{"id":1246,"date":"2014-06-27T00:02:42","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T04:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2014-06-27T00:02:42","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T04:02:42","slug":"the-juicyfruit-beep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"The Juicyfruit Beep."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mrbarcode\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is in a barcode, anyway?<\/p>\n

Well it depends\u2026. if you are the a patron of The Down One Bar and Grill, your idea of a bar code is much different than the one I speak to this evening.<\/p>\n

The barcode I am interested in is the one that came on your box of pencils, your socks, your pineapple, your blue jeans, or your favorite book.\u00a0 The one with the skinny and fat lines\u2026 all in a little box on the side of the package.\u00a0 THAT barcode.<\/p>\n

Today marked the anniversary of the very first barcode being scanned.<\/p>\n

It was a Thursday morning.\u00a0 Up in Troy, Ohio of all places.\u00a0 That is when the first unique sticker of white and black lines was magically \u201cseen\u201d by the red light.\u00a0 It was a purchase of a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum.\u00a0 Yep,the bar code was scanned at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in our own little Troy.\u00a0 Why this locations, and circumstances, I do not know.<\/p>\n

The first 10 scanners used to scan bar codes at the supermarket are now in The Smithsonian National Museum of American History.\u00a0 The technology may be old\u2026 but it is far from obsolete.\u00a0 The original inventor was George Laurer.\u00a0 The dude HAD to be an OCD child, like me\u2026 I would suppose.\u00a0 But he is the Father of the UPC.<\/p>\n

I am glad for the bar code reader. Truly.\u00a0 I can remember the day of price tags, and manually punching the keys on the old cash register.\u00a0 You would have to hit the big \u201cadd\u201d button and then move on to the next item.\u00a0 The register made a great sound every time you rung something up.\u00a0 Like a big\u2026 ka-chunk.\u00a0 And when it was all done\u2026 the grand total made a ka-CHING.<\/p>\n

Now, all we get is a beep.\u00a0 And registers no longer ka-chunk or ka-ching.<\/p>\n

Yet the bar code reader is an expediter.\u00a0 Accurate, dependable, and universal.\u00a0 Like the stealth bomber of the shopping world.<\/p>\n

So…. I suppose…..\u00a0 today, must be a big dang day for the barcode reader.. and for Juicy Fruit gum.\u00a0 Not to mention the pride and joy Mr. and Mrs. Lauer must be feeling about their son.\u00a0 And of course, Marsh Supermarkets\u2026 for having hosted such a distinction.<\/p>\n

In fact, Marsh is so proud, that I got a free pack of Juicyfruit when I went through the checkout line today.<\/p>\n

But I must warn you.\u00a0 Such technology isn\u2019t without controversy.\u00a0 It becomes very easy to \u201ctrack\u201d things with the bar code, or the UPC code as we know them now.\u00a0 The whole Big Brother thing.<\/p>\n

So, if someone wants to tattoo a bar code on your forehead\u2026 or such.
\nWell.\u00a0 Get your butt out of The Down One Bar and Grill.\u00a0 I think that sort of thing goes against the Bar Code.\u00a0 And, if you\u00a0 have downed one too many… you never know what may happen.\u00a0\u00a0 After the beep.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoubt is the father of invention.\u201d\u00a0 –\u00a0 \u00a0Galileo Galilei<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is in a barcode, anyway? Well it depends\u2026. if you are the a patron of The Down One Bar and Grill, your idea of a bar code is much different than the one I speak to this evening. The barcode I am interested in is the one that came on your box of pencils, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}