Back in the heady days of the dot-com bubble, writes Martin Kady II, "enthusiastic folks in the public relations world could really work up a lather about their tech clients. In promoting the new new thing, these publicity machines would exercise all manner of hyperbole -- and the public and business press would fall for it hook, line and sinker. " Nowadays, most of the PR pitches he receives attempt to put a brave face on disaster or invite him to write about profitable companies that are exceptions to the rule. "That's not a bad idea for a story," Kady writes, "but where were the contrarian opinions when this dot-com craze was full-steam ahead? I never got an e-mail during the peak of the tech boom saying: 'I really think you should do a story about how this is a horribly speculative bubble and when it bursts, thousands of people will lose their jobs, trillions in stock value will be lost, bankruptcies will be rampant and entrepreneurs' dreams will be dashed.'"