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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (73323)	12/6/1999 8:06:00 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

rudedog: It is a wee bit inconsistent to complain about ad hominem remarks just before you make references to someone's education. I have no idea whether your knowledge of the history of the computer, the industry and contemporary technology is reliable - to my untuored ears it sounds first class and I have learned a lot from it. I have no idea whether the information you have gleaned about COMPAQ in your work or in your socialising with COMPAQ employees is reliable - personally, I do not find it as helpful as your knowledge of technology, because it is unverifiable and it is partial, and I have no way of knowing how much it is influenced by the political or career interest of the sources. This is not to say that I question your personal integrity - I don't. When it comes to the events of the last 12 months which cost me and thousand of others a great deal of money, stress and time, I simply question your interpretation of those events. Your interpretation has changed quite a lot in those few months as has mine, but yours and mine have gone in different directions. I see in yours the ideology of a team player, or even the professional consultant, someone who is part of the Houston community, someone who not only understands the explanation being put out by Rosen and those who have a lot to gain from prompting the Rosen view and damming the Pfeiffer view, but also someone who genuinely empathises with that explanation and expresses it persuasively here and elsewhere. I presented a different view - and a view which is not eccentric or extraordianry - but a view which, judging by the 65% cut in the COMPAQ share-price, was shared by many others, some of whom are very well informed and some who are not. It is only in the boiler-house boosterism of this board that my view is made to appear unorthodox. I notice that when I express disagreement with your view you presume that I have not understood your view and if I persist in disagreeing after you have re-explained it then you presume that I am not capable of understanding it. In a way, this is an ad hominem method of argument. Thankfully, you did not stoop to the level of branding me a liar because I reported the price level of my trades on this board, when asked. But if you are on the watch for ad hominem technique have a look at some of that. I do admit to referring to Pfeiffer's hair in my infamous spoof interview with him, and reference to his wooden expression was part of the common coinage of this site, but I don't think any of those good humoured remarks approach the kind of systemic ad hominem attacks he has been subjected to by your informants as reported here by you. Rosen insisted on retaining the Chair - and yes I do know the corporate history of that decision - and therefore he gets to share the success and the failures. It is a nice technique, isn't it, to ride in on a white horse every few years, dump blame on the CEO and ride off into the sunset again to the applause of the grateful, but impoverished, shareholders. With reference to Alta Vista, I understand Rosen's scheme as well as you do - but I actually don't agree with it. With reference to Pfeiffer, he was the hero this time last year and I think you and others here invested a lot of money in his abilities. How did he become a chump so quickly? And if we were wrong about Pfeiffer shouldn't we be a bit cautious in our enthusiam for Rosen and Capellas until they show us the money? I will make money from COMPAQ because Rosen has been lashed or should I say "shamed" into action by the market. The cost-cutting - if executed as promised - will go to the bottom line during the next two earnings reports. This, alone will boost the share price. If King Rosen's plans are sound and if they executed well by his Prime Minister Capellas - two important "ifs" - then perhaps COMPAQ will generate increased earnings from operations as well as from cost-cutting. But I am less sure of the second than the first. Finally, this and my reply to NW, is my last word on the subject. I think I have expressed myself with reasonable clarity and I have nothing more to say.