Stuff You Should Know - How Barcodes Work

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

Barcodes are everywhere. Those little lines and numbers that make up one of the most recognizable barcodes, the UPC, was designed to make going to the grocery a lot less miserable. It ended up becoming the central symbol of the global economy.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey everybody, it's your old pal, Josh. Sorry to cut in, but just for a second, I'm wanting to let you know that I'm doing my solo live show, The End of the World, or how I learned to start worrying and love humanity

in Minneapolis and in DC. On June 19th, I'll be in Minneapolis at the Parkway Theater, and you can get tickets by going to theparkwaytheater.com. The next night, June 20th, I'll be in Washington, DC, our nation's capital, to bring the good word to our nation's capital. I'll be there at the Miracle Theater,

and you can get tickets to that one at themiracletheater.com. Thanks a lot for coming to see me. I'll see you this June. Welcome to Step You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio's How Stuff Works. I'm Josh Clark, and this is Josh Clark, and this is Josh Clark. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there. And this is Stuff You Should Know. Barcodes, give me some barcodes. I love them barcodes a lot. You like barcodes, too? Sure. I'm fainting, geeking out,

because I think barcodes are cool, but I'm not like a barcode nerd. No, but it is interesting that like, how much of our, how much we take them for granted, and how they're everywhere. Yeah. And after you listen to this, or we research this, you'll probably start noticing them,

and being like, what secrets lie within you? Exactly. Little black things in spaces in between. Well, hopefully if they listen to this, they won't have any questions like that. They'll know all the barcode secrets. Well, sure. I hope.

Yeah. We'll find out. We'll see. So, like you said, barcodes are absolutely everywhere, and it is one of those things where you're like, there's one. Oh my gosh, there's one. There's one over there.

Like if you work at a company, turn your computer over. Guarantee there's a barcode underneath. There's barcodes all over the place, right? There's one on your forehead. There is. Got it tattooed this morning, just for this episode. Wasn't that in a movie, I feel like?

Of like Future World where we all have barcodes. Was it in 1984? Like the government to put them on our necks. Oh, maybe it was that Apple ad. It was the Apple ad. Was it? Probably. I know exactly what you're talking about.

I can see a guy with the shaved head in a suit with a barcode on the back of his neck. All right, well, I hope there's people yelling at their radio right now. Right. So they're everywhere. They're on your computer. They're on guys' necks.

They're on the computer or on the radio. Yeah. And they're actually not that old of an invention. Yeah. Let me rephrase that, Chuck. They are exactly as old as you would imagine them to be. Right, which is, if you thought about it, this is one of those things where if you ask someone,

they probably be like, I don't know. Stop talking. If you gave a little bit of thought, you might think of the other half of what makes a barcode necessary or able to be used, which is the laser. Wow, man. And that was the big reveal.

Well, they can't have preceded the laser. No. It kind of did, actually, though. Well, yeah, sure. The idea, but it took them in concert to actually do anything worthwhile. Right, exactly. Like you and me.

Basically, we're both just a couple of lumps and put it together and we took off the UPC code protocol. So back, let's set the scene, shall we? All right, are we way back in it here? Sure, all right. Jerry. Jerry. Jerry.

Jerry. Thank you, Jerry. Jerry launched us. So when you think about barcodes, you think grocery store typically, right? I think anything, but sure. I think grocery store. I think anywhere you can buy something or, yeah.

Okay, that's much more dead on, but mine makes sense, too, because it was in the grocery store that the whole issue of barcodes, the whole reason we have barcodes to begin with, really began because it used to be a genuine bonafide mess going to the grocery store. Yeah, I mean, and this was back when people weren't even in a hurry.

Yeah, imagine now. Like my mom was a cashier at Kroger in the 1960s, so she has remarked about how fast she was typing in those numbers and how people like going through her line because she was just, Right. She was typing in those numbers is the key here. Yeah, but no, I mean, there is no, well,

we haven't done the John Henry test. Maybe Diane was so fast. It's possible. She could beat the laser, Especially these days because you know, sometimes it seems like they can take longer When they scan it and scan it and scan it and then type in the tiny number Right, but your mom may have been an anomaly for the most part if you went and checked out in a line at a grocery store You had to wait way longer than you do these days. Yeah, because

It wasn't Chuck's mom. It was checking you out. It was some other person had to lift up the can find the price label on it type in the price type in the tax and Then pick up the next thing and do the same thing and heaven forbid that sticker fell off Yes, or you got to call Earl over right girls got to go to aisle 7 price check on aisle 7 Earl See what the Alpo costs. So you've got that problem, right? Yes. Oh if it goes on sale That's another thing to the forget about you have to go through and relabel all those cans, right? So that's where you got the price was it was labeled by some guy with the gun remember that movie

Oh God with John Denver and George Burns. Do I remember it? I always whenever I hear of a dude like pricing a something in a supermarket with a price That's what I think of is that I think the first scene where he meets God. Yeah, he was a supermarket manager Yeah, he was yeah, so That's how the price got on there. That was one problem that you had Mm-hmm hand labeling prices and then hand typing it in but there's also the key of Inventory sure the only way to tell how much stuff you had in a store at any given time Was to go through and count everything in the store and in the back room

Yeah, and then you would know what you needed to order so Supermarkets were frequently out of stuff. The lines were very long It was a nightmare unless your mom was the cashier Which is one reason why barcodes were first invented and adopted into grocery stores because it became so clear so early on That they could solve this enormous problem in one fell swoop if they could only get a system in place that perfected it Yeah, so in the 30s. There was a guy who wrote a thesis paper at Harvard named Wallace Flint Where he invented an automated grocery system with punch cards and flow racks and such right didn't really take off But it was an interesting precursor. I think anytime you have punch cards involved. It's not gonna take off, right?

Unless that's how we vote In this country right And you see how that worked out hey, so flash forward to Philadelphia in the 1940s There was a grocery store manager who was like Josh. He was pretty upset and riled up about Time and how long it's all taking right and running out of stuff and he went to Drexel. I guess It's dress Drexel University now. Was it Drexel it back then or was it two different things could be an offshoot Maybe there are copycats. All right. Well, okay. We're Drexel, too I looked at their mascot by the way the what they're the dragons

Specifically their mascot that dresses up for basketball games is Mario the Magnificent It's a little odd for a dragon. Yeah, he's named after apparently they're like oldest basketball fan or something Oh, okay, that makes sense sure who happens to be a dragon anything right go dragons. So like I said 1947 Can you help me Drexel? I Need help because I'm a grocery store manager has taken forever the Dean said no no not really but there was a student there a grad student named Bob Silver who Stuck that in his pocket as they say walked away and went to his friend who it was a grad of Drexel named Joe Woodland because I guess he knew Joe was the man he turned ideas like this sure and

Woodland said yeah, I think I think we could come up with something. He said we're in Philadelphia Let's go down to Miami Beach and think about this. Yeah, cuz years from now. That's where the I smell will be dreamed up It was Miami Beach, too. That's why it seemed familiar. Wasn't it? Yeah, it seemed familiar to me And I was like wait a minute. Oh, that's right. The I smell so the I smell and the UPC symbol were both dreamed up on Miami Beach And to live crew well sure um, so yeah, apparently he goes to the beach Starts dreaming of like Morse code basically what he's trying to figure out is what can we use to represent? Like the price and like the stock number. That's really what they were trying to boil it down to yeah, because initially if you have that in one little Component then then that can be scanned. You want to say barcode, but it didn't

Right exactly. It could be scanned. It could be Typed it however you need to do it sure but it could bring up a lot more information Right and you could do it a lot faster because it could tell you things like there's only two left You better order right that kind of thing right so like you said he figured out Morse code He was kind of inspired on Miami Beach to use Morse code But then something really weird happened. He typed some lines and some dots typed With his fingers. Okay in the sand in the sand Right typed in the sand and then he just

Pulled his fingers downward in the sand and turned them into lines. I figured he was drunk or something Maybe so and just kind of he was slurring his sand lines, right and That was the beginning of the first UPC symbol and it was way different than what you would think Because what they ended up coming up with was not just lines like we see today But circles concentric concentric circles like a bull's-eye. Yeah, it looks like It looks like a record like an LP. Yeah, basically. Yeah, we'll put So that was it like if this was the movie And after all they made a movie about windshield wipers with Greg Keneer

So why is it this been made? I don't know that would be the moment where he draws those lines in the sand and like a halo Glows around them. Mm-hmm. And like two live crew starts playing Oh, how great would that be? Yeah, that's where it was born in 1949 those two dudes Woodland and Silver They came up with a machine because that was kind of the problem. It's like great We figured out this barcode thing, but it's useless unless you had a reader and their reader was huge and expensive And heavy and dangerous it sounds like yeah, it was like the size of a desk and back then desks were really big That's like says the bus today. They also used an oscilloscope as the reader right which I for life

We can't figure out how they did that Because that detects like electrical pulses But the upshot of it was that oscilloscope with a 500 watt bulb They got super dangerously hot sure when they put it together with those two kids These were grad students at the time or they just recently graduated They put together the first machine that could read printed material. Yeah, that's pretty cool Right, so it just so happened that that printed material was a printed bullseye UPC code There's a big problem though. They were missing something very important and that was

Micro computer something that could read this code and make sense of it They hadn't quite come up with that so they said you know what let's just forget about this We'll put it in dad's garage like a trampoline sell it to RCA Well, yeah, they sold the patent right right and then we're gonna head off to go work for IBM And that's where the the big scene with the glowing and to live crew would have ended Maybe in a montage or something right? so we I spoiled it I guess with the laser but in 1960 was when the first laser was debuted and

And this was really key to read this thing because the reason they used a 500 watt light bulb Wasn't because they were just like man. This is so cool and hot and dangerous Like you needed a tremendous amount of light to read these tiny I Mean super detailed, you know, it's not detailed with like lettering that we're used to seeing but no It was deep. You had to read the detail right because and it also has to be kind of small too Yeah, I can't be at the size of the can right exactly or you know something bigger than the size of the can It has to be fairly small and it is fairly detailed. Yeah, and so you need a really bright light to read it

well, luckily eventually the Hughes corporation came up with the laser and That was very quickly implemented with the barcode system not in grocery stores at first but on the railroad it turns out yeah, this was This guy figures pretty primal and his name is David Collins and he had a company called Computer Identics Corporation and what he came up was the first in 1969 the first barcode reader That actually worked without, you know, 500 watt light bulbs Yeah

using that laser to keep track of freight cars because the Railroad companies would swap freight cars with one another all the time But you'd end up some guy would always keep your freight car and be like, I don't know what you're talking about Yeah, so he sold two of those in 1969 MIT grad and that that kind of changed the game because all of a sudden it was being implemented not in grocery stores like you said but grocery store people workers managers owners Industry leaders I think they took notice they did especially a guy named Alan Hallerman who basically led the charge to

Get this stuff into supermarkets and there was a pilot program that was at a Kroger like the one your mom worked at About the time where she would have worked for Kroger. Yeah, but this is up in Cincinnati, which I think is where Kroger was founded Yeah, this she was in Tennessee. I think and RCA had been looking for new projects to To to work on and they found this old patent that RCA bought from Woodland and so yeah, what about this old thing was it a bullseye like no check it out So they put laser to bullseye and ran this pilot program in Cincinnati at Kroger and it went Okay ish for a new thing it did alright, but we mentioned how they had to be able to read these intricate little barcodes

printing wasn't great so any Smudges or smears or anything would just throw the whole system off right, but it was enough of a proof of concept that that the these Grocery store industry leaders led by Alan Hallerman said we've got to get this out in the grocery stores So they formed we got to mention the name of their group. You ready for it? Okay, they formed the US supermarket ad hoc committee on a uniform grocery product code. What is that spell? USA H C U G P see that spells nothing nothing. Yeah, it spells a barcode I read somewhere that this guy he would when he was lobbying

supermarket managers and Leaders I guess to like buy into this he would take them to go see Deep Throat. I Read that it was the fashion of the day to like go out for a steak dinner And then everybody went and watch Deep Throat in the movie theater as part of like a business Meeting can't do you get the steak dinner before or after that before a parents are really tough golf right? Uh, oh dear. Well, let's take a break and ruminate on that question and we'll be right back On the podcast pay dude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show Hey, dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces

We're gonna use hey dude as our jumping off point But we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it It's a podcast packed with interviews co-stars friends and non-stop references to the best decade ever Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy blowing on it and popping it back in as

We take you back to the 90s Listen to hey, dude the 90s called on the iHeart radio app ample podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god seriously I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you

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The u.s. Supermarket ad hoc committee on a uniform grocery product code So we're hanging out at the ad hoc committee in the porno theater. Uh-huh sure we can call the ad hoc committee from now on All right, that's why I need to get it in one more time and They decided that yes the the RCA patent with the bullseye was pretty good But it hadn't worked that good. Yeah, is it possible or something better and this is a pretty forward thinking Um at the time if you think about it to say like yes, this works this company has a patent on it Forget about that Could we do better and they actually launched like a national basically a competition to come up with something better

Yeah, and this was sort of in the face of manufacturers who weren't too crazy about this idea to begin with because it would be on them obviously like Campbell's soup to start putting these codes on their soup cans and No one really wanted to do it because of they had their own systems in place It would cost them money and time right and they were just like hey it ain't broke on our end What's funny is this this article? I think this part came from a Smithsonian article where they're saying like Cardboard manufacturers thought it would spoil their product They're like it's so beautiful this box of apple cinnamon oatmeal cannot be spoiled with a With a UPC code

Yeah, that's weird But that was part of the pushback apparently was they thought it would mess up the product Right, but they gave in I guess they were I'm sure they were talked into the fact that they could move more product With this in the end they were taken to see deep throat and they just caved like a house of cards They're like man that steak was good and so was the cinema um so Seven people like you said submitted seven companies And um if you go and look at these seven submissions, it's interesting that

Some of them like one was like the LP bullseye There was another circular one, but it looked like uh webdings No No, it looked like if a kid draws a sunshine. It was like all the lines were going out from the center Right. There were a few different variations. It's sort of looked like the modern barcode in In theory, but then it's it's so funny when you look at the seven side by side You immediately go to that little rectangular one. You're like, oh, well, yeah, yeah

Just because we're used to it But I don't know if at first if people just looked at it Like the bullseye one was pretty It is the sunshine one was nice I think I've seen the sunshine one on like cartons of milk or orange juice like on the bottom of paper cartons I've seen that before I know what you're talking about. Yeah, so I guess somebody adopted There was a little half circle one too that looked sort of like a rainbow sticker. It's very cute. It is cute But I love frameworks. The the kicker here is is that IBM

Um, sort of at the 13th hour, I guess heard about this. We're like, hey, yeah, we'll throw in a bid They're like, oh, well What have you developed and they're like, well, we haven't developed anything because we just heard about this Right, but Joe great vine Joe Woodland the guy who invented this other one works for us Sure. Ironically, Joe Woodland didn't have anything to do with their design though. I know No, it was George Lawrer. This story is all over the place. It really is interesting How many different like directions it took how many times they saw a deep throat over and over again As this process was going on just stop saying those words just say cinema

okay, but there was a guy there named George Lawrer at IBM And uh, the advantage he had or at least as he saw it and I agree Is that he hadn't seen all these bull's eyes and sun shines and rainbows And he was he kind of just started from scratch right and built that beautiful little rectangle That was his premise that he was like I'm unadulterated with any preconceptions IBM didn't have any Existing machinery that this thing needed to fit into nothing He got to start from scratch and actually his idea panned out because his was selected

The ad hoc committee. I'll spare everybody Um met in new york and they actually tapped some scientists from MIT because they said who are the smartest scientists around MIT scientists. Sure. Here are the how many was it seven or 11 designs? Uh seven. Okay. Here are the seven designs MIT scientists. You guys tell us which one you think is right But then this Alan Haberman. He said hold on before you guys tell us Can you give me a confidence interval of how How confident you are that you have picked the right one and all of them were at like 90 percent I'm 90 confident and it was Lauer's rectangle that one. That's right

Uh, interestingly they had uh demonstrated The rectangular one with a beanbag ashtray and the ace softball picture. Yeah, which is picture like Is there anything better than the beanbag ashtray? Those are great. Yeah, we got those in college like I searched them out Oh, really? Just because they you know because they were always plaid and looked like they were from the 50s You never smoked did you? Well, I mean I smoked a little in college, but we we had ashtrays around You still wanted to provide for your guests. I see this is in college. You know, yeah

Right, maybe a little snack caddy to go with the cocktails But we had a few of those beanbag ashtrays And uh, they were pretty great and mostly because you could put them on a dashboard of a car Yes, and they would stay there right or on your belly while you're pooping sure sure They'd stay wherever you want them to So like you said lar one, uh, the the big they had a big party. I'm sure with rectangular Orderves all arranged in perfect lines eating out of beanbag ashtrays. Oh god

Uh, and then on june 26 1974 They debuted it in a real store Um in Troy, Ohio marsh marsh supermarket. Yeah, I'm not heard of it. I still I thought you might have uh And like oh, yeah, the old days of the marshes and Toledo. No, we had a iga food town Kroger That's it. Yeah, that's all I can remember and foods with a z Food I don't know why that kind that's the first thing I could think of

um So they had this the the whole checkout counter I see is translated in today's dollars, but 44 grand is what that thing would have cost today Yeah, and just the scanner itself was more than 17 grand of that in today's dollars Yeah, and today you can get a scanner for about 120 bucks So this is this is a pretty nice setup for the marshes store in Troy, Ohio And the uh, it's just one register too, right? It was out of however many the rest of them were having the type still type. Can't you be more like Sharon Buchanan who's over here on the

On the uh, the laser checker. Yeah, that was the real name by the way It sounds like you just totally improv to that. No, it came out of my memory. No, but we should give her her due Uh, yeah, she was the first cashier to to scan an item with a UPC code And the first item that was scanned was a 10 pack of juicy fruit gum Yeah, I bet the guy what was his name Richard Dawson. No That was family feud Clyde Dawson his brother right He was ahead of uh rnd for marsh and he played the first shopper and I wonder if he was like

Hmm, let's see because his fruit stripes is nothing but striped lines. I wonder if he was trying to throw him off I don't know like scan this Supposedly he chose gum because a lot of people were like well, what about gum? You're never going to be able to get one of these things on gum But then he chose a 10 pack of gum, right? So he was kind of hedging his bets Whatever, but I don't know what the smallest one smallest barcodes are Uh, the smallest I saw they have like now bees have barcodes like on them somehow I I haven't figured out how I didn't see how I just know that bees have barcodes

You mean bees the insect? Yes with a z Um, what do you mean to track them or something? Yeah, what? Yeah, um, so that's got to be pretty small but the smallest product I saw with the barcode is um the uh Tootsie roll pop sticks have the barcode on them really Uh, did you do research or you were just eating a Tootsie roll pop? I was like, well, I'll be darned. Wow. How many licks did it take to get to the center? I've never made it. I always crunch like the owl says So I guess we should talk about how these things work because it's

Interesting it's super wonky. Mm-hmm But um, I think I don't know it's good for people to understand this to a certain degree Whatever degree you're comfortable with with learning. Well, okay. You ready? Yeah, well first there's two kinds we should differentiate between the barcodes and qr codes Yeah, a barcode is technically a linear 1d code. Yeah, just a dumb code just lines basically. Yeah um The 2d codes like the qr quick response codes like the ones you see on you know Happening products and items these days marketing materials. Maybe it's still a thing business card

It's actually becoming even more of a thing from what I understand just because there's so much stuff you can encode in it Right. Um, how many characters like 800 and something? Yeah, you can encode 7,000 digits or 4,000 characters of text. Okay, and so you can encode some pretty sophisticated stuff in there so people encode web addresses or Pictures or whatever I've seen them on tours like you can do a qr code and bring up like a bunch of text about the painting or Whatever, I think it's kind of yes. I've seen that as well. Yeah, um, I think that it's kind of becoming Less popular as a marketing tool. Okay, but simultaneously it's becoming more popular

In just about every other like practical use. Yeah barcodes on the other hand the 1d barcode can hold up to 85 characters so these two d's are like exponentially more Um, potent storehouses of information Yeah, but I like the the simplicity of the barcode. I need to it's pretty cool Like you don't need it does exactly what you need and nothing else. Yes, you know Yeah, and so so when we're talking about a barcode most people think of a universal product code Which is a 1d linear barcode. It's a type of it. It's not the only kind there's a bunch of 1d linear barcodes, but the most readily recognizable one, especially in the u.s.

In Canada is called the upc Right, so let's say you're a company and you have a product um that you want to debut and what you would do is since 1977 you would Uh ring up a company out of brussels called gsi Gs1. Oh, is that a one? Mm-hmm. No don't call gsi. No No, you're not going to get your stuff on the shelves grime scene investigation. Oh god Man, you're just flying with the uh zingers. Yeah All right

Not all of them are good. Well, I didn't say they were. Oh, okay I was like to save your applause I'll save it So the gs1 what you do is you pay an annual fee as a manufacturer And then you say hey, I have this new thing. I want to apply for Permission to enter the upc system. That's a what that's the marshal brain way of putting it. Yeah, basically like hey I want to be registered in the official system. Right. They write back and they say all right here Uh new manufacturer. You have a six different six digit

Identification number. I imagine if you were like the coca-cola company, you're already set up with this Well, they had to eventually start somewhere. Well, right, but now when coca develops a new product or whatever They don't they just give them the new The menu the item number item number exactly So the first six numbers So if you look at a upc barcode It is a there are a bunch of bars And that's for the computer to read and then there's a 12 numbers

That's for humans to read and actually punch in if the machine has problems with it, right? Okay, so it's actually the same information, but in two different languages technically So you could technically probably teach yourself that language if you just looked at these long enough. You totally could You could it's interesting. Um, it would be probably the most useless thing you've ever done in your life If especially if you're not in the upc code industry and there is an industry. Oh, sure But you could do that. Yeah, and we're going to teach you how right in a minute But um if at every big company There is a upc coordinator and I imagine

In full departments that handle this stuff It depends you can also if you're a small company you can contract out with a company that basically does this for you Yeah, that makes sense. Um, like if you want to sell on amazon, but you're not like a big company Right, you have to have a upc symbol But it could be it could make no sense money wise for you to go to gs one And get a upc symbol rather than right just getting it from a reseller. Yeah Yeah, so if you're a huge corporation though, it's in-house you have a coordinator and a team And anytime you have a product or launch a new product, you're going to have to assign that new product

Uh, a number and it's got to be very specific to that product. It can't you can't just say Well, you know, coke is coke. So two liter 12 pack Single 12 ounce or 16 ounce or they're all the same, right? Which means that The first six numbers of a UPC code for coke Is going to be the same on any bottle or can or whatever you pick up of coke because that essentially says the coca-cola company And whatever language right to to the entire world. Yeah anywhere in the world where they use barcodes If they get scanned it's going to come up as a coke product. That's right Those last five numbers it's up to coke and that UPC coordinator that's employed by coke

To come up with new numbers for each not just coke and diet coke and new coke and cherry coke And orange vanilla coke, which have you had it's weirdly good um You have to come up with not just a different number for each of those You have to come up with a different number for each of those in each size And each way that those sizes are put together Yeah, every skew as they call it in the business, right? So a different a different one for A one 12 ounce can of coke or a six pack of coax or case of coax

Um and so on and so forth and I was on that gs1 site and the way that they put is much simpler If you have one t-shirt that you sell, right? It's a vitamin stupid vitamin sysk t-shirt Okay, which you can get even better. It's great t-shirt if you ask me you like that one, right? I love it Yeah, I think it's the colors on it that really get me sure um But you have one t-shirt of vitamin sysk shirt, but That thing comes in four different sizes small medium large extra large And it comes in four different colors

You need 64 different. Um Is that right four by four 16 by four is 64 you need 64 different upc codes Yeah for for that one product that one t-shirt and upc code is one of those dumb things like saying atm machine What do you mean? Well automatic teller machine machine, right? Yeah universal product code, you know, thank you for calling me out on that I actually went through this article and like got the instances of upc code like I defy you to find Oh, really code in the article Didn't stick in everyone says it so I wasn't being pedantic but

I was doing it for the people who are already thinking Um And there there were people out there thinking that so the last digit is called a check digit And this is basically a bit of a failsafe to make sure that the scanner got everything right Yeah, it's really convoluted how it does that. Yeah, I mean there's a calculation every time you scan Something or every time something is scanned for you rather. Um Do you check out yourself at the grocery store? Do you like that deal? I don't because I I very strongly see or clearly see that it they're replacing human cashiers

And I think human cashiers like to do human cashier work. So I go to the human cashier whenever I can I love this help check. Do you really? Yeah, because I like bagging my stuff very specifically So that's why I do it like like cold with cold or Chunky items or stuff that contain fat. I mean, what you know, I could go over my whole system I'd like you to pour everyone to tears. Come on, but a lot of cold with cold size like sizes Uh where it goes in my house as I'm unpacking. Oh, that makes sense. Uh and more than anything just efficiently packed So it all fits. I have a bit of a tetracy brain when it comes to packing things and so I get a little Um, I get not a little I get really uncomfortable when I see someone else doing it and it's all wrong

Oh really even when it's not your groceries like if you look over and oh, no, I don't know. Yeah, I can't even look at that That's just a little go away So that that's my um cross to bear though. Yeah You're doing a great job But anyway, when they're checking when they scan something that calculation is performed every time something is scanned To make sure that check digit calculates out that this is the correct price for this thing. Yeah, however To me fact of the podcast The barcode does not contain a price

No, isn't that remarkable? Yeah, remember we said the thing that that the reason barcodes were invented was so that they can encapsulate Information about that that item, right? One of the pieces of information that it encapsulates is price But it also encapsulates how many are in stock whether it's on sale What tax you you put on to it? Um who manufactures it what size some item description All of this stuff and it's all encoded in that bar, but no one thing is encoded into that

It's just that when you Enter that number either by scanning it into the computer Or by punching those numbers in That that information goes to the point of sale computer in the store and it returns all that information to the to the Checkout. Yeah, that's kind of the I don't know the fact of the podcast for me because like When you scan it the price pops up and I just automatically thought well sure that's encoded in those bars Yeah, there is no way for you to look at a UPC symbol and discern the price

Even if you can read the bars Because the price the one of the reasons it's invented was so you can alter the price without having to mess Go through and hand label everything remember that was one of the reasons why pretty cool Yeah, the problem is is that means that there is such a thing as um scanner scamming Which some state senator felt pretty good about him or herself for coming up with that phrase. Yeah, but there there's um where There are some untoward Retailers or merchants who will mess with the price of something and hope you don't notice and charge you more even if it's by A few cents. We all saw office space that adds up. Yeah, you know, yeah

Um and since we're there you mentioned the michigan law. I did look that up because they do have a law. Yeah Uh, I didn't yet. Uh, well the result of the michigan law against scanner fraud Is the seller pays and this is to avoid a lawsuit but you could technically bring a lawsuit against a company Yeah, but they can just solve they can take care of it right here and brainered if they want to So the seller pays the buyer The amount equal to the difference between the displayed price and the charge price plus

An amount equal to 10 times that difference So you think that's a whopping. Well, I mean, let's say you're charged 999 for something that's 899 So you get that dollar you get a million dollars You get that dollar plus 10 times the difference with a maximum of five dollars Because I thought oh man, you could really clean up if they really mislabeled like a tv. Yeah But it it's not no up to five. Yeah, that's where they cut it off But that's to me. That's a measuring stick for a good grocery stores without flinching

They when they confirm that there has been a discrepancy between the scan price and the price that they have on the shelves listed That they just give you the item. Oh, do they public stuff? Okay. That's why I'm a public shopper Right that in the sheet cake. It's really good. They also have this line of special limited edition ice cream right now And I wanted to declare Everyone if there's a public's near you get to the public's Find their special edition toasted s'more ice cream. Oh, yeah, and

enjoy Arguably the greatest ice cream ever invented. It's good. Good doesn't begin to describe it. I've had a lot of s'more ice creams You're going to love this is better than other s'more ice creams. Yes, okay You're going to love it man. Public's need to sponsor us. We thought them so much love They really should. All right. Well, let's take another break and we're going to come back After this and talk a little bit more about how these things are read On the podcast pay dude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show. Hey, dude, bring you back to the days of slipdresses and Choker necklaces. We're going to use hey, dude as our jumping off point

But we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it It's a podcast packed with interviews co-stars friends and non-stop references to the best decade ever Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair Do you remember aol instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your game boy blowing on it and popping it back in as we

Take you back to the 90s Listen to hey, dude the 90s called on the iHeart radio app ample podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, i'm lance bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with lance bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Uh, okay. I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an sos because i'll be there for you

Oh, man, and so will my husband michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boybander Each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life Oh, just stop now. If so tell everybody you everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts All right, another fact of the podcast for me is

That the laser technically is scanning the white space between the black bars Both the black bars and the spaces. Well, yeah, I mean, but it you know what i'm saying I mean, is that like me thinking about it like looking at pictures? Is it an old lady or a young lady? Kind of yeah Yeah, but to the to the scanner in the sensor more more directly this The sensor in the scanner that's getting the the bounce back right the black lines on a upc code Don't reflect back into the scanner the white lines are the absence of the black lines Yeah, but both of those things the fact that the light didn't bounce back there white without the black exactly It's a very like like zen

invention The fact that some bounce back and some didn't mean something to the to the computer that's attached to the scanner and This this is where the the whole thing kind of gets translated into numbers Which then are put together to become the upc number that is associated with the information associated with the item right So if you look at these bars if you study like something you pick up a can of soup Turn it over and look at it the very thinnest bar that you're going to see Is is one unit wide you can call it that sure and then every other bar

That you see is either one unit wide two three or four units wide and that's the maximum width It's going to be four units right and so not just the bars are one two three or four units wide The spaces are also one two three or four units wide right sure So there is when you put a combination of spaces and bars together in the right way You will end up as far as the computer is concerned with a zero or a one or a two for example To come up with a zero

You have um a three unit wide bar A Two unit wide space Yeah, a one unit wide bar and then a one unit wide space That's a zero when you see that what I just said go back listen to it over and over again until you get it That is is that to the computer is a zero Yeah, okay, I wonder if you would have messed that up if there would have been anyone That would be like actually josh

It goes a little something like this right. Yeah, that would be remarkable. Maybe so I'm sure there are barcode Walks out there. There has to be I mean, there's just the fact that there's this major industry Yeah associated with with creating and selling and leasing bar codes Surely people can just look at it and know what they're saying. I'm sure there are people like ham radio Hams right a better end of this. It seems really complex and difficult to us But if you step back it's really simple and yeah being exposed to it day in and day out you would You couldn't help but memorize it. I would think are we on to the qr codes or well There's one more thing if you'll look at a barcode the first two there are two lines and then the numbers start

There are another two lines in the middle and then there are two more lines at the end Oh, sure. Yeah, and they are larger than the rest of the barcode. Yeah, those are actually separators Those are separators guidelines whatever you want to call them and in the middle those middle two lines actually cut the barcode in half And when that happens so that the barcode can be scanned any direction The rules turn into the mirror image. Yeah, so where a zero would have been like A three unit wide space followed by a two unit wide bar It would be a three unit wide bar followed by a two unit wide space and so on. Yeah

It's it's the same number. It's just the mirror image of it. Right and that tells the scanner. Hey Just go ahead and show off show everybody that you can read backwards and forwards Yeah, and that was uh, I mean we didn't even mention at the beginning there were specific specs When everyone was developing those seven Uh, test whatever submissions, right and one of them was you got to be able to do these things forward and backwards guys Yeah in your sleep. Yeah on a beam bag astray doesn't matter. Yeah, there was also a size requirement, of course

And other things like that, but forwards and backwards had to be in there, right? I guess for I don't know convenience Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think that they wanted I think that the um, the The Cincinnati pilot program bullseye one was touchy enough that they're like we it can't be like that It's got to be like really tough and in accurate You got you can just drop this thing accidentally and it'll ring it up. Right. Gotcha, which happens sometimes Yeah, it does and then you uh, when you're bagging when you're doing it yourself That's the only problem

Is when you have a problem because then you got to call the person over Oh, that's the worst and that person has to you know, they're managing eight different registers Move. Yeah And then the people in line behind you're like, oh I should just gone to the cashier line. This guy has he's no cashier. I know he's no diane Have you noticed also that that retailers company stores are why'd you just put that in scare quotes hurting people Hurting people more toward self-service by having fewer and fewer human run checkout lanes open at a time. Yeah Yeah, yep

I haven't noticed that it's bugging me. Yeah, I just Bugs me. So when you go to a store, do you um, have a friendly conversation with your cashier? No, usually You don't even interact then you just know like them having their job Then being quiet about it. I guess Okay, no, of course I do a chat with people. I'm a friendly guy. Uh, by the way, we should shout out. I did uh Uh, was his name brian. I was in a major big box flat pack furniture store Over the weekend, which one and a guy approaches me with a josh sent me shirt It's awesome. And I took a picture. He he was very nice. I think his name was brian

But he's like, you know what a buggy I was like, dude, you know, you're wearing a don't be dumb shirt It's like you gotta come up to me and say something And I asked if he minded if I took a picture of him and I texted it to you I know I got it and uh, I was like chucks texting me on a weekend This must be good. He's quitting the show Can't take it anymore won't be there Tuesday period tell jerry. Um Yeah, it was kind of cool. Yeah to see him out in the wild. It was a great picture Anyway back to qr codes. Uh, these are way more complex if you look at a qr code

Or a 2d bar code, which by the way came around in 1987, which is hard to believe I mean, it seems like at least a 2000s thing. Yeah easily Um, but this like we said can store a ton more information Vertically horizontally they use dots hexagons rectangles. They use bull's eyes, which is kind of ironic. Um I don't when I look at a qr code. I don't see any of those shapes Yeah, you see like the one bigger shape mostly. Yeah, right? I mean, I just see a bunch of blocks Well, yeah, that's that's the most universal one just like the upc D is the most universal 1d linear, right that qr code is a type of 2d code

Oh, okay, but there are ones that have tons of different like patterns and stuff too. Gotcha You just got to stare at a man. Yeah, and then at all you're like, oh, it's a donkey, right? What were those called the magic eye posters? Yeah, I used to enjoy this. Yeah, I always got it eventually I think we didn't do a show on these did we I don't think so we talked about it before That sounds like a short stuff to me. It does. Let's do it. Okay. So, uh qr codes work because like Uh, basically because everyone has a camera in their pocket now because you have to have a very complex reader On hand and that is a camera basically

Yeah, if you run a product with a qr code through a supermarket scanner 1d scanner, it'll say like does not compute smoke will come out of it Uh, it's it'll spin around. It won't be good. So you need an image recognition software to scan a 2d code But the camera on your phone does a really fine job Which is why you're starting to see them everywhere like in museums on tours and things like that Yeah, I used one just the other day on a home security camera They have a little qr code on the bottom right and to get it going you just point your camera at it and it locks it in I know exactly the one you're talking about pretty cool

Yeah, so chuck, I think we've been kind of dancing around what's ultimately the biggest question in this whole podcast And really the reason we created it Is the upc code the mark of the beast? The devil's mark How did you know about this because I have never heard this said you heard this or did you just come across it? I knew Paranoid people in the 90s So I was familiar with this so refer to our satanic panic episode As background but apparently when these things started coming out

um There were people or maybe this is all urban legend No, no there were I saw a reference that pat robertson somebody tried to link to a video Of pat robertson on the 700 club talking about this in it. I couldn't find the video But it it's possible what you're saying from what I saw it started out as a real thing All right. Well, it all goes to the book of revelation in the new testament where uh, as everyone knows if you've read the bible Revelation is when they talk about it's when the bible gets really good and it's when it talks about the apocalypse and the beast and

You know raining fire down from the heavens and stuff And it says this Uh, he causes all both great and small rich and poor free and slave To receive and he is the beast, right? Sure. Yeah satan. Yeah Uh, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads Didn't say back on the neck. No, uh, that no one May buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name somehow

This got locked into the fact that qr code or i'm sorry barcodes were now on products Right like that was the mark to sell. Yeah, that was the thing that got everybody. You need this to buy or sell This is the mark of the beast. So that's how it started, right? And then it evolved pretty quickly after that Into a just a straight-up urban legend and rumor that those those guidelines the two in the Beginning the two in the middle and the two in the end Actually or encoded sixes to six six six which meant that every barcode in the world Or every upc symbol in the world had six six six embedded in it which clearly made it the mark of the beast

Right and poor george lauer or lauer who invented this is like no, I swear I did not Create the mark of the beast and apparently he got a registered letter once from satan himself Saying how's it feel to have done my my bidding sucker? I have six six six on the license plate of my pickup truck. Do you yes by chance which I kind of thought was great. Sure Yeah, yeah, you stole my jesus fish, didn't you? There was one other thing that kind of helped the urban legend to chuck. What's that the iBM scanners that were first put into use Were models three six six six

What 3666 there you have it last thing There was one thing I wanted to mention we talked a little bit about how Barcodes we basically couldn't exist without them, right? There's five billion barcodes are scanned every day That gs1 site tracks it and basically says about five billion today. Wow all over the world five billion UPC codes or barcodes of all kinds are scanned every day. Wow, and then the last thing is there is a company called quiring monuments That builds headstones that have QR codes engraved in them I've heard about those so that you can scan it as you're in a cemetery

You know bring up like information and pictures of the deceased and talk about their life. Yeah, that's kind of cool instead of You're not limited by the size of your gravestone No With just your name and like, you know, yeah a couple of sentences about your life You could have like a one inch by one inch gravestone. That's all you need That'd be kind of cool. It's the wave of the future. Yeah Well, if you want to know more about barcodes, you can go to a store and start studying them. Go do that now Oh, wait, but first listen to this listener mail

Uh, this uh, I've been meaning to read this for a few weeks. We got a Email from a woman named Maggie who works for a great organization Um, I'll just read it. Hey guys listen to your selects episode recently about circumcision Uh, thank you for creating awareness about female genital mutilation around the world I work with an organization in Kenya that rescues young girls from early forced marriage And female genital mutilation. Some of our girls have been rescued from This as early as age eight We just recently rescued our 100th girl and have raised up every single one of them to graduate high school

Which is a rare thing in this part of Kenya. It's amazing. Uh, yeah, it's very cool Uh, many have moved on to go on to college. Tribe girls in Kenya are raised to feel worthless and inferior to men and boys And their only value is the dowry they can provide their father when he sells them for marriage Uh, all of our girls have learned their worth and value which empowers them to spread their message To other girls around them They're wonderful girls and so happy now the two times I visited the last few years have been amazing eye-opening experiences It's good to see how quickly the girls blossom With some security love and protection

Uh, they are remarkable women. One girl I sponsored is 10 now, but was eight when we rescued her Uh, and to think she was going to be sold off as someone's wife at eight years old My goodness. Uh, I'd love for you to plug our website so your listeners can get involved if they want to support it is uh saruni.org s-a-r-u-n-i.org There's a give tab at the top of the page as well as lots of information on what we do

We specifically need funds to build more dorms and bathhouses for the girls. We are maxed out on beds Cannot take any more at the moment. So that is our next big goal I'm really glad you read this one, man. Amazing. That's from Maggie and again it is s-a-r-u-n-i.org Thanks a lot Maggie. Um, not just for writing in but for the work you're doing. That's really amazing stuff Um, if you want to get in touch with us like Maggie did and let us know about some amazing things you're doing We'd love to hear that stuff. So You can go on to our website at stuffyoushouldknow.com and check out our social links there Or you can send us a good old fashion email to stuffpodcast at iHeartRadio.com

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio's How Stuff Works For more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows On the podcast Hey Dude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point But we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it Listen to Hey Dude the 90s called on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

Hey, i'm lance bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with lance bass Do you ever think to yourself what advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boybander Each week to guide you through life tell everybody ya everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the lance bass on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts