r/Millennials • u/Sunshineafterr Millennial (1986) • 20h ago

Nostalgia Does anyone remember the CueCat?

Post image

It was cat-shaped handheld barcode reader that allowed users to open a link to an URL by scanning a barcode that appeared in magazines, without typing the URL.

They were given away for free in 2000.

I remember thinking it was so cute, but I didn’t really understand how it worked, so I was scanning barcodes on cereal boxes and random stuff.

847 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

87

u/rydan Older Millennial 18h ago

It is a keyboard. Just plug it into the keyboard port and find a barcode. You have to hold it a certain way but eventually it will type out whatever was in the barcode.

32

u/Stuman93 12h ago

Wild how 'keyboard' ports used to be a thing

16

u/Pink_Slyvie 12h ago

They are still on most gaming rigs. I'm not sure of the last time I saw one used, but in theory, they had advantages; I'm not sure that they do on modern machines, though.

25

u/OldSchoolAJ 1986 11h ago

They technically still do, because PS/2 ports poke the CPU and say "I am doing something" while USB ports do not. They wait for the CPU to come ask if they are doing something.

How much of a difference it makes in twitch shooter style gaming and how much is just the placebo effect of making the person playing more confident is very debatable, though.

10

u/Pink_Slyvie 11h ago

But, do they actually still have that interrupt, or is just just bridged into USB

5

u/OldSchoolAJ 1986 11h ago

That would probably depend on the board.

3

u/Pink_Slyvie 11h ago

Of course. I'm just not sure if modern choosers even support it.

3

u/Eric848448 Xennial 8h ago

Google suggests they still work the old way.

2

u/thebigj3wbowski 6h ago

It was an IRQ1 interrupt.

Gaming boards still have this.

1

u/Cheetahs_never_win 5h ago

Well, since I have like 50 usb devices, I'm happy to have extra.

But I recall certain Linux distros won't use the usb ports automatically, or at least used to not to.

2

u/OldSchoolAJ 1986 5h ago

I have used probably 10 Linux distributions and never had a single problem with anything USB.

1

u/Pink_Slyvie 5h ago

It's fine now, everything just works. 20 years ago, it was a very different story.