Bar Code Nerds

The Times takes an interesting look at the UPC code, grandaddy of all modern barcodes. Thanks again, George Laurer!

Labels: bar code, UPC barcode, UPC barcodes

What can I say...

Labels: Redhook Limited Release, UPC barcode

For a few minutes at least. Gregory Weir's Bars of Black and White is a barcode-based 'escape from a locked room' game that challenges you to scan your way to freedom.

Scritchy-scratchy hand drawn illustrations and figuring out how to kill a big spider make it a whimsical way to waste some time on the company dime. Tell your boss that you're researching auto-ID and real world barcode implementation. That's what I did.

Labels: bar code, barcode game

As part of the relaunch of our humble website, we've added a growing collection of free wallpaper images you can download.

So all of you bored with your current desktop background can grab one of our stone & metal, azalea & rhodi photos. They're great as cell phone wallpaper too.

Set a bookmark because there will be a lot more free photos and artwork to come.

Labels: free cell phone wallpaper, free desktop background, free wallpaper images

At 8:01 am on June 26th, 1974, the very first ever UPC (Universal Product Code) was scanned at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The item? A 10 pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum.

Labels: barcode, UPC, UPC barcodes

"PORT TOWNSEND -- Visitors to Port Townsend can now scan the city with more than just the naked eye.

Last week, a handful of barcodes -- which literally can be scanned -- were placed in locations throughout town in what's called the Way Finder Project.

Using a cell phone with Internet access and a camera, you can walk up to a code, scan it and pull up a Web site about the location."

Labels: barcode, cell phone, QR barcode, QR code

It's not called a global supply chain for nothing. Shipping and distribution are assumed to be international these days. All over the map. Worldwide.

To that end we're now whispering about barcodes in Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese.

Now that's global. And you just know there are barcodes lurking around in there.

Labels: barcodes, global supply chain

We call it The Mother Ship, sometimes The Vending Machine. Venerable she is but neglected too long.

Over the looong weekend Azalea Software's website has been updated. Including new photos of us.

There's more yet-to-come. Much more...

Labels: Azalea Software, azalea.com

Version 1.1 of Azalea's free RSS feed maker, Azalea RSS, is now available.

Azalea RSS is a quick and dirty RSS maker that walks you through creating your own RSS feeds. Based in MS Excel, it's user-friendly and as easy as falling off a log. And falling off a log is SO EASY. Trust me, I fall off logs all the time.

Give it a try, RSS wizards!

Labels: AzaleaRSS, RSS feed

UPDATED 30 Apr 09: Interestingly, this post sat dormant for weeks and just today three new replies came in a flurry. What a coincidence! One talks of how TinyURL infringes on NeoMedia's patent. One is a reply to another commentor. And one, why, one suggests that I have no testicles! At all! Which is true! But rather a mundane fact to point out, and so angrily (also, Jim, water is wet!). And also, things may be "getting legal", yowza! Not sure what that means but it sounds scary, doesn't it? Eek!

Clearly this economy (and swine flu!) is affecting everyone, creepy mouthpieces for random strangers coincidentally interested in NeoMedia's "interests" and barcode bloggers alike.

Like I said, all y'all folks with dogs in this fight: I'd be taking notes and backin 'em up to hard disk if I were you.




ORIGINAL POST:
After protracted review, the US Patent & Trademark Office recently ruled in favor of evil attorney cabal tech company NeoMedia. For years NeoMedia has argued that they own absolutely everything having to do with barcodes + cellphones, and they own all barcodes + looking them up on the intertubes. They also own a patent on you. And your dog. And your mom.

While the Electronic Frontier Foundation valiantly begged to differ, devoting years and miles of effort, funds and reason to disputing this sort of mercenary dipshittery, it's all over now but the crying.

"Overbroad and invalid patents threaten to chill important innovations, especially for startups and other nascent entrepreneurs. It's important that technology in the public domain stays there." EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jason Schultz said in 2007.

The US PTO has changed all that in one fell swoop of patent validation. NeoMedia can now threaten and actively initiate lawsuits against anyone who creates, uses, promotes or dreams up anything having to do with their special corner of the auto-ID universe. Pay the NeoMedia licensing fee/s now, or pay them after a financially crippling lawsuit- it's entirely up to you!

This would be marginally acceptable if NeoMedia had created a unique technology of their own. But they didn't; these patents are based entirely on murky, factually-suspect claims of prior art. They now have a patent on using barcodes that they didn't create (which are based on font and image technology that they didn't create), with camera phones (which they didn't create) that take photos of said barcodes, the phone applications (that they didn't create) which translate those pictures into data (which they didn't create) which can be used to direct the user to a database (that they didn't create, and don't own) on the internet.

This means that if you scan a barcode that has a URL in it with an app on your cellphone, NeoMedia may attempt to squeeze cash from every developer in the chain: the maker of the barcode, the cellphone app developer, the cellphone maker, the cellphone carrier, and the owner of the destination internet database. Also, of course, your mom.

This means you, Google. NeoMedia's sure to go after the big guys first, right? Some dude who's running from blog to blog threatening lawsuits sure thinks so. Wonder if NeoMedia knows he's picking fights with some very big dogs on their behalf? Of course he could be NeoMedia's president and CEO for all we know (either way, I'd be making a hard copy or ten of all such blog and forum comments if I were, say, Scanbuy or ShopSavvy or ZXing..).

Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting to watch. Pop some corn and pull up a chair.




US patent #6,993,573

US patent#7,383,209

Labels: barcodes, Electronic Frontier Foundation, NeoMedia, patent

Two University of Rhode Island researchers and a company called SIRA Technologies have teamed up to create temperature-sensitive barcode ink.

The fancy "proprietary thermochromic printing ink, printed in a non-scannable color..emerges to a scannable, deep magenta when activated. It is therefore capable of adding a temperature and shelf-life monitor to any other barcode thus preventing the sale of contaminated food and archiving the incident."

In English, this means that your grocer can't try to kill you/make a buck with expired products because the barcodes will change color and become unscannable. Man, barcodes really might save the world.

Labels: bar code, barcodes and science, inventory management, UPC barcode

In a couple of days it'll be Friday the 13th. Not just any Friday the 13th. It's also 1234567890 in UNIX time at 11:31:30pm UTC (11:31:30 here in Seattle). Read all about it on Slashdot (where else).

This should give all the 666 Mark of the Beast nutjobs something else to ponder.

Labels: 1234567890 UNIX time, 666 Mark of the Beast, barcodes, Friday the 13th

An interesting article in Business Daily Africa takes a hard look at how increased business efficiency can lead to a slump in customer service.

"..modern technology came to their rescue by introducing the barcode. Today, every supermarket worth its salt has a scanner system for reading these codes.

In addition, virtually all manufacturers now print the barcodes on products to make it easier for supermarket staff: the bulk packages are now simply unwrapped and the items taken to the shelves directly. This saves a lot of time.

Unfortunately, a new problem has emerged: in the hurry to display products, workers do not take care to ensure that a price tag has been posted on the shelf next to the items.

[]The workload increases as demand for their products rises. Consequently, management begins looking for ways of making work easier for the company. Many times the improvements are made at the expense of customer services."

It's an excellent reminder that progress in business should always be tempered with an eye to that most valuable of creatures, the customer.

Labels: bar code

The Washington Technology Industry Assoc. did a wild map of the Seattle software family tree. I'm proud to say that Azalea Software is in the solar system, proud of our lineage as an Aldus spin-off. The only Aldus spin-off still around 16 yrs later.

The only surviving Baby Paul!

Labels: Aldus Corp., Azalea Software, PageMaker, Seattle software

So some goofball has just patented barcode tattoos for commerce.

Dude, you realize all those fundamental nutjobs are going to go nuts re: 666, Mark of the Beast, Book of Revelation, etc., etc.

Here we go...

Labels: 666, barcode tattoo, Book of Revelation, Mark of the Beast

Azalea Software, publishers of barcode software, are the proud sponsors of JetCityOrange's live Lava Lamp webcam, winner of EarthCam's "25 Most Interesting Webcams 2008".

Azalea Software hosts the webcam on one of its web servers. JetCityOrange benefits from Azalea's generous offer to house the two lava lites on timers and the webcam that broadcasts them across the internet.

This year's winning webcams was selected by a panel of celebrity judges including NY Nicks asst. coach Phil Weber, actor/comedian Pauly Shore, and Beauty and the Geek winner Amanda Corey.

Labels: 25 Most Interesting Webcams 2008, Azalea Software, EarthCam, JetCityOrange, lava lamp webcam, lava lite webcam

Azalea Software started the New Year by launching an RSS feed with news and updates about barcodes, barcode software, and related issues. The raw feed is: www.azalea.com/feed.xml.

The Azalea Software feed is also available on Feedster: feeds.feedburner.com/AzaleaSoftware

Labels: Atom feed, Azalea Software, barcode fonts, barcode software, Feedburner, RSS feed

In these perilous financial times coupon-clipping is a really good idea.

Labels: bar code, barcodes, coupon barcodes

When you live and work in a tiny, airtight capsule for weeks or months on ends, things get a little messy. When over the years 150-plus roommates move in and out, leaving their various space tools and dirty socks all over, it gets to be a right pig sty. You can never find anything.

The solution, of course (as with all of life's challenges), is barcodes.

Labels: barcode, barcodes in space, inventory management

Volume forty-seven in this series is titled Maybe We Shoulda Kept Tracka' Our Guns, from the Fletcher, NC police department via BlueRidgeNow.

While running a recent inventory check officers discovered that four weapons were missing- including an M-14, a shotgun and two handguns.

“It could be the weapons were taken to a gun shop for repair and it was not documented,” [official George Erwin] said. “The guns could have been traded for others and no paper work was filled out. The guns could have been stolen.”

Oh my! But fear not, citizens of Fletcher, it might only be an inside job:

Erwin also pointed to the fact the department has had a high turnover rate recently and the guns may have been taken by former officers.

Phew! Sleep better now, won't you?



As always happens, the FPD is considering a comprehensive management system after the fact:

“We are making some changes due to this,” he said. “Previously, too many people had access to the supply room. Now we have one officer who has access to evidence and to the supply room. We are also looking to track the weapons by a barcode system.”

Sigh. Manage your inventory before it goes missing, folks.

Labels: barcode, barcode security, inventory management

www.azalea.com introduction by Jerry Whiting, owner

Labels: Azalea Software, azalea.com, barcode font software, Jerry Whiting

Damn CueCat just won't die. Now after all these years, it's been granted a patent! You gotta be kidding me. Someone's been paying a patent attorney all this time!!

Sh*t. Now I have to update my CueCat post mortem.

Labels: CueCat, Digital Convergence, patent

With the election quickly approaching, QR barcodes decided they couldn't sit on the sidelines quietly any more. It's time 2D barcodes took a stand and had their collective voices heard.

It's unanimous: Barcodes for Obama

Labels: 2D barcode, Barack Obama barcode tattoo, barcodes for Obama, QR barcode

We all love QR barcodes though maybe not as much as Pedro Morales does. A QR bar code done in Legos. Whodda thunk?

Labels: Legos, Pedro Morales, QR barcode

Nothing says loving like barcode dogtags! Take my word for it. Or, watch the video on YouTube.

Labels: bar code dogtag, barcode dogtags, BarcodeFontSoftware.com

No sooner than I put up a new barcode tattoo photography gallery I run into someone working at my local plant nursery sporting yet-another bar code tattoo. Whadda the odds?

Rummaging around Flickr I'm no longer surprise how frequently photos of barcode tattoos turn up. I have literally dozens of barcode tat pictures on JetCityOrange too.

No, I'm not inked.

Labels: bar code tattoo, barcode tattoo, JetCityOrange

I just got my first ever personalized license plate for my new Smart Car*. Now I hear Steve Jobs has a barcode license plate? How'd he do that?

Well, it isn't a bar code license plate but his car's VIN in a barcode under the plate. Glad we cleared that up.

* mine reads: 3JEWELS

Labels: 3 jewels, barcode license plate, Steve Jobs

Hey, it's raining CueCats. Here's someone else talking about our favorite extinct auto ID kitty.

Labels: Amazon, Aqute Research, CueCat

Admittedly I'm a Luddite when it comes to tiny, expensive electronic toys; I never see the point and I hate carrying yet more crap around (plus they always make them so droppable. WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A THREE-HUNDRED DOLLAR CELLPHONE SLIPPERY?).

But it's with an extra jaundiced eye that I read a breathless review of the Groqit. It's tiny! It scans yer stuff! It keeps you from buying yet another copy of Steel Magnolias!














It's also already been done.

Labels: barcode toys, CueCat

From the Land Down Under comes a story of barcodes for kids' attendance. OK, so a parent wrote a barcode-based check-in system. Children as inventory. As a father of 3, I can relate.

My question is: how long before the little tykes realize they can photocopy their barcodes and have their siblings and friends check them in?

Labels: barcode school attendance

Barcode tattoos, how can you not like 'em? Barack? We love us some Barack.

Put 'em together and whadda ya git? Barack barcode tattoos, that's what! All of this of course begs the question, "Why didn't I think of this???"

Labels: Barack Obama barcode tattoo