[Advanced-java] barcoding system.

[Joel Thompson]

I would like to know if anyone can recommend a
simple (hopefully inexpensive, but not necessarily)
barcode reader that I can attach to a parallel,
serial, or usb port of a Windows (or LINUX) machine
and use a Java API (is there one? I am sure there has to be) to read
barcode labels, and deliver me an ID.

Another part of this equation is to somehow get the
barcodes (can you buy sheets of barcodes that you can
just peel off and paste on the object you want to
track?). Then I'd run the reader over the label, and
assign my object to that ID.  Can you buy such labels and
will they work with any barcode reader?

I would be interacting with a database, obviously to
store all the object information, that I want to
track (by barcode ID).

Thanks,
Joel