Enuf with the cameraphone barcodes already

Shotcode. Yet-another-who-cares-nobody-wants-them barcode scam, errr, scheme for cell phones.

I make a proprietary barcode. I stick my barcode somewhere you're going to see it. You take a picture of my barcode with your cellphone. Your cell phone calls or emails or interweb dot orgs my barcode to my server. Wonderful things happen to you but more importantly I make money.

Who fucking cares?

Double up barcodes

My eye falls to things like this.

Great book too.

ISBN-13 Barcodes Are Coming Ya Know!

Yep, the old Bookland barcodes are soon to be extinct. 01jan07 to be exact.

Read this to get a leg up on the new ISBN-13 barcodes. This site is more to the point. OK, sparse is more like it. But hey.

666 Mark of the Beast & Barcode T-shirts

Nothing sez "barcodes" like 666. When I say "UPC", you say "Satan!"

I wish this urban myth would go away but fundamentalists of the Christian persuasion insist on spinning wild yarns about the Mark of the Beast being embedded in poor ol' Uniform Product Code symbols.

This web page attempts to squash this falsehood yet again. No, 666 isn't hidden in barcodes. This is all a bad, if not outright wrong, interpretation of Book of Revelation 13:16-18.

Meanwhile now's the time to buy your very own barcode t-shirts. Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa are coming up (not to mention my very own birthday 12/12). Buy online today!

Barcodes + Cell Phones. AGAIN!

So Fujitsu thinks they've got it figured out. Yet-another-barcodes-on-cell-phones scheme/scam.

Lots of people have tried it. No one seems to be the clear cut market leader. Leads me to believe there ain't a market here folks. Mature markets shake out to 1, 2, maybe 3 clear cut winners. Mature markets aren't littered with has-been's, wanna be's, also ran's, and me too's. Too many players without any significant market share equals nada.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress...

Seeing this on my checked bag when I picked it up made me feel better. Homeland Security has in-spected my luggage. I'm free to go.

Never mind that the airline themselves hands me a snack box that includes a serrated plastic knife. As does every coffee shop and most takeout restaurants past the security check point.

Things they call "shanks" in the Big House.

At least my oversized barcode has a hologram sticker on it. Collect the whole set!

Loooong barcode

Every once in a while, you see a barcode that sticks out. This barcode sticks out. Or across. Or whatever...

Chinese vegetable barcodes

Let me get this straight. Putting barcodes on produce is somehow supposed to make me feel more secure about what I put in my mouth. Or so the Chinese want us to believe. Why? What's wrong with your apples and cabbage I should be worried about?

It's as if the UPC on my cereal makes me feel safe a breakfast. Yeah, right...

Meanwhile we at Azalea world headquarters have more important things on our minds. The water hyacinth in our office bloomed overnight. I thought it looked nice with the Port of Seattle in the background.

DIY barcode scanner

For those of you really obsessed with barcodes, you'll need your own scanner. I mean really, what home is complete without one.

If you're anything like me you already have a CueCat but outgrew that long ago. What you need is a homebrew dee-vice.

Well, here's one for you. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Barcoded toys? Why??

This story makes me think they're sellinga solution to a non-problem. What? You're too busy to read to your kids so you're gonna scan a barcode that initiates an electronic babysitter? This is good parenting? Oy vey!

Barcode tattoos

It started out slowly enough but it's hard to deny that JetCityOrange's barcode tattoo photo collection has blossomed.

Something tells me that there are more bar code tattoos out there waiting to be discovered and submitted. You wouldn't be holding out on me now would you???

Whole Foods needs to change their POS

I love Whole Foods. I went to their mothership store in Austin. Three times in four days while on a business trip. Blew me away so much I called Lisa from the store and told her we're coming back just to shop.

Yesterday I noticed something odd. When two UPC symbols wouldn't scan yesterday, the cashier had to call for a price check. I asked and no it doesn't always work to simply type the 11 or 12 digits in. She said that not everything was "in the system".

Gimme a break. This is a massive, global retailer. If they can't figure out how to scan everything they stock they should call Bentonville.

You know what pisses me off?

I'm in the store. I buy 5 different flavors of fruit leather. They are different colors in different packages. Different SKUs with different GTINs, hence each has a different UPC barcode.

So what does the cashier do? Scan one and hit the 'repeat X5' key. I realize all she's doing is harvesting the price. To hell with real time inventory tracking.

When I mention it she mumbles something to the effect of "well, if that's the way you want me to do it sir."

Her MIS dept. must love her.

Weird barcode at the post office

Someone mailed me something in a photo mailer from the post office. The buck twenty-nine price is a little high but hey, convenience, right?

What caught my eye was the barcode on the back. Seems our pals at the Post Office are too cheap to buy a company prefix from GS1 and use number system 4 which is reserved for in-house use. Product code (SKU) is 94009284 and voila, there's your barcode number.

Even odder is that the 5-digit supplemental isn't the price, otherwise it would be 50129 following Bookland rules.

And perhaps most upsetting of all is that this item is made in Mexico. So much for supporting domestic manufacturers.

Barcode Nerds on My Space

Yep. It finally happened. Your favorite bar code nerds are now on MySpace.

"Why?" you ask. Cuz that's where the party is. And Lord knows we don't want to be left out.

Besides, how can I let my kids be hipper than me?

"It's too late for that now."

Yeah. I know.

Unique or Not?

Excuse me but all this time I was under the mistaken notion that one of the hallmarks of barcodes was their uniqueness. Not only are two different items supposed to have two different barcodes but the corillary is that each item is supposed to have one and only one barcode.

So what's up with the homies at Pyramid Brewing? Didn't they get the memo?

Guess where I'm going to park?

We all get those bulk mailed envelopes bursting with coupons we have no interest in. Oh, if you're anything like me you paw through them every time, pulling a few out, swearing you'll use them. But no, the expiration date comes and goes.

But this one got my attention. Why? Cuz it has a barcode, that's why.

Font thieves busted!

Stories like this hit home. Overal, I'm glad they got caught and I hope it serves as a warning to others. Fonts are intellectual property just like all copyrighted software. Stealing fonts is stealing. Period.

I just wonder how nobody knew they were committing a sin. Sounds like what we call grand larceny where I come from. Paying up retroactively isn't good enough for me. If I find out they were stealing my fucking software I'm calling out the lawyers.

myspace: me too, me too!

As if a family of web sites and this blog isn't enough, I just establish a myspace presence.

Just what I need, another project...

The Mosquito Ringtone

NPR had a story about the mosquito ringtone. Colleen email it to Clyde, Ben, and I. Seems as we age, we lose the ability to hear high frequencies. Someone made a machine that generates such noises as a way to disperse loitering teens. Then the teens realize they can use it as a ringtone to avoid having their teachers hear it in class.

I decide to unleash a mosquito ringtone of my own. Enjoy!