"Normal" node

Artistic Support Materials and Textures
1

Does anyone know what this does (the one with the shaded ball in it). I cant seem to find any information regarding what it can be used for.

2

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Materials/Nodes/Types/Vector#Normal_Node

3

Ah - thanks. I was looking in the nodes section for blender 2.6 but couldn’t see it listed.