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Every Day Is Easy, Not Just Sunday Mornings

Sunday mornings used to to have an unique appeal.

Back then I spent the working week in London: Saturday was chores day, and Sunday only entailed a 6 mile run and a full English breakfast of orange juice, then local eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, sausages and toast, and black coffee. Hence Sunday mornings were easy… ish.

Now I am self employed, Sundays remain the same. But the rest of week has changed.

Unusually this week, Monday was a day off, mainly due to exhaustion. My wife, Elizabeth, had worked on the internet to about 6 a.m., I had packed it in early at 2 a.m. (She’s says I am a part-timer). Having risen at 10 a.m. and checked email etc, we went into town at noon and spent three hours over lunch discussing our marketing strategies.

On a Stompernet call on Saturday our failing marketing strategies has been reasonably trashed by Paul L and John J!

Painful but pertinent.

Our business has five different types of clients and we had a single site with one marketing message that did not speak really effectively to any on them.

So today, at lunch, over a Devon cream tea, we defined our five sales funnels, powerbusinessblogging.com, smartersitedesign.com, simplefastsite.com, wordpresswarning.com, and diywebmastery.com; then we split out our back end hosting service as powerblogservice.com. We have just gone from two websites to six but at least now each site has a better defined audience and purpose.

Bovey Castle - Devon`s hotspot for internet marketing

Basically the ‘blog’ in the our Power Blog Service is now de-emphasised as the majority of our potential customers do not understand blogs. Why would a serious business want with a blog? After all, a blog is a celebrity indulgence, such as that of Paris Hilton (too slutty and depressing) or Lily Allen (too txty).

With our business re-engineered and Stompernet relaunched on 9/9/9 our lives are due to get busier over the next month. We have a Stompernet Local meeting on September 23rd at Bovey Castle. There are not many Stompers down in the South West of England so the meeting is open to the public, so, if anyone would like to find out a bit more about how to make a successful website then you are very welcome to attend the event.

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Where Do You Stand On The Political Spectrum?

I just came across this political test that asks about 30 questions and places you on the political spectrum.

Rather than ranking you on a linear scale from Republican to Democrat; it is a two dimensional approach which measures your response on social and economic issues.

The final result places in you in one of a number of ideologies: fascist, totalitarian, republican, capitalist, anarchist, libertarian, democrat or socialist.

It was pretty accurate as far as I was concerned, placing me on the the boundary of democrat, libertarian and centrist.

According to the Death Test on the same site I will die of old age in July 2049.

I think I better get back to work now as it looks like I will need a decent pension.

Back from Stompernet Internet Marketing Conference

I am back in the UK after ten days in Atlanta; four of which of which at Stompernet’s annual Internet Marketing Conference and six days holiday with family. Still jetlagged, I am now getting back to work with a head full of business strategies, online and offline marketing strategies, web design tips, SEO best practices and thankfully some time management tips to boot.

Stompernet 7 Speakers and Highlights

  • Paul Lemberg – a truly awesome approach to generating volumes of content in days rather than weeks – business acceleration
  • Dan Thies – SEO specialist – tips on desktop and time management – using an integrated toolset to drive productivity – how iPhone, iMac, MobileMe and iTools rock
  • Don Crowther – PR specialist – the power of offline marketing through direct mail, postcards, inserts, classfied ads.
  • Perry Belcher – an eye widening explanation on why Twitter can boost your marketing efforts – how to tweet, what to tweet, when to tweet and how to integrate this with facebook, youtube and your blog – best practices for marketing using social media
  • Jaime Mintun – copyrighter and consultant – use of competitor analysis to drive consultancy
  • David Bullock – the role of social media marketing campaigns in Barack Obama’s election success
  • Stephen Pierce – a highly focused and disciplined framework for business planning and execution – probably the best speaker at the conference

Overall, I am left with a sense of confidence in my business plans and a mass of ideas to implement before launch on the 7th April.

Syntax error: unexpected end of file

Shell Script Syntax Error

Operating System: Red Hat Linux
Click here for the solution without the preamble.

I had just written a 70 line shell script on my PC on notepad before copying it up on to the Linux Server so I could forgive myself for a typo and the resultant error. I googled the error and it indicated I had an opening " without a closing one. I scanned the file but did not see anything amiss. I set on a path to investigate.

Linux Shell Execute Permission

The other main suggestion was about the file permissions. However I had already fixed this by a chmod u+x ./myscript.sh

Linux Shell Script Debugging

Following a Shell Script Tutorial I tried adding some debugging

echo “starting”
set -v on
set -x on
…rest of script
set -v off
set -x off
echo “done”

This printed out the whole file however the echoed statement it did not get past the starting

Simplify The Script

Next step was to collapse the script down to half a dozen lines. It still failed in the same way with a syntax error: unexpected end of file.

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 4 ]; then
echo “missing parameters – source domain, template domain, target domain, owner”
exit 127
fi
echo “Got here”
exit 0

If you cannot see the problem it is invisible but still present

While digging deeper into shell script debugging I read a later section on the same page that referred to Windows Carriage Returns. By opening the file with vi and using the set list command I was able to see that every line was terminated by ^M.

 

Convert file from Windows to Unix format using dos2unix

I ran dos2unix ./myscript.sh

And problem solved. No more syntax error: unexpected end of file.

My script then worked first time after that, even the 70 line version.

So the moral of the story is.

Either do your editing entirely on Linux or always remember to convert dos2unix having copied the files on to the server if you are using low tech editors like notepad (as opposed to sophsiticated ones like vi :-)

Tories criticise Government for saving £10 billion

Tories put shareholders interest before the public’s

Kenneth Clarke scored an own goal by criticising the government in allowing the Lloyds bank takeover of HBOS. What he is forgetting is that with Friday’s declared losses the takeover has saved the taxpayer almost £11 billion (at least in the short term) at the expense of Lloyds shareholders. So what the Tories seem to be doing again is putting shareholders interests ahead of those of general taxpayers.

What’s more he would have complained bitterly if the Government had blocked the deal on the principle of “too much state intervention” and also as it would have meant that HBOS would have been nationalised.

Lloyds shareholders jumped at the opportunity to takeover HBOS

Lloyds’s management went into this deal with there eyes wide open, with the goal of acquiring a large market share of British Banking with the focus mainly of what is a reasonable sound Halifax mortgage portfolio. They must take full responsibility for the lack of due diligence in failing to assess the amount of toxic debt in the corporate division, £7 billion of which was written off on Friday.

Lloyds TSB shareholders voted 95.98% in favour of the takeover. They paid £4.3 billion for the bank in November, having negotiated down for original agreed price of £12.2 billion in September so they thought they were getting a good deal. So did Sir Peter Burt and Sir George Mathewson – the former chief executives of Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland respectively, who tried to scupper Lloyds’s takeover of HBOS takeover.

Fear of Lloyds becoming a superbank have retreated

The concern back in November was more about the government allowing a ’superbank’ to be created that would be too strong for the competition. The government were complicit in the takeover because they did not want another Northern Rock, for financial, political and operational reasons. Bending the competition rules was a small price to pay.

Lloyds HBOS do have a commanding share market of the UK banking sector so the Competition Commission will have to take a look at the situation once the recession is over. No rush then.

Snowed In

Today was a typical day in my new, post Barclays life, in Devon.

Having fed the dogs their breakfast of Weetabix (don’t say anything), I sat down at my computer at 08:30. I had neglected my CFA studies for a couple of days this week so decided to catch up on Session 4, Private Wealth Management. This comprises readings on

  • Managing Individual Investor Portfolios – using situational profiling and psychological profiling to create a meaningful Investment Policy Statement
  • Excerpts from Investment Management for Taxable Private Investors – understanding tax implications – now I prefer death to taxes
  • Multiple Asset Locations – how the wealthy avoid tax through various vehicles such as GRATs, GSTs, CTs, VLIPs, Foundations and Intergenerational Transfers
  • Low-Basis Stock – about the emotional attachment and letting go as entrepreneur becomes an executive and then finally an investor in his own business
  • Goals-Based Investing: Integrating Traditional and Behavioral Finance – setting understandable, meaningful and tangible goals for the client
  • Life-Cycle Investing – about how level of wealth supersedes age in setting risk objectives: the wealthy, at any age can invest aggressively while the not wealthy (poor) should always take a conservative approach (i.e no lottery tickets)
  • Human Capital, Asset Allocation, and Life Insurance – human capital seemed to be defined as the present value of total future earnings potential and hence declines from start of working life until retirement

At lunchtime I walked the dogs..

From Snowed In

In the afternoon I was doing some website updates for a client who wanted to launch a new pricing scheme that required Worldpay Remote Administration so I was doing some prototyping to check it out. It seemed a little insecure but use of PHP CURL to perform the updates should minimize risk.

$ch = curl_init();

$data = array(‘instId’ => ‘123321′, ‘authPW’ => ‘guessMe’,
‘futurePayId’ => ‘$futurePayId’, ‘op-adjustRFP’ => ”, ‘amount’ => ‘$amount’);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ‘https://select.worldpay.com/wcc/iadmin’);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

$response = curl_exec($ch);

Obama aims to reinstate the USA as a great nation

In his inauguration speech yesterday, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the United States’ government’s vow to uphold its constitution and live up to the lofty ideals that support its claim as the world’s greatest nation.

And what exactly are those ideals which were first proposed by Norfolk’s most influential son, Thomas Paine?

American Ideals

The American Declaration of Independence states the every person is born equal and has inalienable (irrevocable) rights to

  • life
  • liberty
  • the pursuit of happiness

American Loss of Authority under Bush

The USA lost much of its moral authority in the Bush years

  • re the right to life: consider the killing on 100,000 Iraqi civilians in the pursuit of a ‘regime change’ that is illegal from the standpoint of international law
  • re the right to liberty: consider the imprisonment of up to 625 detainees at Guantanamo Bay without trial or any recourse to justice
  • re the pusuit of happiness: this is very tangential but consider the Bush regime’s failure to acknowledge global warming as a threat and the refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement: air pollution (I am a little athsmatic) and the disappearance of the Maldives as the oceans rise are certainly inhibitors to my pursuit of happiness

Remaking America

Obama’s message to the world is the adherence to those American ideals:

  • On foreign policy, the expediency of the invasion of Iraq is recognized:

    “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

    We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.”

  • One of Obama’s first actions was to address the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the executive order states the closure :

    “would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice”

    “..the detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order”

  • On climate change:

    “With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.”

One day on the job and the dream is still alive

Widgets and Blidgets

Today I discovered a website that really impressed. It is called http://www.widgetbox.com

What it does it allow you to build widgets, or in my case a blog widget or blidget which produces a cool viewer of my recent posts on my creditlust.com.

It literally took under five minutes, it was intuitive and it all worked first time.

The widget can be delivered under various technologies: Javascript, Flash or as a MYSpace application: all you do it cut and paste the code

Javascript version

flash version

MySpace version

Out with The Old and In with The New

A belated ringing of the changes took place today as I along with 330 of my colleagues at Barclays Global Investors was told my position was being eliminated.

A first wave of redundancies had taken place in the San Francisco office in November and this second phase was expected.

A large group of us had suffered the same fate so it didn’t feel personal. Still my emotions were up and down throughout the day as a new and uncertain, and interesting future opened up ahead. After a consolatory coffee at Starbucks with ‘the newly freed’ we met our remaining work colleagues for a goodbye lunchtime drink at the Prohibition Bar. When they left to back to the ghostly office they looked glummer than we did. (Thank you for that!).

Having exchanged telephone numbers and email addresses (as my company Blackberry has been reset and wiped of all contact details) I headed home on the train with a thousand half formed plans in my head.

Four hours later, I arrived home with a strategy and in a much improved mood.

Technology Overload

Today was spent developing a couple of web pages on Spring MVC Controller technology.

I find it difficult to know what logic to put in the remote EJB’s, what to put in the controller, what to put in the service layers and then what to put in the JSP. This is how I broke it down:

  • HIbernate DAOs : data access
  • Remote EJBs : business logic
  • Service Layer : no logic – just wiring
  • Controller : control logic, permissions, filtering of  authorized data sets
  • JSP : presentation logic
  • CSS : styling and positioning

After resolving the usual lapse of missing an entry in the application-service.xml file it all seems to work okay, if a little slowly.

Anyway, the day job is over, now back to preparation for the Credit Crunch website for installing some social networking tools: