Cue Cat article : The Dumbest Invention in the History of Computers

[Brian Kelsay]

http://www.dmagazine.com/october01/featured1001.shtml
>From the article:

Philyaw is a self-proclaimed "luminary figure in the world of direct
marketing."

An executive of Coca-Cola said listening to Philyaw made him feel like
his hair was on fire. -June 27, 2001, Wall Street Journal
"It fails to solve a problem which never existed." -Debbie Barham, The
Evening Standard
"Are these folks kidding?" -Sandra Brown Kelly, Roanoke Times & World
News
"You have to wonder about a business plan based on the notion that
people want to interact with a soda can." -Jeff Salkowski, Chicago
Tribune

>From Slashdot.org
Was this the "Edsel" of the Internet age or what!

The cue cat has to be one of the top five symbols of the dot-com era
(or, atleast up there with razor scooters). you have to wonder who
thought this gizmo up though ... who reads magazines in-front of the
computer?
Now - if there was a wireless version that worked in the bathroom,
they'd be millionaires right now.

I, personally, am happy to have had the chance to see one of my _life's
ambitions_ filled... Thanks to Mr. Philyaw, I now own a bar code scanner
to catalog my music with.

I spent months trying to find a reasonably priced scanner, and
eventually I gave up. But shortly there after, a trip to the local Radio
Shack fixed that problem. I consider it a fair deal after all the times
I've overpaid for items at that place, that I get a little something
back.

The CueCat isn't THAT bad...Using CatNip [goldsteinsoftware.com], my
business now has free barcode scanners. Thanks Digital Convergence :)
http://www.goldsteinsoftware.com/catnip.htm

I have one but never hooked it up. I'm waiting on the death of
Digital:Convergence to be able to use it without fear of a lawsuit.

I use mine constantly to catalog new DVDS (With DVD Profiler
[dvdprofiler.com]... just scan, and it downloads info and cover images
from online... took about 15min to catalog about 140 DVDs) and books
(With ReaderWare [readerware.com], which uses the ISBN number on the
book to pull info from various online retailers.)
http://www.dvdprofiler.com/dvdpro/index.html  http://www.readerware.com/

http://opensource.lineo.com/cuecat/

Brian Kelsay