Tadpole Sell GSD

Well from todays news it looks as if my blog of 18th September wasn't that far off the mark with reference to what would happen to the Geospatial Solutions Division. I guess with very little current business on the books that ERSI 'were' after all the obvious purchaser of what was left.

The Company today announces that, in accordance with the Board's strategic objective of focusing the Group's activities solely on the application streaming business, it has entered into an asset purchase agreement ("the Agreement") with ESRI (UK) Limited ("ESRI" or "the Buyer") to dispose of its Geospatial Solutions Division ("GSD") ("the Disposal")........see the rest of the artice at ..... http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=news&code=cotn:TAD.L&action=article&articleid=6366387

Lets not forget that if it had not been for the GSD side of the business over the last 2-3 years then Tadpole would have officially been bankrupt long ago, so thanks to all who worked there, and best wishes for the future to you all.

Moving forward the good thing about this news is that with the Streaming Division already hitting the technology news sites in a positive way, it seems to me that with so little reaction from the market, the GSD sale has already been priced into the market.

With the above being said we now have the name change to come, also discussed in my earlier post and I'm still sticking with the idea of them just taking the simple obvious and changing to Endeavors Technologies PLC as being not only the most sensible option (having spent the last few months raising the profile of that name on the technology markets) but also as the most cost effective option as Endeavors Technologies is already a registered fully functioning entity.

Of course with the notification of the resignation of Dr Ketteman from the Tadpole board of directors following the disposal of the Geospatial Division this raises the question again of the compliance of the board due to lack of members.

I would be concerned if any of these posts were filled from an internal perspective, ie one of the existing ETI directors for instance, as until they have proven themselves to the shareholders as competent in the roles they currently hold and have achieved high levels of business, then I wouldn't personally want any of them having their attention diverted by the more onerous task of becoming FSA competent with the rules of directorship and all that is involved in that.

A positive though..........with this GSD news is now out of the way and if the Streaming Division have been as busy as Peter has suggested at both the AGM and to others since then; I'd expect to see some positive news starting to flow from the Streaming Division and some cash flowing into the coffers for a change..........lol

Roll on Application Jukebox and whatever the new 'Company Name' and 'Ticker' turns out to be!

Interop NY - Endeavors Technologies Launch....

Endeavors to Showcase the Next Generation of Application Virtualization at Interop New York

Endeavors is the pioneer in application streaming technologies that allow servers to deliver applications to client computers for on-demand access by end users.

Endeavors Technologies will launch the next big evolution in application virtualization at Interop New York. To learn more and see a beta demonstration, visit Endeavors at booth #654 on October 24th or 25th.

If you'd like to improve application delivery across the enterprise, or have considered moving to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, this is something you can't afford to miss! With only two days and over 7500 expected attendees, we are sure to be busy. If you'd like to guarantee some time with our staff, why not book ahead by e-mailing us now.

Event Highlights
Interop is a leading business technology event where over 200 exhibitors will showcase the latest IT solutions and innovations. Conference sessions merge thought leadership with IT topics such as virtualization, security, storage, mobile strategy, optimization and more.
Register for a FREE Expo Pass, or save up to $500 on a conference package using our special priority code MLSZNN55


From the Interop website

"Explore current trends in server virtualization and management tools that facilitate its implementation. Examine the evolution of application virtualization and the implications of new virtualization tools used by utility providers."

Interop is the best place to get the big picture and understand how key business technologies work together. Interop New York 2007 will focus on the following topics:
Data Center
Enterprise 2.0
Fixed Mobile Convergence
Mobile Strategy
Networking and Services
Optimization
Security
Storage
Unified Communications
Virtualization
VoIP
Wi-Fi

Northern Rock vs Barlcays Bank

I've watched with interest, the media frenzy surrounding the Northern Rock's decision to get emergency funding from the Bank of England last week due to a cashflow problem. The reason I've watched with interest is that since the story broke and the media basically decimated the Northern Rock by over coverage of the story and making it sound like they had done something the other banks hadn't done, therefore creating a fear factor in the general public; I spent the whole time yelling at the telly asking why this kind of coverage hadn't been given to Barclays Bank when it TWICE went to the Bank of England in August for emergency funding.

Barclays bank had borrowed £314 million to settle a loan earlier in August and then £1.6 billion later in the month. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article2358155.ece
Now, were Barclays just clever in how they explained away the need for these 2 loans within a month or are they seen to be such a large creditable instituion that the media 'let them off'.

The banks have all announced huge profits in the billions in the last couple of years, have kept interest rates to savers low and spent billions on takeover deals etc. So are they actually any better tahn any 'Joe Blogg's' member of the public who has made money, spent too much and forgotten to keep reserves for a rainy day. No they are not. But it's public money they are all borrowing just now and it is the public who wil pay again at the end of the day by not being allowed the credit facilities to sort their own mess out while the banks just trun cap in hand to the BOE.

Who ever said it was a fair world.

Happy Birthday !

To the QE2 and Me
Both 40 today !

But for some reason, I haven't made the news ........ d'oh .... lol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7003848.stm

QE2 back on Clyde after 40 years

In Pictures: QE2 The QE2 has marked the 40th anniversary of its launch by returning to the stretch of river where it was built.
The liner, which has been on a celebratory tour, will be given a gala reception at Greenock, on the Clyde.
It is the world's most travelled liner, having notched up 5.6 million nautical miles while carrying 2.5 million passengers.
The vessel was launched from the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank on 20 September, 1967.
It berthed at Ocean Terminal, Greenock, on Thursday and at 1428 BST the ship's whistle will blow to mark the exact moment of its launch
About 100 workers involved in the construction of the QE2 have been invited as guests of honour.
The QE2 will be delivered to Dubai in November 2008, where it will cease its role as an ocean-going passenger vessel.
It will be refurbished and transformed into a luxury floating hotel.

Is it time Tadpole morphed?

I've had a very difficult few weeks myself recently having been ill and various other 'life' stuff.....phew! It has meant I didn't have either the time or heart to blog for a bit, but it has given me time to have a good think about the latest Tadpole situation.

Yet again, Tadpole dropped a bombshell on the shareholders just when they thought it was safe to go back in the water.....lol.....but through the Geospatial Division for the second time instead of the Streaming side which we are so used to.

Could this spell the end of the line for the name Tadpole and indeed is this the best opportunity for a long time for it to really metamorphosise and shake off the bad news, bad news, bad news, expectations of the British Press. Why do I say this?

Well since GSD haven't produced any new business this year other than the Ordnance Survey contract that they just announced is ending already - on top of the original price dropping news of the OS review on the Phoenix Project - halving the GSD revenue for this financial year, where can they go now. I think the next we will hear of them will be either asking for shareholder approval for a sale of the division to perhaps ESRI if they will have them for their GoSync product which they promote or to another suitor for the Iplan product or for a Management Buyout at a knock down price.

Either of the above would leave Tadpole with one division, Endeavors Technologies Inc, Which in reality the name would bear no relationship to Tadpole, so why have any confusion with 2 names for a one division company and why not use this as the best presented opportunity for years to drop the name that the press expect to announce bad news from and get a big brush out and sweep clean the floor for the latest darling product of the technology world - Streaming.

I would find it hard not to still think of myself as a Tadder....lol..it's like an illness in itself, but I would like to see what seems to be a company with new life breathing through it have the best chance ever and attack the press as Endeavors Technologies PLC, effectually making it a new story to the press.

Some people have been calling for a name change for several years now, but I personally couldn't see the point previously as what would you have called it, what with having 2 divisions that the Directors kept telling us had no synergy, and yet still represent them both. If there is only one company though, then there is no question of what to call it is there, so I'd support a name change at the same time as a disposal of the GSD side, if that's the route they go down with this latest set back.

In an email to a shareholder recently, Peter Bondar expressed that Endeavors Technologies have been receiving some good leads through the Stream24-7 site that is powered by AppExpress, which means that people must be trying the product and liking what they are seeing, and using. It is the singular most simple method of trying out a product that I've ever experienced and I'm no techie, so if people in the know are trying it out from that site, then their understanding of the simplicity of the experience must be exciting for them especially if they are an IT person running around updating products on PC's whenever there is a product update.

My hopes are that this latest setback in Tadpole hasn't caused problems and a setback in the streaming division, as after all, a company signing up for a new product doesn't particularly want to be hearing that the said company is short of funding as we keep getting told via the RNS's.

Presumably if GSD is sold/disposed of then assuming that Endeavors have business in the pipelines ready to be signed or close to it, then the funds created from the sale should give them the stability to progress for the moment and to get past the funding issue to the point where their own revenue streams should start to support them.

A name change just now might also be just what is needed to get institutional investors aboard as they may have a better understanding of what they are investing in if they only have one company to focus on.

Of course GSD might not be disposed of - that is purely speculation on my part, but the next few weeks will be interesting to say the least.

Stream24-7 - 91,000 hit's in week one!

Stream24-7, launched last week, powered by Endeavors Technologies, Appexpress has had a great first week by just relying on 'Viral Marketing'

A note from their site:

**************************

Wow! What a week!
21/08/2007

Hi Well the site has been up and running for a week now and what a week it has been!

This week we have had people from as far afield as Brazil and Australia comment on the usefulness of the site and mentions on many blogs and online articles. Just to give you some idea of the success of the site, some stats for the first week are:

Over 91,000 hits to the site!!!
Over 1,300 registered users!!!
Over 20 full days worth of streaming activity!!!

Thanks so much to everybody who has used the site so far and spread the word.The Stream24-7.Com Team.

*******************************

The objectives of the site are

• Legitimizing streaming by showing anybody can create and use stream applications
• Encouraging software developers to look at streaming vs zip type downloads
• Creating visibility of streaming and its practicality in the eyes of analysts and press
• Doing something that the other guys are not doing therefore creating new opportunities
• Creating pressure on corporate by creating a ground swell of opinion from techies who take these ideas to their bosses
  

Viral Marketing lets the users spread the word, through people like myself who have tried it out and are now blogging about it. Others will email their friends and tell them to give it a go and others will post on forums about it and so on it goes.

The Streaming experience is so different from the download experience that it's difficult to see how this can't be taken up in large volumes by consumers as much as the Enterprise markets.

Licensing a product only for the time you want to use it instead of purchasing full complements of software to complete one specific project or task has amazing cost saving implications for the short term user of software.

Imagine that you are project managing your own build house and you need software to help you do that, you don't know which product would best suit your needs, or for how long you will need it, so what better than to pop into PCWorld, Tesco, Walmart or any other high street store OR visit a site like Stream24-7 and try out and assess which one will suit your needs best.....Try before you buy, and then just rent the product for the timescale you need it.

How many items of software do you currently have sitting on your PC unused for the majority of the time, but essential occasionally. Eg the Self employed chappie who once a month sits down for a day or two at the PC and gets his accounts up to date, VAT returns and TAX sorted out, then never looks near that software till the next month or Quarterly figures are due. Maybe He/She even pays someone else to do that for them just now because they don't know which products to buy to do it for them or think it's cheaper to pay someone else for a day or two's work.

I'm quite excited by the prospect of being able to 'try before I buy' software and more so in so much as if it is streamed to my PC, then it's not actually 'on' my PC, so if it's rubbish then it's gone as soon as I'm finished with it. No redundant software taking up space on my hard-drive. And no applications sitting conflicting with other Apps on my machine.

The benefits of Streaming as far as I can see, outweigh buying a CD or downloading software so much, that I can't wait for it to be the de facto way to buy software applications!

Application Streamed in 3..2..1..Go!

For years I have been a lazy sod and won't spend the 2 hours travelling to and from my nearest software shop to buy applications to use on my PC and have been irritated by the fact that if I want a game or video it streamed to my PC, but getting an application turned my hair grey waiting for download times and installation.

Hurrah - I tried out the new Stream24-7 website this morning powered by Endeavors Technologies, AppExpress and was literally astounded by the speed with which not only could I register but the Appexpress client downloaded to my PC but I was then using my first application.

As in the title to this blog (after registration and client download of about 3-4 minutes) it was 3 seconds from hitting activate to the product I chose operating on my system.

3 seconds!!!!!!

OK, I agree I chose a small application for the off; FreeRam Pro XP, but then I thought I'd try Open Office Suite 2.2 and it took 4 minutes from product selection to operating time. I didn't even get time to get fed up and go and make a coffee while it was at it.

When I used a CD to put MS Office Professional onto my PC it took hours and I had to keep doing things to activate the next section, blah blah blah and on it went for hours.

I also remember when I bought online and downloaded Norton's Professional to my PC a long while back and I actually went out for the day while it downloaded to my PC and then spent the evening waiting for the installation to complete so that I could try it out. Unfortunately just over a year later I had a hard-drive crash and lost the product and couldn't download it again free because it was 1 year past purchase date, so I didn't bother paying for it again I just relied on freeware.

My understanding of the AppExpress client is that I could take my PC beat it up with a sledgehammer and throw it in the bin and tomorrow I could go out and log into my Stream24-7 account anywhere in the world download the AppExpress client to the PC and off I would go again. Obviously the data stored on the beaten up PC would be a goner, but it is anyway with a hard-drive crash, but at least I could still use the product I'd paid for.

I lost about £300 worth of downloaded products with that crash what with applications and games I had paid for and downloaded, so if I was asked the question 'Would you pay for AppExpress if it meant you knew any product bought and downloaded would still be available after a crash?' my answer would have to be 'Oh aye' - I am after all a Scotswoman.......lol :o) spend a little to save a lot!

OK Stream24-7 is offering freeware just now, but I would imagine that this will change in the future and we would get the likes of my lost Nortons Professional offered for sale. So if I decided to purchase it again through the AppEx client then had a hard-drive failure, I could then replace my hard-drive and get going again with the product I have previously purchased.

I'm sure someone will correct me on that if I'm wrong.....lol

Mini Break

Just back from a mini break visiting friends both new and old......lurverly time I had :o)

Mid country first for a few days and brought the sun down there with me, so got out and about a bit when there with good company and then up to the Lakes for a couple of days.

In Keswick (Lake District) for the first time (wow) beautiful scenery climbed a mini hill in the evening to build up an appetite when I arrived (not allowed on the path) and then next morning climbed up my first waterfall....lol Yes I said up 'the waterfall'. That's the problem with visiting a local action man in the area, he reckons paths are for tourists and you have to experience the rock climb to get the best view........(sigh....yeh).....lol.....almost made it to the top too, but any further and i think i'd have been washed away and splattered on the rocks below.

Anyway, I came back to a friend in crisis and 200 emails, so, not had a chance to see whats going on, but will have a good read up and see what I can blether about later, tomorrow or the next day.

App Streaming saving you money

Application streaming and why your organization should care by ZDNet's Dan Kusnetzky -- There are many approaches to offering computing services to mobile staff today. One approach is providing everyone with their own laptop, their own portfolio of applications and making them become their own system manager, security manager and operations manager. Although that is still a very reasonable approach for mobile staff who have strong computing [...]

The above gives a good simple explanation of why Application Streaming (preferrably with AppExpress by Endeavors ....lol) is likely to become the new way for companies to distribute software throughout their organisation.

Momentum is gathering in the press with them talking about application streaming on an almost daily basis now, and soon, the IT managers of the big companies will (if they are not already) be looking at this as a cost saving measure.

It seems impossible to imagine that App Streaming won't be as big as Music, Film and Games streaming in the not too distant future. Endeavors Technologies being able to do both Apps and Games through the same solution - AppExpress.

AppExpress also has the earliest patents for Application Streaming and has recently licensed these to their competitors AppStream and Softricity, both mentioned in the above article.

Application Streaming is coming of age and the leading solution on the market is AppExpress for scalability, ease of use, and non-conflict with other applications. The solution also has anti-piracy built in, which some of these people who have been getting laptops stolen in recent months loaded with highly sensitive data probably wish they had been using.

7th Hindenburg Omen

A 7th Hindenburg Omen appeared Monday 23rd July 2007 increasing the chances of a significant drop in the markets by October 2007.

https://www.technicalindicatorindex.com/Default.asp You can sign up for a months free trial to this site for information about this.

http://letstalkaboutshares.blogspot.com/2007/07/hindenberg-omen-update.html dated 23rd July

http://letstalkaboutshares.blogspot.com/2007/07/hindenberg-omen-stock-market-crash.html dated 12th July

You'll notice I've been spelling it wrong, which may have hindered your research - my apologies for that.

Google Alerts Gone AWOL

Is anyone else not receiving google alerts that were previously coming through without a problem?

I have not received any since 11th July 2007. I have emailed Google about it, but have only received an automated response saying they read everything. Good for them, well a human response would be better thanks.

I have emailed my service provider, Supanet, who said it's not a problem at their end. I'd maybe be more confident about that if it wasn't that their system was down due to technical problems during that week too.

The other problem is that I am not receiving the comments from on here by email as I usually do, which is annoying as I can't keep checking through reams of different posts to see if someone has left a comment that I should maybe respond to.

Blogspot/Blogger is a google system too, so, maybe it is a google problem.

Can anyone help me out here as to where the problem lies, so that I can at least narrow the culprit down?....lol

Is it a Google problem or purely a Supanet problem?

Over to you folks - I'll read any comments posted here....'cause.......well obviously they won't be emailed to me. lol

Hindenberg Omen - Update

http://letstalkaboutshares.blogspot.com/2007/07/hindenberg-omen-stock-market-crash.html

Following on from my article on Thursday 12th July (see above)a sixth Hindenberg Omen presented itself on Friday 20th July.

The markets have been pushing up to new highs, the bulls are on the march, but is this just another sign of impending doom.

In relation to what I said previously about the housing market being significant in all this, the weather is probably going to play a major part in some areas for the sales to come to a standstill.

With the current flooding in many parts of England at the moment, people won't be able to stay in their 'own' houses for many many months, let alone sell them on to anyone else. I heard a woman on the news this morning saying, "This is the 3rd time I've been flooded. I've had enough. I need to move to another area." The question is how will she do that? Would you buy her house? I wouldn't.

Both the Dow and the Ftse started a decline on Friday, but whether this is the start of a larger drop or just a rest before a push for new highs remains to be seen.

It's worth being wary though.

Tanfield breaches £2

By John Smith (guest blogger)

It's been quite a month for Tanfield's share price.

Knocking around 185p a month ago, and ended today passing the psychological £2 barrier to finish at 203p. I doubt very much £2 was a barrier to the market, but it's certainly a milestone for the watch and hope brigade, like myself.

There's a write up in the local paper about setting up a factory in the U.S. to produce the electric trucks.
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/business/news/display.var.1559567.0.company_to_open_electric_vehicles_factory_in_the_us.php

I suppose I should think of an exit strategy, but this looks like it could carry on a while yet. Fingers crossed, while I ponder sell or hold. I've pondered, I'm hanging on a while :) Seriously though, they are really just setting up. They seem to have the right product at the right time, being "green" is the new P.C. I suppose it depends on how good the management team are. Can they deliver? I guess we'll see in a couple of years.

There are rumours of some announcement on Monday, but who knows, there are always rumours, we'll see on Monday.

Guardian Technology Blog

In the technology blog in the Guardian (link above) they covered how Microsoft haven't minded the piracy of it's software in China as the end result has been more sales and 90% coverage for them.

In the Comments section someone brought up application streaming by Endeavors Technologies, which I then also added comment to.

Globally piracy has stripped probably billions of dollars of dollars out of the software market over the years. The other side of the coin is that large organisations have been paying more than required to ensure they are licensing all the software on their computers, whether all the software is being used by everyone everyday or not. I suppose this is where some of the lost money from piracy is made up.

For the likes of Microsoft it maybe evens out, but for us the consumer, we end up paying more for the real thing than is required.

AppExpress, can reduce the total cost of ownership as was indicated recently in an article about Parsons an Endeavors client, who saved $1million in via both time and licensing fees in the distribution via streaming of their software internally. With scalability of up to 10,000 users per server you can see where a lot of the savings can come from.

A recent Podcast Interview by DABCC is really worth listening to to hear about how the public themselves can benefit from AppExpress in a home network and will be able to sample AppExpress through a new consumer website to be launched soon Stream24/7, which I'm hoping to have more details about in the near future.

Complete Gardens Streamed

Oxford Head Gardener on CD-ROM. Available 24/7. Planting advice software: Greener gardening advice using streaming technology

I was asking Philip Voice how things were going with Complete Gardens Streaming sales with a view to blogging about it, but who better to tell you how it's going than the gardener himself Neil. So follow the link above to his website and read how well it's going for him.

Streaming by AppExpress - Endeavors Technology a Tadpole subsidiary.

Technical Problems

I've been having some technical problems due to a problem my service provider had, hence the lack of a sum up of my thoughts on the DABCC interview of Peter Bondar.

It seems like normal service has resumed, so I'll get caught up with a few other things I'm working on and probably get onto it tomorrow at some point. All being well....lol

Hindenberg Omen - Stock Market Crash?

Today the news came out that another Hindenberg Omen appeared on Wednesday 11th July 2007.

When I say another, it's the third signal I've heard of in recent weeks. For full analysis of this you can visit McHugh's Financial Markets Forecast & Analysis

For those of you who like me; and I've already put my hands up to this; are not chartists what exactly does this mean. Well according to the above site, it means a stronger indication of a significant stock market decline between now and October 2007.

What is a Hindenberg Omen?

Good question and I don't have the knowledge to answer that for you so I've found an explaination on another website from 2005 which hopefully helps and am posting a section from that webiste here with a link to the full article.

http://www.safehaven.com/article-3880.htm

It is the alignment of several technical factors that measure the underlying condition of the stock market - specifically the NYSE - such that the probability that a stock market crash occurs is higher than normal, and the probability of a severe decline is quite high. This Omen has appeared before all of the stock market crashes, or panic events, of the past 21 years. All of them. No panic sell-off occurred over the past 21 years without the presence of a Hindenburg Omen. The way Peter Eliades put it in a recent Daily Update, September 21, 2005 (Peter is well worth the read, believe me), "The rationale behind the indicator is that, under normal conditions, either a substantial number of stocks establish new annual highs or a large number set new lows - but not both." When both new highs and new lows are large, "it indicates the market is undergoing a period of extreme divergence — many stocks establishing new highs and many setting new lows as well. Such divergence is not usually conducive to future rising prices. A healthy market requires some semblance of internal uniformity, and it doesn't matter what direction that uniformity takes. Many new highs and very few lows is obviously bullish, but so is a great many new lows accompanied by few or no new highs. This is the condition that leads to important market bottoms."

I guess if you look at what has been happening in the US with the sub-prime lending market ie a lot of lenders going down due to bad debtors and with interest rates rising here in the UK there should be indications in the general economy that can signal this potential occurance.

Oh no but the economy is too buoyant and that's why interest rates are going up!, I hear you say............. I'd answer, wasn't that also the case in the 80's just before a major crash.

We can be a bit blinkered when the economy is running away with itself and see it as all good, but with borrowing at all time highs and a lot of that out of equity in properties, and re-posessions on the rise again, isn't negative equity the next thing around the corner.

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that repossessions are at their highest level for seven years, having risen from 10,310 in 2005 to 17,000 in 2006, and research from Shelter reveals that a disproportionate number of recent repossessions have been initiated in the sub-prime sector, often on remortgages arranged to cover other debts.

In some areas granted, the housing market is still running at amazing levels, but there comes a day when interest rates reach the point where the squeeze starts and poeple can't afford to move up the ladder anymore, so a blip and a slow down starts, and some areas are already probably at their peak. Salaries have not gone up at the same rate as the cost of housing, so crunch point will happen eventually.

OK so crunch point may not be now, when these Hindenberg Omens are showing, but it will come one day as we all know and it could be 1 or even 3 years away, but it will come.

What does this have to do with my investment?

Well if you are invested in a company that you think can only forge ahead you might not think it will matter to you, but it will. If people go into a panic if a big sell off happens, they will create a situation where the brokers start to automatically knock percentages off all shares they deal with and so your investment may well go down even if it has huge potenial to rise. When I say investment, I mean in stocks and shares. Equally though if this does happen then, pensions, ISA's etc will also go down, but possibly the Gold (people hedging) and the Bonds market will increase, so I guess it just depends where your safe haven is.

I'm sure there will be more to write on this subject in coming weeks or months.

Encryptanet Updates

Since I've been getting a lot of email about Encryptanet, I asked Greg for an update. He said that Encryptanet is in stealth mode, but working hard to launch their latest product. From what I understand, it's a way to encrypt one or more links to any blog, podcast, or RSS feed. They provide a decryption service that acts as a gatekeeper to the content and the tools to encrypt the links. He sent me the address to try out the main service.

https://wsl.paycloud.com/AccessCertificates/Encrypt

The link above is just an example, but encrypting links can be done by anyone. He says the real portal will have user specific accounts and much more consumer friendly graphics. Here's the steps that I copied from their product flyer:

First you have to setup your account by creating a one-time encryption tag.
Any content encrypted with the same tag will automatically be unlocked for the user. This is a really good way to group content together into a subscription.
-- enter in your email, this is the paypal, google, or amazon account that gets paid
-- enter in a unique encryption string, like a password but used to encrypt things
-- enter a price to charge for access
-- enter the time in minutes, days, months to allow access

Next you create the link.
The second and third way only work if you have the Encryptanet access manager installed.
-- drag and drop a Web address on the form and it returns the encrypted one, or
-- add the encryptanet button to your toolbar and click on it, or
-- right-click and select encrypt from the popup menu on any link on the page

Original Link:
http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php

Encrypted Link:
http://decrypt.paycloud.com/decrypt.cgi?d=p%2Fbhd%2Fz6yDSWRch7%2F4hCjkeedU4y3i1SM5pr2rfmQn5T1A8FeOHSPhK4YhKzEKT20mcrYvA%2B40E%3D


Next, post the selected link on your own Website or any of your favorite content sites.
Here is an example of using the myspace blogging form to add an encrypted link to a blog entry.


Finally, sit back and enjoy the reveues.
As users convert to "micro-subscribers", you get sent the revenues--just like using Google Adsense. In this case, users are more likely to buy because:
-- you didn't destroy the "free" value of the site
-- users get greater access to all items as opposed to buying just one link (which doesn't work)
-- users don't have to disclose their private financial info or even their email

Here's the final product: a blog post on Myspace that lets free users read what they want, but provides a premium service for more interested ones.

Try encrypting your own links and see if you like it.

Market Abuse - Ramping and De-ramping

[This post has been edited and a new link demonstrating Market Abuse from the Wall Street Journal added to it Thursday 12th July 2007]

Have you been on a shareholders bulletin board (BB) or forum recently where something looks fishy?

Well over on the iii BB for Stanelco, a shareholder has taken things into his own hands and reported the company to the LSE for what he/she perceives to have been the company's deliberate attempts to ramp their position in the market by sending out overly positive statements whilst in reality everything wasn't as rosy in their garden after all as was evidenced by the failure of their Greenseal Trials with Asda.

Prior to their admission of the trial failure, all company statements had said the trials were going well. So what might the company have been guilty of (allegedly)? Well maybe they were guilty of suppressing the negative price sensitive news that should maybe have been issued at a much earlier stage.

A company has an obligation to their shareholders to issue ALL price sensitive news within a timely manner, whether that be in the Positive or the Negative as this is what shareholders use to make financial decisions on their stakes within the company ie their shareholding levels.

It is understandable to a degree that no company wants to have to issue bad news as they want the shareprice to go up not down obviously. Keeping the price heading up makes it easier for them to get institutions on board and to secure funding when required. Negative news hinders this.

So what is Ramping?

Well ramping can take many forms, from a company not issuing the negative news, a shareholder who has lost a lot of money in the past and has maybe bought in at a new low and now wants to make back his losses, a company owner overstating the future potential of the company, to even someone circulating rumours of a take over bid on it's way.

A ramper might use a BB to constantly espouse the future potential revenue of the company even if unfounded, put ridiculous valuations on a company for possible take over bids and post so often as to drown out other peoples opinions. They might also pick on other posters and mis-represent what they are saying if they take a even a slightly different view to them or an obvious opposing position. This can even go so far as to go offline and become a personal attack if they have access to your email address.

What is De-ramping - and who does it benefit?

This, also, can take different forms. Perhaps a shareholder has gone short on a share, they obviously then need a decline in the shareprice to make a profit, so they will go onto BB's and say anything they can to persuade others that the company is going to fail or a particular product is going to fail. Directors who want to perform a management buyout, might similarly suppress the positives about how the company or products are progressing to a degree where they are not fully informing the market of 'positive' price sensitive news, for their own ends.

A de-ramper can and will also use all of the same tactics as the ramper when it comes to BB's and making sure their message is the only one heard.


So what is the difference between the ordinary shareholder and the ramper or de-ramper?

Well the ordinary shareholder, while they probably enthuse about any company they have bought shares in, they will also take on board the possible negatives and be happy to have both sides of any argument openly aired so that they can make an informed decision. They might not like to hear the negatives or have their excitement quelled a bit, however, they will listen and accept that no company or product market is buoyant ALL the time and they will want to hear clear arguments from both sides of the fence and from that, they will then decide to continue to hold a share or sell up and move on. At least they will have had all the information available to them to do this.

Now lets face it, we all get a bit excited when we hear a rumour and the old adage goes, Buy on Rumour Sell on Fact, the market operates a lot on rumours, but I suppose the important thing to think about when you hear a rumour is. Where did the rumour start, has the person posting the rumour backed it up with any research and/or links to that research. If it has just appeared completely out of the blue and has absolutely no basis in fact, then bide your time and wait for confirmation or you could just be supporting a shorters dream situation, or helping someone who's lost a lot of money to sell into a rise created by the rumour. They will then be off, while you are left sitting with the shares and the price drifting down again.


Related Articles
thisismoney.co.uk published an article entitled Avoid the Pump And Dump last year, warning people about email and BB campaigns to ramp or de-ramp shares.

And what happens if someone is found out.......
'City Slicker' Hipwell Jailed
Livedoor founder arrested
'Lie for me' asked Morgan
High-risk journey to the unknown
Wall street Journal

Enjoy BB's they can be a lot of fun and you can meet a lot of very nice, knowledgeable, witty, trustworthy people on there. But be wary, you can also become a gullible victim of someone elses game very easily, but be careful of getting dragged into something that could see you entrapped in an illegal situation.

If it looks fishy and smells fishy, then take care, we all know what bad fish does to us. :o)

Oh and by the way, I hold Stanelco shares at a loss, but I'm not afraid to hide the negatives because of that loss....LOL....the truth is the truth.

New Shop / Store open for business!

As you will see if you are a regular visitor I have been playing around with the layout of the page a little. While I don't want to clutter up the page with loads of adverts (AppExpress and Encryptanet have been given FREE space), I was made redundant a while back so every little helps....lol

I have joined the Amazon affiliates scheme and have created an online shop or store depending on what country you are visiting from :o). I've set the Home Page, book section, to cover all sorts of information relating to investments, share dealing the stock market and tax issues to be in keeping with this site's theme and in the next section there are books specifically aimed at Technologies old and new again to fit in with a lot of what is blogged about on here.

The other sections cover, Electronics (Ipods, Sat nav, computer hardware etc), Software, DVD's and Music. Hopefully something for most folks in the above lists.

Pop into the shop, have a seat and browse around at your leisure - the link is on the sidebar.

Newly rich & The Jester

My apologies, I thought you meant links within the posts weren't working, you didn't mention that it was the companies List on the sidebar.

I had a click around the site and found the problem though. I tried to edit them, but they wouldn't change, so I have deleted and re-done the links, so hopefully its all hunky dory now. Please let me know if still a problem.

Thanks for highlighting the problem guys and thanks for coming and reading my ramblings :o)

Tanfield Group Gold

For those of you following the Tanfield Group, it's price since I first blogged it is up 98.9%. Currently sitting at £1.87 vs £1.89 ( a nice narrow spread) it has hardly faltered on its way up. Very kindly again my guest blogger, John Smith, has provided me with some information to put on here, so no credit to me at all.....lol Thanks John, over to you :o)

Is this the golden goose? An amazing week for Tanfield last week.

Shares were dropping back a little, apparently on press speculation that they would be coming to the market to fund an aquisition. So up pops an RNS titled "press speculation"

RNS Number:1123Z Tanfield Group PLC 27 June 2007
The Company notes the recent press speculation regarding a fund raising. The Company confirms that it has completed a placing to raise #115 million at 163p per ordinary share to fund a substantial acquisition, which is expected to be significantly earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership. The placing is conditional upon, inter alia, completion of the acquisition and the Company expects to provide further information shortly.

How shortly for the "further information"? Well, the next day actually. This is a big RNS, so better not paste it all here, just the main statement.

RNS Number:1886Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
28 June 2007
The Tanfield Group Plc, the leading manufacturer of zero emission electric vehicles and aerial work platforms, is pleased to announce the proposed acquisition (the 'Acquisition') of the entire issued share capital of Snorkel Holdings LLC ('Snorkel') and a conditional placing to raise #115 million (before expenses) (the "Placing").
Snorkel is a worldwide supplier of high quality industrial aerial work platforms. The products have a wide range of working at height applications and are supported by service, parts and training teams. Snorkel has significant manufacturing capabilities along with strong sales and distribution, in the USA and Australasia.

Also, they put out the RNS to annouce the annual reports.

RNS Number:1947Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
Annual Report & Accounts and Notice of Annual General Meeting
The Company's Annual Report and Accounts for 2006 together with notice of the Annual General Meeting, which takes place at 10:00 on 28 September 2007 at Vigo Centre, Birtley Road, Washington Tyne and Wear, NE38 9DA are available for inspection from our website:
http://www.tanfieldgroup.co.uk/
Copies will be sent to shareholders shortly.

Shortly again? Somehow I don't think this means the next day :)Well I reckon thats enough news for one week. But wait........ Another RNS, Deutsche Bank have annouced that they have increased their stake again.

RNS Number:2385Z Tanfield Group PLC 28 June 2007
Tanfield Group plc (the "Company")
Holding in Company
The Company was informed on 28 June 2007 that Deutsche Bank AG has an interest in 20,640,470 ordinary shares in the Company which represents approximately 7.05% of the issued share capital of the Company.

There's a local press report thats very bullish. But then they would be, being local and Tanfield doing so well. Share price has settled around 185 at the moment, but has been as high as 195ish intraday peak. 185 is around 10 to 15p up this week.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0500business/businessnews/tm_headline=tanfield-ready-to-treble-output%26method=full%26objectid=19377931%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

This little quote from the media relations manager is heart warming. Well, it would be it's his job. "According to Jenkins, the share issue was significantly over-subscribed. We could have raised half a billion pounds because of the interest from institutional investors"

Still looks good.

Photos from MS2007 Summit (Endeavors)

Following on from the Interview with Peter Bondar, CEO, Endeavors Technologies, where he said they had photos from the MMS2007 Summit, here are a few of the snaps from the event.

I think I have put the right names to the right faces where names have been added, but I will correct this later if not, as I'm sure I'll get an email about it.

I would have selected the largest setting for the pictures, which would fill the screen but the guys were shy.......... no really I get limited space for photos on the blog......lol But hey! if you click on the photo, they go huge....LOL sorry guys :o)






Martin Kirkby, VPSales EMEIA








Long shot view of stand








Standing: Tony Austwick, Head of Sales Support, EMEIA

Seated: Brent Chandler, VPSales, Americas





Standing: Tony Austwick, Head of Sales Support, EMEIA

Seated: Brent Chandler, VPSales, Americas

Ramco Energy Sell Stake

There hasn't been much to say on the Ramco front since the completion of the litigation at the End of April, until now that is, when they have hit the Press & Journal, Aberdeen 2 days running, basically the same story though.

Yesterday they announced that they have sold 25% of their stake (which was 86%) in subsidiary Lansdowne Oil & Gas to raise £2.61 million in cash to help fund their future prospects. Article can be found on the above link, but I'll include Steve Remp's comments here.

Steve Remp, Chairman of Ramco, said:
“We are delighted to have secured this funding from LC Capital Master Fund. They have been long term supporters of Ramco and this funding will enable us to progress our strategy and to take advantage of the opportunities that we have identified and are currently evaluating.

I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued patience and believe that we can now look forward to the future with renewed confidence.”

They have several areas that they are working in including Montenegro, Ireland and Bulgaria.

The Montenegrin acreage is 3,100 sq km, located some 50 km west of the capital, Podgorica, and is an offshore extension of a structural trend currently producing substantial oil and gas onshore Albania. It also has geological similarities with the prolific petroleum province currently being exploited on the other side of the Adriatic Sea in the Southern Apennines of Italy.


Ireland, operated by subsidiary Landsdown Oil & Gas.
The Irish offshore shelf areas have been targeted by the Company for exploration, as these provide shallow water (generally less than 100 metres), relatively low cost opportunities and good fiscal terms, potentially resulting in high value reserves.

Bulgaria license A-Lovech (onshore) with a 20% interest.

Geospatial Solutions Division (GSD) - Tadpole

Not to be outdone on the news front and not forgetting the other side of the company, the Geospatial Solutions Division of the company are also on a news flow stream (pardon the pun).

CEO Mark Ketteman admitted at the AGM that they had perhaps been too reserved in the past about the issue of news about what was good about the company to the point where they were not perhaps benefiting themselves with publicity of their achievements and he said and I quote "That is about to change".

Having been questioned on the 50% decline in expected revenue from the Ordnance Survey (OS) Phoenix Project review and what they were trying to do to achieve increased revenue, he said (and this is not an exact quote) that the fact that they were not so heavily involved with the OS contract at the moment actually meant that they had managed to free up key members of staff (who had been working full time on the project) to look at new areas of business and therefore they thought they had a better chance now of getting new clients on board.

NEWS from GSD
18th June 2007 TADPOLE'S iPlan™ highlighted during LASTFIRE Group Meeting
18th June 2007 United Utilities Renews Tadpole Technology Software Contract
20th June 2007 Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water Renews Tadpole Technology Software Contract

TC Technology - Although recently sold off in a management buyout, GSD still receive 50% of sales revenue generated by the GoSync sales there, so I've added in there recent news too.
26th June 2007 NREMC Extends Use of GO! Sync Leveraging the Inspection Extension

All in all, I think both divisions of Tadpole Technology, Endeavors and GSD, are showing more clarity in providing information, direction and potential profitability. Here's hoping that this will continue and that the company names will be on the global map in more ways than one!

Director Dealing - Tadpole

Following on from the good news the other day that newly appointed Director Peter Bondar had bought 101,228 ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("ordinary shares") at a price of 4.9p per share. We then got another announcement later that day that he had added a further tranche of 99,203 ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("ordinary shares") at a price of 5.0p per share.

Not to be outdone and true to his word (from the previous post)[David Lee said something along the lines of, just because I don't go out and buy some tomorrow, does not mean that I won't be buying.] yesterday came the announcement that David Lee had added a further 150,000 ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("ordinary shares") at a price of 5.25p per share taking his stake up to 1,000,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.25 per cent of the ordinary share capital of the Company.

I think it's a good endorsement to the state of play just now that David, who has options he could have exercised instead (granted he wouldn't have gained anything on them right now), actually put his hand in his wallet (not that I'm suggesting you keep that much in your wallet all the time David....lol) and bought the shares on the open market too.

It will be interesting to see if the other two Directors Iain Cockburn and Mark Ketteman follow suit and also purchase shares.

There is also the fact that, the more shares the directors purchase, the better the chance of getting the adjourned resolution passed at the next showing of it. Yes, before anyone says it, they will have nothing like the 20+million required to block the possible no vote that might appear, but every little helps doesn't it.

Congratulations Endeavors Technologies! (Tadpole)

Congratulations to Peter and the boys. True to their word at the AGM, good news was on it's way......and like buses, you wait for one and 3 come long at once.

(I'll tell you how you can also help the company at the end of this, pens and papers at the ready....lol)

Firstly we have a worldwide license and support agreement for $1,250,000 with Origin Technology Group Limited over a 3 year contractual period.

Tadpole Technology Licensing Agreement
RNS Number:9919Y
Tadpole Technology PLC
26 June 2007

Tadpole Technology plc

Licensing agreement

Endeavors Technologies, Inc. ("Endeavors"), the application streaming software subsidiary of Tadpole, today announces that it has concluded a worldwide OEMsoftware integration agreement with UK based Origin Technology Group Limited("Origin").

The agreement grants Origin access to and the right to use the "AppExpress"software developed by Endeavors to deliver on demand applications and content in a Software as a Service (SaaS) product offering.

The license and support agreement is valued at $1,250,000 over a three year contractual period. The agreement with Origin represents Endeavors' first major European licensing initiative. In anticipation of this agreement, Endeavors has set up a European sales, support and marketing organisation based in the UK.25 June 2007


From what I can find about Origin Technology (link to holding page) so far is that it is a Microsoft partner (details on link). The company was incorporated in Feb 2007 and is Private Limited with share capital). The fact that they are an MS partner obviously suggests that they operated under a different name or division of another company until Feb 07, 'cause they didn't achieve that in just 4 months. Still researching them and will post more if I find more.

Secondly, we have the announcement via the company webpage of the reseller agreement with Virtual Network Partners (follow link for how they are promoting it!).

Virtual Network Partners has 14 infrastructure management resellers across Europe and is expanding its network to offer Endeavors’ AppExpress application deployment and management solution. AppExpress is now a fundamental leading edge component of vITILhub, Virtual’s framework for best-of-breed IT management and optimization products.

“Partnering with Endeavors allows us to offer the leading solution for streaming applications on demand,” said Mike Briercliffe, chairman and founder. “AppExpress allows streamed applications to be delivered more rapidly and easily than other solutions. Our technical team has previous experience in this area with AppStream, including a number of early pilot implementations, and the relationship we now have with Endeavors hits all the right notes. We are pleased to conclude this agreement and incorporate AppExpress with pride of place into our offering.”

“Virtual’s vITILhub approach has created a compelling portfolio of tools and services,” said Peter Bondar, CEO at Endeavors Technologies. “AppExpress eases application delivery and management allowing organizations to be more agile and responsive to users’ computing requirements. Finding a team with real life implementation experience in this field is a fantastic baseline and we are very enthusiastic about the additional opportunities that this key relationship with will bring.”

Thirdly, We get another RNS that Peter Bondar the newly appointed CEO of Endeavors Technology and Executive Director (of only 10 days I must add) has taken on board what was suggested at the AGM and put his money where his mouth is and invested in Tadpole Shares.

RNS Number:0352Z Tadpole Technology PLC 26 June 2007Tadpole Technology plc ("the Company")Notification of Interests of Directors and Connected Persons The Company today announces that Mr Peter Bondar, an executive director of the Company, has today purchased 101,228 ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("ordinary shares") at a price of 4.9p per share. Following this purchase, Mr Bondar has a beneficial interest in 101,228 ordinary shares, representing 0.03 per cent in the ordinary share capital of the Company.
26 June 2007

What occurred at the AGM is that a shareholder suggested that the board can't be in a permanent closed period and therefore there must be opportunities for them to show their faith in the future of the company and that Director buying would show that faith.

None of them actually said that they would buy (of course they couldn't that would have been price sensitive) but to those in the room reading the body language, it was met with pensive nods of agreement.

David Lee said something along the lines of, just because I don't go out and buy some tomorrow, does not mean that I won't be buying.

Well obviously knowing that they had news on the way - they couldn't buy there and then or the FSA would have been down on them like a ton of bricks, so now they must be in an open period. The news has been announced and opportunities to buy have presented themselves. What we have to wait and see is whether Peter's colleagues, David Lee, Iain Cockburn and Mark Ketteman will also take this opportunity to show faith. :o) Come on boys - you know you want to.....lol

Calling all shareholders with websites!
Fourth, but not on the list of news out today is where you can help the company to promote themselves and AppExpress.

You might have noticed that I have on the sidebar here, both an advert and news links to the Endeavors website. I offered this space to them free, yes free, a few weeks back after having contacted them about why none of the google ad's on my page were coming up with AppExpress stuff. After a chat, I said well tell you what, create an Ad that I can put on my page free for you, why pay google for something if you don't have to and then we'll know it's always there and not just dependant on what I write.

So anyway, over to you. Are you a shareholder with a webpage who can offer a bit of Free space for an Advert or News link or both - if so contact Heath Gray, Director of Marketing EMEIA on Hgray@endeavors.com

It's a funny old world!

Buy on rumour sell on news! That's the old adage isn't.

For years the Tadpole Board have struggled to keep a lid on news, rumours and the shareprice getting overinflated to the point where they must have almost pulled their hair out trying to find the best form of control. Well they seem to have struck gold this time by making a statement at the AGM that they have a deal about to be signed....lol

Jeez....bet they wished they'd known all along that announcing that they'd be announcing a deal was the best way to keep the shareprice steady. It's hardly flickered.

No big buys and no big sells - well well,who'd have believed it.

So, OK, we don't know what the deal is, big small or indifferent and for a change I've not heard any rumours of who it's with (usually there are a few names in the pot - ms always being a favourite lol), but we do know that a reseller has signed up and once the i's have been dotted and the t's crossed that it will be announced, but what of the real deal? What, where, when and for how much -that is the question?

And a good one it is too! hmmmmm

AppExpress - ahead of the rest?

There is a discussion over on iii BB as to why Microsoft and Citrix would, could or should have any involvement with Endeavors AppExpress other than the settlement of the patent lawsuits recently.

My take on this having read the Competitive Analysis handout from the AGM (you can have a copy if you email me on uvegottalaugh@supawoman.com) is as follows:

Both companies bought streaming companies who were already in breach of patents and there are different ways of these things being settled. Go to court or court the patent holders.

Basically Endeavors hold the widest portfolio of earliest patents available for streaming and therefore the other companies needed to settle in some shape or form. My guess is that having reviewed the capabilities of AppExpress et al, they realised that not only were the patents the earliest but also the functionality of the product was superior for some aspects of business therefore yes they had bought the right products for themselves for some elements of business or industry, but not necessarily for all aspects.

You could therefore guess that perhaps they thought that instead of fighting, or just settling, that they also negotiated to use elements of the product that they did not currently have within their own products but wanted to be able to offer to their clients if the need arose at some point. That would perhaps result in licencing elements not already included in the lawsuits.

AppExpress - Differentiators (part of Competitive Analysis Doc)

• Strong license compliance tool / anti piracy tool


• Fastest time to launch amongst all streaming delivery technologies


• Online / Offline with license control


• Single server scales to thousands of users


• Local print & data versus other remote access apps


• Avoids app conflicts or clashes with other app versions


• Seamless desktop integration


• Datacenter support (scaling, failover and delivering large software over the Internet)

AppExpress, against the 3 main competitors of Citrix, Appstream and Microsoft, is the only one with offline access. This could be vital for companies who have field workers who can only get internet access at home or at the office unless they are operating in a wi-fi area.

Provisioning, Audit & Profiling is either incomplete support or not supported by the others, while AppExpress provides

• Asset tracking, auditing, and provisioning support


• Optional tracking and SPLA reporting available

I could go on, but you'd be better reading their report yourself rather than me trying to replicate it here, however, the point I would suggest that makes it important not to completely dismiss any future dealings with the competition is, that the products are different and it would therefore depend on who and where the competition are targeting for business as to whether they may benefit from a good relationship with Endeavors.

Food for thought perhaps.

Tadpole Presentations (AGM), GSD & Endeavors

These presentations are now available for download on the main Tadpole Technology website under Investors Relations.

Tadpole Technology Plc ("the Company")
Results of AGM
The Company announces the following results for its AGM held on 14 June 2007. Ordinary resolutions, numbered 1 to 5, relating respectively to the adoption of the annual report and financial statements, the directors’remuneration report, the re-election of Peter Bondar and Iain Cockburn as directors and the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as auditors were unanimously approved on a show of hands.
Ordinary resolution numbered 7 authorising the Company to use electronic communications was passed on a poll.
Special resolutions numbered 8 to 12 realting to various changes to the Company’s Articles of Association, failed on a poll to reach the required 75% majority.
Special resolution numbered 6 relating to the limited disapplication of shareholders pre-emption rights was not put to the meeting and shareholders present unanimously gave their consent to an adjournment of the meeting to a date to be notified by the Board.
The Company would like to express its thanks to its shareholders for their attendance and participation at the AGM.
15 June 2007
GSD AGM Presentation (867KB)
Streaming AGM Presentation (1.3MB)

Posting Comments

Please try to post your comments on the specific blog title that you are commenting on, so that it makes sense to other readers. I will transfer the 2 comments from the old blog onto the current one now for this purpose. Thank you.

Tadpole AGM - Meeting Summary

Before I start - Hello to Sunny (or Sonny) whom I met in Covent Garden this morning, who happens to be a tadpole holder from years ago and has a certificate hiding in a drawer somewhere and who actually called his broker while I was chatting to him to get an update on the price to see if this mornings RNS has affected it.

This was definitely a marathon of a meeting and not a sprint, but an awful lot was covered and it has to be said that it is a shame that there appeared to be less shareholders there this year than I have seen in the past. Guys you missed a very good showing from both GSD and Endeavors.

Prior to the start of the meeting I was introduced to Simon Keane from Shares Magazine, who seemed very interested in the Tad story and spoke with several groups of shareholders before we went in. He left after the presentations and before the 'business section' of the meeting, but I'm sure he has plenty to write about from that.

I did take notes, but as with any of these things, there was far too much going on to get everything, so a lot of it will come from memory and if anyone wishes to correct me on anything I get wrong please feel free to use the comments section at the end to do that. I really should brush up on the shorthand that I learnt 25 years ago and have never used since....lol

I also have come home to a couple of interesting emails, which I'll cover later if you manage to get to the end of this. Stick with it if you can.

Mark Ketteman was given the floor after meeting was officially opened and the welcome by the Chairman, David Lee.

Geospatial Division
There was a main presentation first followed by a question and answer session.

• Special mention was given to Ross Colman and Ian Cook who were both in attendance ( I think) for the demonstrations that took place after the meeting.
• The main focus of the geospatial division is the mobile market targeting the like of utility companies and others with a mobile workforce who are gathering information out in the field for their companies.
• The GIS market is currently worth in the region of $1.6 billion of which ESRI have a 40% market share.
• They made a conscious decision to choose to work 'with' ESRI as the global leader in the market instead of trying to compete with them.
• Through working with ESRI GoSync was developed and is marketed by Geospatial.
• In 2001 the division's turnover was in the region of 1 million and this had increased to 8 million by the end of the 2006 financial year.
• The Ordnance Survey contract and their Phoenix Project had been instrumental in this increase in turnover, but Mark couldn't confirm exact details of by how much although it was significant.
• The Phoenix project is one of the largest of it's kind in the world and these types of contract are not the type that will turn up every day.
• TCT was and always has been a cash drain on the company and this was the reason for it's disposal. They have tried over the years to turn this around, but it was just not happening. Mark's explanation for the steady news flow coming out of TCT is that they are in the position of having to try to create a market footprint and (not what he said but the implication is) they therefore have to make every little thing sound like big news at the moment. and the example he gave was the 2 promotions of internal staff that were announced, which may not normally be considered 'news' as such.
• They are very positive about the disaster recovery market which Iplan addresses and pointed out in particular the Bruntsfield Oil Refinery disaster and also the Texas Oil Refinery explosion. Both of these have highlighted the need for oil companies not to just pay lip service to their need for compliance with health and safety measures to protect their workforces.

As mentioned over on the iii BB 4 of Mark's slides had mysteriously disappeared into the ether, but this only caused him to pause for a few moments while he tried to find them, then he professionally picked up from memory where his slides had left off and carried on through where the rest of the slides picked up again. Well done Mark, it could have been so different.

I am sure I have missed out loads of information as there was so much given and it was really good to see Mark take the floor given the criticism that was leveled at him from previous meetings. I spoke to him about this just before we left (at bedtime lol). I asked whether he felt better for having taken more of a role in the meeting and he said he did as he felt that in the past people were mostly interested and asked about the streaming side of things, which in fairness he said was the right thing at the time given what was happening on that side.

OK so then it came to the question and answer session.

Nildes: Mark, are you going to reduce your salary?

Mark: That is not something that I am comfortable talking about and I would like to hand over to David Lee to answer that question. (not his exact words, please remember that a lot of this is from memory not just notes.)

David L: We as a company subscribed to an independent salary review and found clear evidence from similar sized companies in the same type of market that we are in the right ball park figures for the salaries that we are paying our CEO's. That's the market level of pay package and no board member or executive is responsible for their own pay package, this is decided by the board (exclusive of the board members pay package being discussed)

Nildes: Why is the GSD side of the company so quiet?

Mark: We try not as a plc to be seen to be ramping the company. Perhaps we have been too conservative in this, I'm sure we have been, but this is about to change. There are times when we should have been more actively promoting the company. We have been wrong in the past in not acting in that regard for marketing.

Asti: Has there been any progress on attracting business with other mapping companies around the world?

Mark: We have built up a number of skills through working with Ordnance Survey and in particular ESRI and have developed a set of skills that can be used with other mapping companies if not on our own product, through a quasi product of knowledge built up of the ESRI products. GSD are probably better informed about some of the ESRI products now than some of their own people and we can sell these 'skills' in that market. ESRI are releasing a new product and we expect to be marketing our skills along with this.

UGL: There was a recent announcement by TCT which also mentioned an enhancement to GoSync. Do they own the rights to any enhancement and if they do, if there was anything we wished to use that enhanced product for, would we have to licence that element from them.

Mark: Yes, TCT have as part of their licence from us, the right to enhance the product to fit in with their clients needs on an ongoing basis. They own any enhancements that they create not GSD and therefore, although I don't think there would be a case where we would want to use any enhancements they have created, yes we would have to pay a licence to them for that element.

Albie: You seem very enthusiastic about Brunsfield and the Texas scenarios.

Mark: The oil industry needs to prove compliance with Health & Safety and not pay lip service to their regulators and the resulting actions (litigation) following the Bruntsfield and Texas disasters has woken up the oil companies to their need to prepare for complete shutdowns from an external system if required as a lot of the problems with Bruntsfield were that they didn't know how much oil there were in the tanks etc due to the loss of the site resulting in the loss of their data on that. This is where Iplan fits in.

UGL: There was an article in a recent oil industry paper that mentioned that BP were discussing Iplan at a recent event. Have GSD been invited to attend events like these to talk about the product alongside the BP representatives.

Mark: I can't go into too many details about that but yes we have attended events of that kind. BP as a company operate in many sections or different companies within the main company. We have contacts from the bottom working up and contacts from the top working down to try to infiltrate the whole company.

Asti then asked another question which I'm sorry folks but I completely missed as I was trying to catch up with my own note taking. There was more discussion on this issue and that of getting into other oil companies but on the whole Mark's attitude was very positive about the GSD future. He admitted that GSD are a niche market player and will never have the size of market that potentially the streaming side could have but in saying that he had earlier said that this marketplace was worth around 1.6 billion, so I think a slice of that is worth having.

We then moved onto the streaming division presentation given by Peter Bondar, the newly appointed CEO of the streaming division.

I think in the interest of kindness to the readers and my aching fingers, I'll stop there at the moment to let you absorb the first bit and maybe post a comment or two if you want further clarification on anything I've written so far.

I need a coffee :o)

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Part 2

Streaming Division Presentation

Peter started off by pointing out a good representation of his team sitting up at the back of the room and suggested that he might get some of them to deal with any of the questions that arose out of the presentation.

I didn't catch all their names but I think those in attendance were: Art Hitomi, Bret Chandler, Neil Gardner (omitted previously - sorry), Martin Kirkby, Heath Gray, Tony Austwick, Richard (no last name, but I'm sure he has one) web consultant.

• Their goal is to be No1 in the streaming market.
• Peter pointed out that Appstream had only been given access to Stream Theory patents and not Endeavors patents.
• There are 2 Reseller Partners signing up with us. I think there was mention that one of them at least had formerly dealt with Appstream. One of these being Virtual Network Partners has 14 VAR's (value added resellers) who work with them and will be promoting AppExpress. There will be an announcement next week on this. [edited due to message left by annonymous - thanks for that] there were definitely 2 mentioned as signing up though, but I dont know who the other was.
• Endeavors have employed Jan Tarzia in the states to provide PR for Endeavors (not the group), whom Peter has worked with in the past. she will be coming to Britain in the next few months to start working with the UK press to get the key messages out to the market.
• They are marketing via telesales and targeted emails.
• They will be launching in the next couple of weeks a new website Stream 24-7.com aimed at the general public with up to 50 downloadable applications form the freeware sector.
• In Europe they have identified 25 of what Peter referred to as suspects for the moment rather than prospects, but they are managing to enter those at what he referred to as 'C' level ie CEO, CTO etc and therefore are reaching a good level within these organisations to promote the product to.
• We can expect good news within the next few days.
• They are reviewing their position in Japan because although they have Softbank on the books, they have not had much success in infiltrating any other companies up til now and want to concentrate efforts on where they can have success.
• The average sales cycle is 6-9 months in this market but in the past the worst case was 40 months.
• New leads like those generated at the MMS2007 Summit should be in the 6-9 month cycle and therefore we would have to wait for results to come through on any from there.

Questions and answers on this section were rather rapid as Peter said he wanted to break the land speed record on this in order to then get onto the formal business of the day and then get upstairs for the additional demonstrations of the products upstairs. Forgive me I couldn't keep up and also pay proper attention to what was being said, but I'll give you an idea of questions asked and their answers.

Q. You said that you were reviewing Japan as you only have Softbank in that area. What is the current position of the Softbank contract as we have not had any updates on it and we believe the contract was due to complete in March or June 2007.

David Lee: In Japan, they work more on the basis of relationships rather than contracts and therefore dates of contracts have very little effect for them. We do have a good relationship with Softbank and the business is ongoing. I will explain how the original contract was set up.

We had a deal with them to provide licences to them as and when they built up their client base for games streaming along with maintenance & support fees for those licences. We actually provided the last of those licences to them in about March this year and the maintenance is for a year from the licence date. Therefore for the last of the licences provided there would not be a renewal of maintenance & support billed for this until March 2008 whereby we would then bill them for payment in 45days. Ongoing maintenance and support is approximately 18% of a licence fee and they will continue with the licences (100,000) as they have an ongoing commitment from their clients for the provision of their gaming. We can therefore say that the Softbank contract is ongoing indefinitely. ( I think he said in the region of $1million ongoing)

Asti: In light of the Microsoft and Citrix deals are we talking with these companies with the view to future business with them.

Peter:We are liaising with Microsoft and having talks with them. The manner in which the patent issue was resolved was with a view to future contact and business and we are confident that this is an important relationship. It was due to they way the patent issue was settled that we were invited to attend the MMS2007 Summit which provided us with some very good leads which we are working on now.

Question: Do you believe we have sufficient revenue to pursue these leads? Do you have to come back to us for additional funding? (2 questioners, but I've put it together)

The answer was given in as much as; At this current time they do have enough, but they have made provision in the Resolutions to be voted on to make available additional funding if required without having to come back to us to request more. Blue Oar will be assessing the market and talking to institutions with a view to getting them on board and this may provide additional funding required.

A follow on question referred back to the GSD side of things was in relation to their funding requirements.

As GSD is a profit making division there is no immediate need for funding for that section as they can pay for themselves. If they became a loss making division then they would have to come to the group for funding, but they cannot see that being an issue in the immediate future as they have cut their cloth to fit with the losses incurred by the OS review of the Phoenix project. Mark could not be drawn on when that is likely to conclude, but he indicated that it was likely to be sooner rather than later (in which case I'm guessing that the GSD revenue would increase again assuming the project is to continue).

If you are reading the iii BB and the comprehensive reports that both Asti and Nildes have provided and also the SAG newsletter that Nildes put out, then I think we have pretty much covered most of what took place up to the point of the formal business taking place.

As you have already seen via the RNS issued. Resolutions 1-5 were passed, 6 was adjourned, 7 passed on a poll and 8-12 failed due to not getting the 75% of the represented votes cast.

These resolutions failed due to a no vote cast by a large shareholder (approx 20 million shares) on all the resolutions.

Important
You should note that resolution 6 is not something new in so much as the company request the right to raise funds through the placement of shares at each AGM and they have the veto to do that currently within 15 months from the date of the last AGM. What they are asking for is an increase to the amount they can place.

I stated while we were discussing this issue that if this was indeed the cheapest way for them to quickly raise additional capital to enable them to eg close an important deal or to ensure the signing off of the accounts at the end of the year, I would find that more acceptable than some of the other more expensive routes to raising capital.*

If you share the above view and you did not register your vote for the AGM, please make sure that when this comes up again in the near future, you make your voice heard. The company is from what was said, hoping to sign up enough business to not make it a necessity to raise large amounts of capital and therefore their access to the amount requested in resolution 6 may be the only hit we have to take. It's up to you.

Come back for part 3 later - I may also edit some other sections of the original post as more comes back to me, in which case I will add those in a different colour to make it easier for you to pick out.

*EDIT - If this resolution does not get passed then if they do require additional funding they would have to come back to us in the form of an EGM to do any other form of capital raising in which case it could cost us in the region of £13,000, (which was the cost of the postage for the AGM), just for them to post out the documentation for that to then possibly pass their request at a later date.**

**Edit - Of course the total cost for an EGM to raise money outside of the limited pre-emption rights will cost somewhere between £250k and £500k and take 3-5 months. Typical costs for an LSE plc. So we have a choice - pass the resolution to allow them access to funds at little or no cost or risk an EGM cash call later.

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Part 3

General Additional Information (Including other Questions and Answers that were interspersed throughout the proceedings)

Question: Is it perhaps time that Tadpole thought about changing it's name?

Answer: This is something that has been discussed within the board on several occasions without having reached a definitive conclusion at this time.

General comments from floor: It is perhaps less important that they change their name at this time with the cost involved with that, but it is of vital importance that when any news coming from the Endeavors Streaming Division is issued that it always has an add on that Endeavors is a subsidiary of Tadpole Technology. Anthony Whittal a former journalist, who obviously knows how these things work, knows that any news coming into a news room from the US is stuck on a spike and forgotten unless the person in receipt of it can see any relevance to the UK market. As it is Tadpole that is the UK listed name for the company then it should always be attached to Endeavors news releases. Anthony is still in contact with a great many of his former journalist friends and has offered to help make introductions for the new PR lady when she arrives in the UK.

A comment form someone who was involved with the putting together of the documentation for the AGM told myself and Asti that we are lucky in having Paul Tibble (company secretary) on board as he was instrumental in saving us around £13,000 in postage by combining the AGM, EGM, Finals and Interims into one mailing.

We sometimes fail to recognise that the employees of the firm are also trying hard to make this thing work.

I have heard also from several people including Mark Ketteman that Iain Cockburn our NED has been working very hard with the board encouraging them to be more forthcoming with information to the shareholders and markets.

I think there was a history of Tadpole having been scolded in the past for over ramping the company and this has resulted in them being over cautious currently. I also stated at one point that a company can be 'as guilty of understating their position to the market as overstating it and they had to try to find a middle ground that complied with the regulators but kept the market informed of their true position'. Iain appears to be the one leading them to the middle ground, so well done to him for the more open feel of this years AGM. Praise where praise is due. A company's success is never just down to one person is it.

Right - unless I can think of any other questions and answers I'll move onto the new public website Stream24-7.com

Stream24-7.com will be going live to the public in a couple of weeks time. I spoke at great length with Heath Gray, Tony Austwick and Richard (consultant) about what the purpose of the site was and who they intended to use it and how they would get the public made aware of it.

Again we can help with this. Heath is going to send me over some information to post at the time it goes live as they want to use blogs, forums, game sites, shareholders and any other method you can think of, to spread the word.

The intention for it is that they will have about 50 applications including open office applications games etc all free stuff for the public to try out AppExpress. The hope is that people will be trying it and enjoying its simplicity and speed at home and will go into their workplaces and talk about it and ask why their company isn't using it to download applications.

I have to admit I did suggest this to the company about 3 or so years ago saying that if you want to create a market for something, give it to the public to play with and they will create the demand. I'm so glad this is now going to happen.

The Appexpress client will not leave footprint on your PC or registry either if you use it then decide to remove it, nor will any of the applications that you use with it. The reason I asked this is I have been uninstaling applications recently from my PC and bits and pieces of them are left all over the system and in truth it has caused problems with other applications.

Also unlike ANY of the other streaming vehicles AppExpress will allow you to work offline with the product of your choice by downloading the whole application to your PC if you request to do so.

Another point that interested me because I have previously lost a hard-drive and therefore lost the use of a downloaded product because it was a year past the purchase date for redownload is that YOU are the registered AppExpress client not the physical PC, so if you have a system failure and get a new PC then you would just log back onto AppExpress and off you go again. Also because of this you do not even have to be at your own PC to use it.

With the inbuilt piracy protection it is also a suitable product for people who have developed a new game or application that they want to get out there to see if it works well to let other people test it but not steal the code.

They are also going to create other micro sites for specific companies for example Apple products or similar.

We spoke about them having Techoranti, Diggit, and Delicious buttons on the 24-7 site so that users can recommend it to those sites and the more hits those buttons get the further up the rankings the site will appear.

Other Marketing Initiatives

They are working hard on telemarketing and have managed to create a customer profile for the type of client most suited to the product so that they are not trying too hard to get into a company that the product profile doesn't match. Due to this they are managing to be more selective about who the sales team actually go out to and visit and are therefore maximising their available salesforce.

You may have noticed recently that they have put a counter onto their website too. This enables them to see where people are visiting from, whether it is a private individual or a commercial prospect and then they are target emailing these companies and using the data provided by the system to check which companies have actually opened the email upon receipt or ignored it.

They are also targeting 'C' level staff (ie CEO's CTO's etc as mentioned previously) at different times of the day to see whether they are more likely to open an email in the morning or at lunchtime or later in the day so that they can use that information going forward with future targeted mailings.

.........and so onto the couple of emails I had when I got home.

One was from Heath Gray saying that it was nice to meet all the shareholders and that he is going to get Richard to create an html banner for my website (I offered them free space to advertise on my site a few weeks ago) and also that he would be sending over some text for the live 24-7 site.

EDIT - Details of this email were ro-moved thanks to comment No7 - apparently it's a chinese spammer. Like I'd know that eh! D'oh. anyway name removed now.

Well I think I've covered about as much as I can remember and I look forward to getting some more feedback on it from you all and like I said before, I will update sections as and when more comes to mind. In the meantime thats kinda the 6 hours done and dusted........phew!!!!!