Bar codes....

[Skidmore]

Someone I know on Facebook posted this bit of info. FYI for when you are shopping.


However, you may now refer to the barcode - remember if the first 3 digits are:
690-692 ... then it is MADE IN CHINA
00 - 09 ... USA & CANADA
30 - 37 FRANCE
40 - 44 GERMANY
471 ... Taiwan
49 ... JAPAN
50 ... UK

[Brickbat]

1. Not always.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/barcodes.asp

[HopeHoops]

2. Apparently 884 means Malaysia.

[jmowreader]

3. No. That's not how it works. At all.

Get a product and look at the UPC. You'll see four sets of numbers.

The leading digit describes what kind of a barcode it is--most products have 0 there. 2 is used on items sold by weight, and is generated at store level.

The first group of five digits is the Company Prefix. Each company gets one, no matter where its products are made. These come from a firm called GS1.

The second group of five digits is the Item Number. The company creates these numbers themselves.

The last digit is the checksum digit.

There's no country of origin labeling in the UPC.

[baldguy]

4. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...

Like knowing that bar codes exit, but not knowing what the are, what they do, or how they work.

[StitchesforSnitches]

5. There is nothing nefarious going on with barcodes

Unless one works with them barcodes are totally meaningless to consumers.

3D bar codes are out now too, they have even more info in them...then you have RFID's on products too.....

be afraid, be very afraid!

[hootinholler]

6. 3D barcodes?

WTF is the 3rd D?

[StitchesforSnitches]

8. Actually you see them every day

3D Barcodes (Direct Part Marking or DPM)

A brief explanation of 3D barcodes - what they are and how they are used.

In recent years manufacturing companies have been trying to implement a barcoding system similar to the barcodes for purchases and the retail industry. The only problem is that in manufacturing there are high temperatures, extremely solvents being used, as well as a wealth of chemicals and processes that inhibit the use of a label with bars on it. The manufacturers need to identify individual parts and not just the entire batch as it has been done for years. They wished to improve their inventory and tracking system - and have done so through the use of 3D barcodes.

3D barcodes use the same basic principle as linear and 2D barcodes. An image of some sort is applied to a product and then read by a device to log, categorize, inventory, or track an individual product. As previously stated, the manufacturers need a more permanent solution than a label or sticker. The 3D barcode is engraved or applied to the product itself as a part of the manufacturing process. The bars are not read by variances in reflected light as with linear barcodes but by determining the height of each line. The time it takes the laser to bounce back and be recorded determines the height as a function of distance and time and the character represented by the code can be interpreted.
http://www.barcodesinc.com/articles/3d-barcodes.htm

[hootinholler]

9. Actually I haven't seen 3D codes as yet.

The article makes sense, thanks for posting it!

Your QR format 2D photo is certainly not a 3D barcode, and I'm not sure why you encoded http://www.modaco.com/category/342/i9x0-omnia-http-omnia-modaco-com/ other than grabbing a QR at random. Those have become more and more common.

[StitchesforSnitches]

10. Perhaps you are not really paying attention

yes it was just a random pic that looked close

[hootinholler]

7. Please let your friend know this is total bullshit. n/t

[obamanut2012]

11. Your friend has been misinformed