The Pet Shop Boys embed QR codes in latest Orwellian video
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 8th 2007 5:42AM
posted Oct 8th 2007 5:42AM
[Thanks, ZSW]
Read -- Integral video
Read -- About QR codes
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It's a sin not to like this video. What have we done to deserve this Orwellian state. How 'bout them West End girls in this video. At least you can't accuse this video of being boring.
/sorry
It must be obvious to escape Big Brother.. Go West in suburbia. But after all that, ask yourself "Was it Worth it?" After all happiness is an opinion.
DAVE your a complete TWAT just post relevant content, the PSBs have always had great videos that have had strong messages behind them.
Visit PrisonPlanet.com if you want to know more about Big Brother, mainstrean Media misleading you and a whole buunch of other stuff.
LMAO Daves 'First Posts been taken down'
Kaywa Reader is a QR-Code reader app. Works quite well.
http://reader.kaywa.com/
People need to know the truth. Go see Zeitgeist. It'll wake you up! http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com The movie is three parts and I just don't believe in the first part. But part 2 and 3 should be seen by EVERY AMERICAN! And when you see it, spread the word. And yes, like JUDDADREDD said, you can find out more on prisonplanet.com And personally love http://www.wearechange.org. You'll find about 15 or so videos on things that the uninformed masses don't even have a clue about. Ron Paul 08!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tried this out using the downloadable Kaywa reader for my SE K800i. Works fine. Suitable for loads of other phones also. http://reader.kaywa.com/
agreed, Kaywa Reader works on loadsa phones, works on my k550i which isn't even officially supported!
woah, i thought they died
As all new Nokia N series phones starting with the N95 will be sold with a QR reader preinstalled, there are bound to be much more people with the ability to read it outside Japan than a dozen, certainly with the tremendous success of the N95 in Europe.
However, the number of people actually aware that their phone has this capability probably is quite low.
Amazingly, you've pooh-poohed concerns about human rights, ignoring the obvious correlates, endless war, spying, imprisonment, etc., which are occurring concurrently.
I assume you have some literacy and have read Orwell's 1984, or even Animal Farm, but somehow you can't see the big picture? Maybe you see it literally, therefore ignore the realistic, negative effects of authoritarianism.
Regardless, I would prefer you kept your editorializing to blogs and kept this site about technology.
@James,
Gee, and I also wiped out the world's population of baby seals while hoisting global temperatures to record levels.
Lift your emotions from around your eyes and you'll actually see that what I wrote is completely neutral. Though, having lived in both the UK and the US, my personal beliefs are anything but.
Thomas
I reread you comment, and several times carefully before I posted, and it still seems like you tossed 'Big Brother' concerns. Although I might have misinterpreted, you then did not express yourself well. Communication is a two way street.
Your language in response to my post is hyperbolic. I wrote you pooh-poohed authoritarianism, and you've retorted that I accused you of some horrific, as well as impossible, deeds. Strawman argument anyone?
As for the comments about my perceptions, "lift your eyes...," I read broadly on a daily basis, am particularly intelligent, and have a high degree of empathy. I rarely misunderstand anything.
A reminder that certain Sharp phones have QR code scanners built in- like the 903, 902, 802, and the SX633 (namely, all the ones that have hit the Japanese market before Europe/HK/TW). Most Toshibas have it too (again, only the models that exist in a Japanese version as well as Euro/HK/TW).
Everyone says that the QR codes are links to civil liberties websites, and yet I haven't been able to find a list of the links contained in the video; everyone is just repeating what the band says about it on its website.
I checked (from the PDF file contained on the PSB website) and I can confirm (for at least two links, did not check all, better things to do) that they indeed DO link there, apart from the last one, which links to the credits of the video.
Anyone else think of "Snow Crash" when they first saw this?
Tried this on an N95 - I doesn't bloody work at all.
Maybe this kind of nonsense is popular in Japan (what isn't?), but I'll be damned if I'm going to stand around like an idiot holding my phone to screen for 10 minutes while it tries to read one of these things!
This is further proof that cell phones as barcode scanners are a solution in search of a problem. Just gimme the damn URL!
The QR Codes works. Here is a list of some embed links:
http://www.colmeia.tv/blog/2007/10/08/pet-shop-boys-integral-e-qrcode/