Still, it's a nice slogan. I used to think it worked well in the context of the Net -- just replace the word "hundred" with the word "gazillion." But lately, the googol-headed Hydra monster that is the Net has been speaking in a surprisingly monotonous voice.

Java. Java. Java.

Java is "The Future Of The Net."

Java is a programming language created by Sun Microsystems that enables a Web browser to activate "applets" -- mini-programs specific to a particular Web site -- without requiring any additional software on the end-user's part. Such applets include animations, games, layout enhancements -- gee-whiz gadgetry to the max. If you haven't run into a Java applet yet, you will soon. Webmasters are going to have a tough time resisting the Java virus.

So let's table the question of whether Java will remake the entire Web. Of course it will. And so will something else, and something else and something else. Who knows, maybe eventually even that nagging little problem of bandwidth will be solved. Because let's face it folks, Java applets are slooooowwwww, even with a 28.8 modem. The coffee is almost always cold by the time you get to drink it.

A more critical question is what effect Java-esque technologies are having on the average individual's ability to use the Net/Web creatively. The online universe is becoming more complex. Is it leaving us behind?

Forget about The Future of the Net. Time to switch memes. What about The End of the Net as We Know It?

Once upon a time, the World Wide Web was a truly democratic medium. Learning enough HTML to put up a Web page took an afternoon. Anybody could become publisher of their own Webzine. As a petri dish for Do-It-Yourself cultures, the Web offered astonishing potential.

That was then. Try learning to write a Java applet in an afternoon. Unless you're already an accomplished programmer, the kind of person who spits out Perl scripts like sunflower seed shells or reads C++ manuals as if they were comic books, you might find yourself moving a bit slowly.

It took me some months to learn Broland C++. Now It take me a week to learn Java. One way to avoid this is perhaps Java Script. It is not so powerful as Java, but you can learn it in one afternoon.

And it's not just Java. Creating a 3D VRML world isn't trivial either. Just mastering all the possibilities of a new version of Netscape before the next upgrade rolls along is an exhausting challenge. It takes me some days to learn VRML, and I am still waiting for the released version of WebFX for PowerMac. ( By the way, Paper company say that they will release it on Feb. 1996.)

So what if I can't hand-code VRML? By next month there will be an easy-to-use authoring tool that will let me do wonders without hardly thinking. Meanwhile, the VRML programmers will have moved on to the next level. There's always another, higher stage of "value- added" for people with the willingness to put in the hours to master a new skill.

We click and go, follow where the word of mouth leads us, search out the loner with a prehistoric text file gussied up with a couple of scanned GIFs. There will always be room for that, and thus there will always be room for democracy.

Let it bloom.

Is Java scalding hot?