ready2invest

In an update to this thread I have been warned by many people tha buying off plan is a very risky business. In noway referring to ready2invest, but in general off plan property overseas investments can lead to tears, financial loss and heartache.

In this world of such financial uncertainty there are no safe bets and certainly the acronym TNSTAAFL ( there’s no such thing as a free lunch ) has stood the test of time.

However, a certain amount of money kind of fell on me and my normal consumer urges had been subjugated by a Christmas frenzy of purchasing. I now had finally gotten hold of a mini laptop, am Advent of sorts, which, via its 8.9inch screen, afforded me just the sort of mobile computing I had always dreamed of. This, coupled with the gorgeous Samsung Omnia ( now not sending emails again ), made my digital life complete. I own a decent bicycle and car. Come to think of it I don’t really need anything. Well, I am in dire need of a nice and cheap NSD or epoxy longboard for my surfing, but I am on the case for that as it happens… suffice it to say I don’t really lust after anything at the moment so rather than looking for things to turn me on I looked for investment…

Well, stock markets are kind of in the crumble so investing in a portfolio base on the FTSE is not something to consider. Similarly House prices in the UK are still heading for further devaluations so the traditional – no lose – option of bricks and mortar is no longer the solid banker as it has always been seen as.

A friend suggested that it may suit my lifestyle to invest in a property abroad so I started looking into it. I had a fair few grand left me by an deceased relative which needed to be put down somewhere before I succumbed to the constant entreaties in my ears to buy a plasma TV with bluray and freeview and millions of MHz refresh rates and all that. I like to travel, I love the sea more than anything, I love to get away and I had some cash calling to my baser instincts,.

So I started looking into the reality of owning a property abroad, and the more I thought about it the more excited I became. Not only at the financial prospect but the idea of having to go out and buy, again, all the lovely things to go in the new place. My main criteria would be, sun, beach, cheap food and good local music. I am a great lover of the Middle East and Arab cultures it must be said, I have enjoyed their history, their food, their sun and their company to a great extent so I was easily swayed by ready2invest into considering some off plan investment in one of these countries.

Morocco looked perfect, it is a beautiful country, I have travelled extensively there and even came closer to death there than any other country previous or since ( it must be good then!). It is an Arabic culture infused with French influences, they have a superior cuisine as a consequence and french is widely spoken. What is more, Morocco has a flourishing surf culture and hashish is cheap.

So I started looking and was amazed at what could be found. The first place ready2invest offered me up was not far from Agadir, on the best surf coast in Morocco. The Gardens of Falafel or something they are called and the deal was superb. An impulse purchaser always I jumped at the opportunity and have not looked back since, it is a pity that the Euro is creaming the Pound Sterling at the moment, but it still represents a good spend of money.

There you go, money invested rather than blown….now the Moroccan surf pad needs a TV, Stereo, ………..

If you want to find information on ready2invest, Google them

SEO Pub Quiz Winners

Last night at the Sovereign Pub in Brighton in an event hosted by Leapfrogg Juretic Media entered a SEO competition.

The team gathered at the and surveyed the competition. The elite of Brighton’s online marketing agencies were present and the Juretic Team were without key members Robin and Victoria.

Still, always keen to get ahead and to make their mark the questions ( and drinks ) were soon flowing.
The questions were varied and included subjects such as organic seo, pay per click campaigns and the differing way in which search engines create their algorithms.

The team was prefect for the job: Rob Camp, a Google professional with many years of SEO, organic and paid, under his belt; Vinay, an ecommerce wizard and social networking guru; Jen, PR and Communications expert with a grip on the wider picture, Ed, whose web development skills barely surpass his expertise in SEO; Martin, senior designer and creative and of course Neven, who was old long before anyone had even heard of the internet.

With this assembled bank of expert knowledge it was no suprise when I received SMS messages at 9pm last night confirming our victory. More came in around 11pm and they petered out at 3am.

SEO is all about understanding every aspect of a website, understanding that code, colour and content all combine to increase the chances of greater traffic and higher return on investment.

Yes, we are an eclectic sort of team, but we work well together.

iphone for the home

The ipod iphone delirium continues and I see normally sensible people go weak and jibbery over these gadgets. The Nokia N95 continues to offer a far superior OS and performance than the iphone.

But do you think they will ever ( Apple that is ) start supplying the iphone for the home, a cordless telephone that looks like it is an iphone.

Well, I saw this picture and wondered…

To tell the truth I am not certain that I actually believe this to be true.

SMTP Problems on Windows Mobile

Had been having a few issues with my Samsung Omnia of late, particularly with the SMTP settings and somehow not allowing me to send emails. The mobile runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and, though familiar with the Windows configuration of POP and SMTP and IMAP and all the lovely protocols I could not get email to send.

I called Orange who suggested that smtp.orange.net would work, it didn’t. Next they talked me into downloading, installing and paying for a subscription to Blackberry Connect ©. 24 hours later I had an answer – Blackberry Connect © is not compatible with the Samsung Omnia.

This was getting rather more and more annoying, it is great being able to receive your emails 24/7 but extremely frustrating to find that you can’t reply to them.

Next the helpful operators suggested I add port numbers :995 and :465 to my incoming and outgoing mailservers respectivley. However there are no fields to allow this setting in the Windows Mobile Device.

Orange’s final suggestion was for me to have a look around to try to solve the problem myself.

Then I hit on the result…Windows Mobile 6.1 Hot Fix for Sending POP and IMAP E-mail – worked a treat.

The dialogue above may be short but the total time taken was 2 weeks and many phone calls and much swearing.

Getting more turned on by the lovely touch Omnia I managed to grab the only piece of iphone that is really missing from the Windows Mobile experience. – the sliding touch unlock bit.

My first installation of a 3rd party GUI tweak ( Port Splitter was still working ) was masterful.

If anyone is looking for a slide to unlock function for a Windows Mobile Device the lookee here : S2 applications for Windows Mobile. – it is superb.

Hot Pipes

Hot Pipes, originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson.

Raucously coloured waves bursting over Shoreham’s Hot Pipes