Yeah, but part of the code is the price. Or may be the price. Sometimes it's 0.00. So in order to get a price they need to a)put it in a lookup table, or b) print a new sticker.
A new sticker also comes in handy for changing prices.
Each state probably has at most 100 different state tax rates. That I am sure is a gross overestimate. I bet it's more like 10.
Small lookup table? Almost. You can purchase them right now. It's a problem that has been solved, but it's not quite as simple as you think. I once worked on an automated system that calculated sales tax for customers in several states where the company had a physical presence. First off there may be state tax. Then there may be city tax. Then there may be an Independant School District (I don't know about other states but in Texas they are independant taxing authorities.) In almost every case ZIP code is enough to uniquely identify the 3 or 4 different tax rates. Occasionally there was a ZIP code that was split by different taxing districts. In that case the full ZIP + 4 was needed, introducing a few more lookup values.
Once you've done that lookup, you have the tax rates. Add them all together and you know how much tax to charge.
Of course then you have to file the paperwork with each of those different taxing authorities and cut them their checks, usually on different schedules...
In short, it's a nightmare. But actually doing it for all 50 states wouldn't be much more complicated than for one. At least it wouldn't be too bad from a programmer's point of view. The biggest burden would be on the accountants and lawyers.
That's why they use goats. They tried spiders, but raising large quantities of spiders to harvest the silk was...somewhat difficult. The spiders kept eating each other, among other things.
I'm not sure, being from the U.S., but here's what I remember from a few years ago when they proposed a VAT here in the U.S.
The VAT is a Value ADDED Tax. It's not a percentage of sales price. It's paid on the markup. That means that it is paid on person A's 20% markup and on person B's 50% markup. Same price, different amount of tax.
And it is paid at every step of the way. If someone buys olives, and sells olive oil for a profit, a VAT is paid on that. Then someone else buys the oil, as well as some vinegar and herbs and spices (with VAT paid on those as well) and sells salad dressing, more VAT is paid. The VAT only stops at the end consumer. Of course in reality it may not be that simple, especially if it were tried in the U.S. The olive producers lobby and the vinegar lobby and the salad dressing lobby would all go to work in Washington. When all of the lobbying were done, even though a VAT would be paid at each step, the VAT for each transaction may be at a different rate. Talk about an administrative nightmare. But perhaps that's just the way things are done in the U.S. Could anyone from a country with VAT tell me if things are that bad there?
And here's the only important part of this whole story:
As far as the sense of taxing wealth created outside of the EU, check out some financial news sometimes. This has nothing to do with sense. The EU and US are in a trade war right now. Protectionism, tarrifs, local politics and pride are all involved. Eventually we'll probably work something out. Perhaps even go so far as to enter a Free Trade agreement at some time. But for now, it's just a pissing contest.
If you don't trust your government not to abuse that kind of information, vote for people you trust damnit.
Yes, that's the heart of the problem
What could someone do if they got my ID card? Pose as me?... Smart ID cards are NOT credit cards, they proof of identify. That's ALL...
What you all should be concerned about is not that there is a way to uniquely identify yourself, but making sure that that information is PROTECTED, that entities can't trade that information, can't request that information...
Now, of course, It would be different if people could actually do me harm with them cards (like if they included bank information)...
By the way, if you want to get rid of the SSN problems, implement social security for everyone like all European countries that I am aware of have. I've never seen anyone being refused admitance in a hospital in my life, and I sure hope never to live in a country that requires me to have a special insurance to benefit from health care
I see a USian/rest of the world miscommunication going on here. The "SSN problems" have nothing to do with availability of admitance in a hospital. The SSN is (despite laws that supposedly make it illegal) the primary piece of banking information about someone in the US.
Given a name and SSN someone CAN pose as another individual. But not in official governmental matters. In banking/credit card matters. If a thief gets the name and SSN of someone with good credit they can open up credit card accounts and destroy the victims credit. Proof of identity may not actually be a credit card, but the way that things are done here in the US, it may as well be.
Of course that has more to do with a screwed up credit system which has been known to issue pre-approved cards to babies and pets than it does anything else. But it's part of the whole environment here in the US that leads to paranoia about any sort of single identity card.
Drivers' Licences and Prove It! cards exist for saying that you're 21, Social Security cards exist to show that you're registered to work, Credit Bureaus exist to see if you're worth lending money to. National IDs should exist to show the Government who you are when they have a justified reason to know, not to let you into a bar or rent a mini-van.
So what does the Drivers License turned National ID card that happens to have your Social Security Number on it exist for?
The only Hotmail address that I ever created that didn't get non HotMail service related spam was a GUID. I didn't create my own, I just grabbed one of the Office component's GUID from the registry.
I don't use that address, I just wanted to see if the spammers were using a dictionary attack or not. I created shorter addresses with that were name/number combos at the same time, and they all got spammed. It seems like most of the spammers probably are guessing at addresses.
Then again, on other hotmail addresses (such as me123@hotmail.com) I get lots of spam with a return addresses such as "me123@msn.com." Sometimes they're from forged addresses, sometimes not.
OK, this was a useless post. All I really said was "Hotmail has problems with Spammers." and we all already knew that.
Anyway, this is from the folks that make the Digital Angel. This newest press release is a way to power those little babies until something in them breaks. Look ma, no batteries!
They're wonderful little devices. Full of medical, security, and law enforcement possibilities. Lifesaving, Terrifying little devices.
Welcome to the future. May the gods have mercy on your soul.
What? Who said mapping from XML to a functional language in general? Who said you need to flatten things out? (although there are techniqes to do so if you feel the need to.) And how is the post product of records highly suitable to imperative languages?
Have you ever used LISP or Scheme? The basic data structure is the list. Hint: What does the "LIS" portion of "LISP" mean? Hint2: A list is a tuple, and you admitted that XML itself is used to describe tuples. As far as the tree nature of XML, a LISP list element may be itself a list, sort of like an XML element may itself be a tree. The "post product of records" is the native data of LISP. I'd call that highly suitable to the functional language of LISP.
Of course this is just a quick post that I didn't put a whole lot of thought into. I haven't actually used LISP since school. I think in imperative terms now, not functional terms, but I think DGolden was right. I'd been meaning to get back up to speed with Scheme, and XML may just be the excuse that I need.
Outcome 3... you go out with friends, but you're the designated driver. Their breath causes you to get pulled over. "Ok sir, that's a fine thing you're doing. Get you friends home, and have a safe night." Not too bad, if you ask me.
Hmmm...you must always have looked acceptable to the cops. You've never worn any unusual clothing or hairstyle. You've never driven an old car through through certain neighborhoods. You've never been guilty of DWB (Driveing While Black.)
Yes, sometimes it'll be "OK sir, that's a fine thing you're doing..." but a fair amount of the time it'll be "You're all drunk until you can prove otherwise. You're probably doing drugs too. Do you mind if I search your car while we're here?"
End result is that you'll probably be allowed to go on driving until the next cop stops you. But not until you've spent 1/2 hour or more going through a field sobriety test, breathalizer, submitting to the search, and answering questions. Assuming that you are properly respectful and none of the drunken passengers causes any trouble.
I can just imagine what that would be like in areas such as Dallas or Chicago or any other metropolitan area where a 15 mile drive passes through 4 or 5 suburbs, each with their own police department. It could take the car with a designated driver an extra hour or two to get back from the bar.
And all of this is not because of any criminal behaviour. The outcome that I've described is what a law abiding citizen, doing a good thing (being a designated driver), can expect to deal with.
Yes, we need to deal with drunk drivers. And we don't do a good job of that now. I don't have any answers (other than actually punishing drunk drivers with more than a slap on the wrist), but I don't think this is the solution to the problem.
Fuel cells are NOT batteries or capacitors, glorified or not.
Note the use of the word "Fuel" in "Fuel Cell." They can not put the fuel companies out of business. They need fuel to work! Now, the types of fuel may differ. The amounts may differ. Some companies may fail. Others may start producing different types of fuel. But it's not like fuel cells can eliminate the need for fuel.
Even if/when we switch to batteries or capacitors instead of fuel cells, the electricity to charge them will need to be produced somewhere. As we shift our cars from fuel to centrally generated electricity, we'll need to increase our capacity to generate electricity. At that point it will probably be a fight between the oil companies and the coal companies. Somehow I don't think that solar, geothermal, wind, tide, hydro, and nuclear plants will completely replace all other electrical plants.
So I predict that we'll be powering our cars (directly or indirectly) with fossil fuels for a very long time into the future.
And I predict that the fossile fuels will be sold by the same countries and companies as today. Or at least merged companies that can trace their roots to today's companies.
I don't think the oil companies are facing destruction. I think they're facing a changing market that will require them to spend money on lobbyists, chang the configurations of refineries, and otherwise adapt. This will affect their profits in the mid-term. But in the short and long-term, they're just as strong as they ever were.
the guy right before you decides to set up a macro to download porn 24/7,
That's against the cable company's TOS. Didn't you know? You can't actually USE the connection 24 hours a day unless you're at the keyboard 24 hours a day. You're not supposed to automate anything or actually take advantage of the bandwidth and connectivity that they provide. It is technically possible, but contractually forbidden.
Of course, you are right about location. Many people have a choice between Cable or Cable. Sometimes they have a choice between DSL and DSL.
And if it's Cable, their choice is often between the local monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation and the local monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation. With the aforementioned TOS.
That is what I don't like about Cable Modems.
Of course, if it's DSL the choice is often between getting DSL from the local Telco monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation, or from the alternative provider that is about to go bankrupt.
Unless you go probing around in their mDNA you are going to have no idea that they are the slightest bit different.
Actually, from what I gathered about the article, you'd have to probing about in their mDNA and their mother's mDNA to figure out that they weren't the same before you'd have a clue that anything was different. Their mDNA should be perfectly normal, it's just from a third "parent."
In an ideal world, police would be unnecessary. And courts. And armies. We should focus on implementing that ideal world.
I really do mean that. We should try to prevent the social conditions that encourage criminal behavior. We should do what we can to prevent large groups of people from systematically killing each other. Or even wanting to.
Does this mean that I'd feel safe right now if all all law enforcement with any sort of jurisdiction over my home town were to just quit their jobs and leave? Does this mean that I'd feel even vaguely safe if I were in a country with some sort of useful resource (anything from land to wealth to money to strategic location. In other words, just about any country in the world.) and no military (not even that of an ally) to call upon?
No it doesn't.
This is not an ideal world. There are Bad People (and by extension Bad Governments and Bad Companies and Bad Religions and all other sorts of Bad Groups) out there that want to do things that may be good for them but bad for us. We need some sort of protection from them. Of course, police and armies can become the Bad Guys that we need protection from, sometimes. Still, having them is usually better than not having them.
Just because something is not needed in an ideal world, just because we should be focusing on creating that ideal world, does not mean that it's not needed here and now.
Now one nation can DOS (or a few can get in league and DDOS) any U.S. corporations they care to. Just issue so many requests for information that the corporation is spending more time and money on compliance than on actually running their business.
Of course the U.S. could do the same.
This could wreak havoc with economies. In countries where the ISP/Telco is a branch of government, this drains the national coffers directly.
This opens up a new level of economic "warfare" somewhere in between diplomacy/trade wars and hot shooting wars.
they'll probably develop it better and faster than Lockheed would have
What? Do you really think that the U.S. military will actually have their government staff scientists and engineers doing this work?
The government writes the specs, takes bids (although in this case the spec will look suspiciously like "Make an X-33", and only Lockheed will be capable of meeting the spec, so they'll have the only bid) then the DoD FUNDS the R&D, which the vendor (Lockheed) will actually do.
Yes, there is feedback, and reports to the DoD, and there may be military personnel assigned to the effort. But Lockheed will still be developing it.
This is slightly offtopic, but...
I don't know how things work in a high profile fast-track military system like this one, but here's how the typical military contract R&D project goes:
Once approved, and the bid is accepted, the military will promise $X million for a phase of development.
Lockheed will spend a bit more than that and produce the deliverable(s).
The military will eventually approve the cost overruns.
Then the paperwork involved in actually paying those millions of dollars will disappear somewhere in a maze of procurement officers' desks for a while, 6 months perhaps or a year.
Meanwhile Lockheed is spending millions on the next phase of development. The government does pay it's bills eventually, though.
Producing hardware for the military is rather lucrative, but you need deep enough pockets to hold you through until the government actually pays.
I don't have any link or pictures, but I do remember having it for my Apple ][+
Basically it was just a barcode reader and software that could print barcodes. It worked well on my dot-matrix printer. Some of the hobby magazines printed their BASIC source listings in the barcode format in the margin as well as the human readable form. Like the previous poster said, it made a splash then went away. I thought that the durability and storage density made it an attractive alternative to floppy disks. Especially compared to the old Apple DOS floppy format. Archives were cheap, easy to reproduce, and could (if using acid free paper and good quality ink) last quite a long time.
But like most things, it's a matter of popularity, not technical quality. It just never caught on.
Of course nowadays, I just burn a CD when I want to archive or snail-mail somebody a binary. Still, it was a fun toy.
I just don't believe that intolerance will fade away fast enough. We'll have transparancy before people are used to it. They will kill those who are different. (hey, it's not like that hasn't happened before. The Holocost. Lynchings in the South. Current crises in the Balkans, Middle East, Indonesia and Africa)
And all of that bloodshed isn't exactly the perfect foundation to build a utopia upon.
But again, I would also argue that our current intolerance is largely because we hide these things right now. If they are brought out into the open people become forced to deal with the fact that their favorite musician is homosexual or that the CEO of their company likes the BeeGees. After all, ignorance is the foundation of intolerance.
Perhaps. But to reach that point much blood will be spilled. And I don't mean figuratively.
It's going to be one hellish future before we reach utopia.
Slashdot Mirror
A new sticker also comes in handy for changing prices.
Small lookup table? Almost. You can purchase them right now. It's a problem that has been solved, but it's not quite as simple as you think. I once worked on an automated system that calculated sales tax for customers in several states where the company had a physical presence. First off there may be state tax. Then there may be city tax. Then there may be an Independant School District (I don't know about other states but in Texas they are independant taxing authorities.) In almost every case ZIP code is enough to uniquely identify the 3 or 4 different tax rates. Occasionally there was a ZIP code that was split by different taxing districts. In that case the full ZIP + 4 was needed, introducing a few more lookup values.
Once you've done that lookup, you have the tax rates. Add them all together and you know how much tax to charge.
Of course then you have to file the paperwork with each of those different taxing authorities and cut them their checks, usually on different schedules...
In short, it's a nightmare. But actually doing it for all 50 states wouldn't be much more complicated than for one. At least it wouldn't be too bad from a programmer's point of view. The biggest burden would be on the accountants and lawyers.
That's why they use goats. They tried spiders, but raising large quantities of spiders to harvest the silk was...somewhat difficult. The spiders kept eating each other, among other things.
I'm not sure, being from the U.S., but here's what I remember from a few years ago when they proposed a VAT here in the U.S.
The VAT is a Value ADDED Tax. It's not a percentage of sales price. It's paid on the markup. That means that it is paid on person A's 20% markup and on person B's 50% markup. Same price, different amount of tax.
And it is paid at every step of the way. If someone buys olives, and sells olive oil for a profit, a VAT is paid on that. Then someone else buys the oil, as well as some vinegar and herbs and spices (with VAT paid on those as well) and sells salad dressing, more VAT is paid. The VAT only stops at the end consumer. Of course in reality it may not be that simple, especially if it were tried in the U.S. The olive producers lobby and the vinegar lobby and the salad dressing lobby would all go to work in Washington. When all of the lobbying were done, even though a VAT would be paid at each step, the VAT for each transaction may be at a different rate. Talk about an administrative nightmare. But perhaps that's just the way things are done in the U.S. Could anyone from a country with VAT tell me if things are that bad there?
And here's the only important part of this whole story:
As far as the sense of taxing wealth created outside of the EU, check out some financial news sometimes. This has nothing to do with sense. The EU and US are in a trade war right now. Protectionism, tarrifs, local politics and pride are all involved. Eventually we'll probably work something out. Perhaps even go so far as to enter a Free Trade agreement at some time. But for now, it's just a pissing contest.
Yes, that's the heart of the problem
What could someone do if they got my ID card? Pose as me?
What you all should be concerned about is not that there is a way to uniquely identify yourself, but making sure that that information is PROTECTED, that entities can't trade that information, can't request that information...
Now, of course, It would be different if people could actually do me harm with them cards (like if they included bank information)...
By the way, if you want to get rid of the SSN problems, implement social security for everyone like all European countries that I am aware of have. I've never seen anyone being refused admitance in a hospital in my life, and I sure hope never to live in a country that requires me to have a special insurance to benefit from health care
I see a USian/rest of the world miscommunication going on here. The "SSN problems" have nothing to do with availability of admitance in a hospital. The SSN is (despite laws that supposedly make it illegal) the primary piece of banking information about someone in the US.
Given a name and SSN someone CAN pose as another individual. But not in official governmental matters. In banking/credit card matters. If a thief gets the name and SSN of someone with good credit they can open up credit card accounts and destroy the victims credit. Proof of identity may not actually be a credit card, but the way that things are done here in the US, it may as well be.
Of course that has more to do with a screwed up credit system which has been known to issue pre-approved cards to babies and pets than it does anything else. But it's part of the whole environment here in the US that leads to paranoia about any sort of single identity card.
So what does the Drivers License turned National ID card that happens to have your Social Security Number on it exist for?
Why don't I have mod points when I need them?
I don't use that address, I just wanted to see if the spammers were using a dictionary attack or not. I created shorter addresses with that were name/number combos at the same time, and they all got spammed. It seems like most of the spammers probably are guessing at addresses.
Then again, on other hotmail addresses (such as me123@hotmail.com) I get lots of spam with a return addresses such as "me123@msn.com." Sometimes they're from forged addresses, sometimes not.
OK, this was a useless post. All I really said was "Hotmail has problems with Spammers." and we all already knew that.
I never really needed that karma anyway...
Get a helium balloon.
Make a hole in it (carefully).
Inhale a lungful of the helium.
Exhale.
Talk.
You'll understand.
Anyway, this is from the folks that make the Digital Angel. This newest press release is a way to power those little babies until something in them breaks. Look ma, no batteries!
They're wonderful little devices. Full of medical, security, and law enforcement possibilities. Lifesaving, Terrifying little devices.
Welcome to the future. May the gods have mercy on your soul.
Have you ever used LISP or Scheme? The basic data structure is the list. Hint: What does the "LIS" portion of "LISP" mean? Hint2: A list is a tuple, and you admitted that XML itself is used to describe tuples. As far as the tree nature of XML, a LISP list element may be itself a list, sort of like an XML element may itself be a tree. The "post product of records" is the native data of LISP. I'd call that highly suitable to the functional language of LISP.
Of course this is just a quick post that I didn't put a whole lot of thought into. I haven't actually used LISP since school. I think in imperative terms now, not functional terms, but I think DGolden was right. I'd been meaning to get back up to speed with Scheme, and XML may just be the excuse that I need.
Hmmm...you must always have looked acceptable to the cops. You've never worn any unusual clothing or hairstyle. You've never driven an old car through through certain neighborhoods. You've never been guilty of DWB (Driveing While Black.)
Yes, sometimes it'll be "OK sir, that's a fine thing you're doing..." but a fair amount of the time it'll be "You're all drunk until you can prove otherwise. You're probably doing drugs too. Do you mind if I search your car while we're here?"
End result is that you'll probably be allowed to go on driving until the next cop stops you. But not until you've spent 1/2 hour or more going through a field sobriety test, breathalizer, submitting to the search, and answering questions. Assuming that you are properly respectful and none of the drunken passengers causes any trouble.
I can just imagine what that would be like in areas such as Dallas or Chicago or any other metropolitan area where a 15 mile drive passes through 4 or 5 suburbs, each with their own police department. It could take the car with a designated driver an extra hour or two to get back from the bar.
And all of this is not because of any criminal behaviour. The outcome that I've described is what a law abiding citizen, doing a good thing (being a designated driver), can expect to deal with.
Yes, we need to deal with drunk drivers. And we don't do a good job of that now. I don't have any answers (other than actually punishing drunk drivers with more than a slap on the wrist), but I don't think this is the solution to the problem.
Note the use of the word "Fuel" in "Fuel Cell." They can not put the fuel companies out of business. They need fuel to work! Now, the types of fuel may differ. The amounts may differ. Some companies may fail. Others may start producing different types of fuel. But it's not like fuel cells can eliminate the need for fuel.
Even if/when we switch to batteries or capacitors instead of fuel cells, the electricity to charge them will need to be produced somewhere. As we shift our cars from fuel to centrally generated electricity, we'll need to increase our capacity to generate electricity. At that point it will probably be a fight between the oil companies and the coal companies. Somehow I don't think that solar, geothermal, wind, tide, hydro, and nuclear plants will completely replace all other electrical plants.
So I predict that we'll be powering our cars (directly or indirectly) with fossil fuels for a very long time into the future.
And I predict that the fossile fuels will be sold by the same countries and companies as today. Or at least merged companies that can trace their roots to today's companies.
I don't think the oil companies are facing destruction. I think they're facing a changing market that will require them to spend money on lobbyists, chang the configurations of refineries, and otherwise adapt. This will affect their profits in the mid-term. But in the short and long-term, they're just as strong as they ever were.
That's against the cable company's TOS. Didn't you know? You can't actually USE the connection 24 hours a day unless you're at the keyboard 24 hours a day. You're not supposed to automate anything or actually take advantage of the bandwidth and connectivity that they provide. It is technically possible, but contractually forbidden.
Of course, you are right about location. Many people have a choice between Cable or Cable. Sometimes they have a choice between DSL and DSL.
And if it's Cable, their choice is often between the local monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation and the local monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation. With the aforementioned TOS.
That is what I don't like about Cable Modems.
Of course, if it's DSL the choice is often between getting DSL from the local Telco monopoly branch of a big multinational corporation, or from the alternative provider that is about to go bankrupt.
My favorites are these
"Made For You" (tm)
"Hey, It Could Happen!" (tm)
"Immunize for Healthy Lives" (tm)
and what in heck is a "McMaco" (tm)?
Actually, from what I gathered about the article, you'd have to probing about in their mDNA and their mother's mDNA to figure out that they weren't the same before you'd have a clue that anything was different. Their mDNA should be perfectly normal, it's just from a third "parent."
True. You're right. I agree with you.
I would go even further, however.
I mean every word of the following statement:
In an ideal world, police would be unnecessary. And courts. And armies. We should focus on implementing that ideal world.
I really do mean that. We should try to prevent the social conditions that encourage criminal behavior. We should do what we can to prevent large groups of people from systematically killing each other. Or even wanting to.
Does this mean that I'd feel safe right now if all all law enforcement with any sort of jurisdiction over my home town were to just quit their jobs and leave? Does this mean that I'd feel even vaguely safe if I were in a country with some sort of useful resource (anything from land to wealth to money to strategic location. In other words, just about any country in the world.) and no military (not even that of an ally) to call upon?
No it doesn't.
This is not an ideal world. There are Bad People (and by extension Bad Governments and Bad Companies and Bad Religions and all other sorts of Bad Groups) out there that want to do things that may be good for them but bad for us. We need some sort of protection from them. Of course, police and armies can become the Bad Guys that we need protection from, sometimes. Still, having them is usually better than not having them.
Just because something is not needed in an ideal world, just because we should be focusing on creating that ideal world, does not mean that it's not needed here and now.
Of course the U.S. could do the same.
This could wreak havoc with economies. In countries where the ISP/Telco is a branch of government, this drains the national coffers directly.
This opens up a new level of economic "warfare" somewhere in between diplomacy/trade wars and hot shooting wars.
What? Do you really think that the U.S. military will actually have their government staff scientists and engineers doing this work?
The government writes the specs, takes bids (although in this case the spec will look suspiciously like "Make an X-33", and only Lockheed will be capable of meeting the spec, so they'll have the only bid) then the DoD FUNDS the R&D, which the vendor (Lockheed) will actually do.
Yes, there is feedback, and reports to the DoD, and there may be military personnel assigned to the effort. But Lockheed will still be developing it.
This is slightly offtopic, but...
I don't know how things work in a high profile fast-track military system like this one, but here's how the typical military contract R&D project goes:
Once approved, and the bid is accepted, the military will promise $X million for a phase of development.
Lockheed will spend a bit more than that and produce the deliverable(s).
The military will eventually approve the cost overruns.
Then the paperwork involved in actually paying those millions of dollars will disappear somewhere in a maze of procurement officers' desks for a while, 6 months perhaps or a year.
Meanwhile Lockheed is spending millions on the next phase of development. The government does pay it's bills eventually, though.
Producing hardware for the military is rather lucrative, but you need deep enough pockets to hold you through until the government actually pays.
Basically it was just a barcode reader and software that could print barcodes. It worked well on my dot-matrix printer. Some of the hobby magazines printed their BASIC source listings in the barcode format in the margin as well as the human readable form. Like the previous poster said, it made a splash then went away. I thought that the durability and storage density made it an attractive alternative to floppy disks. Especially compared to the old Apple DOS floppy format. Archives were cheap, easy to reproduce, and could (if using acid free paper and good quality ink) last quite a long time.
But like most things, it's a matter of popularity, not technical quality. It just never caught on.
Of course nowadays, I just burn a CD when I want to archive or snail-mail somebody a binary. Still, it was a fun toy.
Mod This Up!
And all of that bloodshed isn't exactly the perfect foundation to build a utopia upon.
Perhaps. But to reach that point much blood will be spilled. And I don't mean figuratively. It's going to be one hellish future before we reach utopia.