Does anybody think Drew Peck of SG Cowen (not SG Cohen!!) or Michael Lovell of Bloomberg bothered to check on the credentials of the man whose website's report Peck is giving credit to for the retreat by Rambus shares today?
Anyone care to educate analyst Peck of Cowen and writer Lovell of Bloomberg?
In any event, whatever the reason for today's pullback, it just looks like a buying opp for a long-term Rambus investor like me.
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quote.bloomberg.com
Technology News
Mon, 20 Mar 2000, 7:09pm EST
Rambus Shares Fall 20% as Web Site Questions Its Technology to Speed Chips
By Michael Lovell
Rambus Falls After Web Report Discounts Its Products (Update1)
Mountain View, California, March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of
Rambus Inc., whose products make computer chips faster, fell
20 percent after a popular Web site criticized its technology, an analyst said.
Rambus shares fell 76 39/64 to 317 1/64 in Nasdaq Stock
Market trading after touching 316. Earlier this month, Mountain View, California-based Rambus said it would split its stock 4-for-1, following a fourfold rise this year.
A report on www.tomshardware.com said Rambus technology,
which lets personal computers take full advantage of Intel's
fastest chips by speeding information from one chip to another inside the computer, doesn't work as well as older and cheaper technology.
``The stock is getting killed because of the report,' said Drew Peck, an analyst at SG Cohen Securities Corp. who has a ``neutral' rating on the stock. ``In this environment, it doesn't take much to tip it over. It's more or less and `shoot first and ask questions later.' '
Toms Hardware Guide offers tips and articles on various
technology news and computer-oriented hardware equipment, such as video cameras, processors and other items that improve computer performance.
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www6.tomshardware.com
Most of you probably know that I am a medical doctor and not a slick business guy, which is why those changes didn't really come easy to me. I don't really enjoy business meetings, lawyer appointments and contract negotiations, and even though I have learned how to deal with it in the last three years, I still prefer spending my time for updating the website.
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tomshardware.com
This is long and boring but tells you how full of himself he really is
Tom's Personal Info
I got a lot of questions recently. Where I come from, what my job is, why I'm doing the web mastering of this site and so on. I think it's time to let the people know a little bit more personal info about me, because I can see now, that indeed there is some kind of interest.
This is a one-off quickly written personal page of certainly quite poor quality, so don't expect too much of it.
I was born on the 17th of February 1966 in Cologne in Germany. It was Carnival time in Cologne and the Thursday I've been born at was 'Weiberfastnacht' or 'Wieverfastelovend - op koelsch' - one of the most crazy days in Cologne each year. Hence my parents decided that I was a real Carnival child and put up quite well with my crazyness.
Cologne is a beautiful but also very big town and therefore not particularly the best place for children to grow up in. When I was 20 months old I got a little brother, named 'Rainer', who for the next 16 years mainly annoyed me - well, well, you know how that is, don't you? Anyway, by the time when I was five years old my parents decided that we should move into an area which is ideal for kiddies to grow up and we moved in the beautiful German South to the Black Forest. Here I grew up, went to the Gymnasium (=German High School) and finished school as one of the laziest but also with the 4th best exam at the age of 19, the normal age to finish High School in Germany. My A-levels were Physics, Chemistry and History. Got an 'A' in all of them (impose;-)).
The next thing was going to the army, as it is compulsory in my country, for 15 months. Can't tell I enjoyed this time too much, but it tought me a lot for life and so I'm not angry about it now anymore. I was serving in a Leopard II tank unit far away from home at the border to the "German Democratic Republic" - better known as (and called) Eastern Germany.
I have to get back now, to tell you about my computer history.
At the age of ten I got very interested in electronics and soon became a quite knowledgable 'hobby electronic'. One year later this wasn't really good enough for me anymore and at this time these puny little programmable pocket calculators came up. My first one was a Casio with 38 program steps - I loved it. Next step was a bigger Casio with 256 (!!) program steps and ten (!) memories. Then they established a computer system at school and that was all I ever dreamt of. At the age of twelve I tried my best to sqeeze the last bit of performance out of the school Apple ][e. I first programmed in (interpreted) Applesoft Basic, then I found out very quick that is was much to slow and started to program in UCLA Pascal and finally in Assembler (yeah, the good old 6502 code - does anybody remember that?). Soon got the complete master over the school computer system and was at the age of fourteen for the first time something like the computer consultant for the whole school - inclusive the teachers. Sounds like a typical hacker career, doesn't it? Well first of all to all the youngsters out there: an Apple ][e had either 48 kB main memory and 16 kB ROM Basic or you had all (!) the 64 kB of memory as RAM and could load up other OS'es there. Not 32 MB - no, 64 kB ! And believe me, the programs on that thing weren't bad at all! The Floppy could keep 160 kB on one side, you could turn it over and use 320 kB on it! NO HDD at all!
Anyways, I wasn't a hacker, though I sometimes wished I would be one. At the age of 16 I got my first motorbike and the interest for computers went quite low. I felt there was nothing there anymore to challenge me at that system and anyway I had different interests at this age ;-). It was always very important to me not to become a 'computer authist' (authist?? - seen 'Rain Man'?). Hence I spend some time to do computing and more time in Night Clubs. It was the early 80ies - really cool music around - not that crap you listen to now - and after all I had a *bike* !!! To all the Americans - in Germany you can't get the car driving licence before the age of 18.
Well, back to the time when I finished the army.
I had lots of time (15 months) to think about what I'm gonna study at university. In the end it turned out to be medicine, because it had been a dream of me since the age of 6. Never realized that it would be stupid to neglect my computer knowledge by choosing that job.
Well, didn't have too much contact with computers until I started my research work at the University of Heidelberg in the department of Physiology on 'Single Cell intracellular Ca++ Measurement of Mesangial Cells with the Fura 2 Method' in the context of the Angiotensin-Renin-System. This method requieres real time photon counting and processing, where a computer was abundant. After more than 5 years of abstinence from programming I wrote the complete (Core- and GUI-) software for it and even happened to sell this software for quite a cool price to several other laboratries. I felt so good, when I again couldn't keep my hands off Assembler - this time 68xxx Assember - again a Motorola CPU, with a decent instruction code, not that puny Intel stuff. You may guess which kind of system I've been working at - 68xxx, GUI OS, well,well. At this stage I didn't think much of PCs at all. It was 1990 and I had to use arrays of more than 4 MB in size - impossible at this time for an DOS/Intel based system and its pathetic 64 kB data segment limitation crap.
Yes, and crap's just the right word, because that's where I got my first computer system from. Didn't like to spend too much money, so my first PC was an Olivetti M23, with an Intel 8086 CPU, running at 8 MHz, bought from a computer crap dealer for about 70 bucks. With this system I had all my chances to deeply get into damned MS DOS, because Windows wouldn't run on it. On this puny little computer I had my first computer game addiction experience - "Bane of the Cosmic Forge" I've been playing simultaneously with a friend for two months, spending nights on the computer and on the phone to discuss the latest findings and getting into serious trouble with my girl friend Edith. This almost would have cost me my 2nd State Exam. Yes people I LOVE RPGs and I can't wait to get my hands on 'Daggerfall'. One year later I was owning a 386/40 and a few months later it was a 486/33. This was the year 1993. The year of my exam - no student life anymore - I had to face that I eventually had become a doctor. In the same year I got a 486/40 (AMD) and overclocked for the first time, to 50 MHz. Another few months later it had to be a 486/66 (Intel), overclocked to 80 MHz and 1994 it was an AMD 486/100, overclocked to 120 MHz. This was my last 486, at the beginning of this year I got myself a Pentium 133, which now is replaced by a P166 overclocked to 200 MHz.
My hardware knowledge comes from the time when I had the 'crap' 8086. Had to disassemble and reassemble the whole system several times to get the best performance out of it. Later I never bought a complete system. I still think it's smartest to pick each component yourself, even if it is a little bit more expensive. I've been reading a lot, benefiting from my knowledge in electronics and I've been trying a lot on several systems as well, when I've been working at a friends computer shop in my student time. One invaluable source of wisdom always was the ct-Magazin though. There's nothing to compare to it on the whole globe and they could make loads of money if they would publish in English as well.
If you're wondering why I'm living in the UK now, I'm afraid I have to keep you wondering. This is a story which doesn't have anything to do with computers neither with the work as a doctor - purely romantic and hence not to be discussed here ;-).
So for all who wonna know: I am a doctor and will be a GP soon. This site I've been creating mainly to see if I can make it back on the scene in computing somehow. I'm still not too sure what my future will be like - will it be the life of a GP or will I somehow deeply get into computing business, where I might really belong. This site certainly has the idea to increase your knowledge of PC systems, but I'm also doing it to see if I can make it into coputing at last. Maybe if I'll get a good offer I'd quit my medical career. I'm enjoying my job as a doctor, but in combination with web mastering it leaves you sleepless...
Oh yeah, I almost forgot my hobbies. Well, my hobbies are most of all working out in the gym, which I do almost daily, as long as I'm not on call - will therefore soon get offered a role in ER ;-). The next thing I really love is biking. I only say ZX-6R, 600er Ninja. Also enjoy car racing, but the police doesn't really like that too much ;-). I'm swimming, playing tennis, NO GOLF - no, I'm not pathetic enough yet. Won't tell you my music taste, because I think that's really out of interest. Won't tell you about my sex life either, though I think I could get a lot of hits if I would ;-) and I certainly would make you jealous. My dream car is a 911 turbo, latest model. Don't know what a 911 is ? Get lost! Alternatively a Lamborghini Miura - one of the most beautiful cars ever built - only topped by the famous 300SL. Where are the best cars built - in Germany of course.
I'm actually a smoker, but I only like the real stuff - French cigarettes! If anybody French is reading this here - HELP - Gauloises legeres in the UK cost me double of the price in France! I'm anyway very much into France. I love the French life style, there's hardly any doubt about the outstanding beauty of French women, I prefer French wine, which is also costing me a fortune here and I'm dying for French cheese. I don't think I have to mention the French Cuisine, since I once had the chance to enjoy a six hours meal in a French star (Michelin) restaurant, I know what real culture is about. Only my French is far from good enough to live there, but I certainly will improve that, because I still dream of spending the rest of my life in France.
OK - enough blabla - good night. |
