CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Linlin]

My sister got a Cue Cat Reader for free from Radio Shack. She forgot what they told her about it so she gave it to me.Why would I want to use a CUE CAT reader? Is there a use for it in my home?
Any help is much appreciated.

Linlin

[RT9342]

I used to work for Radio Shack at the time that they were giving those away. I'm sure they're pretty useless now. The main purpose was for marketing - the Radio Shack catalogs at the time had barcodes in the item descriptions, which you could scan and the software that came on the included CD would connect to Radio Shack's website and bring up a more detailed listing of the item. Supposedly it worked for other companies' items too (I think if you scanned a Coke can, it would go to Coke's website), but I don't know if anyone supports it anymore. Plus I heard it was really poor at scanning. I don't know if they could be rewired to work as a barcode reader for a videodisc player or laserdisc player, or something else that could use barcode readers, but I doubt it.

[Linlin]

Thank you for the information ....guess will throw it away now lol

Linlin

[owenatverrs]

I wouldnt throw it out. If you really dont want it sell it on ebay. They can come in handy sometimes. If you have ever been to www.upbdatabase.com you can scan in any barcode and it will tell you what it is!

[Linlin]

OH thank you......I am a ebay memebr but have never sold anything there..I will try that
Thank you vem

Linlin

[Paul_C]

My girlfriend works part time at an areobics class. They use a cuecat connected to a laptop to scan the membership cards and check in class members. I still have a few laying around in boxes.

[cedmagic]

Unmodified PS/2 CueCats don't sell for much at eBay, typically only going for about a dollar each. That's probably why that surplus company is sitting on an inventory of 2 million of the things which they can't get rid of.

When Radio Shack was still giving these away free, some people would pick up multiple quantities of them just to destroy them in imaginative ways and photograph the results:

http://metathink.com/killcat/

This may have been the start of the practice on some gadget blogs of acquiring a high-tech gadget only to destroy it and post a video of the destruction:

http://www.smashmyps3.com/

It's a good thing this practice wasn't around back in the late 1980's when people were dumping their CED players!

--Tom Howe

[op712]

The real big problem with the CueCat was that it was spyware up the max.

Everytime that device would scan that RatShack catalog, it would send user info to practically every advertiser that would see the info being sent in from that device.

Remember Comet Cursor? Same thing - a very horrible spyware program. And if you are using Gator, or Comet Cursor, get that all off your system immediately for it's keeping track of all of your web browsing

[Linlin]

Thank you All. I am throwing the cue cat away not worth the trouble....

Linlin

[brother]

Sorry if im stating the obvious here - but the cue cat can be used to catalogue CED discs using the stuff Tom on CED Magic has painstakingly put together.

Or if you want to invest some time - use it in the home with anything with a bar code.

For example everytime you throw something in the trash scan the tin first and this will become your shopping list of things to buy - Ok there is a light of data input - but hey the enjoyment for a $1 cannot be matched (Or 50 pence in the UK)

NB - there appears to be a few sites to explain how to modify.
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