psychoceramics: barcode 666

[dasher @ netcom.com (Anton Sherwood)]

: bringing up "smart cards", barcodes, and....the Mark of the Beast. He
: said something about the number six on barcodes being "two very thin
: lines very close to each other" but then the host cut him off.
	[...]
: The guy pleaded with listeners to go through the homes and throw away
: anything that had a barcode on it! Boy, that's gonna take up my whole
: weekend!

To help scanners detect and adjust for variation in speed,
the Universal Products Code (UPC) block contains three "frame"
patterns (at both ends and the middle) consisting of two narrow
black bars separated by a narrow white bar.  It so happens that
this is part of the pattern that represents `6'.

(It was harder than it ought to be for me to verify this:
although several objects within my reach carry UPC blocks,
the first four things I picked up contain no true `6'!)

Anton Sherwood   *\\*   +1 415 267 0685   *\\*   DAS--@n--.com