Using 1,454,942 maximum size and minimum error correction QR codes in alphanumeric mode (byte mode is a lie) to store Base64-encoded binary data, you get roughly 4,687,823,124 bytes. 4.6 GB. If the cards are two-sided we get 9.2 GB.

Minimum size of Windows 11 installer image seems to be 8 GB, so it checks out!

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 50 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why Base64? QR codes can contain pure binary data, no need to use this inefficient, not-error-correcting 6-to-8 encoding.

Oh, I forgot Microsoft does not care jack shit about saving people's computing resources. However, Windows 9x installers on floppies used custom formatting except the first bootable one, allowing them to fit nearly 2 MB of useful data per floppy.

[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

They can contain binary data, but less of it. Not sure of the details, but you get 3k bytes if binary data or 4.2k alphanumeric letters. So no big difference all in all, which is a bit silly.

Also, many QR scanners can't handle binary data and freak out on null values or newlines.

We must consider the practical side of installing Windows 11 from a semitrailer load of cardboard.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The alphanumeric mode does not support lowercase though, it has 5.5 bits/char (pairs of characters are encoded as a base-44 numbers in 11 bits).

[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Shit!

How do I cancel a print job.

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well, here I go printing 1244 pages of QR codes to store tinycorelinux for the after times.

[–] Technus@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Better figure out how to code a QR reader in pure machine code as well.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 5 points 2 months ago

It's cool, you can teach yourself to decode QR by hand

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Which is why that optar thing is probably the better option.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How about Optar or PaperBack?

[–] jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Optar is the first time I've seen someone seriously present their project as compatible (even claiming that is possibly the optimal use case) with IP over avian carriers. Craziness, but well done.

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Damn. Now that's some lovely stuff!

[–] mle86@feddit.org 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nice!

Though if they were double sided, there is no way we can see all these cards in the same shot. If it starts at odd numbers (i.e. #1), #3 and #4 would share the same card front and back, if it starts even (i.e. a cover graphic and #1 on the same card), #4 and #5 should share the same card front and back.

[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Card#1, Card#1 back, Card#2, Card#2 back, etc is what you need to get 9GB out of the 1,454,492 card numbers indicated. :)

[–] mle86@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago

Right, didn't think of that :)

[–] WHYAREWEALLCAPS@fedia.io 7 points 2 months ago

Can you notch the corner and make a card double the capacity?

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

What are these two sided QR code cards from the future? Did you ever play Monkey Island without a hard drive in 1989?