[ellisin]

I'm using the demo version of Delicious Library right now. I'm having real trouble getting the built in iSight on my Intel iMac to read barcodes. I've tried increasing the lighting by the computer, and trying to hold the barcodes at different distances and angles. iSight can read only a few barcodes out of the bunch (and those usually take a minute to be read).

Is there a way to get iSight to respond better? Is the bluetooth scanner much better? I don't mind buying one; I just want to make sure it really will work.

Thank you in advance.

[Ed S]

Short answer: the bluetooth scanner is much better, but it's not perfect.

Longer answer: DL was written for old Macs with external iSight cameras. The built-in cameras on the new Macs are different, and pose some challenges for DL. Wil Shipley claims to have written a workaround (search in-page for "focal"), but in my experience the built-in iSight just isn't usable for scanning barcodes. Sometimes it scans immediately, sometimes it takes many tries over a 30-45 second period, sometimes it will not recognize a bar code at all. This is my experience, though, and is not in any way a negative opinion of the DL folks. On the contrary: I think it's amazing that they've made it work at all and as well as it does.

The Flic bluetooth scanner is really quite nice: it's comfortable and quick to use. It nearly always scans in less than a second, occasionally (1 book in 50 or so) takes a few tries before succeeding, and very rarely fails to read a barcode. It is indescribably useful for scanning an existing library: no need to haul books over to the Mac. The downside is, mine is flaky. It frequently fails to bluetooth-connect to my iMac. DL gets itself into a mode where the Bluetooth icon cycles colors, as if it's trying to talk to the scanner, but they never actually sync up. This requires a hard reset procedure on the scanner, and resetting the Bluetooth stuff on the Mac, about 10 minutes of work. After that the scanner will work fine for another week or maybe even a month. I'm the only person who has reported this problem, though, so it might just be my scanner or my iMac or even my karma.

Bottom line: if you have more money than time, definitely get the Flic. If you're willing to be patient with the camera, and enter numbers manually when it doesn't scan, DL with iSight is still pretty nice.

[VideoBeagle]

As mentioned in another thread, cheap usb scanners like the cue:cat (readily found throughout ebay and elsewhere) works just great with the program.