... and were afraid to ask!

Or didn't know to ask!

Must reading indeed in last week's New York Times Circuits column by David Pogue, who explores not so much the past, but what the future holds for smart card technologies.

Take a look at how a contactless Smart Card works -- one small (maybe not so small) step forward from contact Smart Cards.

And that may be a time when we indeed have only one card -- or one gadget -- that contains all of the digital information we now need to carry with us today.

Don't miss it here.