[ggdm]

>Cuecats were cool. The people who made them were assholes.

Thanks @doctorow

Look, we created it because barcodes had URLs below them on packaged goods that were generic. Google had a fresh “links in” algorithm that they were figuring out. We had the first concept of location or demographic based results for media and products.

Your :CC ID was used to see who the best distribution channels were. The software ID held your profile and zip code so someone swiping a Coke can in Dallas would see a Six Flags promotion, someone in Atlanta would get SeaWorld + Coke offers.

The light DMCA approved ROT 64 output scrambling was to prevent OS or browsers from natively decoding the scans, as we wanted to run the ONS (object naming service) and provide truly valuable links. How many QR codes go to 404 links today? Our magic from 1997 was dynamic in multiple ways.

Alas, the USB and portable devices shipped as the dot-bomb era encroached and our open plug-in framework gets forgotten by the researchers.

I’m proud of what the 300+ team built over those handful of formative commercial Internet years, and happy to see our creation in the Computer History Museum. Under oddity input devices.

[LocalH]

Perception is a hell of a drug. You were a "trailblazer" in one of the nastiest, evilest segments of modern tech. I was glad to see the Cuecat crumble as a product, I remember being a tiny, tiny mirror of the information to hack the product, and I also remember (as a 17-year old) getting a nasty email from your legal team that taught me an early lesson in "might makes right, and corporations own the world". Your team was one of the ones that set the stage for the dismal state of online rights. Thanks for that /s

Even though I never used it for anything, I was proud to disable the serial number of my old Cuecat on principle

I wish we could see the votes on this thread just to see the ratio your post is likely getting.

[nullc]

You're proud about harassing uses of the cuecat hardware with legal threats? You're proud of the security vulnerabilities on your site that leaked the PII of users that were foolish enough to use your software? -- because these are also thing the team at Digital Convergence did.

You spied on people. You leaked their private data. When people tried to not get spied on, you threatened to sue them and forced them to take their drivers down.

These are the things that got you called an asshole.

If you're going to post here today saying that you were proud and not even "some mistakes were made" -- then I think the asshole label was well justified.

[pavlov]

It sounds like you’re making Doctorow’s point. You talk about your business model and selling personalized ads and how you tried to use legal means (“light DMCA”) to prevent other operating systems and browsers from reading the data — even though you were giving away the device to anyone.

This strategy failed in 1999 but, as Doctorow explains, it has evolved and is much more successful today with “Felony Contempt of Business Model” deeply integrated into the platforms we can’t avoid.

[gumby]

Why did you need 300 people? Was it mainly for sales and marketing to the magazine advertisers?

[jgerrish]

Every cue cat came with a pets.com hand puppet. Don't you remember?

Hahahaha, look at that business model limping along.

Hahaha, so funny!

No offense to you, ggdm. It was a unique item that defined an Era, even if it's now considered a joke. Thank you for your contribution to this thread, it's appreciated. It was a moment in history.

[jgerrish]

I'm sorry, my tone is inappropriate for raising the discourse. There is a bitterness there that wasn't there a decade ago.

Even these sharing sessions, no matter how beautifully framed by Cory, change that.

I'm sorry.

[geoduck14]

Don't mind the haters. It was pretty cool what you built out.