
German man programs "Hello World" into wheat field - billpg
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2007/06/german-programmer-programs-hello-world-into-wheat-field.ars
======
idm
This is really neat looking, but ... how exactly do you execute the code? It
appears that the release from semacode.com targets cellphones exclusively, so
I can't get it to run on the command line.

    
    
      wget http://semacode.com/download/semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip
      unzip semacode_reader_me-1.6.zip
      cd semacode_reader_me-1.6
      java -jar semacode_reader_me-1.6.jar
    
      Failed to load Main-Class manifest attribute from
      semacode_reader_me.jar
    

A tip here didn't solve the problem either:
[http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=951...](http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95131)

    
    
      java -Djava.awt.headless=true -jar semacode_reader_me.jar -f cropfield.jpg
    

Anyone out there having more luck with this one?

EDIT: Okay... I tried compiling from source, and the problem is that you need
the J2ME SDK for the MIDlet libraries.

~~~
teilo
First, it's not code. It's just a datamatrix that reads "Hello, world!"

Second, you would need to do some heavy filtering and distortion to process
the image into a square, readable form. Here's a 1-bit PNG processed from an
image taken from the programmer's flickr site. It scanned on my G1 just fine:
<http://bit.ly/4lxG4U>

~~~
idm
Cool PNG!

As an update, I'm still trying to get the semacode software to work in OS X,
and it's just not cooperating. Sun recently pre-released a J2ME environment
for OSX, which is frustratingly buggy...

Here's a link to the SDK:

<http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30_mac.jsp>

...and here's a link to a thread about the (apparently common) issue I'm
having:

<http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5412666>

Glad to hear semacode JAR works on cellphones. If you get it working in an
emulator, please let us know about it!

EDIT: meh, forget it... the Sun SDK just isn't ready for primetime. Instead, I
recommend libdmtx:

<http://www.libdmtx.org>

It's available from macports, there's wrappers for tons of languages (e.g.
python), and although it doesn't magically work with your PNG, I think it only
requires a little tweaking...

EDIT 2:

Forget the version from macports... just compile from source, and your PNG
works fine using version 0.7.2

------
jamesbressi
Let's be honest: He is communicating with aliens.

Those little light beams that supposedly come out from the bottom of the
saucer are really infrared-like beams to read semacode.

+1 to you Mr. German man.

------
astine
Reading stuff like this makes me wish I had a wheat field too.

------
scorxn
That's not really programming, now is it? I was hoping for some genetic or
soil modification that outputs "Hello world" in size or color variation of the
grown wheat.

~~~
yason
How about farmer's Game of Life on those blocks, with new iterations growing
up each year. :)

------
idm
If you want to actually decode the crop formation, here's how to do it. First,
grab tello's PNG, which is a transformed and color-adjusted version of the
crop formation:

<https://files-diers.us.s3.amazonaws.com/cornfield.png>

Next, download and compile the latest release of libdmtx, which is a
datamatrix I/O library:

<http://www.libdmtx.org/>

[https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2...](https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdmtx/files/libdmtx/0.7.2/libdmtx-0.7.2.tar.bz2/download)

Finally, use dmtxread from libdmtx:

    
    
      dmtxread -n cornfield.png
    

The extended explanation is in these comments:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924377>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924495>

------
yason
Now this is where I can now point to the next time someone asks he'd like to
know more about the programming field.

------
citizenparker
The title is incorrect. It should read: "German man mow-grams 'Hello World'
into wheat field"

------
dstorrs
Here's a niche marketing idea for you: executable hedge mazes that print out
paeans of praise to the owner of the maze.

------
Anon84
"If you write it they will run it?"

