Give your website SUPER POWERS!

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Richard Catto 2,224 views

Tags: Advert, Tony Seifart, Webexposure
Filed under Advert, Tony Seifart | 4 Comments »

In 1998, I walked into a hotel lobby with R100 000 in an attaché case

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Richard Catto 1,956 views

A year ago, almost to the day, I was having a heated conversation with a friend, in the airy comfortable lounge of a Cape Town restaurant, while waiting to be seated for lunch. Finally, in utter exasperation, he blurted out, "Anyone carrying R10 000 or more in cash around on their person HAS TO BE a drug dealer!"

I paused for a moment, waiting for my friend to regain his composure.

When he had calmed down a bit, I leaned forward, conspiratorially, and, in low tones, dropped my bombshell on him,

"Well in that case, I’m a drug dealer, because I’ve had R100 000 in cash on me at one time. Five hundred crisp R200 notes. Twenty five stacks of twenty note bundles, in an attaché case in a hotel lobby at four o’clock in the morning, meeting a black man from Nigeria.

We shook hands covertly and then made our way into the gloomy visitors’ lounge and sank down into one of the luxurious soft leather sofas. We spoke softly for about five minutes, then we nodded our heads in agreement. I handed him my attaché case and he gave me a small black duffel bag, and then we both went our separate ways.

That was in 1998 and ever since then I have lived comfortably on what was inside that duffel bag.

I suppose you are wondering what was inside that bag?

Well let me tell you…"

What did I tell my friend? Feel free to speculate. I’ll continue my story in a week’s time.

Tags: autobiography, True story
Filed under True story | 4 Comments »

Fuck Halloween!

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Richard Catto 2,414 views

I thought I was the only South African who can’t stand the introduction of Halloween into my country, but it seems that Jeremy Nell, the cartoonist (and South African blogger) responsible for the famous syndicated cartoon strips Urban Trash and Dimwits, is also firmly in my camp with this blog post of his – Halloween is evil, you filthy pagan. Fucking glorious!

I suppose the kids like Halloween. I don’t have any left, though. I already ate all of mine.

Traditionally, at this time of year I have kicked up a big fuss and stink about Halloween and how much I loathe it and I have even given details of what punishments I’d like to mete out to kids (and their parents) caught trick or treating.

However, I am now somewhat involved with a woman who has kids and who enjoys celebrating Halloween. So for the sake of harmony, I’ve decided that this year I’ll grin and bear it. I might even crack a smile.

Okay, time for more meds, I’ve started talking crazy.

Tags: Halloween, Jeremy Nell, the evil effect of women on men
Filed under Halloween | 6 Comments »

The Devil has come to town… do you party or run away?

Posted on October 29th, 2007 by Richard Catto 3,936 views

Well, the rumours have been floating around for some time now, but many scarcely could believe that FaceBook could possibly be valued at $15 billion, except perhaps for Vinny Lingham, who came close in August 2007 when he conservatively valued FaceBook at $10 billion. So Lingham was off by $5 billion.

Microsoft has just scooped up 1.6% of FaceBook for $240 million. It’s a phenomenal deal, one that could be compared to Mark Shuttleworth’s 1999 coup in which he sold his company, Thawte Consulting to Verisign for $575 million, when he was 26, except that Shuttleworth sold 100% of Thawte for that. Twenty-three year old, Mark Zuckerberg, who founded FaceBook in 2004 when he was 20, still has 98.4% left to sell.

Not all of FaceBook’s 50 million users have welcomed Microsoft’s entry into FaceBook, however, hence the title of this blog post.

One local blogger (and IT journalist), Ivo Vegter, was a member of the FaceBook group, "If Microsoft buy a stake in facebook, I will de-register", right up until Microsoft bought their stake.

The group still has 138 members, so obviously some of them were less dedicated to the cause than others – traitors!

Many of these disgruntled FaceBook denizens probably now wish that the unthinkable would have happened to Zuckerberg. Back in early 2005, Zuckerberg, fresh from a meeting in which he signed a Venture Capital contract securing $12.7 million to finance the then fledgling FaceBook, came very close to death. He had just pulled off the road to fill his tank, when a demented man came at him waving a gun and ranting. Zuckerberg beat a hasty retreat.

Ironically, The Register reports that those wishing to exit FaceBook will soon discover a rather unpalatable truth – you can’t. No matter what you do, you just can’t totally kill your FaceBook profile, and you can always reactivate it later. Shades of match.com or okcupid.com where I enjoyed the use of a zombie profile for some months before they were finally able to tranquilize it into submission. But you never know… some day… I may be back for more… brainzzzz.