Beware of Radio Shack

You can use a CueCat on a Mac with a PS2 to USB adapter, according to this site:

But why bother? You can get a USB CueCat that'll connect directly to your Mac. Do a search on eBay.

You'll want to either get a modified CueCat, or modify it yourself. A modded CueCat will output the barcode as typed text, so you can use it to "type" UPC and ISBN numbers directly into any program that allows keyboard input -- TextEdit, web forms, databases, etc. Here are a few web sites with CueCat info and modification instructions:

You can also find modification instructions in the book "Hardware Hacking", by Joe Grand, Ryan Russell and Kevin Mitnick.

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I get really sick and tired of every time I buy something there, I have to wait in line for a salesdroid to finish up selling a cell phone to someone who hasn't a clue. It takes forever... Paperwork, explanations of what they're signing, etc. One guy ahead of me waited and waited, and then asked the droid how long he was going to be. The droid said a few more minutes, and he just got disgusted and tossed the goods on the counter and left. I walked back to the shelves and put the couple things I had back on the pins, and left.

Somehow I get the feeling more and more that they're really not in the business of selling anything other than cell phones, satellite dishes and xmas toys. And the 'droids admit it; they have first-hand experience.

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You mean WAS good for. They have cut back on their stock of same parts to the point where the stores have a small fraction of the selection they used to have. Now you have to order those parts thru the catalog or online. :-(

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shame.

My experience is that there is a constant turnover of salesdroids, mainly because the pay isn't good. They are paid on a commission basis, and if they don't sell a lot of high profit items like satellite dishes and cellphones, then they don't make much money.

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The impression I got was that the CoCo was a toy. But I boguth a Model

They never really got cheap. I'm glad mine lasted for the duration of all my lab classes.

You expect the sales people at RS to know anything about the products. You had may as well ask for the best wine to go with a Big Mac.

As for requiring a SS number, that is blatantly illegal. Or you can give a fake one

Wanna make something of it.

When paying by cash I say the name is.

C. Ash

Again, if they don't like it, they could stuff it.

However, at the local RS, here in Costa Mesa, they no longer ask for name or address on cash purchases. I think they finally grasped that is the one thing that really pissed people off about them.

If you need parts to build anything, forget RS.

I usually reply simply with "Cash"..if the sales-driod doesn't catch on,and ask's me for my first name.. "Cash"....by then they usually get it,and ring me up without any further questions.

RadioShack is worthless now days.. Last time I went in there looking for a simple digital IC (a NAND gate,I think..) I was directed to a rack with 4-5 IC"s on it,what was left over.. I went to the drawers with the LED's and stuff 2 LED's in the store,and they didn't have any in back.. (or were too lazy to look) most all the drawers were empty,and I was told that they are "phasing out" component sales.. That's all they were good for,and now even that is history.. I went to *4* stores one day looking for 1 single 100K pot...none of them had any pots whatsoever,and the parts selection in the other 3 stores was also nearly non-existant.

RadioShack is Worthless.

FWIW.... my recent visit to the local shack just this past week - I went to the counter with my items, he asked my zip code and told me the total, which I then paid, bid him a fond farewell and left. End of transaction. He asked me for nothing else than my zip code. THAT is no big deal. I could have given any, but I did give mine.

There are other stores in this area - who to my knowledge never collected names/addresses, BUT they do ask for zip code. Probably to acquire a "ZIP CODE" related bulk mailing list.

L.

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name or

"L." wrote in news:UhMRc.575$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.dllstx9.us.to.verio.net:

Radio Shack had an announcement some time ago that stated that they were stopping the annoying policy of asking for name and address. There has been a change in management and the new mgmt decided that it was tired of pissing people off every time they wanted to buy something.

"We've stopped the practice of asking for your name and address on every purchase at your local store!"

Well, this is because they don't hire people anymore who know a thing about the technology that they're pushing. They hire sales people who are paid to get a sale no matter what. It's like 7-11 and Checker Auto Parts. Fine for picking up a fuse, a Twinkie, quart of oil. Beyond that, you'd better find a good local electronics store. Problem is, the good ol' parts stores are rapidly disappearing, at least they are here in Denver. Gateway - Gone. Krumps - Gone. Quest - Gone. Fistell's might still be around, I'll have to check... Theses are the places that you have to watch your step as you walk through the aisles. It was overwhelming. There was nothing you couldn't find! I guess I'll just have to start an account with Digikey or Newark or Mouser.

--- Heavy sigh...---

The indignant one.

"John Halley" wrote in news:41434434$1 snipped-for-privacy@omega.dimensional.com:

Digikey is highly regarded round these parts.

I like DigiKey. Their "online chat" (live online tech help) is easy to use and staffed by people who "know their stuff." If I don't feel like spending half an hour browsing through their catalogs, I just click on "chat" and ask them to look up something for me. They usually find something appropropriate for me quickly. Shipping is lightning fast too. It took less than 2 days for the package to arrive at my door (in Canada). I heard Mouser is cheaper, but I don't buy a large enough quantity of a particular item anyway to make much difference.

Al-U

At the risk of generating so much traffic that a favorite site gets overwhelmed and unavailable... try

It's by part numbers only, not a parametric search, but if you already have a part in mind -- need a couple hundred 8085s for that legacy product? -- it's quite handy.

I've had no problems with digikey or mouser for parts. Both offer a pdf file of their inventory.

When I was in Oklahoma, parts from mouser arrived the next day using the normal UPS shipping. Digikey was less than a week. I'm sure it will be the other way around now that I'm in Michigan.

Joe

about

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Mouser.

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..and Mouser is better for quantity pricing; aqlmost as good as a disty.

Mouser.

I've found a lot of parts I need on Ebay. Lots cheaper than Digi-Key and Mouser.

I used to go to Radio Scrap a lot more often, maybe once every two weeks, but now I'm down to once ever few months. Last year, I got burned so bad on some two line telephone sets (half the time the user picked it up they couldn't hear anything) that I was very disappointed. And with the salesdreoids always busy with some cell phone customer (it takes them forever), I've walked out of the store after waiting ten or

pdf

I got shorted by Mouser, ordered and paid for 100, got 50. They made up for it tho. I still think Mouser is cheaper. But I've been getting a lot of very cheap parts from Ebay.

the

be the

With Fedex, everything goes thru Memphis, so it shouldn't make any diff. UPS I don't know. Fedex sucks IMHO. Nowadays, DHL is eating UPS' and Fedex's lunch, and I hope they put Fedex out of business.

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I've always had very good luck with FedEx. It's UPS I try to avoid.

-- Bob Day