Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!coryc
From: coryc@sequent.UUCP (Cory Carpenter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: RE: Consulting time recorder
Message-ID: <30998@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 10 Mar 90 04:15:30 GMT
Reply-To: coryc@sequent.UUCP (Cory Carpenter)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 30


In article 320, Joe Stong (jst@cca.ucsf.edu) writes:
>The only thing I've seen that was vaguely close was a little flat thing
>by some company like Videx that read bar code, and could log the time
>that the barcode was read.  No display, as I recall, and the real price
>was about $450, by the time you got the serial interface/charger.

Yes, it is made by Videx.  The bar code reader you're referring to is
called the Videx Time Wand.  A rather elegant little device, it's about
the size of one of the "credit card" four-function calculators.  It has
a single IR transciever that is used for data acquisition, and for
uploading stored data to a PC through the RS-232 interface built into
its charging unit.  Confirmation of data acquisition is by means of an
audible signal.  

(It's a neat design, but aligning the transciever in the charger unit is
a pain in the butt -- I spent a summer doing it, which is why I happen
to know about the system.)

I always though that it was a pretty good little package, but I've never
seen one in use.  Perhaps the price Joe mentioned has something to do
with that.

-coryc

-- 
 ______________________________________________________________________________
| Cory R. Carpenter        |  "The world had never had so many moving parts    |
| Sequent Computer Systems |   or so few labels."                              |
| {uunet}!sequent!coryc    |          --William Gibson, `Mona Lisa Overdrive'  |