We don't notice when times are good until times turn bad. Seems like we have recently moved towards a period with more angst (at least from my view here in little old Atlanta, Georgia) based on the turmoil in the financial markets, continued conflicts in the Middle East, international trade issues and so forth.

In our own industry, I continue to admire companies (often private companies) that move on with capital projects in times like these, displaying the optimisim that better times may come about the time they are ready for them. These are the "carpe diem" people of our industry and they will be rewarded fabulously for their foresight. Admittedly, such companies are small in number, but leadership in any endeavor has always been accomplished by only a few.

It does appear that we have finally worked off all the IT hardware and software purchased for the Y2K scare of late 1999. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, recently said the worldwide market for computing hardware is the strongest of his career.