Oddity Archive: Episode 283.2 - Ben’s Junk: :CueCat Barcode Scanner

[@roselima1741]

THANK YOU! I have been waiting for years for someone to do a review of one of these. I have one floating around in my precious junk boxes. I think they were free at the store but were collecting personal information. Thanks again, now I'll finish the video.

[@roselima1741]

I got mine at radio shack

[@vwestlife]

The TV connection seems to have nothing to do with holding the CueCat device up to your TV screen to scan a barcode, but rather transmitting an encoded web site URL as a burst of digital data in the TV audio, which your sound card would decode into the URL. Which is ironic because that's basically the same method that some TV and radio stations used back in the 1980s to transmit computer programs on-air, which viewers/listeners could record to cassette tape and then play back into their computer's tape drive.

[@briantaylor3031]

I worked at RadioShack too late for these being an active thing, but not so late that there wasnt a massive stack of defunct cuecat crap shoved into the corner of the back room.

[@idahofur]

I still have a RadioShack catalog that has those codes in them. :)

[@1000huzzahs]

I remember ads for these!! So glad you did a video on them! It's right up your alley! Also I often think about the :CueCat when I see a QR code, because the idea is a solid one! As usual we had to wait for technology to catch up (smart phones, camera recognition) to make it practical.

[@rwdplz1]

Much like the Cue Cat, almost every 2001 Jaguar S-Type has long since been sent to the scrapyard.

[@luisreyes1963]

CueCat was the predecessor to those QR scan codes that are practically appearing everywhere.

[@racecar_spelled_backwards868]

17:25 Funny, when I tried to swipe a Jaguar, both the local constabulary and zoo staff became involved. No arrests were made after the pointing and laughing ceased.

[@PeterBellefleur]

I remember when people figured out how to "declaw" them and picked up one for a few projects...thing was they were a really, really terrible barcode scanner. Funny thing was, you could find tons of RS-232 proper laser based Barcode scanners used on Ebay at the same time for only a few bucks more and they worked properly.

[@seanwieland9763]

What I remember is that they were giving them away free, when dot-com hype was that soon everything would be “free” thanks to ads. Same with the free desktop PC at the peak of late-90s VC fueled exuberance.

[@unklejohn8575]

If I remember right, Jovan Hutton Pulitzer (formerly Jeffry Jovan Philyaw) was the inventor of the CueCat and introduced it on his talk show: Net Talk Live! That was broadcast out of Dallas, most likely on WFAA channel 8 (WFAA chief Meteorologist, Troy Duncan is in the CueCat CD rom video). The neat thing about Net Talk Live! was it claimed to be the first triple cast (TV, Radio, and Internet). They introduced the CueCat to the DFW area as a test bed before going public. It makes sense that Radio Shack got involved because of their HQ location in Ft. Worth. Also to note, the “cue” as in the red logo is a crescendo and you would hear a crescendo noise when the barcode would pop up on the screen.

[@karinwade]

We were sent a CueCat for free. Easy to install; however, once you scanned a Coke can and it directed you to CocaCola Company's website the excitement and usefulness faded. Most scanned grocery items did not direct to a url.

[@karinwade]

Correction to the meteorologist's name (It's Troy Dungan). I enjoyed Net Talk Live especially the call-in viewer questions. Super fortunate to have lived in the DFW area at the time.

[@ChrisKewl]

We call modifying the CueCat as "declawing" them. Or if you list one, you should list it as "declawed".

[@willheid]

Iirc there was declawing and neutering. Related to disabling the telemetry and descrambling the output.

[@CryptoTonight9393]

20:03 thats david finfroc longtime meteorologist for WFAA in dallas texas. I had a cuecat and remember WFAA having cues during news broadcasts etc. I also went to radioshack about once a week so I ended up using one quite a bit. The main thing i remember was it was a shitty reader and usually took 3 or 4 scans to actually work. I also ended up sitting next to the tv with my talkboy trying to record the cue sounds so i could have more chances for the software to actually register it lol.

[@seancaruana4209]

You are partially right, you identified the correct TV station, but are wrong on the meteorologist. That's actually Troy Dungan, who was known for the bow ties he wore. David Finfroc has been with KXAS for over 40 plus years.

[@CryptoTonight9393]

@@seancaruana4209 you sir are completely correct and I'm experiencing a freaking "Mandela effect" over here cause I have, since being a child, associated the name david finfrock with bow ties. 🤦‍♂️ It says a lot about my ability as a child to recognize faces, that I also thought Troy Dungan was Mr. Peppermint 🤣. As a child I literally though it was the same guy. I even had an alliteration that I made for a project in elementary school that I wrote under a picture of, apparently, TroyDungan: Finfrock forecasts freezing fog for Fancy Freda's first fishing festival. 🤦‍♂️ just another core childhood memory smashed to bits 🤣

[@CryptoTonight9393]

@@seancaruana4209 wait so was it NBC5 that had the cues then? Or is that a manufactured memory? Ooooh that would make way more sense since that other ad was for NBC.

[@BenCossette]

I worked at Radio Shack when the catalogs that used these came out and we had so many of these scanners to give away. Every employee took one and we all would mess around scanning each other and checking it out for the first day. Then it was just another trinket.

[@TimothyCollins]

I was around at the time when this came out. Trust me - we all kinda looked at each other and said "What is the use for this junk?" back then just as much as people do now.

[@TimothyCollins]

@Dr.Quarex I remember looking at it and wondering why I couldn't just... type the URL in. It always struck me as a waste of plastic.

[@Damaniel3]

I still have mine sitting around somewhere - I 'declawed' it (as they said back then) and used it to scan barcodes for my video game collection, at least until I ended up buying a far faster, more accurate gun-style scanner. These days if I was still collecting, I'd just use an app on my phone, but a crappy scanner you could get from Radio Shack and jailbreak for free was just what a cheap guy fresh out of college needed for his barcode scanning needs.

[@nobodyyouknow1065]

“Not now, Mom! I’m watching Ben review a vintage barcode scanner! Gosh!”

[@chadwik4000]

"We have a vintage barcode scanner review at home"

[@CodaGardner]

Having worked at a RadioShack in 2002, I snagged a few PS/2 CueCats. Definite nostalgia for these.

[@ApoplecticDialectics]

If you sync this video to Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell," the "Sirens are screaming and the fires are howling..." bit starts right after Ben says, "So we'll just call it the 'CueCat,' shall we?"

[@dreadnought757]

No idea why, but I thought this was the coolest thing in the world when I was growing up. All I really remember about it is that the software would crank up my PC's volume to full blast on start up to the point that I got screeching feedback every time. I'd be sitting there spinning that jog wheel on my keyboard as fast as I could while it was starting up to prevent it. I was young so I thought this was just some random thing my computer started doing; I didn't make the connection to the CueCat software for like a year lol

[@excrono]

13:27 Discogs mobile app camera barcode reader looked up to the specific album release ID (corroborating matrix/runout) in that platform account collection (for future resale on their marketplace) is an efficient solution for ad-hoc albums, but tedious for inputting a very large record collections. Once that in place there’d be potential to export that data offline.

[@greyshadow9498]

These were free from Radio Shack. I still have like half a dozen of them. PS2 and USB. Once they are declawed they can read most standard barcodes.

[@PashPaw]

14:46 This is still happening with QR codes. The back of my new calculus book has a "Now for the good stuff!" with a QR code on the book.

[@jasonhaman4670]

"sitting in queue"... nice pun, intended or not. And " Litterboxed Productions"... oh, that's GOOD. Back around 1999-2000, a manager (not *my* manager), brought me a Cue Cat, and asked me to look into it for work use. I said something along the lines of 'ok, sure', and filed it in a desk drawer, where it gathered drawer-dust, probably until we moved to a new building. He never asked about it again.

[@bigloudnoise]

I used to work for a RadioShack store, and ironically I had a modified CueCat connected to my (back office) computer for scanning inventory. Was a bit touchy when scanning certain items, but otherwise it worked adequately for the job.

[@printo316]

Oh, my gosh, this reminds me of a few months ago. My mom's knee was hurting so I went with her to the high school library she works at to help her and since this was the end of the year, I had to help with inventory with a bar code scanner. I can still hear it to this day.

[@tex1138]

9:46 the instant I saw the title of this video, it took me back to how angry my friends and I were about Digital Convergence trying to suppress the “declaw “ documentation. At the time, neither I nor apparently Digital Convergence had heard of the Streisand Effect.

[@r66fplaysgames]

8:39 I think that I remember those 2 particular RadioShack catalogs.

[@_UnknownStory]

Finally, a Ben's Junk where I too, had some of the Junk. I remember signing up to get one of these sent to my house a lifetime ago and it was a cool novelty for about 15 seconds, then regulated to the tech junk drawer and finally the JUNK junk drawer.

[@ccateni28]

The Science Elf did a great LGR style video on the history of the cuecat.

[@LuigiGodzillaGirl]

I had heard of the :Cue:Cat through that video a while back. So long ago that I forgot whose video it was and assumed it was LGR due to this kind of stuff being right down his alley for the OddWare series. Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

[@r66fplaysgames]

I was wondering where I had seen a video about the :Cue:Cat on KZbin before!

[@miniskunk]

I got one of those free Cue Cat scanners years ago. It was truly junk. Never found a real use for it until it was ultimately forgotten or tossed. I don't even remember where I got mine, but it wasn't in a Forbes package. Most likely I got my cat from rat shack.

[@michelle_pgh]

I used to have one of those, the USB version. Radio Shack was giving them away free. It actually came in handy. That was right when I was starting to really build my dvd collection, and I was using dvdprofiler to catalog it all, which could use a barcode scanner to scan in the upc. It saved me typing in a lot of numbers. Blast from the past seeing Troy Dungan in one of those videos (the weather guy with the bowtie). He was the weatherman on WFAA in Dallas. Belo, who owned WFAA at the time, was a major investor in Digital Convergence.

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

I got a crap ton of these at my local Radio Shack. They just handed them out like candy.

[@BalooUriza]

At least the PS/2 versions really are *just* a barcode scanner and work *exactly* like a wand-style barcode scanner that you'd find in a public library of that era.

[@emmettturner9452]

I still have my :Cue:Cat. Hoarder: Confirmed.

[@stephentsatchell3306]

Your video is going to make me look through my old computers, particularly trying to find the one with my web site that analyzed the CueCat. I still have three or four of these things, too.

[@michaelmartin4552]

There was actually at least a couple of programs in the early 2000's that would use a CueCat as the input. One was a Videotape-DVD library program, and the other was a CD library program (same company made both). With a jailbroken CC you could scan the bar code, and it would automatically look them up online then put all of the data relating to the video-disk into the database for you. It was kinda cool, and came out in 2001-2002 I want to say. I used it for a bit, but as I was adding easily a dozen DVDs a week back then, I quickly just gave up trying to catalogue them all.

[@chadwik4000]

I remember seeing these at thrift shops and wanting to get one to figure out cool things you could do with one

[@WillWatchAnything]

I do remember seeing an infomercial on this back in the day. This never really caught on and has long been surpassed with the advent of QR Codes.

[@someguystudios23]

Once upon a time I asked LGR if I could send him my CueCat, I think he messaged me back saying he already had one and he wasn't interested lol

[@excrono]

When he finishes putting the pieces back together after the hurricane, you might get a different response.

[@PhilLesh69]

I worked as a web developer at Kiplinger personal finance when this thing came out. The online editor had one. You could get one for free simply by going to their website, maybe you had to pay shipping. I forget the details. The editor and I played around with it but back in the early 2000s we couldn't get the print magazine people to take anything web related seriously. We still had an art department and an actual library with a full time librarian at the time. I mean, our art department had exacto knives, craft paper, light tables, drafting tables, etc. They were hard stuck in the print world. I never even knew about Forbes actually using the barcodes in their print magazine to link to online content. When we pitched that idea at Kiplinger it took off like a lead brick. It went nowhere.

[@stevew8513]

That was always my problem, I bought a USB Cue:Cat in a thrift store to use on my old Titanium PowerBook G4 to scan all the barcodes for my video game and DVD collections. It didn't seem to scan anything, and the Mac software was just about non-existent and non-functional. Ooooh, I totally believe them when they say they really care about customer privacy. I totally do. I would never expect a glorified marketing company to be shady when it comes to data collection and handling. At 20:05, that's a local weatherman, that's a Dallas broadcast. I believe he came to my high school's meteorology class for a talk once.

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

I had two of the Cue-cats. I used them to scan in laserdiscs, videos and books into a database. The Cue-cats, laserdiscs, videotapes and the database are all long lost to history, lol!

[@otaking3582]

I think someone heard the term "cat scan" and didn't realize that it was related to medical equipment.

[@CryptoTonight9393]

The story I heard was it was meant to accompany your computers mouse lol. "You're computer already has a mouse, why not a cat?" Or something like that was in one of the ads I remember.

[@mightyfilm]

I'm no graphic designer, but whoever designed the packaging for this thing REALLY didn't double check how :C looked in print. All I can see is an emoticon for extremely sad plastered all over the package. Even the prompts they have in those text books somehow carry the connotation of "Ugh! Yep. You have to pull this thing out again. Sigh." And as far as their marketing department is concerned, were they trying to be ironic when they said that it's a "Capitalist tool?" Capitalist Tool sounds like an insult you give a business student frat boy.

[@MisterLettuce]

I remember seeing ads for that thing in a few publications back when it came out. I remember thinking, "umm...why?"

[@MisterLettuce]

I want to say that the ads pushed scanning barcodes on coupons as a big benefit, but I could be wrong. A lot of years have passed since the 90's, no matter how much I still can't wrap my head around that.

[@SalivatingSteve]

I have the later USB CueCat for Mac. I “declawed” mine by cutting a pin on one of the chips, which removed the encryption scrambling and now it outputs the raw barcode number without special software.

[@vwestlife]

What's wrong with using a 2011 MacBook online? I use a 2008 iMac running El Capitan to do most of my video editing and uploading. Sure, Mac malware does exist (as does Linux malware), but the risks are minimal. The only thing you realistically might worry about is it being a silent carrier for malware that could get copied over to a Windows machine, but as long as you have anti-virus/anti-malware software on your Windows PCs, then that's a non-issue.

[@coondogtheman]

I have one of these but just the wand. Got it from a relative. Since I never had their software I just downloaded the catnip program which made it into a crude barcode scanner. Mine hooked between my keyboard and my PC. And yes I still have one of those Radio Shack catalog with the cuecat codes.

[@KarlWitsman]

I still have mine from Radio Shack, where you could scan the catalog codes to load up the web page on your computer. I wondered at the time whether it would work or not, but I knew that it was a limited time thing so I grabbed one up for the collection.

[@TheRealPentiumMMX]

I remember my parents somehow ended up with one of these back in the day. Don't know where it came from, and we never tried to use it; it just got shoved into a random box and forgotten about.

[@DrewberTravels]

I was an extremely nerdy computer kid when i was in middle school. I remember being extremely excited when this thing came out… for some reason.

[@hi-friaudioman]

There was another device in this ecosphere, i dont remember the name but its a flat membrane keyboard device with a bunch of pre progdammed links, it also featured a mag stripe reader or sim card reader if i remember correctly. I was always curious if it could be used as a "free" midi controller or mag stripe/sim programmer

[@RobCampo]

I used to work on Point of Sale systems during this time. The PS2 plug is just a "pass through" to your keyboard. If you scanned something, it would literally type the barcode as if it was a keyboard. What a weird concept from Forbes though.

[@plan7a]

Additional Comment: I guess you could also use it (the CAT) for 'barcode battle' games with a bit of engineering; as the plugs would need re-routing, and a power supply (of some sort - battery maybe?). There's actually a comprehensive Wikipedia article on what the 'CueCAT'.

[@williamnessanbaum7464]

I had one of these. I worked fine under Windows 95/98. When I upgraded to XP, it stopped working.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

I remember buying one of these brand new in the 1990’s.

[@5speedfatty]

We had one of these back in the day...(I dont remember why though) if my memory serves me right, it was temperamental as all hell. and if you could get it to scan you had to do it JUST right.

[@ScottGrammer]

I had two or three of those back in the day! Radio Shack was selling them or giving them away or something.

[@plan7a]

It all begins with how to install some software and hardware. But then, suddenly it turns into an Educational video! (A sex educational one almost: Connect this, slide this into that, etc!). The idea seems pretty similar to the QR codes we have now - these too are broadcast on television, in adverts, in print and on items/products, etc (when these are scanned they also take you to a 'secret' website based on the product, etc), thus allowing you to watch a commercial, enter competitions, and the like). Also, if it (the CAT) was used when going online it could be useful to find items on Discogs, perhaps; or Amazon, etc. As they list complete barcodes, in most cases.

[@Warlocke000]

I got one of these for free, back in the day, specifically to use it for anything but its intended purpose. Pretty sure it was one of the USB models. It's still around here, somewhere...

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

I saw a normal retail CueCat at a charity shop recently, but it was sadly put into the glass case with a premium price. Would have picked it up for a few euros.

[@dorourke105]

Now we just need a computer dog and bird and the animal chain of command will be complete

[@charlesdorval394]

lmao I so want one of those That cat cartoon is freaky AF Edit, no okay the ad at the end is scarier!

[@DanZero77]

Episode subtitle: Ben-Hur(L) Becomes A Corporate Tool

[@meh_lady]

I remember ordering mine, being so excited to receive it, then being highly disappointed realizing how useless it really was. 😂

[@racecar_spelled_backwards868]

It's QR when QR was still in beta.

[@damian9303]

I feel like I’ve seen as mouse traps before

[@PurelyCoincidental]

I cannot see that logo as anything other than a backwards bass clef.

[@anidnmeno]

i had one attached to my computer until 2007.

[@JetScreamer_YT]

I had one of those!

[@mikescully6972]

Mine was from radio shack

[@ratmadness4858]

mine is still sealed!

[@reap_25]

I rarely ever see a Jag where I live. Even in the "rich" neighborhoods. I hear they are bad cars in terms of reliability. I will see one every few months or so if that.

[@HeffeJeffe78]

I know a few “capitalist tools”