Thomas's blog
First SII Exam Passed - One more to go !
I now have 300 workbook pages on Securities & Derivatives to go. Which is the fun bit of the syllabus. (The exam I just did is about all the things the FSA can do to punish you!)
Theory of Games LLP is born !
I am now part a properly incorporated LLP
Now I'm going through the online application for an HSBC business account. Which is depressing, because it keeps crashing. But, kind of reassuring, because it means there's a lot of need for good developers out there ;-)
Involved Customers are Clearly a Two-Edged Sword
I do see what they mean though. A friend of mine looked into eBay to start his business, and the fees would have wiped out his whole margin!
Helping with Conference (Press Release)
Innovators Gather in the City to Set Shape for Future of Finance
Contact: Thomas Barker
Email: tbarker(at)barcampbank[..]org
LONDON, UK, Monday June 2nd, 2008 - On Saturday July 5th, 2008, one of the most unusual conferences in the financial services industry, BarCampBankLondon (BCBL), will get underway at 9:30 AM near the heart of the City. BCB London follows the success of previous BarCampBanks in Paris, Seattle, San Francisco, New Hampshire and New York City. Ranging from interested students, to banking executives, to VCs, startup founders and internet technologists. BCBL is a forum where participants from diverse backgrounds can get together to discuss topics impacting the industry. It will attract thought leaders and innovators from as far away as America for an intense day of discussions on the future of financial services.
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This IS ISLINGTON
Book given away on the street by house movers
Post-Zopa Reading
I made my way out of Zopa a couple of months ago. Zopa's fine, but I there were too many things I wanted to peruse outside. Starting with a long trip to Manhattan!
On my reading list since then: cool new webservers, even stranger alternative financial systems, "proper" programming, sorting out my investments, and spending more time with my favourite LAMP CMS.
Zopa Listings went live this week
We finally went live with listings this week. (See my listing.) Listing is a completely new approach at Zopa. You can select who you lend money to individually. There's still credit scoring (we discard the 'bad ones', but it's a guide rather than a rule.
Borrowers are uniquely identified by pseudonyms. Which means they can choose to promote or associate themselves with their listing. You could place your listing's URL on your blog (like me), or email it to friends & associates.
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Look at me, I'm viral !
Well, the auction is over and has raised £56 which isn't too bad. More importantly, my site traffic has increased by an order of magnitude!
Over 90% of my current traffic is coming from people Googling for Venice invites.
Maybe I should do some keyword 'optimisation', throw on a little AdSense ... At least I could make some cash off of these guys. I wonder if they'll start monitoring the price of an invite token over at Venice HQ?
