Live data from Hacker News

StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

stickybits.com

11–20 of 41 posts

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#11
This is actually the first major application that has aspects of it powered by SimpleGeo (as pointed out by Joe Stump here http://twitter.com/joestump/status/10224268993). I think it's as big of an accomplish for SimpleGeo as it is for StickyBits. Both companies are doing some amazing things...

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, gorgeous design, really awesome name, and the product seems cool, though not sure how useful at this point? The number of things you would want to put big vinyl stickers on seems kind of small, but if this is the first step it is very exciting. Being able to track the provenance of an object unobtrusively (via RFID?) would be really neat.

Well, from a business perspective, if you're a company with equipment (medical, electronics, tools, etc) you could have employee "check out" equipment with their phones. If you're a company that works with documents (engineering, legal, what have you) you could attach barcodes to physical copies (shoot, you could overlay them on the digital ones to so they print off with the doc itself) and use them to easily pull up…

That's what we do (track medical devices, pallets, documents, etc., with barcodes and RFID).

The biggest barrier by far for this market is the status-quo: if you have to add even a few steps to employees’ current workflow, the project will have a much harder time getting off the ground.

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#14
post #13

This reminds me of the CueCat ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat ). From what I recall, the CueCat was born of the same idea, but was quite before its time (for example, it connected via PS/2).

Agreed, CueCat was well before its time. Dave Mathews (not the singer) was one of the creators of the CueCat and generally everything he does is well before its time.

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#15

What a greap app! Fantastic design of the homepage as well. Interesting that they got that through the appstore. Didn't think they allowed barcode scanning apps, but maybe that was just amazon that didn't allow such apps. I think it's a good idea to build this app around fun, and then add the business aspects later. I would not be surprised though if this app is pulled from the appstore because of some bogus claim an…

There are plenty of barcode scanning apps, the best probably being RedLaser (http://redlaser.com/).

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#16
Seems interesting, it reminds me of delicious but for products. That to me is the best use case, like their example "Scan a cereal box barcode and attach your best treats recipe".

The other ones, like putting a barcode on a birthday card, I'm not so sure about.

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#17
post #4

First 'web 2.0' website I am seeing that is so well designed AND uses extensively tables for HTML markup. The site is basically one large image without any real text, so far for SEO.

Yeah, the first thing I did was 'view source'. Sheesh, what a mess.

Check out this: http://static.stickybits.com/web/images/fp_08.jpg. Zero SEO value by putting text in images.

For such a great design, it totally fails at implementation.

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#19
post #8

The examples are a bit laughable.. "Attach your resume to your business card" - You could just add a web link instead and everyone would understand instead of limiting yourself to a very specific subset of users that know what to do with the barcode. (Same with "attach photos of what you're selling to a flyer") Plus, is there any type of control on these barcodes? Can I claim a barcode and not allow anyone to add any…

Yes, you can create websites and link to them, but it's cumbersome.

With stickybits, you can just upload and you're done. And people see your resume immediately when scanned.

Also, the first person to scan a barcode is the "moderator" and can delete any content that gets posted.

Re: StickyBits: Add a bar code based history to any physical object

#20
post #4

First 'web 2.0' website I am seeing that is so well designed AND uses extensively tables for HTML markup. The site is basically one large image without any real text, so far for SEO.

Yeah, the first thing I did was 'view source'. Sheesh, what a mess. Check out this: http://static.stickybits.com/web/images/fp_08.jpg . Zero SEO value by putting text in images. For such a great design, it totally fails at implementation.

To ensure the same type of experience across browsers, we decided to make much of the top images. Most people still use IE, and we didn't want gross rendered text.

Also, I like tables :) They just work.

Post reply on HN