Replying to Jay, about smart cards & Paris :

Things have opened up a bit since then! A French guy managed to crack the encryption key for smart cards used by the French banks (it's on the Web somewhere - check out www.humpich.com).
In a discussion on TV here a while ago (after the film "Hackers" ;-), the boss of the Belgian smart card system, when asked about the comparative security of *his* system, just smiled & said he didn't know how the French system worked.
At work, we are thinking about using smart cards (electronic purse integrated on most bank cards) as an entry/payment/exit medium for our parking systems.

Regards,
Richard

PS for Winson : if ever you get further into this access control business, & you need gates & stuff, contact Ms Tinny Lau, at Celtic HK.