2QR or How to save the link to the phone

Introduction

Although the era of netbooks and flash drives is on the street, some of us sometimes have to work for someone else for an hour or two, or even worse, with a “public” computer, be it a guest, a university, or an Internet cafe. However, when it comes to saving the results, healthy paranoia suggests that it is better to refrain from using your flash drive with valuable data, and even more so - sending files to yourself in the mail: who knows what cyber parasites live on this computer ...



Fortunately, the network has many services that allow anonymously upload their files. Do not need an account - it means that there is no risk to “light up” your passwords to the Trojan. However, the question arises: how to convey to your computer the very address of the uploaded file?

Existing options

You can, of course, just write it down on paper. True, it will first have to find, and then - try not to lose. Unreliable, and undignified somehow, not in an IT way ... It would be better to keep the link in the mobile phone, which is always with you, and losing it is more difficult. That's just to drive a long address from the telephone keypad - these are not pimples on bags to push, but long and tedious, even with a qwerty-keyboard.

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QR codes , already mentioned on Habré, allow you to quickly and effect (wil) but send a link to the phone directly from the monitor screen. I have already described the extension for Firefox, which creates a QR code for the current page. Of course, FF is not on every computer, and installing an extension for the sake of one time is, firstly, not everywhere possible, and secondly, brute force is still. In such cases, you can use online QR code generators (for example, kaywa or i-nigma ). In this case, you will have to remember / look for the address of the generator, insert a link into it ... Too many unnecessary movements.

Proposed Solution

To simplify the process, I made a small service for creating QR codes . The method of use is very simple: in the address bar of your browser, before the address of the current page add 2qr.ru/ and press Enter - and you will receive a QR code corresponding to this page. It remains to point the camera of the phone with the reader program at it, and voila - you have the link with you, you can save it in bookmarks, send via sms / email, or simply open it in a mobile browser.



The interface is minimal - all work with the service through the address bar of the browser. 2qr.ru without parameters will display a little help on using the service. The very picture of the QR code is generated using Google Charts (that is, in theory, most of the habraeffect should lie on the mighty Google server).



Unlike the mentioned online generators of QR codes from kaywa and i-nigma, 2QR.ru has a short intuitive address and a minimalistic command-line address-bar interface, it works with Javascript disabled and supports Cyrillic in the links .

Read QR codes

Programs for the recognition of QR codes exist for a wide variety of platforms, including Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian and just J2ME phones. You can download some of these programs at these addresses:

QuickMark (login / pass: habr)

i-nigma (to download, go to i-nigma.mobi from your phone)

Kaywa (to download, go to the phone reader.kaywa.com/mobile )

You can read about other programs, for example, in this or this review (in English). You can also see an Excel file with a list of different phone models and addresses for downloading compatible programs.

Conclusion

In the topic 2QR.ru was presented - a service for quickly converting URLs to QR codes. Unlike competitors, 2QR.ru has an easily remembered address, a direct interface through the address bar, it works when Javascript is disabled and supports Cyrillic in the links.

In the future, if it is necessary for someone, it is planned to add other input formats: conversion of phone numbers, business cards, SMS messages and just short texts into a QR code.

Acknowledgments

cb93ka - for the news about the sale of three-character domains.

Google - for Charts API and its support of QR codes.

Alphabet - for kindly provided letters :)



Upd: I unfairly forgot the Android platform, there are QR code recognition programs for it too: Barcode Scanner, ixMAT Code Scanner, BeeTagg , Zxing (thanks to razr , ravve ).



Other ways to save the link:

• If camera capabilities allow, you can simply take a picture of a piece of the screen with a link (thanks to null , Vodkin ).
• If the camera does not know how to take macro shots, shorten the link with a service like tinyurl, then print in large print on the screen and also take a picture (thanks to piroJOKE ). It is suitable for those who do not like QR codes or do not have a program for reading QR codes at hand.
• You can send yourself a link via SMS from the Opsos website, if such a service is available (thanks to Ackrite ). Passwords are safe, but give out your phone number.
• Create a one-time mailbox, and send from it to your personal all links (thanks UpRight ).
• Send it to IM using a temporary account and an online service like meebo.com (thanks to estum ).
• Use one of the social bookmarking services and a separate account (thanks knja ).

Upd2: Thanks to shtirlic , who wrote a bookmarklet showing a QR code right on top of the original page.