Flashback to the Birth of Retail Barcodes

"Something was on the horizon in 1973 that would revolutionize the grocery shopping experience."

The Raleigh News & Observer has a look back to the 1970s, when barcodes on retail products were still just a twinkle in IBM's eye.



~ The News & Observer

Endangered Zebras' Barcodes May Help Save Them

Vicki Croke at The Animalist has an interesting piece up about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust using zebras' individual 'barcodes' to identify and track Grevy's zebra populations in Kenya.

Photo: Vicki Croke

According to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, technology may soon make identification even easier: “software is being developed that will allow the stripes of a Grevy’s in a photograph to be read like a barcode and automatically identified.”

Technology is amazing.

We Don't Have An Office But If We Did..

While this one is my favorite color, it's a touch on the broody side. And it's in St. Petersburg, Russia, which has 123 days of snow cover per year. No thank you.

This one's a little better, though it's somehow office parky.

This one now, this one I like. Sure it's tiny. But it's ADORABLE.

A few ferns out front, some wisteria climbing the wall, I'm so there.

Grandfather of the Modern Barcode, Norman Joseph Woodland, Has Died

From lecturer in mechanical engineering at Drexel University to technical assistant on the Manhattan Project to inventor of the original concept of barcoding (inspired by Morse code), Norman Joseph Woodland led a very interesting life. He passed away on December 9th, 2012, at the age of 91.

DC Velocity has an interesting piece on the man whose ideas helped slingshot the manufacturing, distribution, shipping and retail industries directly into the future.

Pair An Orphaned CueCat With Nerd-Toy Arduino & What Do You Get? Barcodes!

Hack a Day has a user-generated how-to for mashing up a CueCat with an Arduino board and making barcode-scanning magic happen.

It's not practical, and it doesn't save time or money but some things are worth doing because they're just weirdly cool.

How to Make UPC Barcodes in Excel

Needing a UPC barcode for your product/s really is a measure of success. It means you're working with established retailers or distributors who are fully engaged in the retail channel, upping the chances that your widget will be a winner. You're probably just days away from becoming a thousandaire! Hurray! Congratulations!

Once you've got your raw UPC numbers from GS1 (or from us!), you're ready to turn them into UPC barcodes. When you've got a lot of products, you'll have a lot of UPC numbers. And when you have a lot of UPC numbers the best place to manage them is in an Excel spreadsheet. And when your UPC numbers are in an Excel spreadsheet, UPCTools makes it easy, easy, easy to quickly turn them all into those lines and spaces we all know and love.

Azalea's Code 128 Software in Excel

When you've got a zillion Code 128 barcodes to create, you don't want to have to make them one at a time. That's one zillion opportunities for typos, transposed digits or fat-fingering your keyboard into barcodes that are wrong, wrong, wrong. And if it's wrong, what's the point? Barcodes are here to make our lives easier, like robot servants and indoor plumbing.

The best way to make a buncha' barcodes at once is to make 'em all at once in Excel. Following this week's theme of video tutorials, we've created an overview of how our Code 128 barcode software, C128Tools, functions within an Excel spreadsheet.

How to Copy Excel Macros

If you're anything like me, trying to use the advanced features in an Excel spreadsheet can be like trying to fly the space shuttle when you're used to riding a moped. Macros, user-defined functions, formulas, WHAT DO THEY ALL MEAN?!

A macro - a built-in call, action, or process - in an Excel spreadsheet is actually one of the most useful functions you can access. And there are a zillion macros out there already written for you! Azalea's barcode software can even be used within Excel, if you utilyze our easy macros.

This vid will get you started:

What Kind of Barcode Do I Need?!

Figuring out which barcode type (or 'symbology') to use for your data can be confusing.

Do you need a UPC barcode? A Code 128? An Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF), Code 39, POSTNET or Codabar or PDF417?

If this is all gobbledygook to you, check out our super handy video tutorial for tips and tricks on how to pinpoint which barcode you should use for which project.

Hacking via Barcodes

Just when you thought it was safe to scan any and all barcodes, someone comes up with an attack using barcodes.

If you do use this technique, please buy your barcodes from Azalea Software. It's the least you can do.

Trader Joe's Double Barcodes

EAN-8's to begin with. Not one but TWO on the package (hire better staff and/or train them more). And that second one. Dude, what's going on here???

Google Recognizes Barcodes 07oct09

Make note: Today, Oct 9 2009, Google celebrated barcodes by making a bar code the icon of the day.

Thank you!


- the gang at Azalea Software, Seattle

How evil is your food? Scan the barcode to find out.

FoodScanner is an iPhone app that makes me wish I still had an iPhone.

Oh yeah, that's right. AT&T's reception SUCKS at my house. Happiness is a G1. Yes it is.

But still, the app is cool in that it adds a social, political, & nutritional bent to your shopping.

Consolidating the Barcodes in Your Wallet

You don't have to know much about barcodes to appreciate this suggestion. Of course it leaves the poor cashier to scan every shortcut on your dance card until the register beeps. Still, it leaves your wallet thinner. File this one under "ultralight shopping".

Happy Birthday, UPC!

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.

Visitors Can Now Use QR Barcodes to Navigate Port Townsend, Washington

"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."

Barcodes In Space

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.

Yet Another Cautionary Tale of Inventory (Mis)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.

The Best Part Is That It Made the Newspaper

Tennessee mail ends up in a Texas mailbox!






Sure sure. Blame the POSTNET. Blame the OCR. Never mind all the humans that eyeballed it along the way, it's gotta' be the barcode.

Texas City Smarter Than Federal Emergency Management Agency

The city of Houston, TX has found a unique solution to the frightening disconnection that familes often suffer during disasters. Rather than relying on hand-written signs, word of mouth or spotty cellphone coverage, families, hospitals, evacuation centers and emergency officals can now utilyze barcode bracelets to help locate and track families separated in the chaos of an emergency.


If only FEMA (a division of the Dept. of Homeland Security, doncha know) had this kind of acumen. During oh, say, Hurricane Katrina.