AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Trolling the bottom - As high tech holds its breath for the end of the deep dive, the wiser fish have enough bubble left to breathe.(Editorial)(Industry Overview)

THE BUBBLE IS DEAD. Long live the Bubble. With reports that AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case is stepping down in May, media analysts have finally received the news they've been waiting for. As with another favorite corner-turning myth -- that those who survive now will prosper when the economy comes back in '04 and '05 -- the notion that the worst is over is becoming common wisdom.

Trusting this depends on several assumptions: Innovation is dead, the economy is coming back, and the Internet bubble was mass psychosis. Let's work backward from most to least obvious. Sure, the Bubble was a gigantic mirage -- for those who failed to cash out in time. Not for Meg Whitman of eBay, or Scott McNealy and Sun, or Steve Case of AOL. Whitman got rich before, during, and after; McNealy cashed in on the dot in dot.com (where do you think he got all that cash he's always talking about?); …