On Panic-Mongering

I have a long-standing hatred of band-waggoning. I'm of the very pushy opinion that the current recession is only as bad as it is because of scare-mongering tactics among the media which gave the whole thing a sense of a self-fulfilling prophecy (not unlike the bank run on Northern Rock). I'm hedging my bets here.

This morning, Microsoft announced a decline in profit since the first time since Windows 3.1. All day, I've been reading blog and newspaper posts about it, most of them spelling doom. This is quite unfortunate. I'm waiting for a drop in share price, because I'm worried it'll follow the same pattern as the recent Nintendo debacle, which I'll summarise as follows: The Wii market in Japan is nearing saturation, and given a thousand different factors, the entire console market in Japan has had a slowdown in sales recently. Nintendo published its figures last week showing that they were ahead in the sales race with the Wii and DS at the top two sales slots, but it was less than last year, and as such, doom and gloom abounding just now, their share price took a nosedive.

Jenny is not pleased.

I'm all for the introduction of new technology, and I simply adore how things make their way to the masses (One day I'll write a post and try to describe the expression I made the first time I saw Google Earth), but at times like this, that niggling voice at the back of my head wonders if there should be a test before you're allowed all this information. That test is rather simple; if you read the Daily Mail, you should be treated like a dangerous criminal and not allowed on the webernet - quite simply, we don't want you clogging up the tubes.