In 2002 I visited Paris. Almost every restaurant had hand held credit card readers that were brought to the table and printed a receipt on the spot. My credit cards never left my sight. Surely the technology is not so esoteric that we couldn’t have had it in 2002 in the US as well?
I just asked the husband if we'd ever been to a restaurant that had a cc reader (I couldn't remember and we eat out alot). He said "no". Heck, I'd be happy to have it in the US in 2007.