I've been coding lately. It feels good. I've spent the last couple days working up a new version of a piece of software I wrote a couple years ago in C#. It handles a bunch of internal stuff at the office. While working on it, it reminded me of a project I've been playing around with in my head for a couple years.

In the warehouse at work, when we get guns in, it takes about a dozen steps to get them tagged with our log numbers, logged into the book, put into the computer and made ready for display. The process is a little involved, but we have yet to come up with a better way to handle it. I've been thinking about the feasability in combining all the computer work in it into one program. I've pretty much got it figured out so that we can do it. The only problem is that I need at least one third party component to do it (a barcode generation module), and they all cost money. The cheapest I've seen is $79, and that's not in my IT budget right now. I've been cut off from all spending unless it's deemed "absolutely necessary". Why can't there be a free component out there for it? I miss open source solutions.