Why would I want a smart-card reader?

[aerodave]

@Blakeyrat

If you worked for Microsoft, you could log in by slipping your ID card into the reader. When you removed the card, the computer would automatically be locked. It’s a pretty slick system.

But like others have said, I can’t think of a reason to have one on a home computer.

That’s how we log into and lock our computers where I work (a US Air Force base). To my knowledge, that’s the standard way of operating for most DoD NIPRNet computers. If our heads-up-their-asses IT folks have deployed it, the system can’t be all that slick.

I have a card reader on my personal laptop so I can log into my work webmail from home or on the road. I don’t care to take a work laptop when I travel because I can’t do anything fun with it. And by fun, I mean porn.