Out-of-the-box product failure is an unfortunate fact of life for both consumers and reviewers. Failure curves for most consumer-electronics products spike early and then drop sharply to residual levels (unless they're lemons) until late in their life expectancies when they once again begin to rise, though gradually this time.

Voom shut down for good on April 30, 2005. It was sad to watch the promise of an HDTV-based satellite system with almost 40 HD channels, including a lineup of stations unique to Voom, go dark. Ten of those channels should be available on Dish Network by the time you read this, which isn't surprising—EchoStar, Dish Network's parent company, recently bought the Voom satellite and other assets.

I realize that accountability is passe, what with no heads rolling for no WMDs and a Medal of Freedom award going to a guy who presided over, among other "achievements," 9 billion of your tax dollars going missing in Iraq according to the non-partisan GAO (General Accounting Office). But being an old-fashioned kind of guy, I still believe in holding people accountable for their words and their deeds—myself included.