Starship Asterisk*

First, I like this APOD because it makes me reflect on our technological identity:
On one hand, we've created, over a very short time, machines capable of reading, extracting, and organizing the tons of information we put out. The Wikipedia page on bar codes is fascinating and worth a read.

On the other hand, this is raw data that is uninteresting and unreadable to us, while the knowledge we as humans work with and sometimes crave is as yet difficult for machines to get a handle on: faces, emotions, ideas, etc.

Overall, this image inspires in me the "we've come far, but there's so much further to go"
sentiment so common in the field of astronomy.


Second, a question:
Is it possible for an image like this to violate the Holographic Principle, if the information contained in its surface area, "http://apod.nasa.gov/," is a link to a whole world of information?

--
Sam

Sam wrote: Second, a question:
Is it possible for an image like this to .... link to a whole world of information?
Sam

I'd say: Sure.


*not that I know how to do it or anything......

APOD,

I've been regularly looking through the amazing pictures and thoughtful writeups here for years. Your articles and photos have sent me searching the web for all kinds of information about various topics of interest over the years.

I certainly don't get excited about every topic or photo, but in my opinion you provide an invaluable service, you inspire interest in science, in space, in physics.

Thanks to all of you and to everyone who contributes to this effort, we don't always remember to say it, but we appreciate all the hard work, time and effort you put in.

I loved it, it could be so extremely small and centred at north on every astronomical image (un-noticable to the eye) and let one trace the source, series, time of photo. It's genius, perhaps it should be there every day. BTW, it solved a bunch of my work problems for the day. Thanks.

Honestly this article really made me curious, so I searched online at
http://www.onbarcode.com/scanner/
downloaded the barcode scanning software and tried it out, and I was disappointed....
I really think you can encode something fun like"Hello, earth, this is Mars speaking~"

Wouldn't it be hilarious if one were to point a QR Code-reading smartphone at the sky and get a message from God...

"Congratulations, you found me. Now stop playing with your phone get back to work!"

-Noel

Hey, I've used an online qr reader to scan my materials. It's easy to use. Hope it be useful.
http://www.onbarcode.com/scanner/qrcode.html
As well, qr code generators are also available to use.
http://generator.onbarcode.com/online-q ... rator.aspx
http://www.onbarcode.com/products/net_barcode/

Thank you for the heads-up and the links. QR codes are ubiquitous, from doorways to ID badges.

PS: APOD is the BEST!

I think that enough has been said about QR codes. Not that I would mind discussing them further at some later date, but this thread has been targeted by spammers for some reason and we've had to remove numerous QR code software advertisements from the thread. It seems that it they've doomed it into an administration annoyance so I am locking it.