Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jclark@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (John Clark) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: 666's and Beasties everywhere. Message-ID: Date: 3 Jun 91 06:59:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of California, San Diego Lines: 21 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article st74044@oregon.uoregon.edu writes: +Here's a fact for all of you people that are trying to figure +out 666. In Belgium right now, there is a supercomputer. There Oh, no not another... There is a similar legend about UPC bar codes. For people who are not aware of the techinques of encoding data and being able extract that data in very hostile (supermarket checkstands) environments, the pattern 6 ... 6 ... 6 sounds sinister indeed. But simply, it is the binary pattern 0110 which allows the data extraction equipment to calibrate itself to the data which is imbetween the calibration marks. The 6 is only due to some zeros here and some zeros there and then representing the 'number' as a binary sequence. As a matter of fact not all UPC's(there are different categories) have these particular sequences anyway. -- John Clark jclark@ucsd.edu