Rifling through my notebook

deliver an emphatic plea (that's not a subtle dig at Clinton, by the way). Had the Times writer called the speech "heartfelt" or "sincere," we could talk about the unknowable ... and bias.

A minor disagreement, but key to my bigger point: Subjectivity and its evil twin, bias, are in the eye of the beholder more often than not. Neither software nor the wisdom of crowds can alter that fact.

The show's gee-whiz, hold-it-in-your-hands hit product was the Plastic Logic reader designed specifically for business users. It's the size of a standard sheet of paper, three-tenths of an inch thin and weighs less than a pound, yet can be stuffed with thousands of documents in myriad formats that can in turn be read anywhere and annotated.

The unnamed reader won't ship until next year and pricing remains a mystery, but expect to see these babies popping on airplane flights -- albeit in first class.

Usable Security Systems was there making a play for those Internet users who simply cannot keep straight all of their myriad passwords -- in other words, everybody. Its first service, UsableLogin, asks the user to remember only two things -- a recognizable photograph and a simple, easily remembered "code word." The company takes care of all the serious security on the back end. Provided it holds up to the scrutiny of real security pros, it looks like the kind of thing I might give a whirl.

A company called Mapflow showed off an iPhone application that could redefine commuting and address the fact that "public transit goes from where we don't live to where we don't work." Described as a cross between public transit, carpooling and eBay, Avego uses GPS and smartphones to match drivers who have empty seats with fellow travelers willing to pay for a ride. I'm entirely too antisocial for this kind of thing, but could see it catching on -- especially when gas hits $5 or $6 a gallon.

Finally, a company called Cerego introduced its product called iKnow, which according to the DEMO show book, "empowers people to learn faster, remember longer, and manage their memory for a lifetime."

I meant to get over to their booth to learn more, but, uh, well ... plum forgot.