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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/18/2002 10:42:24 AM
From: who cares?	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Don't worry, CNBC just said more companies hiring in tech than firing. ALL GOOD. Man I feel like the last 2+ years of bear has been a dream. Friggen Bradshaw wrestler on, now I gotta watch Bezos on a Segway with his laugh. Clowns still calling the shots. It's like some kind of zombie computer game where you keep having to kill the same guys over and over.

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/18/2002 10:54:20 AM
From: SeaViewer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Talk to a friend who got laid off a few weeks ago. He said it was almost impossible to find a job. He is doing network testing.

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/18/2002 12:31:02 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 436258

>>This burgeoning lay-off wave is a Tsunamia. It amazes me that it gets so little press, particularly when it is recognized that "the consumer" is carrying the can as far as the current economy is concerned<< i'm amazed by it too, earlie. the only explanation i have is the bogus unemployment number continues to act as a palliative. that and the new found willingness of lenders to extend mortgage default criteria. though not much help to those who cannot find jobs.

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/22/2002 9:37:56 AM
From: Terry Maloney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Earlie, do check your PMs when you get a chance. Same message as last month ... <g> Best, Terry

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/22/2002 2:19:55 PM
From: Perspective	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

These boys sure bullish on ALTR: biz.yahoo.com BC

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/22/2002 2:40:32 PM
From: Perspective	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Earlie, time to take a look at these guys again? stockcharts.com[w,a]waclyiay[pc8!b5][vc60][iLb14!Lc20]&pref=G How long will it take them to burn the cash they raised? BC

To: Earlie who wrote (205427)	11/23/2002 2:37:38 PM
From: ild	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 436258

Here is a segment of herb greenberg post yesterday, he is writting what an IT manager send to him. Turns out others in the IT world are in the same boat. Consider this note from a reader who is a technical architect for a large company's IT department (sorry, not at liberty to give out the name): Final spending decisions are occurring on what money is left in this year's IT budgets. I have several sales and IT management contacts who have told me they are making some last-minute purchases of software and hardware -- at bargain prices, no less. This happens every year at this time. When it happened last year, it completely confused me as to why it sent the Nasdaq into a frenzy; it was the little blip you saw in sales at the end of last year. Furthermore, we are not seeing any planned growth in our IT budget for next year. Right now, it is forecast as stable to slightly down. Most of the money allocated for next year, in fact, will just be on services for maintenance of existing technologies, as well as pilots for newer technologies, such as Web services. But this requires no new hardware, just consulting services. And again, bargain prices are prevalent everywhere, as we see undercutting by IBM (IBM:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis), Dell (DELL:Nasdaq - news - commentary - research - analysis) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis), which is showing up in their increasing revenues. That is what confuses me about this current market rally. It seems to be focused especially on semiconductors, which is one area in which I see no spending at all. People wonder where the replacement cycle is, but most IT people I know see no need to do a 'mass replacement' of PCs anytime soon. The only replacements occurring are in switching from high margin mainframe or Solaris boxes to low margin Wintel or Linux boxes. There's no replacement of existing network hardware occurring. The only network constraints we have right now are in the available bandwidth, and we can fill that at great rates due to the exceptional lengths that AT&T (T:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) is going to woo corporate customers. And no requisition for new desktop PCs is occurring at all; only laptop replacements of desktops. Overall, I am not quite sure where investors are expecting to see the semiconductor growth come from. The consumer? Internationally? Certainly, I am no market expert, but I get the sense that investors are again doing the 'hope ritual' with technology that they did last year. And I have to tell them that unless a major natural disaster takes a huge chunk of IT equipment with it, they're just going to have to realize that the growth rates and replacement cycles of the past are not there, and probably never will return unless some new technology comes along that wows IT management into entering a new spending cycle. Until then, we are doing just great with the equipment we have. Even when we need to buy, the prices we can generate from bids are so low that I cannot see how these tech companies are going to grow profits all that much. That is why I bring up the word delusional. It's one thing if the prices I saw for tech stocks reflected what I see at work every day, but they seem to be calling for some kind of 'boom' cycle of spending. I am just writing to tell you and RealMoney.com readers; it is not coming this year or next year. messages.yahoo.com