i've been interested / fascinated / amazed at some of the technology dana corporation (the plant i'm working at this summer) uses. aside from the computers, robots, and other machines on the plant floor, i've been fascinated at 2 simpler items.

1) access cards -- they're all white with 4 tiny dots on the right edge and 4 more along the top. they can be read up to ~9 inches from the scanners. some people put their cards in their wallets and hold them up. i even saw one guy put his extra-thick wallet in his shirt pocket and he just faced the scanner to get through. maybe this type of thing is common in companies now...i don't know. but even on movies they usually have to swipe their cards, so i'm thinking this is something pretty new.

2) doors -- a few of the doors that don't require access cards during the day (they are needed after 6.00, when the doors lock) have an eye on the ceiling that signals the door to unlock when someone is approaching from the outside. everytime i walk in from the outside i hear the door unlock as i come up to it. it's not loud enough to disturb anyone, but still noticable.

i've been enjoying some of the "normal" technology as well. :) on my desk sits a beautiful 17"-viewable flat panel monitor (a dell 1702fp) and a dell sx260 pc. it's dimensions are an incredible 9.72" x 3.35" x 9.53". it's specs are 2.00 ghz, 40 gig hard drive, and a measly 128 mb of ram...not the greatest, but still plenty for what i use it for. some of the apps run slow on it, but that's mostly because i'm used to 512 of ram.