I really really hate QR codes.

infinity@infosec.exchange

@sundogplanets Another nice solution: https://zint.org.uk/

laurentperrinet@neuromatch.social

And you are right @sundogplanets - QR codes really are everywhere these days. What I appreciate, though, is how their ubiquity stems from the inventor’s decision to open-source the technology. It’s a rare example of how sharing an idea can lead to its widespread adoption and utility:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

dazzr@social.tchncs.de

@dlakelan @sundogplanets
All OS that can run LibreOffice. Local, FOSS, no Google, no web needed.

LibreOffice, because you wanted to get rid of Microsoft 365 Slopilot crap anyway.

bzdev@fosstodon.org

@sundogplanets

I have a QR generator I wrote (using ZXing libraries). It is written in Java, & runs locally on your system. There are Debian packages, but also an installer for other systems (e.g., MacOS, Windows, etc.). You should install openjdk first. The Debian packages will configure the system to recognize icons, etc., but for other systems, I just provided the files as I had no way of testing that. It can also decode QR codes so you can see what a URL is.

https://billzaumen.github.io/QRLauncher/

mediopocillo@boriken.social

@sundogplanets Inkscape includes an extension to make them, and bar codes as well.
https://daviesmediadesign.com/how-to-generate-qr-codes-in-inkscape/

becomingwisest@hachyderm.io

@sundogplanets another one, https://staticqrcode.org/

Done all client side in the browser.

loicblanchard@piaille.fr

@sundogplanets
Framasoft has also a QR Code generator in their toolbox (among a lot of respectfull tools) :
https://omnitools.framatoolbox.org/image-generic/qr-code

ptl@tooting.ch

@sundogplanets
I like this one also : https://justaqrcode.com/
And to read them with a webcam on a desktop PC : https://scanapp.org/
(desktop PC because I can move my webcam a little bit around)

raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie

@Anne_Delong @sundogplanets
"Make sure that your QR code reader is one that lets you look at the URL first, not one that just loads up automatically. Then you can see that the website being loaded is the one that you are expecting. People have been known to paste fake QR codes over real ones in public places"

This can't be emphasised too much.

I disabled the included code reader on my Android phone.
Some 3rd party Android coder reader apps on Playstore have had spyware or malware.

raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie

@yvan @sundogplanets
URL shorteners are evil because they hide the destination. Such links are now forbidden on many forums. I think invented for Twitter when it was stupidly only SMS size messages.

I always preview a QR code and never go to shortened links.

yvan@toot.ale.gd

@raymaccarthy I think "evil" is a bit strong... they're effectively just a HTTP redirect. But I totally get the issues with the effective obfuscation of the target URL and am aware that has been used for nefarious purposes. There is no good reason to be using them on things like forums where there are no character limits - that's suspicious behavior! Blocking them on such sites makes sense.

Their origin is certainly in sending URLs in short text formats - be that early Twitter or SMS/text messages. Still useful for the latter.

For QR codes a shorter URL means a simpler QR code. A simpler QR code is both more robust and better to scan from distance (depending on print/display size of course, but especially for if they're going to be on slides at a talk.)

These days I'd expect most good QR apps should automatically preview the redirect target URL. On desktop I use wget -S to check the targets of any suspect short URLs.

@sundogplanets

yvan@toot.ale.gd

@raymaccarthy many of the redirect services also offer useful usage stats - I used to use bit.ly for this reason. To know which QR/urls were getting hits so we could work out which media/formats/locations were effective for QRs. (I used to be involved in organising things like CAMRA beer festivals, and similar sorts of events and we put QRs in advertisments, on beer mats, and on posters.)

But then there are possibly some privacy concerns - i.e. as a person/business I am sharing some level of metadata with bit.ly if I use their shortened URLs (as well as the URL they get things like client IPs and user agent strings for example.)

So I bought my own short domain so I could fully internalise that analysis and still have nice short URLs for marketing/advertising purposes.

In reality I expect most people who'd not hesitate to scan a QR probably don't care about any of these details. (Though I think greater public awareness of the risks would be a good thing.)

@sundogplanets

raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie

@yvan @sundogplanets
"many of the redirect services also offer useful usage stats - I used to use bit.ly for this reason"

Which is a malicious privacy violation if it's not your own site. Possibly even illegal in the EU.
If it is your own site then the data harvesting URL shorteners are not needed. A parameter on the URL works.

Also the user has no idea where a URL shortener is taking them. There is no justification at all for these evil data harvesting services.

bzdev@fosstodon.org

@sundogplanets The QR generator I mentioned can encode binary files. The man page describes how to use this program to make a series of QR codes to store a user's GPG keys as a series of QR codes, each labeled with a file name. The images containing these codes can then be printed and stored in a safe place as a long-term backup in addition to a flash drive (which can fail).

kevinrj@mastodon.social

@sundogplanets I wish we had something less visual than QR codes, they can be hard to scan when totally blind.

sundogplanets@mastodon.social

@kevinrj Very good point!

murtaugh@mastodon.social

@sundogplanets Any time there's 100 scammy/spammy tools it's because the tech is 100% open source and the spammers know how to shout louder.

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Kevin R Jones The whole idea of QR codes doesn't make sense, when the actual site link they are pointing to isn't available as a text link below. Btw, that same problem exists for people with eyesight:; we can't see, where the QR code points to. Any human analysis about spam risk is impossible without mentioning the actual link in text. @Prof. Sam Lawler

Abspeckgeflüster – Forum für Menschen mit Gewicht(ung)

I really really hate QR codes.