Reading the BBC web technology index page is an exercise in juxtaposition these days. On one hand, we have stories about the courts still playing out the criminal roles in the 1990's dot.com-lead bubble played by executives of firms such as Computer Associates and Enron. Similar problems with big players may still be cropping up.

On the other, the survivors of the bubble are now making big money and sales are booming. Broadband is being made available on trains and planes. Useful things are being done for niche audiences and there is some hope that the medium might actually, through returning to that early 90's gem usnet, create a reliable and accessible source of alternative information as opposed to today's unindexed cacaphony of a million self-proclaimed amateur "junior journalists" shifting rumours, sharing unexamined slanders. Even music sales are up.

So are we though into another phase where wackingly expensive things actually do as promised or are we just forgetting the lessons of five years ago?