I already dissected mine ;) Subscribers to WIRED were sent one.(wich carried bar coded ads)
It was interesting for about 5 min then it became part of my useless electronics sculpture.

To be honest the bar-code reader was fairly weak. It took several passes to read even a simple UPC code.
The software was actually able to decipher and take me to most products manufacturers web sites. Kinda interesting to see just who makes what!

John