June 19, 2009

Discovered: Worthless 'ornament'

Did you know you can suggest new old items for the Facebook application Worthless gifts for print news veterans on the fan page?

A comment from Kevin James of Oklahoma City, OK, that he uses the :CueCat, that cat-shaped object that read a barcode and sent you to a web site in the late 1990s, as a Christmas ornament gave us another gift in the application.

At one time, I had two CueCats - one sent to me as a Wired magazine subscriber and another picked up at work as part of a Parade magazine promotion. (Wired, Parade and my work place, the Flint Journal, are all part of Advance Publications. ) You also could get a free :CueCat at a RadioShack.

The idea was that the :CueCat would translate barcodes in articles or ads to web site links so that the user didn't have to write down a web address.

The :cueCat failed, which is probably why there were about 50 like-new ones available on Ebay Thursday, many with a buy-it-now price of $8.99.

Unfortunately, I remember that :cueCat failure everytime I read something about QR codes, the two-dimensional bar codes.

By the way, you will find a shoutout on the fan page to my earlier post that mentions the Facebook application.

2 comments:

  1. I took a lot of unwanted, round Mac mice and use them as ornaments on a small, decorative tree. I put it next to my Mac SE/30 fish tank.

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