Cool website for the day: upcdatabase.com (and a keyboard 'wedge' scanner demonstration)

[daleharris5654]

Cue cat scanners are still available and really cheap at cuecats.com

[eliw4232]

I'm surprised the store didn't just use a PS/2->USB converter... probably would have worked perfectly fine.

[uxwbill]

@eliw4232 I don't know that it ever crossed their mind. They would have had to use a PS/2 keyboard with this device (it won't, for some reason, work by itself) and I doubt they have one, being an Apple only shop.

[adamxp12]

bill have you tried to use dhpos cash register program for dos it is free to download with your bar code scanner

[uxwbill]

@adamxp12 No, I never have. I don't really have a need for a cash register...but if I do, I will keep your suggestion in mind. It could be interesting.

[corresponsalyt]

Very cool site, however I wish it had more information about the products... I found in google another site called Dukten which is a UPC database too but there you can get pictures, details, and more information about the items

[Alex1M6]

Does this site only work for US bar codes as I cant get it to find any information on UK purchased items.

[uxwbill]

That's a good question. If the codes in question are relatively similar to ours (and isn't UPC barcoding a standard?) my only guess would be that nobody has entered anything from "across the puddle".

The owner of the site would probably know better than I do.

[Madness832]

Interesting site! Just dug out a modified Cuecat & started scanning!

[uxwbill]

It's still a daily driver on this laptop and a few other systems. I expect that this will be the case until it just isn't practical to use it in daily computing any longer.

I'm probably drifting away from Windows, although I'm not sure where I am going yet. I just don't like the Win7/Vista shell and UI. PC-BSD, Mac OS X and Linux are all being considered, but I haven't settled on one yet. They all have their good and bad points.

[linuxlove4004]

Anyone up for not getting into browser and PC vs Mac wars on UXWBill's video? There's plenty of other videos/forums/whatever you can all fight on.

[uxwbill]

Thumbs up for that! (...double thumbs up if I could...)

I use what works for me and what I like (and almost any OS you can name 'cept mainframe stuff). You use what you like and what works for you. It matters not, we'll both get there just the same. :-)

[nipperoid]

Firefox! yay!

[timmylc]

:) <-- awesome

[joshua25fm]

I need one for my mom's book business and the keyboard PS/2 wedge scanner is what I need. How much do you recommend I spend "used" ?

[uxwbill]

I would think that you could find one for $30-70 secondhand, or on a discount shelf.

If you're even slightly handy with hardware, you can also hack one of the old CueCat devices quickly and easily. And they sure are cheap.

[Sansui350A]

ewww, Windows fail, and firefuck.. Chromium and Iron FTW!!! :D .. and Linux Mint 9 ftw, too at that.. :D have fun mate

[bamdadkhan]

as i've said, i enjoy all of your videos, but thanks for taking me into account. :)

[jefferyb304]

I work at a Kroger store and have something rather funny to share. We used to have these shirts that were made with multiple color threads. I don't know how, but at least once a week, I could be standing at a register with no barcodes around and the scanner scanned some random number and say " Item not Found ".

We switched to solid color shirts and this has not happened since LOL.

[uxwbill]

That's pretty wild. One of the threads was probably reflective near the laser's light output wavelength and the pattern was probably just close enough to register.

I fondly remember working at the local grocery store. It was a small town outfit and a pretty decent job until it was bought out. One time, I actually took my S-10 to a distribution center and filled it with frozen food products that we'd been shorted on. That was different, driving a loaded truck with no topper through a big city.

[Joseph9536]

You use Firefox? Are you serious? I think I'm going to be sick!

[uxwbill]

What would you use? (No joke, serious question.) And what's so wrong with Firefox?

[MacintoshUser1986]

@uxwbill Safari > Firefox

[uxwbill]

As much as I think of the Webkit underpinnings that make up Safari, the browser itself really doesn't do much for me.

It's not always particularly robust when something goes wrong (from Safari 1 to the current day, there is some sort of strange bug that shows up when a page is partially filtered by something like Websense, which makes Safari die with blank pages and no explanation) and the browser feature set doesn't have what I want (a toolbar button to make new tabs would be nice).

[criind]

@uxwbill I have had problems with Safari, but the new version is much better. Though it still hangs up for some reason. I'm not sure what one could say is wrong with Firefox. I use it and have no problems. I also use Google Chrome and love it. It seems faster than Firefox. I hate Internet Explorer!

[CavemanPerson]

@MacintoshUser1986 ...says a "MacintoshUser". On Windows, pretty much everything beats Safari.

[MacintoshUser1986]

@CavemanPerson Safari 5 fixed that on Window's.

[uxwbill]

The corrected version of that comment should read "my experiences center on the Mac OS X version of Safari, on mostly PPC hardware". I must have had Win32 on the brain.

[joshua25fm]

@uxwbill Google Chrome in my opinion is far far faster and has all the same extensions, granted adblock is not "AS" good. But good enough for my dialy usage needs.

[Joseph9536]

@uxwbill I use Internet Explorer. Firefox has way too many holes to let viruses into your computer. I will send you a PM of a link that you should check out about different browsers.

[gmcnewlook]

i didnt know there was site that could look at UPC codes, its insane how most inventory systems rely on barcodes and scanners, i worked for a company that was a service centre for HP canada and everything was handled by a inventory system with scanners (we did make a hard copy of what we did to the unit did just in case)

[JAMESS30288]

that is a very interesting site i am in love haha stop staring at me

[linuxlove4004]

Wow, I better visit this site in moderation - after two odd items that showed up I'm inclined to spend hours looking up anything and everything that has a bar code on it!

[moldymac]

Very cool. I modded my old cuecat a couple years ago. Now you can even do this kind of stuff on your android cell phone using the camera.

[vwestlife]

I'm around your age (plus or minus a few years!) and I only vaguely remember back in the '80s when some stores still put price tags on everything. Generally the higher a store's sales volume (like a supermarket), the quicker it adopted barcode readers. My first job was at a public library, and they had WYSE dumb terminals with a light pen to read the barcodes on the books. It was cool to use the pen, but not as quick as a gun-style barcode reader, since you had to swipe it across the barcode.

[clubcar98]

What a cool website! I saw it before but never really checked it out. Also I am sunk into RadioShackCatalogs website thanks to this channel as well!

But anyways, I wish I had my own Bar Code scanner. That would be quite something!

LOL at some of the commentary in this video!

[mgospeed31]

"...and I readily admit to being weird..." I laughed hard at that. I just tried entering the UPC from a lottery ticket I have on my desk, and it wasn't in the system. My Speed Stick was though!

[JDMowerGuy1998]

Well you didn't use ur nac book.

Great you use Firefox

[uxwbill]

A Macbook has no PS/2 ports on it. A USB > PS/2 adapter might work, but my tests seem to suggest that this thing also wants a keyboard inline with it. Attempting to use the scanner by itself always results in a keyboard failure message at startup time. I suspect that the keyboard in this laptop is wired directly to the PS/2 port internally, so it meets the requirement and works fine.

[JDMowerGuy1998]

@uxwbill

ok

[barovelli]

@uxwbill My warehouse has several Intermec PS/2 wedge scanners in use. When IT came around and replaced the PCs with newer Dells that had eliminated the PS/2 port I bought some cheap dongles that take PS/2 keyboard & mouse and output to USB. They work fine alongside the other USB items.

[uxwbill]

..and it's not just Firefox, it is Firefox on Windows 2000! (Yes, I'm a die-hard. I still think it to be the best version of Windows that Microsoft ever made.)

[JDMowerGuy1998]

@uxwbill

I like 2000, XP and especally Windows 7. Vista...... OK but it was kinda crap. ME is crap completley. 98 was not the best. 95 ok as well.

If you are ever interested I have a video on how to get it free. 100%

I have a bunch of computer videos. I am rather a computer nut.

[sonic3243]

@uxwbill Hell yeah! Windows 2000! I still wish I would've known about that site before -- would've came to very good use :D

[Jallge]

that looks like a nice laptop, what make/model is it?

[uxwbill]

Dell Latitude D800 -- and in this video, it is parked into the docking station (normally it has no PS/2 ports). It is easily the best laptop I have ever owned...five years later, even the batteries last almost as long as they did when it was new.

[pepsiru1es92]

my dad had a scanner 10 years ago from some magizene. It was called a "Cat". If you scanned an item it opened your browser and found information about it. In the end, it didn't play nice with Windows 98, so I think he threw it out.

[uxwbill]

If the description of this video had been saved, that was one I mentioned. I got a :CRQ CueCat in the mail one day and played with it for a while. It didn't seem to work at all with my Compaq LTE 5000's PS/2 port, and I had no intention of loading the software (which turned out to be a very good idea). I don't know what happened to it. My guess is that it was tossed.

The CueCat is hackable to produce plain output.

[maxamillion1011]

Sorry i cant stop looking at you like that!! haha

[ncrdisabled]

I worked for NCR National cash register for 9.5 years until I was rear ended leaving

me totaly disabled . One of the tests in NCR school was learing how to unscramble

UPC codes still know how to due it . I have several old bar code readers customers had damaged so I got them for free All of them work and hook up from rs485 to USB. and serial and Ethernet. One of these days I will try to get some of that old stuff out and sell it.

Nice video

Thanks

[andruha11234]

my phone scans bar codes and it will tell you the lowest prices around etc

[rhblakeman]

Cool technology and all but I miss the days of price stickers (or blue ink stamps on cans) and cashiers manually reading the price and keying them in when I was a kid. People then used their brains to accomplish things, now the brain controls how they interact with technology that is making people (and thinking) obsolete. We wonder why unemployment is so high when Walmart makes cashiers obsolete with self service lanes, and stupid people use them not realizing the end result in the works

[uxwbill]

I was stunned the day I got to see the "operator display" on a modern NCR cash register...it actually showed pictures of each coin to hand the customer. Now I'm no math whiz or anything, but I *can* at least make change. (In other news, I can also type on a manual typewriter and have surprised more than one person in doing so.)

Even though I'm an optimist, I saw that display as a sad commentary.

[rhblakeman]

@uxwbill One minute they are screaming how our society is behind in science and math then they turn around and make displays that chimps could be the operator on - why should anyone put any effort into teaching or learning if they need less skill than a Neanderthal? Neanderthal had to have skills to stay alive, all we need is how to use a credit card, iPhone and Xbox while we all get lazier and fatter in our lifestyles.

[rhblakeman]

Wow when you picked up those last PS2's around November I had a full box of Symbol scanners on a PS2 and AT wedge - forgot about them and didnt even think you'd have an interest. I sold the whole box to a guy on Craigslist in March for $400

[uxwbill]

That's probably just as well...I certainly wouldn't have been in a position to offer that kind of money. And as it is, I only need the one unit. This one leads a pretty gentle life, as you can see I keep it in the box when I'm not using it.

[rhblakeman]

@uxwbill If it had come to mind you would have just added it to the load same cost as the rest of the load, if you know what I mean. I kept one but doubt I'll use it.

[DanteFox]

Surprised you done have a bar code app for a phone.

[uxwbill]

I'd only grudgingly admit to having a cell phone, as I really have no use for them. It's only there for roadside breakdowns and such.

[billgatesjr1109]

FIRST COMMENT!!!!!