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Four reasons to be bullish:
Audio: http://vuwin.on24.com/vuwindow/scripts/vuwin.asp?ref=quot&cb=quot&id=76500&type=av
No problem muffin.
ewee
Good story panda...here it is:
Wall Street has a perverse name for the Baby Bells. They are "cockroaches." An asteroid has destroyed the whole long-distance and fiber-optic sectors, but somehow the local service providers have survived. Verizon, SBC and BellSouth made a combined $20 billion of profit last year and have a collective market value of $240 billion.
So far the Bells' stamina on Wall Street has been remarkable. The stock prices of Verizon, SBC Communications and BellSouth have fallen on average 30% in two years, easily beating the overall market and trouncing Sprint, Qwest, Level 3 and WorldCom, whose shares are off anywhere from 70% to 100%. Investors sought refuge in what had long been one of the most predictable and reliable businesses on the planet. Local phone service has grown, in good years and bad, for seven decades.
Let the shareholder beware: These telecom behemoths are nowhere near as healthy as they appear. While they aren't about to become extinct, neither are they the cash machines they seem to be. Most of those glorious profits are being poured into maintaining equipment or upgrading to meet new competitive threats. In the five years from 1998 through 2002 the Bells will have sunk $140 billion into capital expenses in their local, long-distance, data and international markets. This monstrous outlay will bring them annual revenue growth in those same areas of 2.5%, barely ahead of inflation. Philip Jacobson, an analyst with Network Conceptions in Vienna, Va., puts it succinctly: "The Bells have shown the ability to invest a lot of money with very little result."
Even as the Bells stand triumphant, the 20th-century foundations of their business have begun to fracture. The Baby Bells could one day be exposed as the last great telecom illusion, undone by a combination of an overwhelming wave of new competition--from cable, wireless, resellers and elsewhere--and their own underwhelming success at diversifying into new services such as Internet access. They are on a capital-spending treadmill, and the treadmill is picking up speed.
Competition and price-cutting that first struck the long-distance business and then cell phone service are now spreading to local service. The Bells' phenomenal strength is rooted in their absolute lock on the nation's 180 million local phone lines and the seeming inevitability that, each year, they will continue to lay still more. But last year the total number of local phone lines declined 4.7% from the year before as customers cut off 9 million more lines than they added, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Since AT&T was founded in 1885, government stat-isticians have recorded a drop in phone lines only once before, during the Great Depression.
The line decline in 2001 was a direct result of the ferocious assault on the Bells from all sides. As many as 3 million customers decided to forgo a home phone last year, going wireless instead. Cable operators are beginning to offer local phone calls on their rebuilt lines, and poached 600,000 Bell customers last year. Another 2 million households canceled the second phone lines they were using for poky dial-up access to the Internet; high-speed cable access and DSL don't interfere with regular phone service, making second lines superfluous. BellSouth workers used to go into new suburbs in the Southeast and confidently bury thick bundles of wires containing 1.5 to 2.5 phone lines for every home in the neighborhood; this year its workers began burying just one phone line for every home its wires pass.
The erosion began to show up last month in BellSouth's second-quarter report, as sales fell 3.5% and earnings plunged 67% on one-time charges, sending the stock down 18% in a day. Verizon and SBC were also expected to report further phone line losses.
It gets worse. The Bells now lease 20 million lines to resellers, up 32% last year, and they're forced to rent out these precious tendrils at regulated prices that are often just two-fifths what they get from consumer accounts. Competitors leasing those lines can exploit weaknesses in the Bells' kooky pricing structures, relics of their days as regulated monopolies, to steal the most profitable customers. The Bells count on 95%-plus operating margins on newer features such as caller ID and voice mail to juice their earnings, since basic monthly fees remain regulated. MCI's new Neighborhood Complete plan offers unlimited local and long-distance calling for $50 or $60, depending on the region, with caller ID, call waiting and voice mail--so valuable to the Bells--thrown in free of charge. Since launching the plan in April MCI has landed 600,000 customers and is signing up 200,000 more each month.
The Bells will have a hard time holding off the panoply of new competitors, says David Dorman, recently named chief executive of AT&T and a former chief of Pacific Bell. As newcomers steal the fattest customers, the Bells will get stuck serving the low-spending, high-cost ones. "Inexorably," he says, "cable and wireless are going to eat into their share."
For six years the Bells have been bracing for this onslaught, steeled by the passage of telecom deregulation in 1996 and eager to counterattack by moving into long distance and Internet access. But their foray has been expensive, and the new-growth markets have proven disappointing. The Bells fought hard for the right to sell long-distance service, something they were banned from doing in the 1984 antitrust breakup of AT&T. It has been a Pyrrhic victory. As of April Verizon and SBC (the only Bells to have won the right to sell long distance in their home states) handled long-distance calls for 13.5 million customers, almost double the total of 18 months ago. Yet their long-distance revenue in that same period declined. In the most recent quarter it was $1.5 billion, off 6% in a year and a half.
1.7 million
The number of cable company lines now used for local phone service.
67%
The average annual growth in the time Americans have spent talking on cell phones over the last five years.
20 million
Bell phone lines now leased by competitors at wholesale prices.
1933
The last year, prior to 2001, that the number of local phone lines in the U.S. shrank-in the depths of the Great Depression.
9 million
The net number of local phone lines cut off in 2001.
END OF STORY
Here is where I'm talking about guys (chatroom):
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/inks/
Well Pengy, I checked yours and I must say that you're a lot better looking in pictures than in person. LOL
THE GOOD LIFE IS...
Not envying the neighbors new car
Smelling like clothes fresh from the dryer
Loving one who accepts it and it is well received
Loving one who wants you too
Shower or bathe outdoors
All your body parts working well
Eating your cereal before it gets soggy
A truck driver without hemorrhoids
Being able to smile when you say, "charge it"
Being glad she is pregnant
Accepting fat where it is
Beer taste on a Champaign budget
Riding when you could fly
Walking when you could bike
Strolling when you could run
Stopping when you could ignore the kid
Holding hands when you are 50 -- with your grandchild
Finding the kid who lost the quarter
A dryer that don't swallow socks
Finding your teenager speaking English
A tear with the apology
Being the unknown toothfairy, but getting a kiss for it
Finding a butcher who trims fat
Finding a health food nut who is sick
Finding out she doesn't think your nose is too big afterall
Figuring out they made a smaller car that is bigger inside
Helping your neighbor even if he is a real jerk
Squeezing your wife when nobody's looking
Getting squeezed right back
Waking up every morning
Sleeping in the arms of one you owe everything to and yet
owe nothing to
(but have never been billed)
Yawning while awaiting the bankers decision on your bank
loan
Being lonely for a reason
Phoning a friend who will answer
Admitting that you do know it
Being served mashed potatoes not made with water
--John E. Hitesman (1936 - 1994)
I like this guy...
http://www.jimrohn.com
People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year
period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The
answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they
found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found
it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get
around other successful people. They said it probably really
wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I
found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six
years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still
blaming the economy, the government, and company policies,
yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.
In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as
well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single
word: neglect.
It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and
abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of
recorded history. It is not the lack of books - libraries
are full of books - and they are free! It is not the
schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have
plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.
Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful
and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that
so few take advantage of all that we have is simply,
neglect.
Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread
throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually
lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and
prosperous human life.
Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel
guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As
our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our
activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results
inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude
begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift
from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes
even more... and on and on it goes.
So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of "easy to"
and "easy not to" that you do not neglect to do the simple,
basic, "easy"; but potentially life-changing activities and
disciplines.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Eleanor Roosevelt Packed a Rod
http://www.newsmax.com
Today's anti-choice Democrats could learn a valuable lesson from one of their heroines of the past, Eleanor Roosevelt, who practiced gun control by using both hands.
The August issue of America's 1st Freedom recalls how the former first lady risked the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee by crusading for civil rights in 1958, at age 74.
The Secret Service warned that the KKK had a $25,000 bounty on Mrs. Roosevelt's head.
"I didn't ask for your protection," she replied. "I have a commitment. I'm going."
Accompanied by a 71-year-old female friend and a loaded pistol, which she kept nearby for 25 years, she "drove through the heart of Klan territory to teach people how to fight for freedom," says the magazine, a publication of National Rifle Association.
"If she were alive, and if Rosie O'Donnell's dreams were to come true, that gray-haired grandmother today would be thrown in jail," America's 1st Freedom reports.
"'I don't care if you think it's your right ... You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison,' O'Donnell has proclaimed. Hillary Clinton would lecture the old woman about how people shouldn't own guns for protection. But the old lady wouldn't listen to Hillary or Rosie any more than she listened to all the other people who told her what she wasn't supposed to do."
It's funny how only now, after the speculation has been removed, am I realizing just how speculative/risky this company once was. Glad I didn't fully realize it back then or I never would have invested. LOL
Brady- I don't think I'd be apologizing for not introducing my daughters to pengy. I think you made the right choice there. Best, Elder.
PS- If we're not using ANY of the tech Blevins and Shepphard brought to the table then why did they get compensated at all? Just curious.
Sag- it's my belief that the stuff we see everyday on the TV is the propaganda. Best, Elder.
Looks like they pulled it off ladies and gents. They actually pulled it the heck off. Yee haw!!!
here you go ex....
http://www.thenewamerican.com
Only the facts in this magazine.
SP- All that I can say is this...New Visual bought the technology from Blevins and Shepphard. If NV gave the tech back to them then wouldn't that be substantial? Or in other words, wouldn't NV be somewhat worried about that? They feel that what they gave to them in the way of assets is of no consequence. Doesn't that pretty well rule out the possibility of those assets being intellectual property that New Visual needs to do their business? In my mind it does. However, I do understand your mistrust but in this case I believe we are just fine. Best, Elder.
Shallow- I tend to be somewhat critical of management at times. I will say however that this settlement is a very good deal for us. Blevins and Shepphard apparently got what they deserved which was far less than what was originally agreed upon. Let them have their concept, They couldn't make it work before. What makes you think they will make it work now? Propp has a HUGE jump on them or anyone else for that matter. That is assuming of course that they got the rights to their patent(s) back from NV which is not likely the case. Best, Elder.
777- We will know down to the last share how the vote goes. It will be broken down issue by issue and we will know how many shares voted yea and how many voted nay. Best, Elder.
Free Nebula- I think this is worth repeating. I have absolutely NO worries...ZERO...ZILCH...NONE...as it relates to the development of the technology. I am confident that we will become very wealthy from the efforts of John, Ray, Rich, and now Tom, Brad, and others. My complaint was with other issues not relating to the tech itself. I feel that I expressed my dissatisfaction completely and no longer feel the need to complain. Issues beyond my control have caused me to have to sell off a chunk of my position and that wasn't setting well with me. Being human I blamed everyone else. The issues I have with management will not affect the ultimate outcome in my opinion. In fact, the presence of Tom and Brad make it almost a sure thing. Best, Elder.
MDJ- sorry pal. I've been in the debating mood lately. I agree with what you say about the reward. Best, Elder.
Ernie, that makes PERFECT sense. Thanks. EOM
MDJ- maybe I misunderstood this part:
With all due respect, I acknowledge your frustration, but we fully
>expect you to consent with our request - this has already been
>discussed with a few individuals at IHUB. However, if you chose
>not to comply, don’t even bother to show your face in the IHUB
>chat room again. The rules and regulation on IHUB apply to all.
Sounds to me like they think they can do something about it.
To the MORON who sent that email I say this:
I have not turned my back on the company. I turned my back on a company officer who I felt was less than honest with me. I also feel they are getting paid way too much for what they have produced. They have produced absolutely nothing. You hear that? NOTHING. When I see it in the form of a PR using terms that are not subject to the safe harbor act then I will consider that as being a result. Until then you can threaten all you want. I believe this company will be able to show results within 12 months. I am still invested. It just so happens that I refuse to stick my head in the sand. Message boards do NOT affect the pps as is apparent this week. Any other threats should be directed to file 13 as they will go unheeded until someone has the courage to tell me who they are. I don't do business with ghosts or cowardly, yellow bellied idiots. Have a nice day.
Well...after much consideration and a lot of careful thought, I have finally decided which threat was the most entertaining of all. Congratulations to the winner (whoever it is). BTW, don't threaten a Texan. Things just never seem to work out the way you would like them to. The last laugh is on the loser who sent this gem. Enjoy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Michael / Elder,
>
>As a fellow shareholder, I empathize with your frustration on the
>lack of performance by NVEI. However, the worst thing that can
>happen to the perception of this company is when a long time
>supporter and a die-hard long suddenly turns his back on the
>company and starts to bash. This can have a very negative impact
>especially among readers that don’t post (but just browse -
there
>are a lot of them). It is extremely critical that we put a
>positive spin on all of the advancement and progress that has been
>made. And as a team we must support all members of senior
>management; they are there for a reason.
>
>I understand that you are frustrated not necessarily because of
>the lack of performance by NVEI but rather your own financial
>struggles. Instant gratification is what we all seek in our fast
>paced culture - but patience is the greatest virtue for a wise
>man. Your own needs have distorted your perceptions of the stock
>and you have become resentful. I kindly ask that you post several
>apologies on the RB message board that clearly state that your
>messages of the past few days were a result of personal emotional
>distress. Emphasize that NVEI is doing all of the right things and
>they are on track (as you previously stated). This has to be done
>consistently over a period of a few weeks in order to erase any
>damage that you have potentially done. There is nothing wrong with
>admitting mistakes. This is the least you could do in support of
>your fellow shareholders and friends (after all, we have supported
>you for so long). Do not let bashers win!
>
>With all due respect, I acknowledge your frustration, but we fully
>expect you to consent with our request - this has already been
>discussed with a few individuals at IHUB. However, if you chose
>not to comply, don’t even bother to show your face in the IHUB
>chat room again. The rules and regulation on IHUB apply to all. I
>consider you a friend and am sure a person with your character and
>integrity will come to his senses.
>
>Best regards to you,
>>From a few fellow Shareholders
>
Kevin,
>If I am to consider what you are asking the only thing I require
is a list of the names of the people asking me to do it. What is
your name also? Aliases is what I mean and telling me that they
never post will not suffice.
Elder
Elder, of course they post (both in IH and RB) and this discussion
was in confidence so I cannot disclose that. You know very well
what you are doing is wrong and it shoulnt even require me saying
so. Thanks in advance and God bless.
By the way, I am choosing not to comply. Let's see what you can do about keeping me out of the chatroom. Good luck and have a nice day.[/b}
spoke- funding has been "in the bag" since last year. Remember? They were going to release the details in the quarterly filing. In all fairness to them though...they never really specified WHICH quarterly filing (that I am aware). Ever feel like you're at the wrong end of a kite string? Long term good. Short term...tired of the BS. If it ain't gonna happen for another year then just tell me. Although you would think from the posts by company supporters that we are complete morons for even SUGGESTING that financing may not be a done deal at this time. Somehow I don't feel like much of an idiot for complaining. They say we're "close" but I'll be damned if I can figure out how they know without having information the rest of us aren't privvy to. Best, Elder.
Here's the bottom line folks. I just want you people to understand where I'm coming from here. I've received several e-mails telling me to shut up. Instead of responding to all of them I will go ahead and tell you why the urgency and the seemingly sudden total lack of patience. To sum it up very shortly, I expanded my business with cash on hand. Cash is running out. Customers paying slowly. Have been selling and will sell more shares to fund payroll and expenses until the jerks decide to pay me for services rendered. I MUST SEE RESULTS and increased pps or I'll wind up having to sell my whole doggone position right before the fireworks start. Been doing this for about 40 days now and my patience with everyone involved with this company is wearing thin. I believe the payroll to development expenditure ratio is utterly ridiculous unless the prototype is done NOW. The options just top the cake. I fully realize that the options are only worth something if the pps is higher and stays that way for the year the stock is restricted. Just been riding a thin line for awhile here and am ready to see some fruit from the patience we have all shown towards management. Sorry for the sob story. Now you know where I stand. Best, Elder.
PS- On top of that I quit using tobacco a few weeks ago and have been spoiling for a good fight anyway. Thanks to those who participated.
END OF RANT
I know some of the longs are as sick of this as I am. For once let's forget about putting a happy face on matters and pull together and get everyone we can to vote their conscience. Speak out in this forum and on the hub if you support this view. It's time we quit supporting a management that refuses to support us. Instead they are enriching themselves at OUR expense. SPEAK OUT if you have the cohonas!!! To me these issues are much more important than the shareprice. If they have what they say and are as close as they claim then the shareprice will increase despite what is posted on a little two bit message board right? Best, Elder.
I posted this on the bull and thought that I may as well post it here.
In my opinion, Ray and Ivan seem to be on a gravy train heading north. I will vote to dismiss them both. Ray has served us well but he is no longer of any use. While I tend to like him, business is business. As for Ivan...I never have figured out what the he!! he does for us. It's time for him to go. They have to sell $104,000 worth of shares each year just to keep him there and I'll be damned if I've ever been able to get a straight answer out of John Howell as to why he gets paid. I'll also be voting NO on the stock compensation plan. They need to show some results before they start patting themselves on the back. The one million shares Cooper got recently was utterly ridiculous. They could have waited until he had produced some results. But in the world of business that's how things operate. ME first. Screw the shareholders. For those who think they want to be ticked off at my candor...to you I say this...until we the shareholders send management a message that we are sick and tired of being strung along, then they will continue to bullshot us. I am VERY VERY confident in the longterm but this shorterm business is beginning to stink. We were told in Dallas that they were 100% ready to tell the story. Well...where is it guys? Oh yeah, I forgot...they had some 144's that needed selling. More bullshot. Best, Elder.
PS- I am under no illusions. I am completely aware that there isn't a chance in he!! that these issues will get voted down.
And just for the record...I'm not smoking the same stuff hitimer is. LOL
Far out man. I didn't realize that's what I was saying but it sounds good to me. LOL
I'd like to echo your sentiments Greg. I too have recently found myself angry at what has taken place. More specifically, I was angered by the fact that Cooper got an additional 1 million options without having shown us any results. Would I like to have seen some results prior to all of these options being given out? Yep. Would I have done the same as Cooper if I was in his shoes? You better believe it. Get those options now while the pps is cheap. The apparent lack of worry about the pps by management at this time could be for a number of reasons. I won't even try to speculate as I have no facts to support any of my theories. However, I would like to point something out.
When Michael Jordan was asked if he expected to win the MVP award for that particular year, he responded by saying that he didn't worry about receiving awards, trophy's, championships, etc. He concerned himself more with playing basketball as well as he could. He focused primarily on improving his own game and didn't worry about what everyone else was doing/saying. The MVP and other things came as a natural result of his efforts. By focusing on trying to be better than everyone else, his focus was outside of himself which can only detract from the goal which is to play as well as he can.
The MVP award can be likened to the share price. Let's allow Cooper and New Visual to focus on getting the tech complete. The other things will come naturally later in the season after they've "played" as best they know how. If the team was cheating, Lord knows there are plenty of referees out there watching and they certainly wouldn't have made it this far if that were the case.
Best regards,
Elder.
excel- I've been with Green Mountain for about a year now. One positive is that when the natural gas prices go up like they did awhile back and the regular utility companies boost the price of the kwh by 20%, our price remains the same as the price of wind doesn't change.
If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Nortel
stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Budweiser
(the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all
the beer, then traded in the cans at a redemption
center for the nickel deposit, you would have
$107.00.
Given the current conditions of the economy, my
advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It seems like everything you come up with is either short in the speed or the distance category. Try again.
50 megs has been possible for quite awhile mikey. It's the distance we're improving BOY.
Wow...I guess it's time to fill out the profile. ;)
Bill- I use E-Trade level 2. If you make 30 trades per quarter the service is free. I don't know how much it costs if you don't make the required number of trades though. My personal feeling on the matter is that there are bound to be better Level 2 services out there. In short, I do not recommend E-Trade to anyone who plans on paying for the service.
justhafacts- If New Visual gets to the point that they are ready to start mass production, 8 to 12 months is what it would take to do production planning, etc. before they were ever ready to begin actual mass production (no, I'm not Baileyd in disguise.) I asked John Howell this very question and after having admitted that the timelines that I mentioned were for the most part correct, he followed that up with a "you don't know when we started production planning" type comment. So really, we can't even BEGIN to guess when we'll have revenues.
big_dawg- I have to admit that I didn't know what fondue was until about 5 minutes ago and it sure sounds good to me. Look forward to visiting your restaurant in July. Best, Elder.
Yes sir dutchy...and we can even take it a step further and speculate that with the terrible conditions of the market, the ABSOLUTE lack of growth in any sector has many investors looking for that one stock...the stock that promises to redeem their losses. I submit that once the credible voice of Tom Cooper is heard and the hard work of Ray, John, Propp, and everyone else associated with NV becomes available to back up the claims Cooper will be making we will have a price increase the likes that we haven't seen for quite some time now in ANY one stock. I have my fork and spoon. It's time to eat!!! Serve it up Coop!!! KAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Just wanted to make sure you guys got the point I was trying to make and that is that the telcom companies are scrambling......SCRAMBLING to find a venue for growth. Enter Tom Cooper and his boys. Have a nice day.