It’s the 57th anniversary of the barcode. I only know this because Google changed their logo today. So then I checked out the barcode entry on Wikipedia.

Actually, this is just the anniversary of the original patent. When most people think of the barcode, they’re thinking of the UPC (Universal Product Code) on food and other purchased goods. Which started being used in the mid-1970s (1974 was when the first store scanned an item for purchase).

I’ve always thought bar codes were kind of cool: cheap, simple, easy to use and duplicate. We use them on food, shipping packages, mail, ID cards of all types and all sorts of places. We print them on the back of Michigan Driver’s Licenses, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them used.

FYI, I used the Free Barcode Generator to generate my above barcode.