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Barcodepedia - a Social Network Barcode DB
Thor Larholm writes "Barcodepedia is a community-based online barcode database, where everybody can contribute whichever barcodes they have lying around on their crowded desks simply by holding it in front of your webcam. The database is completely free to use, and everyone is invited to participate. The site should be available in French, Russian, German and Swedish within a week, so get all your friends and go to your local store with a laptop for massive fun. Donations of cuecats and other specialized scanners are welcomed." Anyone who's read Bruce Sterling's book Shaping Things may immediately think of Sterling's concept of "spimes" — for those who haven't, Sterling's 2006 SXSW address explains a bit, too. (It's easy to create your own barcodes, too — and then, not quite as easily, you can use them to control your house.)
Excuse me while I go back to sleep.
God spoke to me.
There seems to be so many better and easier ways to control my house.
Now, if I wanted to keep a running total of groceries, or keep a list of items for insurance purposes, then I might consider doing it, but it still seems like an awful lot of work, for little benefit.
The Barcode DB is nice, but CueCats were even nicer. I made a lot by selling the modified versions on eBay in High School.... nothing like pure profit :).
-Palal
It's a bird!
No, it's a plane!
Wait...
It's a slashvertisement!
News for nerds, yes. Stuff that matters... to retards.
...than Paintdrypedia, the community-based online database of images of paint drying. Everybody can contribute by pointing your webcams at freshly painted surfaces.
After a long decision process we have decided to change our name from barcoder to barcodepedia. This should hopefully give us a more international feel
Since when does changing an 'r' to a 'pedia' give you more international feel?
This seems so dumb that it must be some kind of evil plot to take over the world using barcodes.
The best test environment is production. - Me
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
What do barcodes have to do with "spimes"?
# (cur) (last) 15:13, 20 March 2006 BarCodeManiac (Talk | contribs) (rv to BarCodeManiac - germ-fighting capabilities of product stated in NPOV manner)
# (cur) (last) 13:50, 20 March 2006 KueKatKlepto (Talk | contribs) (rv to superior format as per talk)
# (cur) (last) 13:24, 20 March 2006 BarCodeManiac (Talk | contribs) (rv POV vandalism from moronic editor.)
# (cur) (last) 02:56, 20 March 2006 KueKatKlepto (Talk | contribs) (rv)
# (cur) (last) 20:08, 19 March 2006 BarCodeManiac (Talk | contribs) (rv Klepto's POV edit - see talk)
# (cur) (last) 18:08, 19 March 2006 KueKatKlepto (Talk | contribs) (rv; please participate in talk. This version has been extensively justified and you have made no argument in favor of your counterintuitive version.)
# (cur) (last) 12:47, 17 March 2006 BarCodeManiac (Talk | contribs) (rv; KueKatKlepto is censoring valid information that has nothing to do with "clarifying whether or not this product will fight germs that may cause bad breath." Stop the nonsense KueKatKlepto.)
# (cur) (last) 10:10, 17 March 2006 KueKatKlepto (Talk | contribs) (lets clarify whether or not this product will fight germs that may cause bad breath)
# (cur) (last) 11:41, 14 March 2006 BarCodeManiac (Talk | contribs) (rv massive POV shift. KueKatKlepto you are erasing valid information in one massive edit -- edit a little at a time so we can discuss please, or produce a list of all changes in talk so they can be addressed.)
# (cur) (last) 10:24, 14 March 2006 KueKatKlepto (Talk | contribs) (lets be clear about who said what about what and when they said it, not all information about this product comes from the BBB; the BBB is biased and one-sided; restore deleted FOX News link)
It's times like this I start to miss the 1990s, and looking at grainy pics of JenniCam's cat sleeping on a bookshelf for three hours.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
How about some links to images from Flickr or something?
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
Why? Why do we want or need an online barcode database? What good does this do? I can't seem to find this information anywhere on their site.
Is there software for me to use my CueCat with this database? I think I have 3 or 4 left.
Holy Guacamole, Batman! This is the sort of thing I've dreamed of since the first moment I finally came to understand the enormity of the internet. Years of text chat and popup ad bullshit later, I've been a bit disillusioned about the whole deal lately...
BUT NO MORE!!!
Finally, someone has come along and actually put the internet to the sort of use that we've been dreaming of for so long. I mean, Xbox Live was one thing, but man, it just doesn't compare with holding random shit up in front of a webcam and help create a database of barcodes.
The creation of this site may even come to be known as The Singularity (I know, the word is overused, but it's really warranted in this case). Think of it. How could you even dare to imagine what the world will be like after a social network revolving around barcodes? There's only two things we can truly be sure to find on the other side of The Singularity: sentient robots and faster-than-light space travel. All thanks to the power of a database of barcodes.
You heard it here first, people. BARCODEPEDIA IS OUR NEW GOD!
This is actually kinda neat, but I'm a developer who gets involved with things like this. Where else can you get an index of products, and their barcodes? I had thought of building one, but it looks like there's no longer a need to. I'll certainly be contributing.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
As a hobby, it's silly. As a part of something like "reorder.com", it would be useful. Show your webcam the barcode on any product you've got, and it finds someone who will sell you more of it, then adds it to a portable shopping cart. Grocery and drugstore sites should have had this by now.
Too much flash (8!) for my taste, no images... if there was an obvious way to export the data it'd be more useful to me dumped into a MySQL db.
But the webcam-based scanner tool won't work on anything besides Mac OS X and Windows because it requires Flash 8. :/
Blog Ho
At first I thought it was a collaborative project to decode dog language. Alas, I was mistaken.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
Anybody...?
Christ, I want four-armed Martians and time anomalies and big honkin' mechs and sexy androids and crew-cut space marines, and your giving me SPIMES? Hey, if I see Sterling "in concert," will I have to sit through some smug intro where the moderator (from the cable TV industry or NASDAQ, I'll bet) tells us how, despite how "hi-tek" the author is, he still writes all his manuscripts on parchment using the juice of mashed berries and JuJubes? Cuz that's the part I always look forward to...
WRITE!! Jeezus, God, Mary, and all the goddamn archangels in Heaven, WRITE! A Story! With characters!! and an ending that makes me happy, or leaves me wondering and wanting more, but please, just lock your fuckin' luggage in the attic, lose the key, and WRITE A STORY!
kk. thanx. better now...
Hi all
For all critics of the page, I just want to clarify that the page is not done yet. As some of you might have noticed its not navigable in the user section when not having JavaScript tuned on and the language translations are not done yet.
We do however count on having all this fixed in the middle of next month.
Guess slashdot comes when you least expect it
Regards
-Chris Benjaminsen
Wow. Somebody is finally trying to fulfill the Digital Convergence "vision."
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I love the way the site proclaims to me "you must have flash player 8", well actually, no I don't.
Those guys clearly get out even less than slashdotters, so I think they need some help. The question is how best to encode Jenna Jameson in barcode? I think a barcode version of ASCII art would probably work best, I doubt they'll be able to appreciate base64-encoded boobies.
Oh no... it's the future.
Aside from the obvious yawn factor I have to wonder, at least a little, the worth of such a venture when bc's will be replaced completely by smart chips in probably as little as 10 years.
What if google were to implement a sort of barcode scheme where you could use your camera phone to take a picture and get results of nearby locations or competing prices
Suppose you could access product reviews by scanning a barcode with your cameraphone? I think that's be pretty useful.
Or, if you are in business and actually need this data, then you get it from the place you are supposed to, either direct from the supplier in an 832 document, or from a service where multiple suppliers dump their 832's.
I'm tellin' ya, every third time that light stays red a little longer.
I looked at the entry for whiteout fluid. I certainly yawned.
Indeed. Would this have even gotten onto /. if it were titled "a barcode wiki" instead of "social network barcode db"?
Now hear me out. I have read on various top 100 lists over there years, that barcodes are one of the most important inventions in human history. Reason being because of logisitics. We could simply not have the engineering projects, economic growth, etc with them (or in an alternate universe, some other method). As for my own experience, I used to work at a company that built variable data printers, meaning unlike regular printers, the content could change with each print. So in this case, barcodes was our core market. I probably know more about barcodes then anyone really should have to know, but once you get the hang of a couple, like anything else, there is no great mystery to them. Code 3 of 9, Code 128, UPC, Matrix, etc are your friends! And for the hardcore /. crowd, barcodes are not RFID!
Don't you think we might be being a little harsh on a website that can give us the barcodes of fine quality products such as The Canadian Oxford School Atlas-7th Ed., Gatorade Fruit Punch 20oz, Royal Club Shandy, and Målinriktad projektstyrning?
Prove it.
I'm darned if I see how it provides "tools to virtually construct nearly any kind of object," "Ways to rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones," or implements "'Cradle-to-cradle' life-spans for objects: cheap effective recycling."
It appears to me to have, by my account, approximate 1-3/8 of the six facets of spimes.
This seems more like Where's George. But less interesting.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Seriously...why in the heck does anyone use this?
http://www.upcdatabase.org/
Right? And it's got almost a million UPC's last time I checked.
BTW I made a Grocery list app. based off the information there. (http://grocist.nfshost.com/ if you're curious)
Now I'll have the ultimate warrior!!
Do you see what I did there?
But they're all ideas for sites I could make money from, so I won't. This just reaffirms that Slashdot is primarily made up of people without a creative thought in their heads.
sounds dull on the surface, but imagine another wiki database interfacing with the barcode database where you can look up company information/product information to determine things like: * what country your product was made in * whether or not they use child labor/sweatshops * what company/parent company the producer is owned by * what political parties those companies give to * what the environmental track record of the company is it could allow people to become smarter consumers.
This site seems to do the same thing without the nifty webcam-scanner and has been around a lot longer and is cue-cat compatible. It probably has much more in its database.
This will make it much easier for theives to "legally" steal from stores.
.
Let me explain. . .
An theif duplicates the barcode of a cheap item, say a pair of jeans that was on clearance at a particular sotre, say Walmart. Then that theif takes his/her duplicated barcodes (on labels) and applies them to a more expensive pair of jeans. Then they proceed to the "newest" clerk at the checkout lines, and proceeds to purchase a number of the jeans at the clearance price instead of at their retail prices.
Now there will be a database so the theif can do more of their work in the safety of their home. How nice!
Self proclaimed wannabe geek. You know how it is. Most of us who read this stuff probably fit in that category.
of course, we just called him crazy. I guess we should have called him visionary.
Strike its weak spot for massive damage
I, for one, welcome our new barcode overlords.
Had to be said.
"And now, Frank N. Furter, your time has come. Say 'goodbye' to all of this, and 'hello'... to oblivion!"
At least as it now is, this site doesn't appear to have anything to do with social networks--nor does it claim to. Apparently the submitter either (a) knows something about the site that the admins haven't chosen to release or (b) assumes that any community site must automatically be a "social network" thing.
The federal government is investigating a new internet technology that allows every citizen to hold his face up in front of a webcam and get digitized into a database. A barcode is then assigned and superimposed onto the citizen's forehead. The really convenient feature is that you can then print out your new barcoded forehead for future use.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing ... like why?!?
... hmm... now there's an idea ... and maybe I can earn some serious money from it?! ... I could sell train tickets or something ... maybe they'll even think they are getting souvenirs!
... hmm... I could sell spores and things.
... page 1, the entire Internet. page 2, err? ... goto page 1?
What next, the trainspotters wiki
Or maybe I can start the fungal spores wiki
Come to think of it, maybe I should just setup the wiki wiki
There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
Now with my portable pocket barcode scanner, a laptop, and wifi, I can know what is inside any can, the size of any pair of jeans, or the name of any product ever!
Or I could just look at the label.
The data may be duplicated elsewhere, but some of the statistics are fun. Considering that they're probably Slashdotted right now, the list of latest entries in the database rocks.
Latest 25 products
* SPAM - Hickory Smoke flavor
* Dr. Pepper
* Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
* Kleenex Brand Facial Tissue
* Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade
* The Duke Spirit - Cuts across the land
* Kingston SD Memory Card - 1Gig
* Mates of State - Bring it Back
* Starship Troopers (DVD)
* Ibuprofen Caplets 200mg
* Seattle Metropolitan Magazine
* Diablo: #1 Legacy of Blood
* 108Mb Wireless CardBus Adapter TL-WN610G
* Chock full o' Nuts Coffee
* Wente Vineyards Merlot Arroyo Seco Monterey 2003
* Wings of Fury
* Dr. Pepper
* Lay's Kettle Cooked Original Extra Crunchy Potato Chips
* Crazy Jack Organic Sun-Dried Raisins
* Elektra DVD
* Epoxy/Aluminum Putty Stick
* Canon Zoon Lens EF-S 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
* Expo Fine Point Dry Erase Markers - 4 Color Set
* MySQL Pocket Reference
* Dig into Rocks: Minerals and Crystals
I used to work for Qode.com; they sold Qoders, these little keychain fob barcode readers. You would take your Qoder and scan a bunch oif stuff you wanted to buy and upload them from your docking station. Then the Qode search engine would compare the barcodes against our database and find the best price for the item(s) at a variety of stores, both online and off. We had an internal contest to scan the most crap off the shelves. Place was in the dot-bomb craze and got bought out because we held some patents or something. I think our ompetitor, Barpoint, was doing the same thing. IIRC, it was a big waste of time and money.
That way I don't have to have a barcode scanner stuffed down my pants when I go shopping.
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I don't need Barcodepedia, I can already memorise all barcodes. They start with black, then white black white black white black white black white black white black white black white black white black white black Try, it I'm right!!!! A.M
The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. - HGTTG
he barcode-scanner-flas-thingy didn't work for me.
anybody know of any good and free programs that can scan barcodes from a webcam? in the worst case from a snapshot taken from a webcam? the real scanners are just too expensive, if webcams could do the same.
I still have about 2,000 of these in my storage unit. I should sell them. Or donate them.
It's a ground breaking theory object. It's an unprecedented astonishing piece of my job description, which is to drop lit matches into the wet bog of unrecognizable distributed intelligence of cyberspace. The creator is Frankenstein, running wild with radical atheist poets. The legacy people must become the change I want to see in the european dissident crowd. I am fearless and brilliant. The center does not hold, for its the end of history... Milosevic was a bad leader.
Used in conjunction with receiptopedia you can get a lot of money from Best Buy
I'm currently wearing Adidas. I can Google "Adidas labor practices" and figure out if I need to be converend fairly quickly (well, OK, I don't think "sweatshops" are necessarily something I need to be concerned about, but even if I shared the politics of the people hyperventilating about them I wouldn't need the barcode to do it). My technology incubator does traceability for beef (using cellphone based barcode readers -- they're a dime a dozen here), where you can look up exactly what farm and processing plant a particular hamburger patty went through, but even that is mostly useless information designed to convince the fickle Japanese consumer that somebody important is tracking their food safety.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Finally, the ultimate weapon!
e battler/
http://www.consoledatabase.com/consoleinfo/barcod
I knew I held on to it for a reason.
IIi1iiI11lIl1ill
Try some Ringo (no, not Starr). Start with "A Hymn Before Battle". Alien centaroids, battle-suits, enough yellow blood splashed about to paint a city.
i am not so sure its a good idea, but who is asking me?
http://www.googlebay.org http://www.seychellois.sc/photo