If there's one thing the Silicon Valley geek crowd is sure of, it's what's cool, and what's not. Heck, we practically define for the rest of the country what's hip. Netscape is Cool. AOL is Lame. Across the Bay Area, geeks who were once quite certain that they knew what was "cool" and what wasn't are re-examining what cool is.

"Netscape is cool, right?" asked an uncertain Jan Young, pondering wearing her Mozilla shirt. "I mean, they got bought by AOL, but they're still in the Bay Area." After being told Marc Andreessen no longer held the CEO position, Jan put her shirt back. "I have no idea if this shirt would label me as chic geek or clueless dork."

Jan isn't alone in her doubt. Across the Bay Area, geeks are scrambling to find out what's still "in" and cool before it's out. As companies get gobbled up by other companies, or shift long term objectives, OS's, or marketing plans, geeks are left scrambling to keep up.

What exactly is cool, anyway?

Chris Nigle, local Bay Area java programmer, tried to fill us in on the cool list.

"Bay Area companies, are cool, for sure, because they fight the Monopoly of Uncool, Microsoft. I'm pretty sure that Intel is cool, even though it's sorta a monopoly. Windows sucks, and Linux is cool, but Red Hat Linux is the Microsoft of Linux, so.. I think it's uncool. Corporate types in suits are uncool, unless they're Venture Capitalists. Having a flashy sports car... ummm...." Exasperated, he added. "Hell, I have no idea."

These Linux Geeks protesting Microsoft are
definitely cool. Not. Kidding. Heh.

Also on the list of uncertain "cool" items include 2 way beepers, corporate coffee, the Sega Dreamcast, Poke'mon, Sun Microsystems, and Wired Magazine. "I can remember a day when all you had to do was plop down in a Starbucks, open up a Wired Magazine, and boom, you were one cool geek. Now those people are viewed as lame poseur wannabes." lamented Chris. "I spent $2700 on a laptop that I'm too afraid to take out on the town 'cause it has Windows '98 on it."

Among once "cool" things and activities that have turned uncool: Bashing AOL users (too easy), going to Cyber-Bars, company promotional t-shirts, EBAY, ".com" ads on cars, going to Tahoe skiing, and going to college. Scene insiders say that as the pace at which things drop in and out of style now gets faster-paced, it's bound to get only worse.

"When in doubt, go for new, ridiculously expensive things." said Jan Young. "Those never go out of style."