Pat:

I don't know if this helps or not, but the following occured to me while at the convention. I pre-registered, so I got one of the items in question. Since I was staying at the Trop, I also got the standard room key. I went to visit with another person who was also staying at the Trop and had preregistered as well. We went to his room to talk some buisness and do some trading. He pulled out one of the above mentioned items and tried to open his door with it. It did not work. I told him he had the wrong item. He said, no, turned it around and tried it again. I said, you have the wrong item. He said no again, pulled out another one, stuck it in the door and it opened.

I asked, how did that happen. He said he just went to the front desk and asked if he could make it into a room key. They did, it did.

I guess any piece of plastic that is the right size and shape and has a magencitic stip on it can be used as a room key!

Now all I have to do is get me one of those things so I can record various room numbers on it, figure out where Greg is staying at next year, and get me a whole bucnch of chips real cheap . . .

John