun recently pre-released a J2ME environment for OSX, which is frustratingly buggy... Here's a link to the SDK: http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30_mac.jsp http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30_mac.jsp ...and here's a link to a thread about the (apparently common) issue I'm having: http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5412666 http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5412666 Glad to hear semacode JAR works on cellphones. If you get it working in an emulator, please let us know about it! EDIT: meh, forget it... the Sun SDK just isn't ready for primetime. Instead, I recommend libdmtx: http://www.libdmtx.org http://www.libdmtx.org It's available from macports, there's wrappers for tons of languages (e.g. python), and although it doesn't magically work with your PNG, I think it only requires a little tweaking... EDIT 2: Forget the version from macports... just compile from source, and your PNG works fine using version 0.7.2
astine 17y ago
Reading stuff like this makes me wish I had a wheat field too.
Anon84 17y ago
"If you write it they will run it?"
jamesbressi 17y ago
Let's be honest: He is communicating with aliens. Those little light beams that supposedly come out from the bottom of the saucer are really infrared-like beams to read semacode. +1 to you Mr. German man.
dstorrs 17y ago
Here's a niche marketing idea for you: executable hedge mazes that print out paeans of praise to the owner of the maze.
scorxn 17y ago
That's not really programming, now is it? I was hoping for some genetic or soil modification that outputs "Hello world" in size or color variation of the grown wheat.
- yason 17y ago
  How about farmer's Game of Life on those blocks, with new iterations growing up each year. :)
yason 17y ago
Now this is where I can now point to the next time someone asks he'd like to know more about the programming field.
citizenparker 17y ago
The title is incorrect. It should read: "German man mow-grams 'Hello World' into wheat field"
idm 17y ago
If you want to actually decode the crop formation, here's how to do it. First, grab tello's PNG, which is a transformed and color-adjusted version of the crop formation: https://files-diers.us.s3.amazonaws.com/cornfield.png https://files-diers.us.s3.amazonaws.com/cornfield.png Next, download and compile the latest release of libdmtx, which is a datamatrix I/O library: http://www.libdmtx.org/ http://www.libdmtx.org/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2/libdmtx-0.7.2.tar.bz2/download https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2... Finally, use dmtxread from libdmtx: dmtxread -n cornfield.png The extended explanation is in these comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924377 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924377 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924495 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924495

37 points by billpg 17y ago

idm 17y ago

This is really neat looking, but ... how exactly do you execute the code? It appears that the release from semacode.com targets cellphones exclusively, so I can't get it to run on the command line. wget http://semacode.com/download/semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip unzip semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip cd semacode_reader_me-1.6 java -jar semacode_reader_me-1.6.jar Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from semacode_reader_me.jar A tip here didn't solve the problem either: http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95131 http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=951... java -Djava.awt.headless=true -jar semacode_reader_me.jar -f cropfield.jpg Anyone out there having more luck with this one? EDIT: Okay... I tried compiling from source, and the problem is that you need the J2ME SDK for the MIDlet libraries.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
teilo 17y ago
First, it's not code. It's just a datamatrix that reads "Hello, world!" Second, you would need to do some heavy filtering and distortion to process the image into a square, readable form. Here's a 1-bit PNG processed from an image taken from the programmer's flickr site. It scanned on my G1 just fine: http://bit.ly/4lxG4U http://bit.ly/4lxG4U
- idm 17y ago
  Cool PNG! As an update, I'm still trying to get the semacode software to work in OS X, and it's just not cooperating. Sun recently pre-released a J2ME environment for OSX, which is frustratingly buggy... Here's a link to the SDK: http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30_mac.jsp http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30_mac.jsp ...and here's a link to a thread about the (apparently common) issue I'm having: http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5412666 http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5412666 Glad to hear semacode JAR works on cellphones. If you get it working in an emulator, please let us know about it! EDIT: meh, forget it... the Sun SDK just isn't ready for primetime. Instead, I recommend libdmtx: http://www.libdmtx.org http://www.libdmtx.org It's available from macports, there's wrappers for tons of languages (e.g. python), and although it doesn't magically work with your PNG, I think it only requires a little tweaking... EDIT 2: Forget the version from macports... just compile from source, and your PNG works fine using version 0.7.2

astine 17y ago

Reading stuff like this makes me wish I had a wheat field too.

Anon84 17y ago

"If you write it they will run it?"

jamesbressi 17y ago

Let's be honest: He is communicating with aliens. Those little light beams that supposedly come out from the bottom of the saucer are really infrared-like beams to read semacode. +1 to you Mr. German man.

dstorrs 17y ago

Here's a niche marketing idea for you: executable hedge mazes that print out paeans of praise to the owner of the maze.

scorxn 17y ago

That's not really programming, now is it? I was hoping for some genetic or soil modification that outputs "Hello world" in size or color variation of the grown wheat.

yason 17y ago
How about farmer's Game of Life on those blocks, with new iterations growing up each year. :)

yason 17y ago

Now this is where I can now point to the next time someone asks he'd like to know more about the programming field.

citizenparker 17y ago

The title is incorrect. It should read: "German man mow-grams 'Hello World' into wheat field"

idm 17y ago

If you want to actually decode the crop formation, here's how to do it. First, grab tello's PNG, which is a transformed and color-adjusted version of the crop formation: https://files-diers.us.s3.amazonaws.com/cornfield.png https://files-diers.us.s3.amazonaws.com/cornfield.png Next, download and compile the latest release of libdmtx, which is a datamatrix I/O library: http://www.libdmtx.org/ http://www.libdmtx.org/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2/libdmtx-0.7.2.tar.bz2/download https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2... Finally, use dmtxread from libdmtx: dmtxread -n cornfield.png The extended explanation is in these comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924377 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924377 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924495 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924495