Wall $treet Folly

Hoofy and Boo: Hoofy's a blackberry addict....

Crackberries went dark and we were loving it

It's not often that we have an involuntary time out from our addictive Blackberry, but this afternoon's big outage meant that for a few brief hours we weren't a slave to that device.  Ours went out at around 4:35.  It was back at around 7pm and it was business as usual.

Panic at Grand Central and we were there; Blackberry and Bloomberg rule

Juat as we entered Grand Central to head home, panic ensued.  Police were running for the exits.  We heard someone yell "evacuate NOW", and the crowd ran like hell for the exits.  No one knew why.  Outside it was very sooty.  Thousands of people were pouring out on to the street.  We were on 42nd Street and the police were telling people to go west quickly.  No one had any idea what was happening.  We were able to snap a quick picture of the plume of smoke (above) with our Blackberry.

Not knowing what was going on, we did a Google search of the news.  Nothing.   The good news: Our Blackberry still worked with the web. *Phew*.  So we went to Plan B.  We logged into our Bloomberg on our Blackberry and searched the news.  Et Voila.  Headlines were already up on Bloomberg, at 6:12, within minutes of the explosion.  They indicated that it was likely a manhole explosion or something similar.  But thankfully not terrorism which we happily shared with some of the other confused evacuees.

French security agency farts in Blackberry's general direction: they're now banned for use by the French cabinet due to security concerns

If any of the members of the French cabinet are currently Crackberry addicts, they'll shortly be going through withdrawal.  The  SGDN,  responsible for French national security, has banned the ubiquitous devices because they fear security leak to the likes of the U.S. National Security Agency:

The SGDN, which is responsible for national security, has banned the use of the personal data assistants by anyone in the president’s or prime minister’s offices on the basis of “a very real risk of interception” by third parties.

The ban has been prompted by SGDN concerns that the BlackBerry system is based on servers located in the US and the UK, and that highly sensitive strategic information being passed between French ministers could fall into foreign hands.

A confidential study carried out two years ago by Alain Juillet, the civil servant in charge of economic intelligence, found that the BlackBerry posed “a data security problem”.

Meet Andrew, the investment banker tool

First there was Aleksey Vayner, then there was AJ....now the New York Post presents the latest obnoxiously pompous, conspicuously consuming, dweeby junior banking type in a piece they call "Tools of the Trade" (maybe more appropriately entitled in his case: "Tools IN the Trade").   Meet Andrew, 24, who tells us he's paid $190K "including projected bonus".  The article shares the tools he uses in his day to day life, his grooming habits (which focus on shoe shining) and his tastes -- he likes cigars and uses that nugget on his résumé because "liking cigars is a good talking point".  (P.S. While the article doesn't give Andrew's full identity, a friend with Bear Stearns tells us that's where he works and his full name is Andrew Caselli.)

This is some of what he wears:

Suit: Hickey Freeman suit, $2,749. "I have about 10 suits and usually buy them at Hickey Freeman and Paul Stuart. I have two really heavy pin-stripe suits that I'd classify as 'power suits.' Bankers never wear double-breasted suits, it's a fashion faux pas. I get all of my suits tailored in Rochester, N.Y. There is a Romanian couple that have been doing my father's suits for years. They are trusted in the family, and 10 times better than any of the tailors I've used in the city."

White shirt: "There's a saying in the banking world that you can never have too many blue suits or white shirts. I get mine from Hickey Freeman [$149-$249] as my standby, but I also shop at Charles Tyrwhitt [$99-$200], Thomas Pink [$149-$249] and Turnbull and Asser [over $250]. I get my white shirts heavy-starched."

Collar: "I always buy cutaway collars and French cuffs from the British stores (Tyrwhitt, Pink, Turnbull & Asser), and Barrel (button) cuffs from Hickey Freeman."

Watch: Breitling Navitimer, $5,299. "Bankers have a complex with having a watch. Far and beyond the most popular watch is a Rolex Submariner - black or white face, half bezel is blue. The Navitimer comes in a few different sizes and shapes."

Shoes: Ferragamo loafers, $395 at Saks Fifth Avenue. "The standard banker shoe is a fashion loafer or a tie cap toe."

Turn those machines back on!!!: Western hemisphere Blackberry outage

Crackberry addicts could be going through major withdrawal this morning as a western hemisphere outage halted service.  The last message we got last night was at 12:17 am:

A system failure at Research In Motion (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) has affected Blackberry users in the Western Hemisphere, a news channel reported on its Web site late on Tuesday.

The infrastructure failed on Tuesday night, and e-mails were not being delivered to the handheld devices, WNBC.com reported.

A Research In Motion representative was not immediately available for comment.

But WNBC.com cited company officials as saying that they were trying to reset the system, but the problem would carry into Wednesday morning.

RIM's BlackBerry system down -report - Reuters

Sex survey: Blackberries may help some, and much, much more

We're not sure how we missed this gem of a sex survey of 1,738 American men and women aged 21 to 49 in the New York Post early last week.   Here are someof the findings of the survey (that's The Post's graphic to the left) commissioned by Esquire and Marie Claire magazines:  12% of men and 7% of women have answered work calls or emails during sex. (That's actually below the 20% number that the CEO of Virgin Mobile suggested would answer their cells last summer.)  We figure the vast majority of those who'd answer must be traders. 

The survey contradicts what researchers have been saying about Blackberries -- that they may crimp your sex life.  It found that 52% of women and 59% of men said that the devices actually helped their sex lives.  34% of men and 29% of women use them for sex hookups. 

And 9% of men and 4% of women used sex for "professional gain".

Sex may take a backseat if you're a crackberry addict

Have you noticed that your sex life has become practically nonexistent?  If the answer is yes, do you also have a blackberry from which you are inseparable?  Therein may lie the answer to your little sex problem:

Married couples are not the only ones being affected by the home invasion of wireless technology. Ask any upwardly mobile single and they’ll tell you that they’re often too busy getting ahead in the boardroom to get busy in the bedroom. “Unfortunately, technology is the modern-day equivalent to the spinster chaperone,” says Lisa Daily, author of Stop Getting Dumped! All You Need to Know to Make Men Fall Madly in Love with You and Marry “The One” in 3 Years Or Less.

“Once you finally manage to squeeze in a romantic dinner and maybe a meaningful conversation, our technological umbilical cord to the office starts buzzing away and the mood--and maybe the opportunity--is lost.”

Video: Funny Blackberry commercial spoof

We thought this video spoofing a Crackberry commercial from the Rick Mercer Report was pretty funny!  (0:58)

Blackberry is affecting family dynamics

There's a great article in the Wall Street Journal today on how Crackberries and other similar gadgets, which have become the center of many of our universes, are affecting families.  Kids are often feeling shortchanged because mom and dad are constantly focusing and obsessing on their addictive communicators.  You may even recognize yourself in the article:

As hand-held email devices proliferate, they are having an unexpected impact on family dynamics: Parents and their children are swapping roles. Like a bunch of teenagers, some parents are routinely lying to their kids, sneaking around the house to covertly check their emails and disobeying house rules established to minimize compulsive typing. The refusal of parents to follow a few simple rules is pushing some children to the brink. They are fearful that parents will be distracted by emails while driving, concerned about Mom and Dad's shortening attention spans and exasperated by their parents' obsession with their gadgets. Bob Ledbetter III, a third-grader in Rome, Ga., says he tries to tell his father to put the BlackBerry down, but can't even get his attention. "Sometimes I think he's deaf," says the 9-year-old.