CueCat

cables with male and female PS/2 connectors The CueCat, styled :CueCat with a leading colon, is a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader designed to allow a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode. The devices were given away free to Internet users starting in 2000 by the now-defunct Digital Convergence Corporation. By year-end 2001, barcodes were no longer distributed for the device, and scanning with the device using its original software no longer yielded results. The CueCat can read several common barcode types, in addition to the proprietary CUE barcodes which had been promoted by Digital Convergence.

cables with male and female PS/2 connectors ]] The CueCat, styled :CueCat with a leading colon, is a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader designed to allow a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode. The devices were given away free to Internet users starting in 2000 by the now-defunct Digital Convergence Corporation. By year-end 2001, barcodes were no longer distributed for the device, and scanning with the device using its original software no longer yielded results. The CueCat can read several common barcode types, in addition to the proprietary CUE barcodes which had been promoted by Digital Convergence. ==Description== The CueCat was named CUE for the unique bar code which the device scanned and CAT as a wordplay on "Keystroke Automation Technology". It enabled a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode — called a "cue" by Digital Convergence — appearing in an article or catalog or on some other printed matter. In this way, a user could be directed to a web page containing related information without having to type in a URL. The company asserted that the ability of the device to direct users to a specific URL, rather than a domain name, was valuable. In addition, television broadcasters could use an audio tone in programs or commercials that acted as a web address shortcut if a TV was connected to a computer via an audio cable. The CueCat was connected to computers in the same way as a keystroke logger, as a "keyboard wedge", interposer, or pass-through between the keyboard PS/2 jack and the motherboard PS/2 port. Because of USB-PS/2 compatibility, USB-PS/2 adapters may be optionally used. A native USB version of the CueCat scanner hardware was also produced, but fewer of them were made before all manufacturing of the hardware was discontinued. ==User experience== Installation of software and hardware, configuration, and registration took around an hour. Registration required the user's name, age, and e-mail address, and demanded completion of a lengthy survey with invasive questions about shopping habits, hobbies, and educational level. Then users could scan bar codes on groceries, bar codes on books, and custom bar codes in ads in magazines, newspapers, Verizon Yellow Pages, and RadioShack catalogs. The :CRQ software then used that unique serial number from the device to return a URL which directed the user's browser to the sponsored website. It also created a permanent advertisement-displaying taskbar on the user's computers, and could log the web-surfing habits associated with a user's real name and email address. ==Reception== In The Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg criticized CueCat: "In order to scan in codes from magazines and newspapers, you have to be reading them in front of your PC. That's unnatural and ridiculous." Mossberg wrote that the device "fails miserably. Using it is just unnatural." He concluded that the CueCat "isn't worth installing and using, even though it's available free of charge". Joel Spolsky, a computer technology reviewer, also criticized the device as "not solving a problem" and characterized the venture as a "feeble business idea". The CueCat is now widely described as a commercial failure. It was ranked twentieth in "The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" by PC World magazine in 2006. The CueCat's critics said the device was ultimately of little use. Joe Salkowski of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "You have to wonder about a business plan based on the notion that people want to interact with a soda can", while Debbie Barham of the Evening Standard quipped that the CueCat "fails to solve a problem which never existed". In December 2009, the popular gadget blog Gizmodo voted the CueCat the #1 worst invention of the decade of the "2000s". In 2010, Time magazine included it on a list of "The 50 worst Inventions", adding that people didn't accept "the idea of reading their magazines next to a wired cat-shaped scanner". The CueCat device was controversial, initially because of privacy concerns about its collection of aggregate user data. Each CueCat has a unique serial number, and users suspected that Digital Convergence could compile a database of all barcodes scanned by a given user and connect it to the user's name and address. For this reason, and because the demographic market targeted by Digital Convergence was unusually tech-savvy, numerous websites arose detailing instructions for "declawing" the CueCat — blocking or encrypting the data it sent to Digital Convergence. Digital Convergence registered the domain "digitaldemographics.com", giving additional credence to privacy concerns about the use of data. ==Security breach== According to Internet technologist and Interhack founder Matt Curtin, each scan delivered the product code, the user's ID and the scanner's ID back to Digital Convergence. The data format was proprietary, and was scrambled so the barcode data could not be read as plain text. However, the barcode itself is closely related to Code 128, and the scanner was also capable of reading EAN/UPC and other symbologies, such as Priority Mail, UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-13, EAN-8, 2-of-5 interleaved, CODABAR, CODE39, CODE128, and ISBN. Because of the weak obfuscation of the data, meant only to protect the company under DMCA guidelines (like DVD-Video's Content Scramble System), software for decoding the CueCat's output quickly appeared on the Internet, followed by a plethora of unofficial applications. ":CRQ" ("see our cue"), the desktop software, intercepted the data from both the keyboard and the CueCat, before passing it on to the operating system. Versions for both Windows 32-bit or Mac OS 9 were included. Users of this software were required to register with their ZIP code, gender, and email address. This registration process enabled the device to deliver relevant content to a single or multiple users in a household. Privacy groups warned that it could be used to track readers' online behavior because each unit has a unique identifier. Belo officials said they would not track individual CueCat users but would gather anonymous information grouped by age, gender and ZIP code. In September 2000, security watchdog website Securitywatch.com notified Digital Convergence of a security vulnerability on the Digital Convergence website that exposed private information about CueCat users. Digital Convergence immediately shut down that part of their website, and their investigation concluded that approximately 140,000 CueCat users who had registered their CueCat were exposed to a breach that revealed their name, email address, age range, gender and zip code. This was not a breach of the main user database itself, but a flat text file used only for reporting purposes that was generated by ColdFusion code that was saved on a publicly available portion of the Digital Convergence web server. This failure was given a multi-citation Octopus TV "Failure Award" regarding brands that failed to take off and were hacked. ==Awards== In 2001, Computerworld named CueCat as a Laureate in the Media Arts & Entertainment category. In 2001, Software and Information Industry Association named Digital Convergence Corp.'s :CRQ Technology as Best Reference Tool. File:CueCat-inside.jpg File:CueCat-board.jpg File:CueCat-boardbottom.jpg Cuecat2.jpg ==See also== Mobile tagging QR code i-Opener

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371486542 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.