This (http://gears.google.com/) has a lot of potential. But only time will tell what new technology really makes a difference.
Trying to figure out what is the best technology and then learning that is a great goal but I think it's more important to learn a variety of technologies and be ready to adapt quickly to new things.
Learn HTML, the document object model, and Javascript (while those do change the change is slow because of the huge installed base.) Unix is going to be relevant for a long time. Relational databases have been around since the beginning of time (Jan 1, 1970) and aren't going away any time soon. If you're good with the fundamentals then you'll be able to adapt to anything else.
Trying to figure out what is the best technology and then learning that is a great goal but I think it's more important to learn a variety of technologies and be ready to adapt quickly to new things.
Learn HTML, the document object model, and Javascript (while those do change the change is slow because of the huge installed base.) Unix is going to be relevant for a long time. Relational databases have been around since the beginning of time (Jan 1, 1970) and aren't going away any time soon. If you're good with the fundamentals then you'll be able to adapt to anything else.