About six months ago, Dell announced that it was launching its
first ever R&D department.  As a newly private company, Dell
didn't reveal how big this unit would be in dollar amount or
number of employees. But we recently talked with Jai Menon, the
head of the new R&D unit, who spent most of his career working
for IBM's famous research group.  And he outlined some of the
cool new tech Dell is trying to invent. Menon joined Dell about
a year ago.  To be sure, a lot of the tech the research group is
working on is less-than-exciting to the average Joe (such as new
low-cost servers for telecommunications companies). The focus of
Dell's R&D labs is to find new tech and turn it into products as
quickly as feasible.  But there were two projects the company is
working to invent that amazed us:  1. Mood-sensing computers
that can read and respond to your thoughts.  2. A new mind-
blowing way to secure your data so that you can share stuff with
others, and they can work with it, even though they can't see
it.  To be sur