Tuesday, May 25, 2010

In Japan QR codes are found on everything from business cards to fresh lettuce. Now they are coming to the West and advertising and promotion will never be the same again. Walking with Dinosaurs, the arena spectacular at Madison Square Garden, has a 100ft tall tower banner complete with QR Code prominently displayed on the corner of 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. The QR Code resolves to http://purl.us.com/009000001 which if you are using a mobile device redirects to a promotional mobile site. # http://2d-code.co.uk/

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

The National Data Catalog is an open platform for government data sets and APIs. It makes it easy to find datasets by and about government, across all levels (federal, state, and local) and across all branches (executive, legislative, and judicial). http://nationaldatacatalog.com/

An Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program which enables it to interact with other software. It is similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. An API is implemented by applications, libraries, and operating systems to determine their vocabularies and calling conventions, and is used to access their services. It may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and protocols used to communicate between the consumer and the implementer of the API. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Api

Quote "People here in Los Angeles are upset that the mayor's proposed plan to cut the budget of libraries. This could affect as many as nine people." Jay Leno

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Richard A. D. Freeman Morton's fork
Def: A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes.
Since most forks today have two or more prongs (tines) it would be good to point out to your readers that, in the 15th century, forks had only two prongs.
From: Stephen Phillips Hobson's choice
Def: An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative: take it or leave it.
Mr. Hobson also arranged supply of fresh water to Cambridge through a system of open channels by the roadside, part of which exists to this day.
From: Prof. Dr. Otto Steinmayer Hobson's choice
Hobson was loved enough at Cambridge to inspire a volume of commemorative poems upon his death. Among others, John Milton contributed. Hobson died aged 86, so he had a full life.
Dr. Johnson remarks that this is the only poem Milton wrote in the "metaphysical" style.
From: Clare Cross Diseases named after physicians
There is some controversy regarding the use of apostrophes for diseases named after the researchers who discovered them. There are a number of issues involved, but it is at least partially a political question: Who "owns" a disease? The National Down Syndrome Society specifically states a preference for "Down" over "Down's" "because an 'apostrophe s' connotes ownership or possession." The online Merriam-Webster dictionary, which reflects common usage, is inconsistent, using "Down syndrome", but "Parkinson's disease". I'm a copy editor for a medical journal, and our policy is to avoid apostrophes in these constructions (this would not include Lou Gehrig's disease [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], since Gehrig actually had the disease). Our policy has occasionally led to complaints from authors, who are concerned that readers searching for, say "Parkinson's" rather than "Parkinson" in the US National Library of Medicine (PubMed) database will not be able to find their papers. It's a legitimate problem. I noted at one point four different versions in the PubMed database for what my journal would call "Graves disease", including "Grave's disease", "Graves' disease", and "Graves's disease". A researcher would have to use four separate searches to find all of the papers on this condition. Readers who wish to learn more about this issue should consult the American Medical Association style manual.

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