Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Monday 18/03/2002

The week starts on a bright note. London-based research outfit, the Centre for Economic and Business Research, says that the recession in the tech sector is over. It quotes various figures that you may or may not care to believe, but this seems to match the noise that continues to build from our neck of the woods. A consultant/journalist friend of mine, who's had the leanest four months he's ever experienced and is reduced to technical support to keep the beer flowing, reports that the agencies are back rattling his cage, and in quantity. "Best month since last August", reports another freelance hack, and rumour has it that an advertising salesman was seen smiling at the weekend.

My natural pessimism refuses to be entirely mollified: I'll be happy when the company imposes a 'First Class travel only' policy, as was in place in 1992. But as I suspect I'll see Microsoft adopt an 'Open Source only' policy first and travel to parallel universes is still a little way off, I'll be content with a year of gradual growth and just a soupcon of daft online ideas getting venture capital again.

It's a nice way to start the spring.