Download Software
The:CueCat was a barcode scanner manufactured by vendors of RadioShack Corporation in the early 2000's. The product and associated intellectual property would instantly and directly link product UPC, EAN, ISBN as well as the unique:CRQ Cue codes to their appropriate web sites. The:CueCat was a barcode scanner manufactured by vendors of RadioShack Corporation in the early 2000's. The product and associated intellectual property would instantly and directly link product UPC, EAN, ISBN as well as the unique:CRQ Cue codes to their appropriate web sites. An excellent source of cuecat-related info is the CueCat project page at OpenSource.lineo.com; this is the host site for Pierre-Philippe Coupard's driver and related items. They've got a nice list of barcode-related links as well.
DeCSS 1.2b - DVD ripper
A utility called DeCSS is currently floating around on the Netthat will read a DVD movie disc and save the file on a hard disk, minus the encryption. All that's required is a DVD-ROM drive -- since CD-ROM drives can't read the 4.7GB DVD movie discs -- and a lot of disc space. The faster the CPU, the faster it will process the file. It takes around 10 minutes to process a .VOB file on a 500MHz Pentium III. Read more in Wired.
I used to mirror the file on this web site, but on 2001-3-23, had to remove the file after my ISP threatened to shut the entire site down unlessI did so. This was prompted by an e-mail from the Motion Picture Associationof America (MPAA), the movie studio's hatchet man for this blatant violationof the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.
Of course, the MPAA's attempt to 'stamp-out' this software is an massive exercise in futility. My mirror was up for almost 9 months before the MPAA found it and forced me to remove the copy. There are numerous mirrors still operating, many of them outside the U.S. DeCSS is also available on the Gnutella peer-to-peer network (Limewire is a nice multi-platform client - search for DeCSS). You can also find DeCSS on Freenet, a multiplatform, decentralized, censorship-resistant file distribution network. There are several keys that can be used to retrieve the file; 'freenet:KSK@DeCSS.zip' worked for me. Freenet key indexing sites (such as tartlhuQ's Freenet Key Index) can help you find additional keys.
Cuecat drivers/software
Cuecat is a barcode scanner thatthe company is giving away for free. The stated purpose is to let you scan codesembedded in print ads for products which will automatically take you torelavant URLs. There is also a cable that will connect to your TV so that audiocodes embedded in TV commercials can do the same thing. What they fail to tell you isthat each Cuecat has a unique serial number. Since you give the companyyour name and address when you either order one from the web site or get one from Radio Shack, they can track every single ad that you scan and (if youconnect the TV cable) every commercial that you watch.
Fortunately, the device's protocol was reverse engineered within a few days, andpeople have written drivers/applications for Windows and Linux that can use the devicewithout sending the serial number to Cuecat's servers.The company decided (approximately 2000-8-31) to get a law firm to send vague, threatening letters to the authors of the code. So now there are a bunch of mirrors (including mine).Hope the folks at Cuecat enjoy play whack-a-mole.
Cuecat Driver
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Cuecat Scanner Driver
Updated 2001-3-23. Comments towebmaster@ultradrive.comCopyright © 1999-2001 Evelio Perez-Albuerne. All rights reserved.
The CueCat is a free barcode scanner given awayby RadioShack and www.getcat.com. Itconnects to your system using what is known as a keyboard wedge - it plugsinto your keyboard port, and your keyboard plugs into it.
You easily use it to catalog your books, CDs, etc.
Under Linux, you need to compile and run read_cuecat.Be very careful to only scan a barcode when you are running the program,and never scan under X. Bad things can happen!
Under Windows, do not install the supplied drivers. If you already have,uninstall them, or turn them off using the icon in your toolbar. Then,fire up notepad, scan your codes into there, and run that file througheither cat.pl (Perl version) or cat.py(Python version). These programs will produce a lot of extraneous info.You merely want the decoded barcode number.
Cuecat Driver
The output of read_cuecat (at least in this modified version), can bepiped directly into the book-cataloging scripts written by zarf. Alternativly,for CD's, videos, or other merchandise, you can write your own script tolook up the barcodes on the Net.
Since the decoding takes a few seconds, you may often accidentally scana code twice. I recommend running the output of read_cuecat through uniq,like this:
read_cuecat | uniq > scanfile