Note: This was caused by me having three arguments about community currencies in as many days. I figured I ought have a better (and more respectful) objection than "fluffy".

Money is a flow system. We only use money for transferable value. A pile of gold in a cave is not money, it's just a hoard. Money is fungible transferable material goodness. (If you mint the gold, it's money.)

Joining us for our next Geek Finance Dinner (brought to you in association with Geek Dinners) will be Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion.

On Wednesday, fellow ex-MS intern, Saeed Amen, gave a wonderful introduction to global FX markets. Not about where any currency was going, but the insider mechanics of FX.

A friend of mine has been talking interestingly about the Euro and Estonia in an EU sponsored blog-thing. (And the EU are being good sports, as a lot of the posts are euroskeptic.)

On Tues, I went to see Clay Shirk @ the LSE (there's a podcast).

Two things struck me in his talk: How much of an effect the internet is already having in countries like China, where the government has now lost the ability to control the news agenda. And also, how far we are from being able to legitimise decision on the internet. Change.gov told Obama that the most important issue in America was medical marijuana

On my friend's shopping site, which I built for him. (Not massively original design, I admit, but it brings in the money.)

SEO win

Since LISP is due for a comeback from the 80s, and it's written by my old housemate from uni.

(defn login-view []
  (html
    [:form {:method "post"}
      "User name: "
        [:input {:name "name", :type "text"}]
        [:br]
      "Password: "
        [:input {:name "password", :type "password"}]
        [:br]
      [:input {:type "submit" :value "Log in"}]]))

You can see more here.

There was a really good mix on the panel, and it's great to see people like Kubera Money getting geared up for launch.

Also, James Gardner does indeed make an excellent pantomime villain (and he loves being one!).

"Perhaps this is the true breaking point - where the fruppochino drinkers fail to produce enough goods to motivate the fruppochino servers - rather than any specific debt or capital level"

Rest of comment here

This is my attempt at a crude tiering system for web site complexity. I've defined six tiers with vague time/cost estimates and some handy links. Moving up the tiers in cost means the project's starting point moving down the technology stack [Linux at the bottom, PHP is the middle, the browser's at the top]. Changing a few layouts on Blogger is much easier than custom coding your own stock exchange.

(All estimates are vague, non-binding, almost certainly wrong by an order of magnitude in your particular case.)