Ravi Borgaonkar demonstrating Galaxy handset flaws. (Screengrab)

During a recent security conference in South America, a Berlin-based researcher revealed that Samsung has a major problem with its iPhone challengers, the Galaxy 3 and Galaxy S2 smartphones.

Both can easily be remotely wiped by code embedded in a web page.

Ravi Borgaonkar found that the Galaxy's "service loading" feature, its method of communicating with application servers, can be exploited with just one line of code tucked away in a web page's HTML. If the attack is successful, the malicious code reverts the phones to their factory settings. Worse still, once the attack begins, the phone's user can't do a thing about it.

That's bad enough. There's also this:

Alongside web pages, the code can also be embedded in malicious text messages, or triggered by a QR code or NFC tag.

Security researchers are pressing Samsung to patch the problem because as DigitalSpy reports, experts say this is a "major security vulnerability."

Mr. Borgaonkar, who reportedly wondered aloud what Samsung's engineers were smoking when they created the vulnerable system, demonstrates how it works in the video below.

Viewers may need headphones to hear Mr. Borgaonkar clearly, but the shocked audience reaction at 2:10, when he uses a link from a tweet to demonstrate how quickly a malicious web page can reset the phone, is unmistakable.

BUT WHY?! (Photo: flickr.com/notionscapital)

Sanitary inspection letter grades make a great rule of thumb, but sometimes you want to know exactly what knocked that diner down from a B to a C. For those times, thanks to a new law, there'll be QR codes.

The Daily News reports that the City Council has just passed a bill ruling that, starting next year, permits for restaurant and other inspected businesses will include QR codes, which customers can use to access whatever information is publicly available. 

So, for example, you might use this in situations like when this Betabeat reporter's favorite Czech joint was temporarily shut down and rumors began flying that the kitchen was lousy with "rat sign" and that the health inspector had been barred from even looking at the basement. The answers to all our questions about cannibalism would've been just a couple of clicks away.

The problem is that these QR codes won't be on the signs in the front window. Instead, you'll have to walk inside and scan the code on the permit behind the cash register or wherever the managers are keeping it, which promises to inspire some excruciatingly awkward moments.

But what will the City Council do once QR codes fall hopelessly out of fashion?

Single-serving sites continue to transcend the outward resemblance of being useful. They're almost always better when paired with a performative aspect. When done well, The Single-Serving Site as Statement conveys a witty, sharp idea succinctly that offers only marginal functionality, if any. Besides, who needs a legitimately functional single-serving site when Twitter, desktop widgets, feeds, and SEO-baiting Huffington Post searches exist?

For example, while Babes of NPR might be interesting, fun to look at, and appeal to plenty of people, it's not as useful, funny, or memorable as Did Buzzfeed Hire Anybody New Today?

Which is why, to be modest in praise, the following may be the most perfect single-serving site ever.

Last week, someone started a Tumblr:

picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com

It has 148 notes on one post—its only—that simply reads "No posts yet."

This modest joke, if you still need it explained to you, is that nobody sees anybody else using QR codes, ever. And that it's an idiotic, square peg of an idea that advertising and marketing experts have unsuccessfully tried to shove down consumers' throats.

And that is how you make a single serving site.

Above, the QR code to end all QR codes. Scan at your own risk of being totally blown away.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek