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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (60679)	2/17/2002 1:50:25 PM
From: John Trader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Jacob, I agree. Broadband access is a top consideration in any place I live. Regarding the internet, amazing isn't it? There are so many of us that agree that that the internet is one of the most fantastic things ever invented. As you point out, there is a disconnect in that many companies in this space, at least right now, are not making a profit. There is something wrong with the system here I think. Money is going out, but not in proportion to the benefits received. For example, I pay about $50/mo. for my broadband cable access. I also pay for the WSJ online, briefing.com subscription, and of course commissions to my online broker. Money is also getting shifted, I don't buy "dead-tree" newspapers much anymore, I hardly ever use my regular phone line (use cell phone), I spend less time driving around shopping - use the internet to buy or to find out what I want to buy, I hardly ever listen to the radio (don't like commercials much), and rarely watch TV, except mostly for a few investment related shows, some news, or some interesting programs on the history or discovery channel. Also I keep in touch with friends more on a basis of common interests/personalities, and less on the basis of geography than before. I can't imagine giving up the internet. The world seems much better, and it seems to me that we are still learning how to use this fantastic new technology for the common good. For example, it seems crazy to me that we are using up so much of the world's oil reserves on inefficient and unnecessary transportation. I think travel should be mostly for fun - vacations or whatever. Business could save a ton of money and also oil reserves by using the internet more. The internet is about networking, efficiency, and about getting rid of the "middle-man". It is hard for me to find something wrong with that. The implications of such improvement in efficiency should be enormous over time, and should in theory at least translate into corporate profits, higher stock prices, and a higher standard of living for people. Recall that article that I mentioned before that correlates improvements in the standard of living for humans over the ages to the amount of networking. That makes sense to me. Regarding company profits, there are still a lot of tech companies that have made a lot of money and had their stock prices go up a lot in the last 4 years or so. As one example, AMCC stock price is still up almost 10 times from where it was about 4 years ago, even though it is down to less than 1/10 of where it was at the high. Who was it that said this market was efficient? Regarding improvements in or improvements in using technology, you pointed out before that it comes in waves. We discussed the last-mile problem, which I think everyone here would agree is related to the demand for AMAT products going forward. If this wireless broadband thing takes off, I am thinking things will be looking up for a lot of tech stocks. Just my two cents worth, please point out anything I might be missing in my logic here. John