This is the high-tech equivalent of the canary in the coal mine.

The high-tech equivalent of a privacy screen.

It is the high-tech equivalent of a burglar saying a homeowner should have had better locks.

The three companies are chasing the high-tech equivalent of the grail: a new standard for the computer industry.

It was the high-tech equivalent of volley fire, a throwback to the days when armies stood their soldiers shoulder to shoulder and fired en masse.

He was the high-tech equivalent of a meek, embezzling bank clerk-or so he had seemed.

And then, instead of reaping the rewards of an executive, she might only be the low-paid actress in the high-tech equivalent of a B-movie.

If South Beach were in Silicon Valley, people would be wearing the high-tech equivalent of Web site counters around their necks.

But that is only one of the things that seem to keep the F.B.I computer systems in the high-tech equivalent of the Stone Age.

Yet they are more likely than boys to take data-entry classes, the high-tech equivalent of typing.