QR Code Marketing Fad?

I think QR codes, in display ads, will end up being a short lived fad like the :CueCat. Advertisers who use this new barcode format are shutting out everyone else who doesn't have a device, in hand, with a camera and QR code reader application.

Short URLs would be a much better alternative. Perhaps, putting the short URL next to the QR code would be a good way to include people who don't have a QR code reading device.

Part of the problem is that, when your average non-techie comes across a QR code, they won't even know where to begin to figure out what it is. How many times have people wondered what that U inside a circle means on food condiments?

I tried out the QR code in this ad (circled in red) for The Dragonfly Effect and the experience wasn't so hot. For starters, this QR code lead me to a landscape video that would only play in portrait mode inside the QR app; and, when the video ended, there was no where to go from there (i.e., no further call to action). I think that this experience will probably get better over time, but so far, it's lacking.

On the other hand, I think QR codes have a perfect place in the off line world since each QR code can contain over 4,000 characters. Imagine being able to scan a shipping container in the middle of the desert, without any network connectivity, and the QR code reporting back the container's inventory since it's all encoded in that bar code. I can see the QR code being popular with the military.

What would it take for these marketing QR codes to catch on with consumers? Integrating QR code in the OS or camera driver is key. Now that would give it a fighting chance.

Playing the Quiet Victim

Ever been in one of those situations where, if you didn't say anything, you were the victim and if you did say something, you were the bad guy?

This happened to me, last month, when I was flying home from the East Coast.

My United flight was completely full. Although I had a seat in one of the last rows, I ended up in the last boarding group since I had an aisle seat and United boards window seats first and then moves inboard.

When I got to my row, the window seat was still not occupied and there was a guy seated in the middle seat. I took my aisle seat and then, a few minutes later, a couple with two small children showed up. Mom and the kids were in the row in front of me and dad was assigned the window seat in my row.

The father asked me if I'd mind switching my aisle seat for his window seat so he could help out with the kids. What could I say? Of course I obliged. But, in the blink of an eye, the guy in the middle seat said, "Let me just move over a seat," as he took the window seat.

Things had just gone from a so-so window seat to an unpleasant middle seat faster than I could respond and, with each passing second, I realized that I couldn't say anything polite without sounding like a curmudgeon. Now what?

I could tell, when the father and I made eye contact, that he felt bad about what just happened. Although he mentioned that this was, in no way, his intention, I didn't say anything. Mr. former-middle-seat looked like he was in the military and I imagined that, had I said anything, his response could have been something on the order of, "I'm just returning from Afghanistan and I was hoping that I could have the window seat so that I could look at the country that I've sworn to defend."

But, playing the quiet victim did end up having its advantages. About ten minutes after takeoff, the father, in the aisle seat, moved up into the row in front of me and sat there, with his daughter on his lap, for the rest of the flight. So, I ended up next to the only open seat on the plane. Meanwhile, Mr. former-middle-seat took out a military technical manual for an aircraft radar system and quietly read it.

Missing Friends' Facebook Updates

Over the past several months, I noticed that I was missing friends' updates in my Facebook News Feed. Specifically, I wasn't seeing many of my wife's posts in my Facebook News Feed unless I visited her Facebook page.

My friend, Rich, told me that Facebook had defaulted to showing the updates only from friends that I interacted with most often. I spent a good deal of time trying to track down this setting without any luck.

This afternoon, I asked Rich where to find the Facebook setting that controlled whose updates appear in my Facebook News Feed. It took him a little digging, but he found it and sent the details to me.

Click to embiggen

Nefarious Mac OS X Attack

This is one of the most clever attacks on Mac OS X that I've seen in the wild.

I was searching Google for photos of Kelly McGillis since I had driven by "her" Top Gun house, earlier this evening. When I clicked on several of the top results from Google, the following webpage came up and a ZIP file, with a trojan, started downloading.

Click to enlarge
At first glance, this download might look legit to the casual user, but it's not. Fortunately, nothing bad can happen just by visiting websites like this one.

This type of attack is not a virus since it doesn't spread on its own. But, like most social engineering attacks, people could be duped into thinking that they might need to install the application that was just downloaded. After unzipping this file, you'd have to double click on the installer and then grant it administrative access to install this malware on your computer. Falling victim to this attack requires that a user take several deliberate steps, but, that could easily happen if you thought this was a software update from Apple.

While attacks like this aren't uncommon, it's interesting that the attacker was able to figure out how to poison Google's search algorithm into returning their nefarious websites at the top of the list.

Was the Killing of bin Laden Legal?

Under the law of war, a combatant can engage the enemy at any time as long as they're not surrendering. Even if the enemy is running from the fight (retreating) - as was the case at the Highway of Death - they're still a legitimate target. Surrender is an honorable action when you no longer have any means to resist (Article II of the Code of Conduct).


This leads to a couple questions.
1. Was bin Laden a civilian?
2. If so, can civilians be considered combatants?

The short answer to the second question is yes; even if bin Laden was considered a civilian, civilians can be considered combatants when they take up arms (some exceptions are peace officers, such as the police).

When civilians take up arms it is referred to as levée en masse. Al Qada's attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 & 2001, American embassies in East African in 1998, USS Cole in 2000, etc. were attacks (acts of war) against the sovereign nation of the United States of America. Al Qada carried out these attacks as a perverse misinterpretation of Islamic defensive jihad. Therefore, the plan to capture or kill bin Laden (Operation Neptune Spear) was legal.

Thought Exercise
Now here's an interesting thought, try reversing the situation. What is the status of the President of the United States? He's clearly the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, yet he is a definitely a civilian. Imagine if Iraqi commandos flew into Texas, captured former President Bush, and labeled him a war criminal for attacking and occupying Iraq? How would Article 98 of the Rome Statute apply?

The End?
The real challenge is figuring out how the end to the War on Terror will look. What parties will sign the treaty? Will al Qada, one day, gain legitimacy in the eyes of the U.N., like the PLO did in the 1970s and 1980s, in order to take a seat at the table?

Planes and Pilots at Palomar

I covered the Wings of Freedom tour at Palomar Airport for Carlsbad Patch, this past week. The video is below and you can see the photos here.

Osama Bin Laden Killed

This is the web page to watch, in the coming days, for details of Osama bin Laden's death.

Photojojo iPhone Telephoto Lens

I love to take photos with my iPhone – and I've taken thousands. One thing that I really wish the iPhone could do better is zoom. In photography, there are two types of zoom: digital zoom and optical zoom.

Digital zoom simply blows up pixels. If you've ever "overzoomed" into a photo then you've seen how blocky it is when it's pixilated. It looks terrible.

Optical zoom, on the other hand, uses lens optics to "magnify" the subject – it's as if you were physically closer to the subject when you took the photo. A 10x optical zoom will appear as if you were ten times closer.

In photographer lingo, they don't actually refer to telephoto lenses as "10x" – instead, they refer to a lens by its focal length, i.e. 400 mm, since that indicates the distance to the focal point, behind the lens, where the light rays will converge.

Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom. But, it's also more expensive, due to the added lenses, plus it's bulkier.

On Tuesday, Jeff Leon, a high school classmate of mine, showed me an ad for Photojojo's iPhone Telephoto Lens which is an 8x telephoto lens that's made specifically for the iPhone 3 or iPhone 4. Priced at $35.00, it was an offer that I couldn't resist. Plus, the more that I dug into this product's offerings, the more that I was impressed.

Not only does 35 bucks buy you an 8x zoom lens, which attaches to your iPhone with a simple snap on case, but it also comes with a tripod to hold your iPhone. Do you know how long I've been looking for a simple iPhone tripod? Answer: a long time!

Ordering the Telephoto Lens

I placed my order on Tuesday and I received the new zoom lens this afternoon. The entire process of ordering and waiting for my telephoto lens to arrive was more fun than I expected when I received e-mails from Photojojo like:

We just wanted to let you know that we got your order. You've got this online shopping thing down pat!

The next day, when my order shipped, I received an e-mail with a subject line that read:

Yay! Your Photojojo Order Shipped!

And, the best part was the way they signed off this e-mail:

We hope our box of photo goodies brightens your day and brings you super photo happiness!
xoxo,
Photojojo

Photojojo was just as excited about my order as I was!

Unboxing

When I opened the shipping box, I immediately noticed that the telephoto lens box had the same form factor as the iPhone 3 box. And, in the packing materials, I saw that they also included a green toy dinosaur tchotchke.

As I showed the triceratops to my wife, we got a huge laugh when our beagle jumped up and sank his teeth into the plastic dinosaur as he tried, unsuccessfully, to snatch it from my hand and eat it thinking that it was a yummy Greenie.

Included in the box:

• Telephoto lens
• Universal holder
• iPhone case
• Mini tripod
• Carrying case
• Cleaning cloth

Critical Assessment

I can sum up this product in one word: Fantastic!

It's well worth $35 – I would have happily paid more. The plastic case easily snaps onto my iPhone and then the zoom lens screws into the threads on the case. You can manually focus the lens, depending how faraway the subject it. The minimum focal distance is about ten feet.

The tripod mount also rotates a full 90° so that you can take photos in either portrait or landscape (or anywhere in between).

I took my iPhone 4 with the telephoto lens outside to snap a couple photos of the birds of paradise on my lawn using the Photojojo tripod. You can click on these two images to compare the details and see the difference. Both photos were taken from the exact same vantage point. It obvious that I'm a happy camper with this product.

Tweeting and Meeting the McCains

I saw that Cindy McCain (Senator John McCain's wife) was fairly active on Twitter so I began following her. Around lunchtime, today, she mentioned that Senator McCain was cooking.

Brats for lunch. John is the grill master!less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyCindy McCain
CindyhM1

So, I asked her to tweet out a photo:

@CindyhM1 You should tweet out a photo of the Senator grilling. Does he wear a "Kiss the cook" apron? ;^Dless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet ReplyJoe Moreno ✔
JoeMoreno

Well, a few minutes later, she posted a picture of Senator McCain:

John in his grilling outfit! http://yfrog.com/gzh44jnjless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyCindy McCain
CindyhM1

Here's the photo she took:

Of course, I thanked her:

@CindyhM1 That's beautiful. I love it! Thanks!less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet ReplyJoe Moreno ✔
JoeMoreno

Meeting The McCains

My wife and I got a chance to meet the McCains about a year and a half ago. Senator McCain, who gave the commencement address when I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1993, was back in Annapolis for his 50 year reunion in 2008 - which coincided with my class' 15 year reunion.

After a parade, that reunion weekend in 2008, we met at the Superintendent's house for a garden party reception. Cindy was at the reception with her son, Jack, who was a "firstie" (senior) at the Academy, and her daughter, Meghan.

I spoke with Jack, for a short time, and I mentioned to him that his father gave my class' commencement address. I'm guessing that Jack must have been about seven or eight years old in 1993. I was surprised when Jack told me that he clearly remembered his father's commencement address to our class and he said that it had a big impact on him. Jack then introduced my wife and I to Cindy and we chatted for a little bit – but not too long, Cindy was a busy women with only six or seven weeks to go until the presidential election.

Where to turn to when you're sick?

I've had a sore throat for the past week. It came on the day after I went to the San Diego Padres home game season opener, last Tuesday. No doubt that I caught something after being exposed to the crowds and eating the stadium food.

I feel fine and it doesn't feel too sore. However, my voice sounds like I've smoked a carton of cigarettes every day for the past 80 years.

Since it hasn't gotten any better (nor has it gotten worse), I left a message with my doctor's office, this morning, to see if they could recommend some over-the-counter medication. An assistant called me back a few hours later and she recommenced Mucinex.

The funny part of the phone call was when the doctor's assistant said, "I was just looking at WebMD and it says..." As she mentioned that, it conjured up the brilliant advice that my sister once gave me, "When you're sick, you go to the doctor, not the Internet."