Add a little high techness for my Zenith Porthole ...

[cwmoser]

Adding a little "high techness" for my Zenith Porthole:




The above is called a QR code and allows one to use an scanner - say an APP in a smart phone - to go to a special website like the restoration website I put up for my Zenith Porthole TV.

Carl

[VintagePC]

Problem is that it's completely useless to those of us visiting via regular PC.

[kvflyer]

Typo sorry...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

Problem is that it's completely useless to those of us visiting via regular PC.

I just looked at the restoration pictures of the Fleetwood console. I did not realize Fleetwood was mainly a Canadian manufacturer of TVs and radios, nor did I realize that FM radio did not become popular in Canada until some years after this set was made. Here in the US, the early (1960s-'70s) FM stations (those few which were on the air at the time, most of which were in major cities) played little more than what was then known as "elevator music". Most FM stations in the Cleveland area played elevator music until the early 1990s, although one station made the switch to live DJs some twenty years earlier when it was sold from NBC to a local media group.

By 1991 there was only one "easy listening" (a. k. a. elevator music) station left in this area; six months or so later, that station (WREO-FM in Ashtabula, Ohio, 50 miles east of Cleveland on Lake Erie) had switched to live soft rock, later to become a moderately hard-rock outlet. This marked the end of easy listening on FM in Cleveland and environs.

When did FM radio begin in Canada, and what type of music was played on the stations at the time? Did Canadian FM begin with easy listening as US stations did? I live near Lake Erie and often hear FM stations from Windsor and other parts of southwestern Ontario, just using the built-in antennas on my radios. Used to get TV reception from Windsor, Ontario (CKLW-TV channel 9, now CBET) and CFPL-TV channel 10 in London, Ontario before I got cable. The cable system here, which has changed hands several times since my area got cable in 1982, did pick up CFPL briefly, but the channel was dropped from the system's lineup after about a year or so.


BTW, in reference to the "QR" code mentioned above, I think it would be an excellent idea if some software maker came up with software for PCs, with a dedicated scanner of course, that would read these codes. Why should people with so-called "smartphones" be the only ones able to read those things?

[cwmoser]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

Problem is that it's completely useless to those of us visiting via regular PC.

I agree. A lot of high tech today is more gee whiz rather than real utility.

Carl

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

Problem is that it's completely useless to those of us visiting via regular PC.

You can decode them on a PC using a freeware utility like this. Not as slick as using a smartphone, but it does work.

http://techie-buzz.com/softwares/rea...des-on-pc.html

[Eric H]

I've tried scanning Bar Codes off an LCD Monitor with a regular scanner and it doesn't work, the light is just absorbed by the screen somehow.
I assume it must work with a Phone or there wouldn't be any reason to do it but since one would already be using an Internet connected PC what would be the purpose of these.

[ctc17]

My phone reads it

http://www.cerant.com/ZenithPorthole...ortholeTV.html

[AUdubon5425]

My phone keeps telling me to hang up and try again

[IMG][/IMG]

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

When did FM radio begin in Canada, and what type of music was played on the stations at the time? Did Canadian FM begin with easy listening as US stations did? I live near Lake Erie and often hear FM stations from Windsor and other parts of southwestern Ontario, just using the built-in antennas on my radios. Used to get TV reception from Windsor, Ontario (CKLW-TV channel 9, now CBET) and CFPL-TV channel 10 in London, Ontario before I got cable. The cable system here, which has changed hands several times since my area got cable in 1982, did pick up CFPL briefly, but the channel was dropped from the system's lineup after about a year or so.

Sadly, I'm about 20 years too late for that. Electroking might be able to better answer your questions; he's a fellow VKer from Montreal.

Long story short, I found the console in our barn in a storage room and decided to restore it for kicks (I have a thing for old electronics). There's still the odd AM station (country, and talk/news)where I live, but sadly, not much on nowadays. I keep it wired to an external FM tuner via the turntable input jacks (line level, ceramic cart) and listen that way.

[cwmoser]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

My phone keeps telling me to hang up and try again

[IMG][/IMG]

I like that ... nice come back.
You're too creative to not find a use for a smart phone!!!

Carl

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by bandersen

You can decode them on a PC using a freeware utility like this. Not as slick as using a smartphone, but it does work.

http://techie-buzz.com/softwares/rea...des-on-pc.html

I don't see the logic behind it though. Lessee... someone posts one of these with a link. I see it on my computer. I'm sure as hell not gonna get out my phone and read it on a dinky 3" screen when I'm at my desktop.

also, IMHO it's retarded to have software to convert it back to a link. Last I checked, HTML had perfectly good link tags. Using a QR code on a web page is kind of like pasting a single picture in to a word document, and e-mailing the .doc file to send someone a picture. (If you don't see what's wrong with that, do everyone a favor and pack up your computer in a corner of your basement NOW.)

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by VintagePC

I don't see the logic behind it though. Lessee... someone posts one of these with a link. I see it on my computer. I'm sure as hell not gonna get out my phone and read it on a dinky 3" screen when I'm at my desktop.

That is one big reason I do not own a smartphone now, and do not intend to get one any time soon. I am home most of the time anyway (I don't drive and I live in a very small town, where just about everything I need is within walking distance of my apartment), so any time I see a QR code with a link underneath it, I can click on the latter and see what's behind the code -- on a screen big enough for me to read the information comfortably (I just bought a 20" flat-panel monitor for my computer).

The only real purpose I can see for smartphones, IMHO, is for people in business who absolutely need to keep in touch with the office literally 24/7. For the rest of us, smartphones have too many frills and are very expensive -- especially nowadays, when it is absolutely necessary in most cases to purchase a separate data plan along with a 2-year minimum service plan, even if the smartphone you buy only costs you $1 (this is no joke -- I've seen ads in my Sunday newspaper for $1 smartphones). But beware -- as I said, the phone may only cost you $1 or less (I've seen them advertised for as low as 97 cents [!]), but you will pay through the nose for a 2-year contract plus even more for a data pack.

JNWI (just not worth it), IMHO, unless, as I said, you are in business and need to have 24/7 contact with your home office. For myself, a simple cell phone is plenty good enough. (I have an account with Safelink.) I don't use mine that often anyhow, only for emergencies, and I hardly ever text anyone. The last time I texted anybody was when I had to retrieve a password, to gain access to an online account. I had the password sent to my cell, but again, that was the only time I have ever used text messaging. Otherwise, I have no use whatsoever for it, as my friends and I keep in touch via e-mail.

[wa2ise]

You can make up your own QR codes here http://www.qrstuff.com/

What you do with it is another question. I suppose you could print it on paper flyers to put out at flea markets or hamfests.

The attached point to some of my web pages

[kvflyer]

And then, when I was visiting my kid in Australia, they had these things on signs throughout Melbourne, Victoria. What made me laugh was that some of the kids had used "White-Out" and "Magic Markers" and had altered those little black boxes and white boxes. Goodness only knows what came up when THAT image was scanned. I just walked by and chuckled to myself. Because I like to mess with people so it fit the bill...