I am presenting at the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Conference next week so I finally got my credentials in the mail. The conference has had a pretty substantial vendor area and I don’t think that it will change this year. In the past, all of the vendors would try to give away anything from pens to yoga mats to anti-epileptic rectal gel applicators (without the gel) with their company names on them. All you had to do is let them scan the 2D barcode on your badge so that they could add your information to their marketing database. I don’t like collecting those things as they are usually really poorly made, however, this year I am going to have some fun.
I scanned my badge and used the SWIPE toolkit (online tool) to decode the 2D barcode and see that it contained things like my SFN member number, name, address, and contact information. The specific format of this 2D barcode is PDF417, so there are several available on-line encoders [1][2][3]. My plan is to encode myself a new barcode and stick it over the original barcode in the badge holder and then see if any of the vendors notice. I would even let them scan my badge without giving me anything in return.
If you want to meet up at the SFN conference or have an idea for credentials to put in the bar code, send an email or leave a comment. I am thinking of impersonating Carl Gauss, but don’t know what to put for his phone number or email, maybe I will leave them blank.
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