Image
EAN-13	9780739465813
Product Name	Wizard By Trade: Summer Knight / Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Nos. 4-5)
Language	English
Category	Book / Magazine / Publication
Short Description	Height:1.7 inches / Length:8.5 inches / Width:5.7 inches
Amazon.com	Buy on Amazon ~ 0739465813
SKU	QX-043-31-9423709
Price New	26.45 US Dollars    (curriencies)
Price Used	6.99 US Dollars    (curriencies)
Width	5.7 inches    (convert)
Height	1.7 inches    (convert)
Length	8.5 inches    (convert)
Author	Jim Butcher
Page Count	598
Binding	Hardcover
Published	04/22/2017
Features	Whacky Fantasy novel
Long Description	Wizard by Trade is the Omnibus edition, combining Summer Knight, book #4, and Death Masks, book #5, from The Dresden Files series. This hardback book was published after both paperbacks and prior to the two hardcover editions, making the Omnibus edition important to collectors. Summer Knight: Private detective/wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is suckered into tangling in the affairs of Faerie, where the fate of the entire world - and his soul - are at stake. Death Masks is an altogether darker work, focusing on demons rather than faeries. Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing professional wizard, is hired by a mysterious priest to find the stolen shroud of Turin.
Similar Items	9780451463173: Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) 9780451462565: Turn Coat (The Dresden Files, Book 11) 9780451458926: Summer Knight (Dresden Files) 9780739483442: Wizard Under Fire: Proven Guilty / White Night (The Dresden Files, Nos. 8-9) 9780739476581: Wizard At Large: Blood Rites / Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, Nos. 6-7) 9780709078272: Wizard At Large: Blood Rites / Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, Nos. 6-7) 9780739451939: Wizard For Hire: Storm Front / Fool Moon / Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Nos. 1-3) 9780451462343: Wizard For Hire: Storm Front / Fool Moon / Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Nos. 1-3) 9780451461896: Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) 9780451461971: Wizard For Hire: Storm Front / Fool Moon / Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Nos. 1-3) View 11 more similar items
Created	11-22-2012 12:10:00am
Modified	04-22-2017 9:23:37pm
MD5	5e43e2a8908a4fd8e8309f4b76393f7a
SHA256	f5bc352e3dc0770fcea658b05a6f1f12f35f9fc186a33dc04cb602808c8e261e
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Article of interest

Barcodes are a graphical representation of information that can be easily read by machines. People read text easy enough but machines find this to be too complex so we use barcodes to simplify the process.

Barcodes can store numbers, letters and all the special characters. What can be stored in the barcode depends on which type of barcode is being used. But the basics of how a barcode works is the same regardless of what type of code it is, what information is stored in the barcode or what type of scanner is being used.

It all starts with the scan. The scanner, regardless of which type you are using, will examine the barcode image. The lines (or blocks in the case of 2D barcodes) will either reflect or absorb light. When we look at the barcode, we tend to see the dark stripes and think of those as the important parts. Those are the parts that absorb the light and the white parts reflect the light. So the scanners tend to see the barcodes in reverse of how we think of them. But the dark and light portions of the code on their own don't automatically become the information stored in the code. In most cases, it is the relative placement and size of each dark and light stripe (or block) that make up the information. There are also special markers that help the scanner know which direction the barcode is facing when it is scanned. This allows the scanning process to work even if the barcode is upside down when it is scanned. The scanner simply processes the scanned data in reverse in this case.

Taking a look at an oscolloscope screen as a scanner passes over barcode, you can see that the stripes reflect back light and the scanner registers the changes as high and low levels. So what looks like a simple image is really a rather complex set of layered encryption to store the data. The encryption isn't done to hide the information in this case. Instead it is done to make it easy for the machine to read the information. Since the base language of machines is binary (1 and 0) it is easy for them to read this type of information even if it takes several steps to turn this back into something that people can understand.

The size of each high and low are combined to make binary data. A series of 1 (one) and 0 (zero) values which are strung together then decoded into the actual information. Up to this point, the process is the same for all barcodes regardless of how they are stored. Getting the lines or dots into binary is the easy part for the machine. The next step is to make this binary code into something useful to people. That step depends on  which type of barcode is being scanned. Each type of barcode has its own encoding methode. Just like human languages, what seems to be two similar words (or barcodes in this case) could actually be two very different values even though they have the same basic letters (or bars).

So you can see that the scanning devices need to know not only how to turn the bars or dots into binary, but after they have done that they need to know how to turn that binary string into the original information. But regardless of the encoding process the basic steps are the same. Process the light and dark areas, convert them to binary, decode the binary, pass the information on to the receiving device which is normally a computer program of some sort.

Once the decoded data reaches the computer program, there is no telling how the information is to be used. The grocery store will use the information to keep track of the products you purchased as you go through the register. A manufacturer will use the code to identify where they are storing their parts. And shipping companies use the codes to keep track of the packages they are delivering.

Now that you know a little about the mechanical portion of the process, take some time to learn about the different types of barcode scanners and the different ways the information can be encoded into barcodes.