Norman Joseph Woodland, the co-inventor of the bar code that labels nearly every product in stores and has boosted productivity in nearly every sector of commerce worldwide, has died, sadly of Alzheimer's disease. He was 91.
" The only code Woodland knew was the Morse Code he'd learned in the Boy Scouts, his daughter said. One day, he drew Morse dots and dashes as he sat on the beach and absent-mindedly left his fingers in the sand where they traced a series of parallel lines..."
That beep beep beep so annoying at times & yet we put up with it because it makes our shopping quicker & more efficient (esp. when making returns & exchanges).
(Sidebar: the most popular gay bar in Richmond , Virginia is called --beep, beep, beep--yes, "BAR CODE")
Even Andy Warhol made a painting depicting only bar codes.
I gotta say they really are cool & from my feeble brain's perspective: genius! I cannot begin to explore the science behind it-nor do I want to. I'm just glad when rushing through grocery shopping-which is usually, ALWAYS-I'm glad they're there. Remember the last time we forgot the code for bananas? (4011,btw). We almost WENT bananas...
ANOTHER JERSEY HERO, HE WAS BORN IN ATLANTIC CITY...
THANK YOU MR. WOODLAND (beep!)
I love that guy. I go to the Stop & Shop in Clifton where you can carry a scanner gun around the store and scan the stuff in as you shop, putting it right in the bags. One more scan at the checkout and you're done; it's like EasyPass. I'll remember him fondly during the next pre-snowstorm, bread-and-milk-ocalypse when everybody else is ten-deep in line.
ReplyDeleteyou're right--btw & to keep this relevant-- it's the only gun we should own...
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