Aloha

"In an unusual example of drama queens collaborating with computer geeks, Carnegie Mellon University has created what it calls the world's first robot receptionist. Valerie, a blond 'roboceptionist' whose digitally animated face appears on a computer display, uses motion-detection technology to greet visitors at the entrance to a computer science hall. She answers the phone and gives directions -- although visitors must type their questions in using a keyboard. And, like a stereotypical receptionist, Valerie likes to gossip about her life, including her psychotherapy sessions, her dream of being a lounge singer and her motherboard's tendency to nag her about her social life. One of the writers who created Valerie's character admitted, 'After a while on the job, she gets testy. But she can be charming too.'"

See also, http://www.roboreceptionist.com/

"[Of an] estimated 10 billion Web pages [Google's] new index covers 4.3 billion pages, 880 million images, 845 million bulletin board posts, plus book chapters and reviews, which Google now also searches. ... The closest any competitor comes to what Google offers is 3.1 billion pages, from Yahoo-owned AlltheWeb.com. "

Here's another "card" for your wallet: an NEC (N900) cell phone with a built-in camera about the same size as a credit card.

Touted as the world's smallest and slimmest camera, it is 85mm (3.3 inches) wide, 54mm (2.12 inches) high and 8.6mm (0.33inch) thick. The back has a telephone keypad sitting to the right of a 1.8-inch color TFT LCD. The display has a resolution of 120 pixels by 160 pixels.

http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0402/0302.html , February 14, 2004