2 Sep
2003
2 Sep
'03
8:56 p.m.
Hi Mike,
If the companies had not been such putzii in
restricting use to JUST
what they
wanted me to do with it, most likely I would have kept
it handy and used
it for
both mine and their objectives. As it is now I
don't use them for anything.
I know what you mean. Another similar consumer data collection thing is going
on with the grocery stores and the Harris Teeter VIC card and the Food Lion MVP
card. You get some special buys if you have their card with you when you check
out and they scan it, but when you let them scan your card, they know who
you are
and what you are buying. I don't know if you have those grocery stores in
your area
or not. It's never really been any inconvenience with it though. But last
year when
my mom was in the hospital for the first time, for something very serious
that is,
Harris Teeter's database must have recognized that she hadn't been shopping
there
for a significant amount of time, and they sent some coupons in the mail as
an incentive
to get her to come back and start shopping there again. I guess the
important thing
is just don't give them your email address too, or only give them the email
address
that you don't mind receiving the junk mail at.
My favorite is the CS1504 key fob sized unit with
memory for a few
hundred barcodes
that WuliWeb sent to me, but seems like the CueCat has
lots more
software for it (I also
have a few of those). I plan to get something going
like Thokbook and
isbn/barcode book
collection database thingy, but its still on the list
of stuff to do.
Some years ago when I was working as a tech for a small local computer company,
they had me build and set up a couple of systems for a local retailer that
were to be
networked together, and one was to operate a cash drawer, and both were to have
bar code scanners for scanning the UPCs on their merchandise. It's been so long
now that I don't remember exactly what I had to do to make it all work, but
I'm not sure
I remember the scanners they were using needing a device driver. They did
plug in
inline with the keyboard. If I found one that just worked, with no device
driver requirement,
just as though you had typed the characters on the keyboard, that would be
great. If it
were pen sized and shaped, so super small and compact, that would be even
better.
Does such a scanner exist? I'm getting kind of tired of devices that only
work with some
operating systems and not with others, or get left orphaned when a new
major release of
an operating system comes out.