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TWST: Since you are a generalist who looks at technology stocks across the board, I’d like to begin by asking you if there is a case for investing in technology stocks at this particular time.

Mr. Virgile: I may be such a generalist, but there is no general answer to your question. There are some technologies which are doing quite well. More of them are not. There is no general answer.

TWST: What are some of the sectors that you feel are worth investing in now?

Mr. Virgile: One that is doing the best is medical supplies or medical equipment. We call it “medical supplies,” but it’s really equipment rather than bandages.

TWST: What about the electrical equipment and electronics area? Are there any good companies in there?

Mr. Virgile: That’s kind of interesting. Let’s start with electrical equipment. I follow only three companies that we call electrical equipment — you know, these definitions of what industry a company belongs in vary from person to person. Two of them are producers of cable, and one is a company called Franklin Electric (FELE), which does submersible pumps. Franklin Electric is doing quite well. Another company I follow, a little company, is Intermagnetics (Nasdaq:IMGC). They specialize in low-temperature devices (and by “low,” I mean cryogenic temperatures) and cables of various kinds. Three-quarters of their business is with a single company that makes MRI equipment, and they’re doing all right with that customer — they make a little more and sell a little more every year — but the thing that could make this company, though it’s going to take at least five years, is the development of low-temperature cable which enables utilities to transmit electricity without loss or with very little loss. If that eventually works, that will transform this company into something much bigger than it is today. Another company is the Rogers Corporation (ROG). They make specialty plastic materials. They have suffered, but not too severely, from the weakening of the economy, and they’re slowly strengthening, and will strengthen more as the economy returns. Symbol Technologies (SBL) was one of the best companies on Long Island. They make the bar-code reading systems and related communications systems and the small computers that go with it. By licensing what they do too much, I think they allowed too much competition to get in the field; nevertheless, they felt they had to do it in order to promote the use of the bar-code reading technologies. But they have suffered severely with the weakening economy, and when they will come back is unclear. And right now they’re having some SEC problems that are raising questions about the company. So it’s hard to generalize. Pick a company and you come up with a different story.

TWST: What particular areas are you avoiding at this time?

Mr. Virgile: I don’t avoid anything. We’re a very systematic publication and we never stop following a company until it goes out of business, is merged or the stock gets to be less than 1 or so, so we feel we shouldn’t follow it anymore. But from a publication point of view we don’t avoid anything.