Daniel R. Allen [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] quoth:
*>I understand that the barcode on the back of most of my books is actually
*>the 13-digit UPC code, not the 10-digit ISBN. The ISBN is just printed
*>above. I found this by using a CueCat on the book's back cover.
Actually, if you look carefully you will find 2 leading digitss, the ISBN,
a trailing digit and, on some using bookland, the price. This is not UPC
rather EAN.
I didn't say the CueCat wouldn't do with some work, my point was that at
spending a few hours taking the bloody thing apart, finding the right rev
and hack for it, putting it back together and getting the right software
hack for it, $150 for a solution that works with both mac and pc and does
the barcode decoding for me is cheap by comparison. The wand is also
programmable and comes with some value of support. Getting the numbers
isn't the trick, getting the format right is. Hacking the programmable
part of the wand for greater functionality is just more interesting to me.
*>This decodes all the barcodes I've seen (though I certainly don't have any
*>finnish books laying around.)
The reader can get the numbers certainly, but if the format is not
'standard', they don't mean much if you don't know what the logic is.
e.
