] In the face of all this, what emboldens the bulls?
] Sharply discounted share prices, of course, but also
] improving fundamentals, like corporate spending on
] technology. Forecasts for growth in corporate information
] technology spending this year range from 4 to 8 percent,
] and the bulls say these estimates may be too
] conservative.
]
] For one thing, the companies that buy technology are
] flush with cash. At the end of 1999, just before the tech
] stock meltdown, the median for balance-sheet cash and
] short-term investments at Standard & Poor's 500
] companies, excluding the financial services sector, was
] $220 million, according to data from Piper Jaffray. Since
] then, it has risen each year; by the end of 2004, it
] stood at $675 million. The share of capital spending
] going to information technology equipment and software,
] in decline for several years, has also been rising again,
] according to Lehman Brothers.
]
] Inventory levels at technology companies, meanwhile, have
] been dropping, and the ratio of inventory to sales is the
] lowest in more than a decade, according to Lehman
] Brothers data. Finally, tech companies may actually
] outperform forecasts. "Earnings revisions for the tech
] sector have been a bit stronger than for the overall
] market," said Chip Dickson, Lehman's chief United States
] strategist. If the bulls have picked up the scent of
] impending recovery, how should investors position
] themselves? Here, the bulls part ways. Some favor
] beaten-up large-capitalization stalwarts; others look to
] fast growers in flourishing niches like data security and
] wireless data services.

This should be interesting. Both forces are pretty strong. The macro economic effects seem to be much more powerful, but that might not make the market act with any rationality. For my part, I've been looking for exits out of some of my techs just because I think they're too pricey or not going anywhere (CSCO?).

Investing: Are Technology Stocks About to Lose the Blues?

] In the past 15 months, at least 35 school employees or
] those recently employed by schools have been charged or
] convicted of sexual misconduct involving minors or the
] mentally impaired.

This doesn't make me feel real good about sending my daughter to school.

22 convicted of sexual misconduct, online solicitation - 4/24/05

] Medtronic said on Friday that it would pay $550 million
] to settle the lawsuit and another $800 million to acquire
] the patents. The deal will also give Medtronic rights to
] virtually all the spine-related inventions Dr. Michelson
] makes in the next 15 years.

nice.

Medtronic to Pay $1.35 Billion to Inventor

] It is as if we had signed an international stupidity
] pact, one that required us to ignore the evidence, to
] hand out new rights without asking for the simplest
] assessment of need. If the stakes were trivial, no one
] would care. But intellectual property (IP) is important.
] These are the ground rules of the information society.
] Mistakes hurt us. They have costs to free speech,
] competition, innovation, and science. Why are we making
] them?

I don't think I could have written a better apraisal of the state of things myself if I tried. This article is chock full of great quotes.

James Boyle: Deconstructing stupidity

] With Earth Day just around the corner, there is good news
] for Davidson County recyclers: Curby, the curbside
] recycling service in Metro Nashville, this week started
] accepting plastic bottles.
]
] Milk jugs, household cleaner bottles, shampoo and lotion
] bottles and soft drink and water bottles %u2014 if it's
] plastic, they'll take it.

HURRAY!!!!

Curby recycling service now will pick up plastic bottles - Wednesday, 04/20/05

] Put briefly, it's a WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network)
] router. In more human terms, it's a compact little box
] that gets data from cellular towers and re-shares it for
] multiple computers to use.

hmm.. I was thinking of getting a Junxion box, but I might build me one of these instead.

EVDO StompBox Project

] CONGRATULATIONS Jami Anderson for your beautiful
] creation.

ooh! lookie! a picture of Jen in her TP wedding gown. Nice to see how great she'd look all in white!

Wedding Contest

] ''About 2½ hours. Jennifer (Knight) kept getting
] light-headed because she drank wine on top of sinus
] medicine, so we had to fix it a couple of times. It kept
] ripping whenever she sat down to put her head between her
] knees. Luckily, she is a size 4, so all those extra
] layers I had to wrap around her hips didn't end up making
] her look like the Michelin Man.''

ah... my ex-girlfriend finally finds her wedding dress!

And the bride wore double-ply

] A British motorist, driving home from work with his car
] window wound down, had his nose broken by a flying frozen
] sausage

If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard this story...

Motorist Injured by Flying Frozen Sausage

] While the economists debate, the tight market is changing
] lives. Sharon McKee just bought a one-bedroom, one-bath
] condominium, without parking, in the Logan Circle
] neighborhood of the District. It was listed at $375,000,
] but McKee raised her offer to $412,000 to beat out
] several other bidders.

I-N-S-A-N-E

In Real Estate Fever, More Signs of Sickness