1. cool article... :)

i would have thought that such a widely used system would have been more secure tbh :)

even the magnetic bar-codes used in some clothing stores (the ones that set the alarms off at the door) can be rendered useless by rubbing the front onto a hard surface.

not as advance but along the same lines :)

Posted at 1:12PM on Dec 30th 2007 by jojmoj

2. Very interesting video.

@jojmoj: Even those ink-pack ones can be removed with another magnet - that's all they do at the register.

Posted at 1:51PM on Dec 30th 2007 by Jared

3. Also, when is Hack A Day going to upgrade to the same comment system that Engadget uses... the comment verification email says:

P.S.: For future reference, you may avoid these confirmations by using your e-mail and password

Posted at 1:51PM on Dec 30th 2007 by Jared

4. @jared

serious? lol

i watched a show a while ago about ppl using foil lined bags to trick the senors at the door and block the bar codes from activating them

although it baffles me how the bar codes activate them

there must be a separate device (like the plastic discs on shirts etc) do the bar codes do it all?

Posted at 2:11PM on Dec 30th 2007 by jojmoj

5. He is a funny dude. Does anyone have a link where we can send him barcodes to translate? He said he would do it for free almost at the end of the video.

Posted at 2:14PM on Dec 30th 2007 by Carl Trimble

6. okay, i really need help. he said to use gnu barcode, (almost) whenever i download some open-source type program, i end up with some .tar.gz file, which i have to extract twice, after which i get a pile of .h, .c, and .nothing files, which open as (crappy) plain text in notepad.

wtf? can somebody help?

Posted at 4:20PM on Dec 30th 2007 by bgugi

7. @bgugi: read the "readme" file. If you are on a properly configured UNIX/Linux system, also read the "install" file.

Posted at 5:08PM on Dec 30th 2007 by ed3

8. ed3, could we please have a real conversation? i would feel bad for filling this comment space with my incompetence

Posted at 5:31PM on Dec 30th 2007 by bgugi

9. So... anyone have a copy of the software he's talking about?

Posted at 5:41PM on Dec 30th 2007 by lucifer

10. I really do not want to get into a private conversation either.

Open-source software is usually distributed as source code meant to be compiled on open-source systems. Usually there is a "readme" and/or "install" file with instructions on what to do.

Since you said you opened the files in "notepad" I guess you are on Windows, in which case what you want is at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/barcode.htm

PS - Read open-source files with Wordpad instead of notepad.

Posted at 5:43PM on Dec 30th 2007 by ed3

11. That was really good. I work with barcodes (and RFID and a lot of other things) in industry and everything in that talk was spot-on.

Posted at 10:34PM on Dec 30th 2007 by localroger

12. That was quite excellent. I'm going to have to sent this to a co-worker of mine who's entire job revolves around writing bar code programs for our companies scanning system.

Anyone else got an old hacked Radio Shack Cue-Cat they're digging out of hiding after watching this :)

Posted at 10:36PM on Dec 30th 2007 by twistedsymphony

13. The Magnetic tags for door alarms dont actually read the barcode. the barcode is just for tag type authentication. I believe the actual tag detection is just through magnetic resonance. I've played with sheets of them, they're printed off on sheets of 8 1/2x 11 sheets, and the barcodes are all the same.

Thats why you get tags from other stores that go off in each other's arches, thats also why tinfoil bags block the detectors (sometimes). If you were going for individual item detection, they'd have to use something with a form of rf or magnetic data storage- either way you'd either be bombarded with rf from every item while in the store or have to pass through a bigass cardreader (which opens up a whooole new slew of security issues). The closest i imagine they can get away with would be Rfid tags, but not many stores would want to drop that much cash to keep someone from walking out the door with random crap.

Posted at 2:41AM on Dec 31st 2007 by Rangerx52

14. This video is great- I remember I was messing around one time at a gym with a barcode-access weight room, and I bought a drink from the vending machine, scanned it, and it let me in. Beats the $30/mo fee for using it.

Also, my school uses barcodes on ID cards to pay for lunch. I scanned mine and found that it's just your student ID number and two zeros. Student ID numbers are pretty much in public domain.

Posted at 12:27PM on Jan 1st 2008 by Eric

15. http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php

generate your name in barcode (or anything else)

Posted at 9:31AM on Jan 2nd 2008 by martin

16. Personally, I've been hacking barcodes for a little while now, and I use mainly two online tools :

http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/

A generator, it is awesome.

http://www.turbulence.org/Works/swipe/barcode.html

A 2D decoder, I haven't used it much yet since I don't hack many 2D barcodes, but everytime I did, it worked great. By the way, the video is awesome.

Posted at 12:52PM on Jan 2nd 2008 by Megachad

17. Sorry, I just realized I didn't post the good link for the decoder. This is another decoder, but not for the same purpose. I don't have the link on the computer I'm writing on but I'll try to find it.

Posted at 7:01PM on Jan 2nd 2008 by Megachad

18. now im trying to google it, but cant find it, can anyone find a good 1d barcode decoder?

Posted at 2:11AM on Jan 3rd 2008 by Gagan