Another bug found with the newly release Internet Explorer 7
What is a barcode? What is use for? Why is it so popular? How can I read it? Do I gain anything from it?
A barcode is small label with closely spaced black stripes, a row of thick and thin vertical
bars, the purpose is encoding a string of characters that can be read by an infrared scanner or optical reader. It is also referred as: bar code, bar coding, bar-coded, bar-codes, barcodes and barcoding.
There are many different types of barcodes, called barcode symbologies. And of course, there are many different symbologies used for representing alphanumeric codes. Among the most popular are: Interleaved 2 of 5, Code 39, Code 128 (A, B and C) and many others. The most commonly known to identify retail items in North America are UPC A and UPC E.
They have many uses, some of them are:
- At a retail store or manufacturing company to identify an item, it can have the SKU or UPC number.
- At a library to charge, discharge, and renew books on the online computer system.
- At a college/university is used for the student and staff card.
- At the post office or shipping company to register the tracking number and automated postal system.
- Packaging is used on the shipping cartons that contain many items. It gives information about the contents such as dates, batch numbers, weight, quantity, dimensions, etc.
- Books, Newspapers and Magazines require encoding the ISSN number as well as the issue number and optional pricing information.
In few words, it is so popular because it simplifies life, and keeps accurate information; however, it has a backside, there is no way you can read the information by just looking at it. If you look at an item”s barcode it usually has printed the UPC (Universal Product Code) underneath. This is done just in case the scanner cannot read the barcode properly, the number can be entered manually.
We all gain something from the barcodes. Can you imagine being at the supermarket in line, and the cashier having to enter each item”s UPC manually? You will there forever.
