Today, Google celebrates the 57th anniversy of the barcode technology patent’s being granted in the US. I join in the celebration, for barcodes saved me from mandatory military service.
Before barcodes, it was good times for the youngsters. I remember how we switched price tags to make expensive records suddenly being affordable. Young MCs “Principal Office” was bought that way, I remember. And a couple of Black Box 12″.
Anyway.
In Sweden there’s mandatory military service for all males at the age of 19. Nowadays, there’s so few accepted that you don’t have to worry about it but in 1996 when it was my turn the prospect of lying under a snow-cover in a forest somewhere up north for 10 months was very real. And not so amusing.
When I was going to the two-day test where they’d try me out to see what job would suit me best, I received a folder in advance. I was to fill in some information and then bring it with me to the various stations where I’d undergo physical and mental tests.
The folder had a barcode on it. I was determined to receive a free pass from service and took a fine black pen and added a line to the code.
Come testing, that line gave them hell. At each station, they scanned my code and received an error message. Then they had to look me up in registers, call the registration office and finally enter a 20 digit number into the system.
After the 5-10 minutes it took for them to get my registration in order, they were behind schedule, surly and annoyed, and no match for me to play. I was irritating and slow and was sent home halfway into the second day.
Lesson: The barcode doesn’t have to be 1984. It can be your friend.
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