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

Please read the whole description (and no, I have no idea why Youtube didn't record this in its entirety, or why it didn't get the category right, so I get to type it again). Ugh. What I typed the first time was so much better written as well.

Aaaanyway...

As a youngster, I was fascinated by barcode scanners in the stores where my parents shopped. At the time, my young mind had yet to develop a sense of practicality and I wanted one of those scanners (and maybe even the conveyor belt) at home. (Stop looking at me like that...!)

Scanners like this handheld one usually cost a few hundred dollars brand new. Used ones can be had, but many are rather well used and may not work so well any longer. The main reason for average people to buy them is for use with specialized software (such as Delicious Library) that will catalog massive collections of books, music, movies and other bar-coded items. And maybe I'll do that someday.

If you can find the old :CRQ CueCat device (RadioShack had these available in stores and I think they were free -- and if you didn't get one there, you might have gotten one with some magazine subscriptions of the time) it can be hacked to do the same kind of thing very easily.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• UPC
• barcodes
• upcdatabase.com
• Intermec
• ScanPlus
• 1800
• goofing
• around
• fun

[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.

[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.

[daleharris5654]

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

[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

[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.