:CueCat -- any progress??

[Josh Kuperman]

Someone gave me a :Cuecat to try out. I tried it, and it doesn't
work. This is sad.  A device that would read bar codes and provide a
method of entering web sites from bar codes, would be very useful. I
immediately thought of being able to hand patrons a scanable
webography for a search topic.  I had also hoped that we could
integrate it with our existing catalog as a bar code
reader. Apparently Convergence's aims are much, much lower; basically,
steering people to puchase products while gathering demographics. As
they failed there as well, I don't see the need to advise them to aim
higher. I e-mailed their tech support a couple of times, and stopped
after being told to change options that didn't exist on the software
that came with the device. The device was mentioned in passing here
with a pointer to the, rightfully criticle, article at
http://www.llrx.com/columns/notes35.htm which gives some background.

Compared with traditional barcode scanning devices it is pretty
cheap. It is however, even when being used as Convergent intended,
worse than useless. Is there is a way to bypass the software that
comes with the device - it seems to vary from non-functional to weird,
depending on the time of day - and make it function as a simple, cheap,
barcode reader. 


If anyone is interested in a product that doesn't work very well, they
are apparently available (for free?) by visiting a RadioShack or their
web page (for $10 shipping) at http://www.anothercat.com.

-- 
Josh Kuperman                       
josh at saratoga.lib.ny.us