Dead-end stocks?

It's funny how some companies seem to be riding on trends that seem doomed to me. I've been going alphabetically through Scandinavian stock listings, and so far I've encountered three such companies: AudioDev, Anoto and Cash Guard. AudioDev makes testing equipment for optical media. Anoto makes system to read hand-written forms. Cash Guard makes cash handling systems.

In my image of the future all content is accessed through the Internet, therefore there will be no optical media, and so there won't be any need for testing equipment for it. All official forms, questionnaires, multiple-choice exams etc. will be filled electronically, so there won't be so much need for OCR / choice-reading machines. Cash will be phased out gradually, where it might always exist but will be used less and less.

These three companies don't seem to be riding on very good trends :)

Media circus has arrived

Finnish media companies have gotten excited about "social media". They see it as a trend, and they must report trends. To support trend reporting, they want to raise individual examples, hopefully ones that people can relate to. I happen to be one of the few serious Facebook developers in Finland, so I tend to be that example.

It's been fun. First I was featured in some magazine called "Happi". I'd never heard of it, and even with numerous requests they never sent me the issue that my interview appeared in. But apparently someone read it, because next I was contacted by another magazine called "Image". Now this one I had heard of, it's a very high profile magazine. I got my face filling an entire page, it feels unreal. Seems that stories in media inspire more stories in other media, because next I was contacted by "YleX" radio channel and "Helsingin Sanomat", the largest circulation newspaper in Finland. Just wow.