Technology advances do not necessarily make life easier in the workplace. I, for instance, a frequently confessed technoidiot, have never managed to use a copier properly. The placement of pages - either horizontally or vertically, on the left side or right side always seems to differ, and the copier paper always seems to move just as I lower the cover. In the end, several crushed balls of paper in the trash can bear testament to my attempts to produce one acceptable result.

But there is one product building momentum that even I might manage and which ought to relieve some stress on harried, hurried workers: a "smart card" loaded with password chips and biometric identification systems.