Slashdot Mirror

Well, I've had this site lying around for a few months doing nothing so it's about time it was put to good use. The mirror is on dirtywhitekitty.com/dirtycat/. This is the hardware site that was originally located here.

Enjoy!

Read about how DC has commited mail fraud (and how to file your complaint with the US postal service) here.

And learn how to 'de-claw' (so it doesn't send out a serial number) your ::cue::crap spammer-- er uh scanner here.

It's probably too late, but in case anyone's still reading this thread (-:

The scanner definitely contains firmware (software in ROM) because it has to be able to perform a fair amount of processing to actually recognize the string of pulses as a barcode and correct for things like the variable rate of your hand's motion as you scan it. Then it has to identify which of the roughly 12 or 15 formats the barcode is in, and then actually extract the bits, a process that differs based on which format it's in. Doing all this in hardware (with a bunch of gates and registers, etc.) would be silly; they used a microcontroller with ROM.

So the copyright law prohibits copying this ROM and selling the copy, and precedents such as the Betamax case might help defend copying the ROM for personal use. Such copying would also be difficult and practically useless without copying the hardware too, which is probably protected by patent. Note: the scanner's serial EEPROM is an entirely unrelated thing, it just contains a small amount of data (apparently a serial number).

Detailed instructions are available from the Dissecting the CueCat page.

I'm not sure, but I think there is a way to just flash the eeprom so it no longer sends out the ID. At least I think that's what this does.

here's the link
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go to this site matrixpm.com/~haveblue/cuecat

I've been interested in the hardware side of the CueCat - have a look at this page for some info on what lurks inside the plastic case... I wonder if they'll send me a C&D letter...