Wine (also QR codes)



  • I'm drinking wine, and there is a QR code on the bottle.

    Now normally I don't volunteer myself to be advertised at but hey, I've been drinking wine. :)

     So I scan it.

     

    WTF #1. The site is unreadable on a phone, its obviously not built for a mobile device but hang on... the code took me to http://blah.blah.blah/?qr, so you know this is a hit from a QR code scan, so surely must know this is most likely a mobile device even if the useragent and IP doesn't give it away!

    WTF #2. First thing the site does is ask me where I am located (country). What, you can't even look that up from IP? And why would you even need to, I bought this bottle in the UK, it has the appropriate government required health warnings for the UK, its UK customs paid... the TEXT on the bottle shows a .co.uk site so you obviously printed this label for the UK. So why couldn't you just include &country=UK in the QR code?

    WTF #3. When I get to the site, its just an advert for their products... I've already bought the product you idiot! I'm now at the point where it will sell itself based on price and quality, I'm well past the marketting stage.

     

    Long story short, it reminds me of those typical noughties websites where they only setup a website as a marketting (because the internet is cool don't you know) front but provided no real service. You couldn't contact them, you couldn't buy their product online, it was just like one of those nasty corporate powerpointesque CD's from the nineties. "Ooh look at us, we use technology, and its got pictures, look at the pretty pictures! We are so cool cus we learned how to burn a CD!"

    The QR code is apparently the new corporate CD or useless website, "We should do it, because its YOUNG and NEW and INTERNET with extra TARGETTING to our DEMOGRAPHIC!", hell why don't you just go back to seventies and put "NEW!", "IMPROVED!", "EXTRA!" and "FREE!" on the fucking bottle.

     

    I'd be more inclined to scan these things if they actually provided a service, I recently received a free paper through the door from a local college and although their system is equally crap in many respects at least when I scan one of the hundreds of QR codes in their material it takes me to a site related to the particular course and you can enroll online.

     

     Thats what I'd like to see from my wine, or any product. If you are going to put a QR code on a product then you are obviously targetting people who have already bought the product. Maybe I want to buy more? Okay maybe you aren't set up to do that directly, but you could riderect me to a local website that does supply your product, Tesco's wine direct for example, wouldn't take long to set that partnership up, you'd sell more wine, they'd sell more wine, win win!

    But no, they couldn't be arsed to make anything useful happen when I scanned it, they may aswell have returned a simple flat html document with nothing but a head containing a title and short body that reads "You are drinking our wine!".

    Yes, I know that already, now go back to looking at the pretty colour changing lamp and play with your toys... maybe when you grow up, you can learn to build a website that actually does something!

     



  • @EncoreSpod said:

    If you are going to put a QR code on a product then you are obviously targetting people who have already bought the product.

    Or someone comparing to a competitor that is on the shelf next to it, but then it is even more going to be on a mobile vs. other machine.



  • I once scanned a QR code from an ad for a restaurant. The scan brought me to a website that showed some unique key code and said, if I showed this code to one of their waiters, I would receive a free shopping bag with a nice logo of theirs printed on the outside. This was at least useful, I got myself one of those bags, and it is actually really nice and well made. A quality shopping bag. I congratulate their advertising folks for a well made campaign!



  • @TheRider said:

    I once scanned a QR code from an ad for a restaurant. The scan brought me to a website that showed some unique key code and said, if I showed this code to one of their waiters, I would receive a free shopping bag with a nice logo of theirs printed on the outside. This was at least useful, I got myself one of those bags, and it is actually really nice and well made. A quality shopping bag. I congratulate their advertising folks for a well made campaign!
     

     

    Nice one, maybe I should not judge these marketting people to hastily... might have to scan a few more in future, can't argue with a freebie!

     



  • @locallunatic said:

    @EncoreSpod said:

    If you are going to put a QR code on a product then you are obviously targetting people who have already bought the product.

    Or someone comparing to a competitor that is on the shelf next to it, but then it is even more going to be on a mobile vs. other machine.

     

     

    True, I guess the useful thing to do in that situation would be to link to a third party critic of some kind (even if its not really independant and unbiased).

    That is an intersting thought... what is an easy well to tell if the customer is scanning the product on the shelf, or at home? I mean, the sources are there... location for example, but easily accessing them is more difficult.. I'm just thinking out loud here, could be an interesting challenge.

     

     



  • The other day I got an email with a qr code embedded. But without a link that I could find. You know they have email on phones these days!? Especially since it was related to a mobile product.



  • I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.

    On a related note, My first (and only) experience with the NFC capabilities of my Galaxy S3 was at O'Hare airport a few months back. Samsung had an ad that invited you to turn on NFC and place your phone on a designated spot on the poster, and you'd get a free e-book or something. I thought "cool; seamless, wireless, instantaneous file transfer, like bluetooth but even less secure." Turns out it was just a URL to download the e-book from the web. Not sure if NFC can do anymore than that, but I was pretty underwhelmed.



  •  LOL

    Side story... most interesting use I ever found for a QR code.

    After leaving my previous job, I still have access to a lot of their kit, I don't usually abuse it but one day I was bored and playing with QR code generation online.

     

    I decided the most fun I could have that afternoon was to generate a QR code for 'Never gonna give you up' on youtube, then print it to a load of jetdirects I still had access to at my old employer. Many of which where in public areas frequented my students, the type likely to have the understanding, ability and curiosity to scan a random QR code that pops out of the printer.

     

    I have no idea how many people I actually rick-rolled that day, I guess if I had wanted to know I could have setup a short URL for it and monitored the hits.

     



  • @Zemm said:

    The other day I got an email with a qr code embedded. But without a link that I could find. You know they have email on phones these days!? Especially since it was related to a mobile product.
    Probably a screen-cap of their website, saved inside a word doc, then printed, scanned and saved as a PDF.



  • @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.

    On a related note, My first (and only) experience with the NFC capabilities of my Galaxy S3 was at O'Hare airport a few months back. Samsung had an ad that invited you to turn on NFC and place your phone on a designated spot on the poster, and you'd get a free e-book or something. I thought "cool; seamless, wireless, instantaneous file transfer, like bluetooth but even less secure." Turns out it was just a URL to download the e-book from the web. Not sure if NFC can do anymore than that, but I was pretty underwhelmed.

     

    Yeah its pretty poor just providing a url, there are good uses for NFC/QR but they haven't really come into being yet, the marketting people seemed to have jumped on them as a gimmick.

    The obvious one for NFC is payments and ID, but there are others which apply to QR and NFC which would just make life easier if they were more standarised. For example there is a psuedo standard for supplying a wifi SSID and passphrase in a QR code. Also there is talk, although I've never used it, of using NFC to exchange bluetooth credentials for easier pairing. E.g. you tap the phone against your speakers, they exchange credentials, the actual pairing and communication is done over BT or WiFi but you never have to enter a code or do anything more thank 'bonk' the device to negotiate that pairing.

     

    Not that there is anything wrong with just redirecting to a URL, that could still be handy if used more effectively... like you say you are at an airport, how about when I scan/tap the url redirects me to a map for local public transport, some hotels or maybe the number for a cab? You know, something that might be useful for someone who is quite obviously travelling instead of just being an advert that directs me to another advert.

     

     

     



  •  More thinking out loud here but I'm thinking like...

    You turn up in London, and you are getting your bearings, you scan a code, you get a tube map and the option to setup your NFC to work with Oyster (the contactless payment system for public transport in London).

     How about it even asks you where you want to go, finds you a hotel and gives you directs to the right train to get there? Maybe even makes you a reservation!

     



  •  Hehe that reminds me of that old microsoft slogan "Where do you want to go today?"

    If Microsoft really meant that they would have had three big buttons that said "Porn", "Email" and "Amusing videos".

    I always used to say to people at my last place, you need to study how people use your software/website and discover what the three most common things they do are. Then you put big buttons on the front page for those three things, you stil leave the navigation for the less common tasks in there but by linking directly to the most common options you take away the majority of the frustration for the majority of your users.

    I did some software that managed the IT inventory and it had three buttons for "Add new stuff", "Lookup old stuff" and "Manage scrapping obsolete stuff" cus these where the main things it was used for.

    I suggested they do the same with the website and have buttons for "Look up people", "Sign up for courses" and "Look up papers" but they never caught on...

    I guess the whole reason I started this rant was just to say that there is so much potential in the technologies we already have and it never gets fully exploited because people move onto the latest new thing so quickly.

     



  • @EncoreSpod said:

     LOL

    Side story... most interesting use I ever found for a QR code.

    After leaving my previous job, I still have access to a lot of their kit, I don't usually abuse it but one day I was bored and playing with QR code generation online.

     

    I decided the most fun I could have that afternoon was to generate a QR code for 'Never gonna give you up' on youtube, then print it to a load of jetdirects I still had access to at my old employer. Many of which where in public areas frequented my students, the type likely to have the understanding, ability and curiosity to scan a random QR code that pops out of the printer.

     

    I have no idea how many people I actually rick-rolled that day, I guess if I had wanted to know I could have setup a short URL for it and monitored the hits.

     

    Friend of mine bought a sticky label printer a while back.

    Long story short, if you go scanning random QRs you find stuck on walls and lampposts round my town, you're liable to be surprise goatse'd.

     



  • As for a somewhat clever use of QR codes (among other things), I've recently found this game. Sadly, I couldn't try it out yet because I don't have an iThing though.



  • @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.


    Or on a page which is intended to be printed.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.
    Or if the page is printed on dead-tree.



  • @EncoreSpod said:

    you could riderect me
    Does that somehow involve a bucket of ice-cold water?



  • @pjt33 said:

    @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.


    Or on a page which is intended to be printed.

    Or sites meant for mobile devices where you can scan the QR code and download the attachment? Works great on android forums.



  • @russ0519 said:

    @pjt33 said:
    @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.


    Or on a page which is intended to be printed.

    Or sites meant for mobile devices where you can scan the QR code and download the attachment? Works great on android forums.

    We use them to scan points with an app after a sale has being made. If you don't use our app to scan the QR, we send you to a mobile site so you can either download the app or use the mobile site.

    About NFC, Apple really killed it with their decision of not including it in iPhone5 and althought a lot of SMGS3 have been sold, this is not a reason to broadly target NFC yet. Anyway, I don't you can transfer files over NFC (and I really hope not)


  • :belt_onion:

    @russ0519 said:

    @pjt33 said:
    @Nexzus said:

    I always get a kick out of sites that have QR codes on them. The only thing situation I can think of where that would make sense is at a kiosk.

    Or on a page which is intended to be printed.

    Or sites meant for mobile devices where you can scan the QR code and download the attachment? Works great on android forums.

    Actually this is quite useful on any embedded platform where you don't have access to the filesystem.



  • @ubersoldat said:

    About NFC, Apple really killed it with their decision of not including it in iPhone5 and althought a lot of SMGS3 have been sold, this is not a reason to broadly target NFC yet. Anyway, I don't you can transfer files over NFC (and I really hope not)

    I for one do not plan to embrace NFC while NFC == WTF.



  • The QR codes that drive me battiest are on ads in the NYC subway.  You know, underground, where there is NO wifi or cellular reception?  The ones on the platforms are bad enough (fine, you might see them coming off the train, and get a connection 30 seconds later as you come out of the station), but the ones on ads specifically designed and sized for the ceiling display spaces inside the subway cars... what were those people thinking?



  • @PSWorx said:

    As for a somewhat clever use of QR codes (among other things), I've recently found this game. Sadly, I couldn't try it out yet because I don't have an iThing though.
    It's a shame that it specifically requires an iThing and refuses to work on any other platform when Firefox for Android, Chrome for Android, Chrome for iOS, IE9 for WP7, and IE10 for WP8 all support reading the accelerometer practically the exact same way.



  • @PSWorx said:

    As for a somewhat clever use of QR codes (among other things), I've recently found this game. Sadly, I couldn't try it out yet because I don't have an iThing though.
    I tried it with my iThing. Works quite nicely, although with quite some lag. My spaceship usually died very quickly.



  • @DaveK said:

    @EncoreSpod said:

     LOL

    Side story... most interesting use I ever found for a QR code.

    After leaving my previous job, I still have access to a lot of their kit, I don't usually abuse it but one day I was bored and playing with QR code generation online.

     

    I decided the most fun I could have that afternoon was to generate a QR code for 'Never gonna give you up' on youtube, then print it to a load of jetdirects I still had access to at my old employer. Many of which where in public areas frequented my students, the type likely to have the understanding, ability and curiosity to scan a random QR code that pops out of the printer.

     

    I have no idea how many people I actually rick-rolled that day, I guess if I had wanted to know I could have setup a short URL for it and monitored the hits.

     

    Friend of mine bought a sticky label printer a while back.

    Long story short, if you go scanning random QRs you find stuck on walls and lampposts round my town, you're liable to be surprise goatse'd.

     

     

     

    +1

     



  • @Anonymouse said:

    @EncoreSpod said:

    you could riderect me
    Does that somehow involve a bucket of ice-cold water?

     

    I don't know what you took my drunk spelling to mean but cold water sounds like fun, personally I like running around the streets at night butt naked which has much the same effect as a bucket of ice cold water i.e. hypothermia.

     



  • @sprained said:

    The QR codes that drive me battiest are on ads in the NYC subway.  You know, underground, where there is NO wifi or cellular reception?  The ones on the platforms are bad enough (fine, you might see them coming off the train, and get a connection 30 seconds later as you come out of the station), but the ones on ads specifically designed and sized for the ceiling display spaces inside the subway cars... what were those people thinking?

     

    Yeah I get the same crap in London, not jus QR codes but websites on ads. Do they really think we are gonna remember their brand name let alone their website long enough to chase it up? Of course not, we wake up when we hear our stop and get off the fucking train, then thnk about where we were going. I don't stop to think "Hmm that was an interesting advertisment on the train, maybe now is the time to look at their website!"

     

     



  •  Oh and while we are talking about metro systems... google doodle told me the london undergroun was 150 year old recently.

     

    I could help thinking how many of those 150 there has been a tramp on the circle (yellow) line begging for money.

     

    He's been on there at least seven years to my knowledge, always with the same story. "I'm going through a rough patch.." blah blah blach "...having a hard time..." blah blah ".. if you could just spare some food or some money..."

     I've started trolling him.

    I get off the national train and I stop to buy pasties.

    I get on the circle line, and wait.

    Then when he shows up begging for food (although obviously he really just wants meth money), I get out my pasties.

    Then I look him straight in the eye and grin with almost orgasmic pleasure as I eat my delicous hot meat filled pastry treats, and not give him any.

     



  • @TwelveBaud said:

    @PSWorx said:
    As for a somewhat clever use of QR codes (among other things), I've recently found this game. Sadly, I couldn't try it out yet because I don't have an iThing though.
    It's a shame that it specifically requires an iThing and refuses to work on any other platform when Firefox for Android, Chrome for Android, Chrome for iOS, IE9 for WP7, and IE10 for WP8 all support reading the accelerometer practically the exact same way.

    Thank God Apple decided not to prefix things like event.accelerationIncludingGravity in Mobile Safari.



  • For this new year's I went to buy fireworks for the first time. I found many of the larger ones had QR codes linking to YouTube videos of the firework being demonstrated.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @EncoreSpod said:

     I've started trolling him.

    I get off the national train and I stop to buy pasties.

    I get on the circle line, and wait.

    Then when he shows up begging for food (although obviously he really just wants meth money), I get out my pasties.

    Then I look him straight in the eye and grin with almost orgasmic pleasure as I eat my delicous hot meat filled pastry treats, and not give him any.

     

    I do the same thing. Except here, instead of the metro, it's called the subway. And instead of pasties, its called a doughnut. And instead of eating it with almost orgasmic pleasure, I fucking the cream out of the doughnut until I achieve actual orgasmic pleasure by refilling it with cream.

     


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

     You'd think the Wine QR codes would do one of the following:

    1) Give you pairing suggestions for dishes

    2) Bring up some n00b information-- like what the fuck is the difference between a Risling and a Chardonay anyways?

    3) List any complications or negative interactions this particular vintage will have with Gamma-hydroxybutyrate


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Lorne Kates said:

    List any complications or negative interactions this particular vintage will have with Gamma-hydroxybutyrate
    Considering the wine will possibly have some GHB in it itself, probably none.



  • Pasties are not doughnuts!


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Zemm said:

    Pasties are not doughnuts!
     

    They are in Canada. #liestrong

    And now I'm hungry. 



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    like what the fuck is the difference between a Risling and a Chardonay anyways?
     

    The difference with real wines, is as little as an 'e' and an 'n'


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @dhromed said:

    @Lorne Kates said:

    like what the fuck is the difference between a Risling and a Chardonay anyways?
     

    The difference with real wines, is as little as an 'e' and an 'n'

     

    I have a front-page article coming up, and I need to practice my typos.

     


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