While standing in line to eat an over-priced pulled pork sandwich at New York's Javits Center during the show, I talked with an out-of-towner – shown by the way he cited the food prices. "Welcome to New York." – who said it's passé to talk about different channels. "It's just commerce now," he sneered. The other important thing at a show like this is handicapping the vendors by which had Comdex-sized booths at the entrances. These include some biggies; IBM, Motorola, NCR, SAP, NCR and Oracle. Epicor wedged its way into the crowd by spending a bunch of money. Eying these exhibits, it reminded me of the castles on the Rhine erected in the middle ages by barons who strong-armed river traffic for payment. It was the first example of money charged for support and maintenance. There was also the Swivel, a product that utilizes Microsoft's Kinect technology in what is called a Visual Demonstration System. A video image of the shopper is capture and the person can "try on" various clothing and accesses. It can also skeletonize shoppers to follow them through the store – security is a prime app. It reminded me of the Marauders map in "Harry Potter" which could show who was wondering the halls at Hogwarts. The technology is also used to capture how long shoppers stand in front of a display, how long it takes them to touch items and how long they are held. Oh yeah, Swivel has a heart-rate monitor, measuring a shopper's excitement, I guess.