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.)

Why would I want barcodes to control my house?

[Trigun]

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.

Re:A simple question

[TheBogie]

If you dont know, I am not going to tell you.

Should be part of "reorder.com".

[Animats]

As a hobby, it's silly. As a part of something like "reorder.com" [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.

Weird Format

[ignoramus]

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.

Re:A simple question

[glitch!]

It has a million household uses! Well, uh... You can take inventory of your food and spices, scan them in and out of the refrigerator and cupboards, and let the computer tell you when it is time to make more. Well, you'll have to program that yourself actually. But let's say you have something that is missing _most_ of the label but still has the barcode intact. You can use this database to find out what it is! See how handy this is?

I have to wonder if these fine folks have heard of an already existing free UPC database? :)
http://www.upcdatabase.com/ [upcdatabase.com]

Let's Beat up Wm. Gibson, Just on Principle

[RobotRunAmok]

Anybody else remember the days when Science Fiction writers actually sat down and wrote some friggin' Science Fiction, instead of travelling around to pretentiously acronymed multi-disciplinary conferences foisting their ridiculously named neologism-wannabe terms around like they thought they were the 21st Century's version of Arthur C. Clarke, sans boys?

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...

Re: Barcodepedia - a Social Network Barcode DB

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:to your local store with a laptop for massive f

[rwven]

Seriously...why in the heck does anyone use this?

Used for Stealing.

[n2art2]

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!

nothing to do with social networks

[jrtom]

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.

Re:More International Feel?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they may have meant to say that the change from .nu to .com gives it a more international feel.

Re:To evolve on this idea into the dirt...

[Moekandu]

See, what I normally do now is look for the part number when I want to search for competing prices.

That way I don't have to have a barcode scanner stuffed down my pants when I go shopping.