Downsizing is never easy.

Especially when you're moving an aging loved one from her longtime home into a smaller place. But at least you may find a few goodies among the junk.

That happened last week with Fairview Fanny. After 82 years in a sprawling split-level on John Street, she began moving into a rented space a half a block away.

First, she had to cull through nearly a century's worth of detritus The Seattle Times accumulated and choose only a few keepsakes for her smaller new home.

For a pack rat like myself, that meant finally saying goodbye to mementos such as circa 1999 analyst reports hyping dot-com wonders and a half-pint milk carton printed with the Windows XP launch logo.

There were a few gems, though. One was a 1990 letter to Bill Gates from a long-departed editor, responding to a complaint about Gates being described in a story as a "nerd."

Another was a draft copy of the 2002 book, "Bad Boy Ballmer."

The most timely artifact I found was a yellowing report on five emerging technologies to watch, prepared in advance of the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show by the trade group hosting the event.

It's still useful a decade later — with the 2012 show beginning this week — if you change some of the numbers.

Here's an overview of "some hot technologies that hold enormous potential in the market" — or did in 2002, at least:

1. "Bringing consumers broadband access."

"The full potential of the Internet will not be realized until more consumers have bigger roads going into their homes," the report said. "Some argue that the digital divide is widening due to limited distribution since some have access to the new three-lane highways, while others are confined to dirt tracks."

At the time, the average connection speed was 56 kilobytes per second. The CEA report said broadcasting high-def video will take up to 20 megabits per second, and the Web would truly demonstrate its potential when people had 100 Mbps connections.

Today, some communities have gigabit broadband — 1,000 Mbps — but the average connection speed in the U.S. was 5.8 Mbps as of the second quarter of 2011, according to Akamai's state of the Internet report.

2. "Electronic entertainment/games."

"The changes in the gaming industry open up entirely new opportunities for consumer-electronics manufacturers and game developers," the report said. "Ultimately the game console is likely to emerge as the hub of consumer's gaming and general entertainment experiences."

Also important are portable devices "that bring games and entertainment beyond the hardware into everyday lives. Mobile phones, PDAs and handheld game consoles can act as satellites to the main console hub."

The report projected video-game industry sales of $10.1 billion in 2001. Last year, consumers spent $18.6 billion on game hardware, accessories and packaged software, according to NPD.

3. "The Digital Home Theater."

"By linking a high-performance PC processor and broadband connectivity to their TVs, families can connect to the Internet through dial-up, cable modem or DSL connection," the report said. "Then they can enjoy being in the middle of the music or display Internet content from around the world without being tied to their computer."

Thin television displays — "about the thickness of a big-city phone book" — will draw consumers when prices come down. At the time, 50-inch plasma sets ranged from $18,000 to $25,000.

The looming question then was what sort of "gateway" device would be used to connect the TV to the Internet. It turns out there are dozens of gateway options, but the big seller this year is TVs that connect directly.

Sales of "connected TVs" were up 68 percent through November, according to NPD, which predicts that the average price of flat panels up to 50 inches will fall under $1,000 this year.

4. "Wireless technology."

"During the past 18 to 24 months, everyone has been talking about third-generation networks (3G), which would provide high-speed transmission with a rich, colorful streaming experience," the 2002 report said.

It noted that the "3G build-out is turning out to be more complicated and expensive than anyone projected and delays are becoming a constant occurrence."

Heading into the 2012 CES, everyone has been talking about fourth-generation networks (4G) that will provide high-speed transmission with a rich, colorful streaming experience.

In addition to 4G phones, tablets and laptops being announced at the show, GM will showcase OnStar 4G LTE service that will provide streaming media and video chat in its vehicles. Verizon and AT&T are coming to the show to talk up their LTE networks (but not their recent service and merger hiccups).

5. "Consumer-electronics fashion."

"Although many wearable fashions sound futuristic, some are available today, and more are on the way. The crossroads between CE and high-fashion couture is being called wearable electronics, or 'e-wear,' " the 2002 report said. "As technology allows devices to shrink ever smaller and design aesthetics and style take on a more prominent role, cutting-edge gadgets and fashion are converging into one."

The Internet-enabled wristwatches and clothing embedded with computers forecast in the report came to pass, but they were eclipsed by a simpler solution: Fashionable smartphones, which are used for playing video games and streaming TV content over 4G wireless broadband networks with theoretical peak download speeds approaching 100 Mbps.

I'll stash this week's CES handouts somewhere. They should be good for a column in 2022, for the newspaper we'll deliver wirelessly to your Web-connected contact lenses.

Brier Dudley's column appears Mondays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.