Week ahead: Dell's a-poppin'

Following are some of the notable tech-related events scheduled for the week of Feb. 9. Computer giant Dell will be dishing out its earnings next week. Despite the downturn in technology spending, it expects to report a profit. The computer maker is not alone. Other companies, such as Network Appliance and Perot Systems, also expect to be in the black for the recently ended December quarter. The information was gathered from First Call, Hoover's Online, CCBN's StreetEvents and CNET Investor. Events scheduled this week: Tech Events Sunday, Feb. 9 Business intelligence and data warehousing are educational topics to be covered during the TDWI World Conference 2003, to be held Feb. 9-15 in New Orleans. Power up. Designers, manufacturers and users of power electronic products and systems will converge to discuss industry practices at the Applied Power Electronics and Exposition 2003, set for Feb. 9-13 in Miami Beach, Fla. Circuits and chips. Take a glimpse into the latest advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip during the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2003, running Feb. 9-13 in San Francisco. Monday, Feb. 10 Soaking it in. Topics from engineering software intensive systems to data and applications security will be covered as part of a conference on the latest trends in applied informatics, AI 2003. Scheduled for Feb. 10-13 in Innsbruck, Austria. Tuesday, Feb. 11 Technology as a tool. Marketing executives and managers will explore the latest technology trends from performing such duties as maximizing e-mail response rates to weighing sales software packages at Technology For Marketing 2003, set for Feb. 11-12 in London. Wide open. Trends on OpenAccess technology applications is among the topics slated for the Second Annual OpenAccess Conference, running Feb. 11-14 in San Jose, Calif. Thursday, Feb. 13 Security trends, issues, tools and techniques are on tap at the Central and Eastern European IT Security Roadshow 2003, on Feb. 13 in Budapest, Hungary. Earnings Monday, Feb. 10 Priceline.com is an online travel site. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter loss of 2 cents a share. Tuesday, Feb. 11 Network Appliance is a storage maker. The company is expected to report a third-quarter profit of 6 cents a share. Perot Systems provides IT services and consulting. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 17 cents a share. Sycamore Networks is an optical networking company. It's expected to report a second-quarter loss of 6 cents a share. Wednesday, Feb. 12 Brocade Communications makes storage area networks. The company is expected to report a break-even first-quarter. Cox Communications is a cable company. It's expected to report a fourth-quarter loss of 2 cents a share. Keane provides IT services. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 8 cents a share. Thursday, Feb. 13 Analog Devices makes high-performance circuits. The company is expected to report a first-quarter profit of 16 cents a share. Dell Computer makes computers. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 23 cents a share. Intuit is a financial software developer. The company is expected to report a second-quarter profit of 57 cents a share. Nvidia is a graphics chipmaker. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 6 cents a share. S1 makes software for the finance industry. The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter profit of 2 cents a share. Economic Reports Thursday, Feb. 13 Retail Sales measures total receipts from U.S. stores. Growth for January is expected to drop to 0.3 percent, from 1.2 percent the previous month. Excluding auto sales, growth is expected to rise to 0.5 percent, compared with flat growth in the month earlier. Friday, Feb. 14 Business Inventories summarize total sales and inventory for the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors. December growth is expected to fall to 0.1 percent, compared with 0.2 percent in the previous period. Capacity Utilization is industrial production divided by capacity. The January ratio is expected to rise slightly to 75.5 percent, compared with 75.4 percent in the prior period. Industrial Production measures the total output of U.S. factories, mines and utilities. January growth is expected to rise to 0.2 percent.