1. Network Caching
Meme on the Rise
Life Expectancy: 8 Months
The current spate of network caching products contains wonderful technologies in search of useful applications. Devices like Inktomi's Traffic Server speed Internet download times by stashing up to a terabyte of data on local servers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people rely on the Web for two things: up-to-the-minute news and porn. Caching time-sensitive data like a stock quote is the electronic equivalent of giving someone yesterday's newspaper. And if your server starts storing frequently requested nudie pictures, you've suddenly become a smut peddler.
2. Elliptic Curve Cryptography
Meme on the Rise
Life Expectancy: 12 Months
Watching the wranglings of the cryptography industry has become computing's latest spectator sport. Take elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), a slim public key encryption algorithm designed for low-power devices such as smartcards and cell phones. For years, RSA Data Security discounted ECC developers such as Certicom. But now that RSA is rolling the technology into its line of products, the company bills itself as "ECC Central." Internecine competition aside, ECC may be great for small devices, but few people use encryption for anything other than Web-based transactions.
3. IT Worker Shortage
Meme on the Decline
Life Expectancy: 6 Months
The hullabaloo over the scant supply of information technology workers is like a group of NBA coaches screaming about the shortage of basketball players: there's no lack of coders, but rather a scarcity of good coders. In fact, a report by University of California at Davis professor Norman Matloff finds that software companies hire only 2 percent of all applicants. While some analysts suggest there will be 95,000 new IT jobs and a mere 25,000 CS grads to fill them this year, just 25 percent of today's IT workers have CS degrees – a ratio that puts the job market right on track.
4. High Tech Arcades
Meme on the Rise
Life Expectancy: 9 Months
Videogame arcades crammed with truant kids looking for Frogger may be a thing of the past, but they're not forgotten. Indeed, posh new interactive theme parks from Sega, Sony, and Disney feature classics such as Space Invaders that target the twenty-something market. According to GameWorks, high tech arcades "combine retro-hip with a progressive edge." That means VR simulators stand a stone's throw from '80s classics such as Galaxian. So where do today's teenagers flock? Home to play Nintendo 64 or some clone of an old-school classic ported to the PC.
5. Eco-Challenge
Meme on the Rise
Life Expectancy: 6 months
For high-strung Silicon Valley execs who don't know how to take a vacation, now there's the Eco-Challenge. Best described as a cross-country race with life-threatening hazards, last year's event took place in the Australian outback and featured obstacles such as poisonous trees and giant pythons. This September, contestants will travel to Morocco to sea-kayak among killer whales, mountain-bike on sheer cliffs, and camel-ride on the same routes traveled by ancient caravans. What's next for the extreme-sport set, bungee jumping from the International Space Station?
This article originally appeared in the May issue of Wired magazine.
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