Been tried before: Broadband over power lines

Much as I would like to get my technological news from the Hollywood reported,
I can't say I think this is really going very far:
Broadband over power lines. Although this has always seemed attractive,
this has been tried before, and to and failed to make a dent - when nortel, for one, tried this
they pulled back,
(see this explanation
for a discussion of why.

WHERE IS IT | SCANBUY | Optical Intelligence for your mobile phones

SCANBUY | Optical Intelligence for your mobile phones discusses consumer oriented barcodes, and it's about time that all the
bar codes on objects were usable by people.
1) Scan a book at the library, and see how much it is on line, and order it.
2) Turn that around. Looking at something in the store, scan it, combine
with the google/world cat service, and find the closest library that has it.
Reserve it, and pick it up on the way home.