Start here: Why does that QR Code go to justinsomnia.org?
I got one of my favorite emails a few days ago, this time from Shreyash in India who wrote:
I bought 3 notebooks for my assignments. They had a QR code at the back of it, which I scanned. It took me to your website. It took me a little while to figure it out but I eventually did, thanks to your article. This notebook is from a local manufacturer. I am attaching the images of the notebook for you to look at.
Here are the photos he sent me:
It’s been a long time since I posted one of these, but a few weeks ago I received a comment on the aforelinked post that read:
…just saw your qr code on episode 1 of Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan. It was on the back of Greer’s CIA ID pass. Still got it J!! —Baddie
At the time I was in the middle of a Wilderness First Responder course (more on that later), so I didn’t have the mental space to actually watch the episode, but thanks to Stephanie’s Prime Student account, I “fast-forwarded” through it on mute until I got to the scene where James Greer’s ID badge flips over as he berates Jack Ryan—around minute 26:35. (Note: I still haven’t watched the episode, so I don’t know what was really going on.) The only problem is that given my laptop’s resolution and/or the video quality that Amazon Prime Video sends to laptops, I wasn’t able to verify the QR Code as mine (despite my best efforts to enhance it).
Of all the crazy places my QR Code has shown up, now a Google patent application, US 2012/0158919 A1, page 3:
Someone just let me know that samples of Chile’s new national identity cards, known locally as cédula de identidad (or documento nacional de identidad, DNI), feature a QR Code linking to justinsomnia.org. This is not the first time that Chile has taken a liking to my QR Code. ¡Hola chilenos curiosos!
I received an email from an editor at Fabrikzeitung, a monthly magazine published in Zurich, Switzerland by Rote Fabrik. They were planning an issue about QR Codes and asked whether I would write an article expanding upon my post, Why does that QR Code go to justinsomnia.org? Of course! As an aside: I believe this is the first article I’ve ever been commissioned to write—and got paid for.
Well, they sent me an actual physical copy of the issue, and it looks very cool.
Here’s my article.
For those who might be curious, you can read the full text here: