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.)

to your local store with a laptop for massive fun

[CrazyJim1]

Excuse me while I go back to sleep.

Retarded

[rratss]

News for nerds, yes. Stuff that matters... to retards.

This might just be bigger...

[Anonymous Coward]

...than Paintdrypedia, the community-based online database of images of paint drying. Everybody can contribute by pointing your webcams at freshly painted surfaces.

Re:More International Feel?

[thefirelane]

Since when does changing an 'r' to a 'pedia' give you more international feel?

I think it was recently mandated by the UNipedia

Re:More International Feel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when does changing an 'r' to a 'pedia' give you more international feel?

No idea, but I'm sure there's a simple answepedia.

edit history for bar code 780802 118257

[commodoresloat]

# (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)

Re:This might just be bigger...

[Aqua_boy17]

"Massive Fun?"

If you like that, you'll love my action packed front lawn web cam at watchinggrassgrow.org.

Is there anything webcams can't do?

[Rob T Firefly]

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.

Re:This might just be bigger...

[LunaticTippy]

um, your website appears to be slashdotted.

this [watching-grass-grow.com] one is up and running!

YYYYYEEEEEEAHHHH!!!!

[linvir]

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!

Barkopedia

[daniil]

At first I thought it was a collaborative project to decode dog language. Alas, I was mistaken.

Flash 8 needed

[Rythie]

I love the way the site proclaims to me "you must have flash player 8", well actually, no I don't.

Re:Why would I want barcodes to control my house?

[whoop]

OMG, you like totally are not getting the hugeness of the enormity of such an innovative Web 2.0 use this will have on the impact of the world of stuff. Now, instead of going through a bunch of MySpace pages looking for friends, I can just go to MyBarCodes.com and automatically search for other people who have the exact same groceries as me! Then I can get good suggestions from what other people have bought from Amazon's groceries. OMG that will be so such a killa app for the Web 2.0. So you in the future friendz!$!

an excuse for my pocket barcode scanner

[Pasquina]

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.