#cuecat — Public Fediverse posts

Retail Fail: The :CueCat Disaster

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/25/retail-fail-the-cuecat-disaster/

I bought a CueCat from LibraryThing when they first got them. It was so useful to me when cataloging my book and graphic novels library.

Their holiday store has them on sale for $5 for the holidays.

Now you can use a mobile phone, but back then it wasn't an option.

But you get a neat little plastic cat sculpture with a USB tail and flashing red mouth with a CueCat.

Useful for Bookwyrm.

https://www.librarything.com/more/store

#CueCat #LibraryThing #catalog #cataloging #Library #Libraries #z_lib #Bookwyrm

Remember the CueCat? Here's an unopened PS2 version. When these things came out I went to every Radio Shack in the area to get one. Things didn't work out for them the way they wanted them to.

#Computing #CueCat #PS2 #JJovanPhilyaw #RadioShack

iykyk #cuecat

now i can decode cuecat in bash :blobfoxdeadinside:

#CueCat #bash

anyway, here's some code

const seq='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789+-',
    decode_tr=seq.split('').reduce((a,b,c)=>{a[b]=String.fromCharCode(c+32);return a;},{}),
    encode_tr=seq.split('').reduce((a,b,c)=>{a[String.fromCharCode(c+32)]=b;return a;},{}),
    decode=input=>{
        input=input.split('').map(a=>(a in decode_tr)?decode_tr[a]:a).join('');
        input=binascii.a2b_uu(String.fromCharCode(32+input.length*3/4)+input);
        return input.split('').map(a=>String.fromCharCode(a.charCodeAt()^67)).join('');
    },
    encode=input=>{
        input=input.split('').map(a=>String.fromCharCode(a.charCodeAt()^67)).join('');
        input=binascii.b2a_uu(input).slice(1,-1);
        return input.split('').map(a=>(a in encode_tr)?encode_tr[a]:a).join('');
    };

#CueCat #JavaScript

my cuecat javascript can both decode and encode now

not sure if encoding will be useful for anything though, but it does allow me to check if things are decoded successfully i guess

#CueCat #JavaScript

Attn: #SFBA fans of #retrocomputing and technological oddities. I am cleaning out my storage room in a perhaps futile attempt to un-hoard.

An early-aughts #eBay misunderstanding of lot scale means I have dozens of boxes of unused DSHD 3.5″ floppies and storage cases therewith. Plus random early USB and FireWire devices (#CueCat! Original #iSight camera! Mystery items!), #TiVo box, big roll of 10bT cable, who knows what else.

Free to good home if you can pick them up in #ColeValley #SanFrancisco this week.

#upcycling #feditrade #fleamarket

@Faintdreams

If anyone still has a working #CueCat laying around, this might be a use for it!

I was digging through boxes of junk I had acquired years ago in a trade and look what I found! A PS/2 #CueCat. #retrocomputing #junk #BadIdeas

Found this in my dad's collection of stuff. L
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat #RadioShack #CueCat #Barcode

Anyone else remember when Radio Shack's catalog introduced the CueCat barcode scanner? As a kid, I was thrilled that we had a barcode scanner at home, even more fun was turning these slanted barcodes into websites. https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/2001_radioshack_catalog.html
#barcode #cuecat #radioshack

Updated a #Cuecat decoder for Python 3 compatibility and wrote a little one-liner to convert barcodes to #bibtex. Thank you, O Grey Ones, for keeping your code online for 23 years. #books 🐱📚📝 https://github.com/driscoll/cuecat/

Who remembers the #cuecat?

https://www.roku.com/offers/doordash

I know @awgh members

I have a confession to make. When Radio Shack was giving away Cuecat barcode scanners in 2000, I went to every local store to get one, using a fake name and address. I think I have about 10 of them around here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

#Cuecat