Recently, a van driver for Quantum, a disk-drive manufacturer in Dundalk, Co. They, too, have many armed robberies; however, the statistics are not available because officials are keen not to discourage American and Asian companies from investing in the regions.In the past year, the PC manufacturer AST Research and the microprocessor giant Intel have been targeted in Ireland. In Silicon Valley, the spawning ground for California’s computer industry, there is an armed robbery every four days involving computer components.”If the banks were held up every four days, you would have the Marines surrounding the area by the end of the week,” says John O’Loughlin, directory of security at Sun Microsystems, a computer manufacturer that has been robbed twice in the past two years.While armed robbery may seem consistent with the media image of the US, areas not best-known for their crime statistics such as the north of Scotland and the south of Ireland are no better off because they are big computer manufacturing locations. The company has armed guards 24 hours a day, every employee’s desk has a panic button and its stock is kept in a time-locked vault. Instead of delivery vans, the company hires an armoured car service. This is the reality of dealing in the computer chip; a commodity that weighs about an ounce, is about the size of a thumbnail and is worth more than an ounce of gold or an ounce of cocaine.
“Each Pentium processor is worth about $600 [pounds 400], so a single hold- all could have about $3m to $4m worth of goods in it,” says Joe Jonovich, president of IMS. An argument gives me a reason to leave.Life is a lot easier now Lawrence has gone.

I can do or watch what I like, but when he comes round, that stops But I do miss him a bit I suppose I do love him in a way After all, he is my brother.. Inventory Management Systems (IMS), a small computer chip dealer in Orange County, California, is built like a fortress. I suppose that’s why I shut myself out from the beginning, so I don’t get shut out later. That doesn’t make me uncomfortable – it’s up to them and they can do what they like. It’s just I don’t feel like being part of it, or rather, I’d like to be part of it but I feel I can’t because we always end up fighting.

I feel I have to leave them to get on together, so I go and do other things or just don’t join in the conversation. I don’t enjoy it and I don’t want to hurt him.When we fight, Mum shouts and separates us. I feel even more angry then, because it’s my space and I’ve got the right to be there, but Lawrence comes round and acts like it’s his home and I feel pushed out.Mum and Lawrence have a better relationship than before. Things will be okay for a few minutes and then everything we do annoys each other, even if we’re both trying not to Sometimes I hit him and sometimes he hits me I’ll hit him hard, but he really wallops me I don’t want to fight. Sometimes he just gets bored and aggravates me as something to do.Sometimes it’s me who starts it. He starts poking me or putting his face up close or something else that winds me up.