QUESTIONS about the U.P.C. and the New Testamant

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This page deals only with questions pertaining to the U.P.C. symbol and the perceived connotation to the book in the new testament titled "The Revelation". Although chapter 13, paragraph 18 reads " ... for it is the number of a man ; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.", there is nothing sinister about the U.P.C.. It is simply a coincidence

As of November 2000,
I will no longer respond to questions concerning this subject.

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Section 6 Question #1 - Rumor has it that the lines (left, middle, and right) that protrude below the U.P.C. code are the numbers 6,6,6... and that this is the international money code. I typed a code with all sixes and this seems to be true. At least they all resemble sixes. What's up with that? 11/11/98

Answer- Yes, they do RESEMBLE the code for a six. An even parity 6 is:

1 module wide black bar
1 module wide white space
1 module wide black bar
4 module wide white space
There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible's "mark of the beast" (The New Testament, The Revelation, Chapter 13, paragraph 18). It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. There is no connection with an international money code either.
For more hogwash about 666 implications of the U.P.C., government form numbers, other publications, codes and the like, see Mary Sterwart Relfe's book "The New Money System". Such hype about the U.P.C. has been around since 1973.

Please also see Section 3.
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Section 6 Question #2 - You state that the presence of "666" (left, middle, and right) in bar codes has no relation to the Biblical scripture referring to that number. However, you do not state where you came up with that number. Was it purely random (which I doubt, since you probably put great thought in every aspect of your invention), or does it serve a purpose? Or does the bar/space representation of a "6" just provide for a ascetically good separator? 2/25/99

Answer- No bars are there for esthetic purposes, to do so would defeat the goal of making the tolerances as great as possible and the area as small as possible.
Each character is a fixed length, 7 modules and composed of two spaces and two bars. Form the outer ends toward the center, the character starts with a space and therefore a single bar is required to "close" the character. The other bar is used to allow the level setting (gain) circuitry to adjust to the contrast of the particular symbol. The center pattern is narrow space, narrow bar, narrow space, narrow bar. This pattern is 4 modules wide and distinguishes it from the a 7 module character thus giving direction and end information to the logic.
The assignment of digits to specific patterns was arbitrary.

Please also see Section 3.

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If anyone sends me a question pertaining to the U.P.C. symbol, history, or the like, which can be answered concisely
via e-mail, I will send the answer to their mail box and post both question and answer of some of them here.

I truly enjoy helping people, however, it would be nice if you send a "thank you"
e-mail if I am of help!

I am sorry, but as of November 2000,
I will no longer respond to questions about the U.P.C. and the New Testamant

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For contact information please go to my Contact Page.

Revised: October 2001

George J. Laurer

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