Hype List
1. Cryptography
Get hip to the Clip. The new tone in crypto hype carries the realization that Our Man in the White House isn't really one of us. Sure, he's on the Net and he talks the talk, but deep down, why, he's just like Bush. The Net burned with outrage when the Clipper story first broke and cypherpunks were confronted with a fait accompli. Meanwhile, the administration was trying to control the issue with conciliatory briefings and slides: "We'll let a few experts examine the algorithm." It's easy to forget, amidst all the hype, that most people in the US are not familiar with the issue, and wouldn't be particularly concerned about it if they were.
2. Japanese Jargon
Seems like everyone is dropping references to Japanese words and places these days. Half of everything you read now mentions otaku, furoshiki or Akihabara, not because anyone's trying to be a Global Citizen. The mutation's first outbreak occurred in Gibson's Neuromancer, a book that relied heavily on the notion of Japan as foreign, exotic, and hi-tech. The problem spread quickly, as wanna-be-cyberpunk authors - even Thomas Pynchon - sprinkled their books with mentions of Oimachi and the Yamanote line. But while dropping a couple words of nihongo may still impress a few people in the Midwest, with the Japanese economy continuing to tumble, look for a switch to Mandarin argot by those in the know.
3. Wireless Everything
Electronics vendors without a cause continue to latch onto the idea of converting everything in sight to wireless, despite the fact that the most mature segment of the market - mobile communications - is suffering. In the US, car-phone sales have leveled off well below the expected mark, while cellular companies continue to bicker about standards. Although network and computer vendors don't appear to be learning anything from these difficulties, there are two obstacles. First, venture capitalists are showing a lack of interest, and second, it looks like it's going to be a long time before the radio-waves-cause- cancer issue is resolved.
4. Hackers
The Net used to have a somewhat Bohemian air due to its academic and research roots. But within the last year or so the Net has become Establishment. In short, cyberspace is undergoing rapid gentrification now that every random salary-man has access to the Net. But just as the Village in New York still keeps a few artists amidst the stockbrokers "for atmosphere," so the Net now puts up with, even canonizes, a few properly behaved aging and toothless hackers. It seems no matter where you turn there is some hacker-cum-Net.pioneer expounding on The Good Old Days while an audience of accountants listens politely. The settlers have taken over cyberspace, and now the natives dance for trinkets.
5. ATM
Look at any trade journal. Half the articles and two-thirds of the ads mention the ATM - "Asynchronous Transfer Mode" - switching enviroment. May not sound that sexy to you, but vendors have MIS managers trained to salivate at the sound of these initials. The hype surrounding ATM is fostered by an increasingly common problem: dueling standard committees fueled by private interests. Meanwhile, hundreds of smaller vendors take advantage of the confusion by sending out press releases about their vaguely defined "ATM-like features," and "ATM-upgradability." The unfortunate result is that ATM is likely to go the way of ISDN.
