back to article How a cheap barcode scanner helped fix CrowdStrike'd Windows PCs in a flash

Not long after Windows PCs and servers at the Australian limb of audit and tax advisory Grant Thornton started BSODing last Friday, senior systems engineer Rob Woltz remembered a small but important fact: When PCs boot, they consider barcode scanners no differently to keyboards. That knowledge nugget became important as the …

  1. Mendy

    An alternative would have been to use a 'rubber duck' - though this might have taken longer to procure.

    1. Casca Silver badge

      Yea, I really like the simplicity of using barcode scanners.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Advantage is you can tell branch offices to buy a scanner and email them the barcode for each machine.

      Rather than telling them to buy rubber duckies on Ebay / Aliexpress, wait, install build environment, get the build to work, reprogram for every new machine's bitlocker code.

      1. UnknownUnknown

        “Woltz went to an office supplies store and acquired an off-the-shelf barcode scanner for AU$55 ($36).”

        Sounds like a Disciplinary for breaching Global IT Procurement Policy is coming….

      2. TheBruce

        Wouldn't that be sending the passcode in the clear to the end user. Plus who knows?

        1. Darkk

          It's not really an issue as you can re-roll the bit locker keys in InTune.

  2. anothercynic Silver badge
    Pint

    Brilliant concept!

    Bravo! Someone who thought outside the box, and I'm actually surprised that they were allowing USB barcode scanners to be plugged into the PCs! Imagine if the USB ports had been disabled by policy for anything but mouse and keyboard (although some scanners actually identify as a keyboard).

    Nonetheless, kudos and applause (and a beer)

    1. Nick Stallman

      Re: Brilliant concept!

      Barcode scanners actually typically appear as keyboards. They scan the number or text in a range of different supported formats and just type it in and hit enter at the end of the barcode automatically.

      Zero drivers, zero fuss. They are awesome things.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        I didn't know that. That is insane. Awesome, and insane.

        Once again, it's not a question of what the thing was made for, it's a question of what can it do. A PC can use a barcode scanner on boot. And somebody knew that little tidbit, and thought to apply it.

        Awesome.

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          This is the sort of thing that reminds me why I got into IT - not the sort of ivory-tower nonsense and project-apologies that one's career can too easily morph into

          1. teknopaul

            Barcodes are cool, use them a lot for test data entry.

            Most phones can read them nowadays, so a fallback to type it out by hand is always available.

            Natural for any URL obviously.

            But for any gui apps I write with data entry, I add a simple feature to auto skip to the next field after reaching max length, and support for typing all fields inc drop downs and checkboxes. Make using a Barcodes scanner to enter test data possible, makes copy paste work too, and makes Barcode readers work in the field for customers that suddenly have a lot of unexpected work to do.

      2. Orv Silver badge

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        Pre-USB, they used to plug in in between a PS/2 keyboard and the PC, with a special plug-and-socket cable. This was often called a "keyboard wedge" because the scanner was "wedged" in between the keyboard and the computer.

      3. bigtreeman

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        Back in the 90s I used a barcode scanner to enter the device serial number into the firmware to program into secure modem micro-controllers, programmed in Forth.

        Scan the serial number from the sticker on the box, program, test, assemble .... out the door. Really quick, secure and simple.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Brilliant concept!

      Yup, good thinking.

      For those who want to experiment with this themselves:

      1 - get a Code 39 font;

      2 - print/show whatever you want to encode (well, OK, digits and uppercase alpha) between a starting and ending '*' (barcodes have start/stop codes that allow it to recognise the code, in the C39 fonts it's typicall the star character);

      3 - use practically any cheap scanner to read it. Heck, they even come in Bluetooth and Wifi variants and they really are dirt cheap now (in contrast with about 40 years ago when I started using barcodes, a scanner would then set you back for serious money and they were very basic compared to what you can now get for less than €100, and they would not be able to read a code off a screen).

      Just make sure you program it for the right keyboard emulation and you may or may not forgo ending the scan with a simulated press on 'Enter'

      We've been printing invoice details also as Code39 for years - seriously speeds up data entry.

      When you start with QR codes it gets even more entertaining because it's essentially reading a text file which then gets interpreted if certain magic words appear such as vcard or wlan. We have the public WLAN always on QR codes, saves a lot of time.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        The only spanner in the works is I don't think there's any way to program a pause between keypresses, so you couldn't use a QR code scanner to automate all the keypresses involved the Crowdstrike recovery process from one QR code.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Brilliant concept!

          One QR code per step

          1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            Re: Brilliant concept!

            Depending on how you program a barcode scanner (By scanning codes funnily enough) you can include scan coded formats & functions like a simulated [Enter] or not.

            Sometimes throws me as some work owned wired ones are set up with no [Enter] sometimes that's a blessing depending on the task\application I'm doing.

      2. Jellied Eel Silver badge

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        When you start with QR codes it gets even more entertaining because it's essentially reading a text file which then gets interpreted if certain magic words appear such as vcard or wlan. We have the public WLAN always on QR codes, saves a lot of time.

        Cunning! Now looking for a USB QR scanner. Guessing barcodes might be easier given they've been around for yonks and more readily available.

      3. H in The Hague

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        "1 - get a Code 39 font;"

        Please bear in mind that Code 39 only supports uppercase letters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39

        If you use MS Word you don't need to download a barcode font - might help to avoid security issues. The Word Help file explains how to insert bar codes & QR codes and switch between the code image and plain text. Basically, you insert a field, then enter the data for the bar code and metadata (described in Help) to indicate the barcode type, size, etc.

        See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/field-codes-displaybarcode-6d81eade-762d-4b44-ae81-f9d3d9e07be3

        For example: Ctrl-F9, two curly braces will appear, place the following text between them: DisplayBarcode "El Reg 123" CODE128 \d \t

        For a QR code: DisplayBarcode "El Reg 123" QR \q 3

        Then right-click the field to switch between displaying the barcode and the text (Toggle Field Codes).

        Also works with Excel and mail merge I think, but haven't tried that.

        Couldn't find a similar function in LibreOffice Writer, so in that case you would have to get a barcode font.

        Used to tinker with this a few decades ago - thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.

        1. Mage Silver badge

          Re: Barcode font?

          Use Inkscape and SVR format to create, easily then bmp or png at any desired size.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Brilliant concept!

          "Couldn't find a similar function in LibreOffice Writer"

          Insert>Ole object>QR and barcode

          Type/paste text into the box on the dialog pop-up, select format (QR is default), click OK.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Brilliant concept!

            I didn't find a way to toggle between that and text but right click and the menu includes an "Edit barcode" option that takes you back to the dialog with the text displayed.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Brilliant concept!

            That's been in there for ages too but let's face it, the regular barcodes like 2 of 5, code 39/128 and EAN et al are not complicated - long ago I even wrote code to generate them on an Psion Organiser II :)

            The reason I like the barcode font idea is that that works for many applications, and you scale the barcode by simply adjusting the font size, thus benefitting from vectorisation. Scaling a picture can create quality issues which can impact reading alhough modern scanners (especially camera based ones) cope a lot better these days.

            What I like about QR codes is that they have an adjustable error correction rate, sadly often used by marketeers to plant a logo in the middle of it, leaving the error correction to cope with the damage so inflicted..

          3. H in The Hague

            Re: Brilliant concept!

            "Insert>Ole object>QR and barcode"

            Thanks! (Couldn't find that with the Help function.)

            I'm currently on version 6.4 which only offers Insert - Object - QR code.

            Insert - Object - OLE object doesn't support barcodes or QR codes. Probably time I updated.

            1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

              Re: Brilliant concept!

              Probably time I updated.

              I recommend you do, I am at 24.2.5.2 and supports both.

              1. H in The Hague
                Pint

                Re: Brilliant concept!

                "I recommend you do, I am at 24.2.5.2 and supports both."

                I just updated LibreOffice.

                Two issues:

                - yes, it can generate a barcode, but gives you no choice of the barcode type (and doesn't even tell you what type it uses)

                - you can't easily toggle between the barcode/QR code and the underlying plain text

                Almost that time of the week again -->

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Brilliant concept! COOL!

          Thanks for posting. Got to try it once I get home from phone only holiday.

      4. Phones Sheridan Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        Code 39 is a great start to barcoding, but you quickly start generating huge barcodes, as it's literally 1 barcode section per character. Once you hit that problem you move to Code 128 barcodes, which uses compression to reduce the length of the bar code, and to date, all Barcode scanners I've used in the last 15 years natively read Code 128 barcodes, and convert them into your standard keyboard keypresses.

        It takes a little bit of work to convert your string of text into a Code 128 barcode, but I've always used ID Automation's microwave-ready offerings for pretty much every implementation I've needed, and unlike most services nowadays, it was a one off purchase.

        Yes it's a shameless plug, but it was a useful source of code when I needed it it, so someone else might find it useful, and no, I don't work for them.

        1. cornetman Silver badge

          Re: Brilliant concept!

          > Once you hit that problem you move to Code 128 barcodes

          IIRC, Code128 allows you to switch between code blocks as well to get access to a greater number of characters including upper and lower case. It's been a while since I worked with barcodes though.

      5. herman Silver badge

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        On Linux see ‘man qrencode’ and ‘man barcode’. Then, print them all out and just do one bleep per step.

      6. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Brilliant concept!

        Be careful if you use Excel for your document. It likes to be "helpful" to you by adding a space at the end of the word. Fun one to debug because the barcode looks fine visually both rendered as a code39 font and as a normal font.

        1. W.S.Gosset Silver badge

          Re: Brilliant concept!

          That's not "Excel", that's your personal Settings for its text-entry Autocorrect. Just twiddle them.

    3. Glenn Amspaugh

      Re: Brilliant concept!

      Wonder if my old :CueCat scanner would work?

      Seems like they had some different encoding, right?

    4. GraXXoR Bronze badge

      Re: Brilliant concept!

      Barcode scanners are HID/Keyboard devices to the host os. So unless you’re using vendor ID to whitelist/blacklist you should be good to go.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Neat trick.

    I've used it when bulk provisioning machines, it saves a load of time and RSI instead of having to type all the stuff that needs to be entered on a 'Zero Touch' install.

    More recently I set up a rubbery ducky with a few buttons to trigger the various bits.

    Anon in case my CISO sees this ;)

    .

    1. john wayne
      Pint

      Re: Neat trick.

      Been there, done that, back in the day (ashamed to say 25 years ago) we used a sheet of paper with 4 or 5 long-ish barcodes to build PCs, anything long or complicated became a barcode.

      beep beep, ronseal !!

      Icon because great ideas always deserve a beer

    2. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Neat trick.

      I already use a barcode reader for (eg) copying the MAC of a new machine, but I'd not thought of using one to input commands before. It's a great idea, and will help make my process even more idiot proof :)

  4. harrys Bronze badge

    Well impressed

    The best solutions are always lateral and simple

    1. UnknownUnknown

      I’m not seeing the value in bringing remote colleagues in to do this quick fix though.

  5. Mishak Silver badge

    Bonus earned

    Make it a good one!

  6. Bebu
    IT Angle

    I guess...

    I won't be able to buy a barcode scanner from Officeworks for a while. ;)

    Although there might be a few on Gumtree soon.

    1. celery

      Re: I guess...

      And just think how much you can sell them for again when the next CrowdStrikes!

  7. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
    Pint

    Working Smarter Not Harder

    I've carried barcode scanners in my toolbox for years, simplifying a variety of tasks like, audits\stock takes, provisioning equipment, license keys, scanning in things like commands into a bespoke server\system app that won't accept cut & paste, or passwords (minus a few special characters) & a couple of take-away stories from one project....

    Thanks to a colleagues love of Access, two hardware imaging\provisioning teams were working on prepping machines to ship to as we were working to his list, while the B team worked from the Master list & twice as many machines were being shipped to the sites to the deployment teams......

    Story 1:

    From this project, me & another colleague sent to do a stock take of returned equipment into geezers Access Database, it was ugly, unwieldy to use (Looked pretty though) so I opted to use Excel, figuring geezer could import the data & while he grumbled we didn't use his tool he did just that, some hours later the Project Manager grumbled that he also wished I had not used the scanner as there was a lengthy prefix that wasn't needed & he was manually editing each serial number to remove it, at which point I asked why are you simply not using [CRTL]+[H] search & replace the prefix, to which our former architect now IT project Manager had never known existed as a function.

    Story 2:

    Now the deployment teams were supposed to log the names of the users, make model serial number of each piece of IT Equipment on each desk, which they failed to do. I opted to help with a small branch\office & went along scanned the required info. Halfway home the deployment team PM rings me asking me to return to site, I reply that its all in Excel & I'll email it when I get home, she says she wants the physical sheets as she has to transcribe them & I repeat that's its on a Excel Spreadsheet on my tablet....this conversation continued in a loop until the penny drops that I can email them then all she has to do is cut & paste if she just texts me her email address.

    So I am asked if I can assist at a much bigger site on the Saturday, I turn up later as I'm not in the shit like the attending deployment team members present for the information gathering, report to the Deployment manager wave my tablet & scanner at her & ask where she would like me to start & off I go. Lunchtime comes around, I finish my area, email the mornings info & look for a place to charge my tablet passing by 5 of the deployment team, hunched over dollar store clipboards writing the information into tiny fields on printed sheets, with cramps in their hands as they try to record all the information.

    "Hey whats that?"

    Barcode scanner.

    "Who gave you that?"

    Both scanner & tablet are my personal property, as I prefer to work smarter not harder.

    "Barcode scanners are expensive!"

    They are about $10 from a e-waste disposal place in town.

    I then left them, feeling the daggers of hate & envy as I located a charge point & took a leisurely lunch.

    Icon - I've since upgraded to a wireless scanner & I get good coverage around the whole production offices where I work now & sharing a pint for all the other like minded individuals who posted their tales of how they also keep a scanner to hand while I was typing.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

      You could also get scanners which stored what they'd read and could disgorge it as a file. Great for stocktakes - climbing over racking etc scanner in hand. I used vi to massage the data files into a form fit for loading into a rather bigger database than Access.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

        a rather bigger database than Access

        That should be 'in a databsae rather than Access'..

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

      It’s a shame a smartphone can’t easily be configured to permit a user to set its USB characteristics. As this would seem to be a good case of having the phone connect as a usb keyboard and using the phones scanner and keyboard to send commands… it would save you having to carry two devices.

      Edit: should of done the Google before posting… looks like the CartonCloud app does this and there is also a YouTube video

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2WPjZ-RhfE

      1. Pierre 1970

        Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

        I thought of the "phone" alternative...but so far I couldn't find any app that turns your mobile into a really USB device.... all the solutions on a quick search needed some sort of program in the PC, so the solution is not suitable for this boot tasks.

    3. PB90210 Silver badge

      Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

      When we needed more scanners we opted for wi-fi versions of the old ones(?) only to discover they had a lower resolution... so it went from one man dragging a trolley with a laptop, to two, one scanning, the other shouting 'next!'/'try again'

    4. Noram

      Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

      Reading this reminds me of why I got my personal barcode scanner, not for work but home.

      I was doing an inventory of my DVD, CD and books, and realised a barcode scanner could save so much time.

      As this was 20+ years ago proper barcode scanners were expensive, far too much for me to consider, but there had been a failed internet startup/dot com boom company *CueCat" that partnered with various companies (including radioshack) in the US to make it easier to use vouchers/enter long URL's and a cross platform loyalty scheme type thing, so they created a very cheap "drag along" barcode scanner that theoretically only worked with their software as they encrypted their output and included a unique ID for each scanner (something that apparently was easy to break, it required cutting one pin on a chip or something so it just output the plain barcode).

      When they went bust you could pick them up at something like 2 for $10 for "declawed" CueCats shipped to the UK.

      I've had a couple of newer and much better scanners since then including my current one that can be wired or bluetooth (with 200 line memory), and they've proven so handy for everything from dealing with my DVD collection (now in 4 figures), to RMA's as I can scan the barcodes for serial numbers on hardware much faster and accurately than I can read and enter the numbers, especially as I get older.

      Given the cost of even really small/pocket sized ones now they really are something everyone who has to handle things like serial numbers or barcodes should have in their kit, as it can pay for itself within a couple of hours use.

      1. StudeJeff

        Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

        I remember the CueCats, I had one that came from Radio Shack. It was a neat idea that didn't go very far.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Working Smarter Not Harder

        Nowadays you can get a good, rechargable cordless QR code capable scanner with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for under €100, and they're fairly easy to program if you want to go beyond the default.

        I use Bluetooth if I want to hook it up to iOS, and the 'wifi' is usually not really WiFi but 2.4Ghz connectivity to the stub supplied with it, but that's good enough for a good 30m away from the system you're simulating keypresses on.

        Add to that that most of them can also store scans until you decant them into a PC and they're just too useful not to have one lying around. Add to that a Brother Cube+ label printer where the software also allows you to print your own labels and you have a small setup to tag pretty much everything except the cat..

  8. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    Our home ISP provides a router which allows the creation of a guest WiFi network. I have the credentials for it printed as a QR code, so when a visitor asks, often hesitantly, if they can use our WiFi I just hand them the paper "scan that". After initial surprise "wot, just scan this thing ?!" they're instantly connected and well impressed at how clever I am. They've clearly not stayed in any of the hotels I got the idea from, and I'm not going to tell them :)

    1. pantsu
      Pint

      I do similar but instead I had some drinks coasters printed with the Peons network QR code on. Really convenient and it keeps the unwanted off my main network but sadly not out of my fridge where the beers are :(

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Maybe print some labels with expired expiry dates? :)

    2. l8gravely

      Thank you all so much! Now I'll be printing QRcodes for my home network, and for some other networks I manage.

      John

  9. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

    Hmm... maybe its me, but a senior engineer should not have auto updates on in the first place....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Downvoted because, as any fule kno, decisions like this are NEVER made by engineers

      1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        Any fools knows that most managers dont even know you can disable auto updates. They have no fucking idea how or when or if these things happen.

        There is nothing stopping these engineers from disabling auto updates, except having a brain and not taking the lazy option. Like most fuckups, they happen because people are lazy.

        1. I could be a dog really Silver badge

          Apart from when company policy says they cannot disable them ?

  10. navarac Silver badge

    Bonus

    I hope the team got a big Bonus.

    1. nematoad Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Bonus

      I hope the team got a big Bonus.

      Of course not!

      Their boss will as he was the one who hired the team in the first place and thereby showed his brilliance, forward thinking and managerial qualities. Or that's what he will say.

      Hmm, I seem to be running short on dried frog pills.

  11. Plest Silver badge
    Pint

    This here!

    This is why I've loved almost every minute of my 35 year IT career, you get to solve problems and if you have the right management they encourage you to just think outside the box and solve problems in novel ways.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This here!

      Quite a lot of Twitter people are now outside thinking in a box.

      No, wait..

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People bitlock there servers?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      People bitlock there servers?

      We came into the office one morning to find a smashed window, and that all the disks from all our Sun servers had been stolen. Presumably the thieves weren't smart enough to know the difference between SCSI and IDE so I doubt the disks were of any use, but the data on them might have been so encrypting them is not that ridiculous an idea. We had good backups so no lasting harm done.

      At least they had some taste, though, amusingly they'd used the otherwise untouched HP kit to wedge the door open...

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        I suppose if your VM host is running Windows then it would be possible to Bitlocker that. Alternatively, you could run Bitlocker in each Windows VM.

        Neither is necessary, however, and there are (ISTM) reasonable (scalable, headless) ways of encrypting just the virtual discs used by your VMM that don't store the keys on the host iron at all.

  13. candyman76

    Love this

    I think that is one of the best solutions I have heard in a long time. Reminds me of when I had barcodes setup to configure multiple hand held scanners for the shop floor. I love that take on it and going to totally steal this idea for the future. That is a place I would like to work at, totally dig that idea.

  14. Scene it all

    On Linux there is a command "qrencode" that will convert any text into a PNG file. Isn't there something similar for Windows?

    1. herman Silver badge
      Devil

      Of course there is a similar Linux utility for barcodes called, wait for it, drum roll, barcode.

    2. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Does "Winbuntu" have that command? Presumably it is entirely user-space code, so it obviously could.

    3. W.S.Gosset Silver badge

      Cygwin (free: gives Unix Shell+commands on windows) might include it on its long list of click-to-install standard Unix copies.

  15. Nematode Bronze badge

    Looks like M$ don't need Clownstrike to mess things up. They can do it perfectly well on their own (but then we knew that)

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-july-security-updates-send-pcs-into-bitlocker-recovery/

    Got your bar code scanner ready?

  16. Miss Config
    Thumb Up

    Wrong Place For Article ?

    From Reg's pov the only problem with this story is that there is now one fewer tale for Who, Me ?

  17. b1k3rdude

    But whats worrying is the BL key was the 'SAME' on all these machines. Typically its 'per machine' so this one-trick-pony wouldnt work in most enterprixe enviroments... (as me how I know)

    Er no, been there done that, every time I have had to repeatedly enter some very long string that was the same on a bunch of machine that were being rebuilt.

    1. yetanotheraoc Silver badge

      undefined

      The article doesn't explicitly say whether they were the same or different. The use of plurals in the quote below implies they were different. At least that's how I scan it. What was the same was the laptop display and the script.

      "The firm had the BitLocker keys for all its PCs, so Woltz and colleagues wrote a script that turned them into barcodes that were displayed on a locked-down management server's desktop. The script would be given a hostname and generate the necessary barcode and LAPS password to restore the machine."

  18. herman Silver badge

    Cuecat

    Nobody used a Cuecat?

  19. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Genius.

    Toss up between thumbs up and beer.

    But.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
      Pint

      Re: Genius.

      Fortunately the very first comment provided the beer. Here it is again, in case you missed it.

    2. W.S.Gosset Silver badge

      Re: Genius.

      >thumbs up and beer

      Careful, you'll have your eye out.

      1. MrMerrymaker

        Re: Genius.

        Or yours.

  20. Niek Jongerius

    Zap!

    The people picking and packing orders and doing inventory at a previous employer used a barcode scanner to track inventory. The application however required an "enter" to finish the scan. They regularly received pallets full of products, which meant "scan" - "key click" - "scan" - "key click" etc. They had to do this as a two-person job - one scanning and yelling "yup", the other clicking. We created a small barcode simulating the "enter" click, so that became "scan barcode" - "scan enter" etc. The warehouse chief eventually taped the barcode to his forehead, so he could "shoot product" - "shoot himself".

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Zap!

      Most barcode scanners allow you to program them to do a whole bunch of stuff, including injecting keystrokes into the output. The Honeywell ones we use already add an 'enter' to the end, but you can disable that, or change it via a set of barcodes in the manual.

      Not useful to you if this was a previous job, but hopefully it'll help someone who has to deal with barcode readers in the future.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Zap!

        It's actually on by default, but we had to disable it for a client who wanted scanned input manually checked. before entry.

        Once we explained just how much error correction goes in a barcode (translated: you either get a correct read or nothing) we were allowed to re-enable it and so speed up data collection;.

  21. ecofeco Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    This

    ... is how you use tech to work for you.

    It is depressing to think this is newsworthy, but... good credit to El Reg for passing along the solution.

    I've worked at far too many places where I got the serious side-eye for suggesting we use hand scanners for a lot of chores.

  22. IGotOut Silver badge

    We've used the barcode trick for years..

    ...just not for this.

    Long story, but some our industrial equipment sometimes requires a very long key to be entered to validate the software after a reboot. Problem is, the keyboard is locked inside the case. So rather than unlock the cabinet, whack in a 30 digital reference, we have the number stuck on the side and just scan it in.

  23. Jonathan Richards 1 Silver badge

    Barcode password

    Once upon a time, I worked in an establishment where we tracked the movement of classified documents around the various sections by means of barcode labels - this was thought to be less error prone than hand writing document IDs into a register, which had been the practice between, oh, say 1066 and about 1990. Those of us sending and receiving the documents got a barcode scanner attached to our VT320 terminals, and I remember obtaining a bar encoding program (probably from Simtel20) and printing out my tediously long password as a barcode to save having to re-enter it. Laziness is worth nothing unless it is well carried out.

  24. -tim

    Type, type without the local keyboard

    I would like to have a good phone application that pretends to be a bluetooth keyboard that lets the other end send tones over phone call or facetime call or zoom call to send keyboard characters over the line. That would save so much time doing remote admin work. Of course the scammers would make great use of it so perhaps the thing should be able to time the sound reflection to figure out how far away the other end is.

  25. memotypic

    Crowdstrike'd

    Crowdstruck? Crowdstricken? :D

  26. Splod

    Brilliant

    That man should be in charge of innovation!

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like