The old
idiom, ’you learn something new every day’, is true. The older I get, the more
there is to learn every day, not less. The world of computers, smart phones,
tablets, e-books and a myriad of other new gadgets ensure that this is the
case. The advances and updates keep me quite occupied in my free time. The
world of ‘apps’ by itself is overwhelming. I’m always rather surprised at how
many apps there are out there whenever I use my smart phone to download yet
another free app. New ones every day—some of them useful, others not. But I
downloaded a rather useful app today, the QR Droid, after having been to the Astrup
Fearnley Museum of Modern Art here in Oslo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrup_Fearnley_Museum_of_Modern_Art) for the first time since it opened
in its new location at Tjuvholmen on the Oslo waterfront. My husband and I went
to see an exhibition called Untitled
Horrors by the American photographer Cindy Sherman. Fascinating exhibit, well-worth
seeing, sometimes bizarre, often unsettling, overall mesmerizing. What I
noticed as I was walking past the photos was that many of the photo descriptions
included a quick response (QR) code, and that some spectators were using their
smart phones to scan the codes that then connected them to an online site that
provided information about the photographs. Very smart, as it obviated the need
for museum headsets that provide the same thing; at least that is what I assume was the case, since I didn't have the necessary app on my smart phone to try this at the museum. The museum provided free Wifi
and a passkey on the entrance tickets. I’ve seen these QR codes many times
before, but somehow had not gotten around to wanting to understand their
utility until now. Although I have registered that shopping discounts and coupons
are available for those who can use this system. Perhaps not completely fair to
unenlightened shoppers, but there will be fewer of them as time goes on. The QR
Droid app, besides allowing your phone to read a QR code, also lets you create
one. I’m not sure yet how that would be personally useful, but I’m sure it won’t
take me long to find out. I just checked out some customer reviews of this app,
and one of them mentioned using it to create a QR business card. Others
mentioned using it for web links and contact details. I see the potential. As I
said when I started today’s post, you learn something new every day. That’s
what makes life interesting.
As an addendum to this post, I just tried creating a QR code for my blog, A New Yorker in Oslo, and it worked. Here is the QR code for those of you who would like to try it: