Anyone else get one of these in the mail? I apparently got mine because I subscribe to Wired.
It’s a little pen type thing with an infrared eye on the front, and the body is shaped like a crouching cat. It has a PS/2 port adapter to be plugged in conjunction with your keyboard, and included a TV/PC audio cable to go into your soundcard.
Once you set the scanner up, you can scan bar codes, ISBN codes, or their own special :Cue :Cat bar codes. It will automatically connect you to the internet, and bring up pages about and related to said items. It even listens in to your audio, and if you connect it to your TV, it listens to the TV for shows and commercials, and brings up web pages related to or about them.
Man, this thing looks really fucking cool. I haven’t hooked it up yet, as I just got it today, but from it’s description, I hope it takes off. It seems damned awesome, and a great way to integrate the TV into the PC.
I thought this was going to be about a cute new toy for a cat…still, you could get a cat or a dog to chase the little red dot on the carpet/watch the scan on the wall…my dogs tend to chase torch beams if its getting dark and try to catch them on the carpet!
In the insurance biz, apparently the ‘cool new thing’ last year was pen lasers with your company logo on the side. My dad brought home about 2 bajillion of them. Dogs usually don’t care, puppies love it, and cats go insane.
Homer, apparently you haven’t read about all the controversy surrounding the cuecat. There are a couple of things to be worried about.
First, the practical: If you are using the windows software which they provide (as I assume you are), then each scan consists of a unique serial number and the “encrypted” barcode which you scanned. This number is sent back to the Digital Convergence (I think that’s the company) servers where they track each and every scan that YOU do, building a profile of you.
Second, the philosophical: It seems that their windows software has a EULA which basically says that the scanner is only being loaned to you, and that you will only use it in the ways that they approve of (only with their software). In fact, some guys (who’s website is http://www.flyingbuttmonkeys.com/ ) wrote linux drivers which did not look at the digital convergence servers, but instead looked the product up at amazon.com. Flying butt monkeys are now being sued.
I too got one of these scanners. But I knew enough to toss out the software unopened. The radioshack guy said they were giving them away, so if the legal system has any bit of sanity left, then I can say that mine is actually mine, not on loan or whatever bullsh*t they’re trying to pull.
Bottom line is, be careful with it, they are watching and recording what you do.
Nerd, thank you so much for telling me this. It looked cool. I should have known there was an ulterior motive. This will NOT be installed on my computer.
This said, since it’s already using infrared, can I set it up as an infrared receiver so I can use a remote control for my WinAmp? I already have the plugin, I just need an infrared receiver.
No, I don’t think it’s possible to use the cuecat as an infrared reciever. What it sends the computer is scrambled text data, not the raw IR. It has a specialised DSP chip designed specifically to decode barcodes, so I don’t think it would be a worthwhile (if even possible) hack to set one up as an IR receiver.
On the plus side, IR receivers should be CHEAP. I’ve got a spare I’m not using (though there’s always the possibility of resurrecting it).
Check out X10.com. I think they sell some nifty IR stuff.
yep, torch as in flashlight as in x-files drinking game… (what, they never heard of light switches in the FBI?)
I don’t know about imagery, bt torches (wood 7 fire stuff) were portable, so it’s a logical name - I gues we just left the “portable dark ages” later than you…anyway, why call it a flash light if it doesn’t flash? - see the flasher on trains thread for more interesting imagery!
My dad called today and told me to go down to Radio Shack and get a free one. He also told me to look at the ad for it in Parade magazine. That set off my radar, so after looking at the ad and thinking, “MmmHMM,” I did a search and found this thread.
Based on what y’all have said, I’m going to get one, if they have it, since it’s free, but I’m not going to use it. I will keep it as an artifact, so ten years from now when people say, “Remember that Cue Cat thing?” I can produce mine for inspection. I have an unopened bottle of Crystal Pepsi for the same reason.
I don’t think it’s infrared; just plain old boring red. If it was infrared, you wouldn’t be able to see it.
Now by taking advantage of some of the information on many websites that have sprung up, you could a) disable the serial number function and b) translate the munged output into “plaintext”. Then, you could create a list of all your MP3’s, assign an arbitrary number to them, print out a list of the songs followed by the barcodes (plenty of barcode “fonts” available out there, and the cuecat will read most of the standard ones), and file all that stuff in a nice new looseleaf binder. Then you could just manually page through the binder to find a song you want to hear, scan the associated barcode, send the decoded filename to WinAmp, repeat as needed.
My point being that I’m still trying to think of WHY I need a barcode reader on my PC.
That’s what I was wondering…what in the heck am I going to use this for? We got one in the mail the other day, and it’s still in the box and will probably stay that way. It’s easy enough to find out a URL for a specific company, so I can’t see adding yet another bit of hardware to my already overcrowed desk.
Now, if they set it up, so that if I were to scan all the grocery items I use and have my computer spit out coupons, then I might use it. Or even if it would write out the darn grocery list for me. But just to look at websites? No way.
I got one of these Cue Cats from Radio Shack for free, used it for about three days, then tossed it aside and forgot about it. The novelty wore off pretty quickly. Another weird thing: When I installed the software for this thing, my Weatherbug program stopped working. I had to uninstall the Cue Cat program and then reinstall the Weatherbug program to get it to work again. Weird, eh?