High-definition televisions (HDTV) cost 50 times as much as a standard set -- and speaking of standards, broadcasters are still dragging their feet about setting them because the public's airwaves are a digital windfall. Of course, we use the term "broadcaster" loosely, since there really aren't any HDTV broadcasts anyway.

Network computers (NCs). Good thing the Justice Department didn't count on this device to slow Microsoft's global conquest -- or, for that matter, the Java software platform. Two years ago Oracle's Larry Ellison declared war on bloated desktop software and operating systems, promising cheap systems that made the most of shared storage and processing power. Instead the price of the bloated computers just kept falling.

Speech recognition. Don't throw out your keyboard yet.

High Speed Internet Access. Home use of the Internet is spreading faster than television in its early days, but the data speeds are still painfully slow. ISDN never happened in any meaningful way, but somehow we still find ourselves looking to glacially paced telephone utilities for the latest digital subscriber lines (DSL). At least it beats waiting for the cable guy to learn about two-way communication.