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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
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?
# (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
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.
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!
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.
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...
I love the way the site proclaims to me "you must have flash player 8", well actually, no I don't.
Seriously...why in the heck does anyone use this?
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.
Actually if you look on the site's about page, where he has a wish/priority list, CueCat support is on there.
Unfortunately, it seems like he doesn't have a CueCat, and he's looking for someone to donate one, plus postage to Denmark.
I only have one, but maybe someone around on Slashdot who cleaned up (the last time these came up in discussion, it seemed like there were people around with dozens of the things) as they were going out of business will be willing to post one to Europe.
There are several GPLed projects which have CueCat support in them already -- Alexandria, which is a book-cataloging program, does it (although I've never gotten a chance to play with it that much) and there are some standalone scripts and libraries for decoding CueCat output around, from when they were more popular. Doesn't seem like it would be particularly hard to do.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
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.
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.
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.
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