I want a small gun that spits out a Globally Unique Identifier (as numbers? characters? barcode?), marking any object with ink. Interchangeable nozzles allow me to use different ink on different sorts of items. It stores the GUIDS it has created, and synching with a computer, PDA, or other device allows me to annotate the GUID with information about the item marked.

Internally, this allows me to mark and track all of my unique items: photographs (very messy arrangement at present), clothing, tools, pets, children, etc...

If I choose, I may also set up an account on the intermediary Web site which protects my identity but lists selected GUIDS I have created; that way when you find the (marked) jacket I lost and go type the number in on the site, you may initiate contact anonymously.

I suppose the gun should have a scanner to make reading the GUIDs easy too. (Or perhaps we simply repurpose all those CueCats, eh?)
-- jurgen, May 21 2001

Skim http://www.skim.com
Overpriced and to a different end, but illustrates the online part of the model. [jurgen, May 21 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Well that creates a use I'd not thought of: I mark all my food with the dye attachment and needn't argue any more with my housemates about whose eggs/aubergines/yogurt that is going bad in the fridge!
-- jurgen, May 21 2001


"This egg brought to you by ChickensButt.com."
-- StarChaser, May 21 2001


Rods: when I sell something to you I just free the number from my lists, public and private; you then add it to yours. This isn't meant to be any rigid, legal, proof-of-ownership scheme, just an informal but reliable way of tracking items small and large. Further question; once I've marked my egg yolks, how do I get them back into the eggs?
-- jurgen, May 22 2001


They were using a label printer and barcode scanner like this on my current project.
-- DrCurry, Aug 22 2002



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