MCM announced on Friday, 29th Jan 2010 that they intend increasing the recreational fishing licence fee, which include amongst others: Crayfish R500, Mussels R300, Mud Crab R300, Angling R200, Spearfishing R300, Throw Net R300, and an additional fee of R500 per angling vessel.

Let me start by excusing my language use…. This IMO, is a fucking joke! Lets be realistic here. With 50,000 West Coast Recreational angling licenses sold a year (fact) at R500 a shot = R25m from this source alone?!?! As Per MCM’s latest financials, total operating revenue was R108m… so the crayfish recreational guys will contribute close to 25% of MCM’s operating revenue? This is a shocker!

….but, being a realistic human being, 50,000 licenses will not be sold as not everyone will be able to afford this, correct. This brings me to my next question, if this ill-guided decision was made to protect crayfish, how does this apply to fishing in general? Are they telling me that coastal ocean life is becoming less daily with all their strict regulations in place already?? Bullshit! If this is the case, why do the clamp down on recreational anglers, yet the allowance for commercial fisherman and licensees have proposed an increased during the run of 2010?? this is pathetic! Do they think we were born under a bunch chickens?!? am I the only one sensing this is one or two high individuals within the MCM that are complete fucking idiots??

So lets break this down for a recreational fisherman…. Lets say I catch 6 crayfish a month (which is almost a max btw)…. 12 x 6 crayfish in a year = 72 crayfish. My Crayfish license Fee = R500…………….. the boat I am netting the crayfish with, another R500 in license fees. Pertol for my car towing the boat + fuel for my engine + bait = around R100 min a trip (for someone who stays close to the ocean). That means that without the fee imposed by MCM, crayfish at a minimum already cost me around R20-R25 a crayfish. With the licensing fee, I’m looking at R40 per crayfish, never mind wear and tear on my boat!

So, at R40 per crayfish, does it make any sense whatsoever to go crayfishing at all?? I can buy them for R30 from the commercial okes… WTF!! If this is their way of protecting crayfish per ce, they must be smoking some heavy shit! I can not even begin to imagine how many people will be fishing without licenses… this way more good guys can become criminals (while getting away with murder or rape can be tutorialized on a piece of fucking tissue) and supply those high ranks in the MCM with a bigger bonus come end year….

The Marine and Coastal Managment unit (MCM) of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2004 announced that the Westcoast Lobster was under threat. In March 2005 the MCM, presented with scientific evidence (from activists opposing the lockdown of recreational crayfishing = people like you and me) that the crayfish resource was in fact not under threat, relented and reopened the season to allow crayfishing in April, May and June 2005 on weekends and public holidays between 8am and 4pm, bringing some relief to coastal towns and businesses relying on recreational crayfishing, together with the tourism it attracts.

Have they even for one moment thought further than their noses of the ecconomic impact this new fee legislation will have on tackle and dive shops, coastal tourism towns etc?? They are simply setting 70% of all recreational Anglers up to become criminals in order to benefit their own pocket!

They are screwing the majority of recreational anglers, so I say screw the MCM! Catch me if you can! I don’t mind spending a R1000 on license fees for something I enjoy, but in benefit of some politically appointed fat cat? No F****** ways Mnr!!!

With the new fee structure blatantly a ripoff, joke if you may… all recreational anglers in South Africa might as well get together and pay R100.00 into one specific trust fund. That way if caught or issued a summons, use that trust fund to pay the fine!

Give a dumb-ass the power to make a decision out of his intellectual bracket and this is what you get…. someone please throw these idiots a bone! Congratulations to those bunch of clowns who proposed this ridiculous, misguided increase in Anglers Fees… they might as well go join a fucking circus as there’s no substitute for stupidity, period.

Go to your event/group/Fan Page, click “Suggest to Friends”. A pop-up will appear where you can invite your friends. Now clear the URL at the top of your browser and paste the following code in the address bar (see image below):

javascript:elms=document.getElementById(’friends’).getElementsByTagName(’li’);for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

Highlight the URL by left clicking on it and hit “Enter” on your keyboard. Your invitations will not be sent yet, but all your friends will be selected. Click the “Send Invitations” button and all the invites will be sent!

Hope this saves you a lot of time. Enjoy!

Connect with me on http://www.facebook.com/jpvanderspuy

Today marks the 50th day that Mytrade launched it’s Social Marketplace and what an experience it has been! We are close to a 1000 users and still to launch our first marketing campaign! Upon launching Mytrade, we were well aware that a few bugs and flaws would surface; hence since the launch we have put our backs into making the site more userfriendly and getting rid of those early stage setbacks.

Mytrade also managed to sweep up a Bronze Award at the June 2009 SA Web Awards, which is only the start of many big things to follow. We have seen quite a significant increase in traffic and usage on a daily basis, the feedback has been amazing and we are quite determined to build on that pace.

As with any early stage Online Start-ups, Mytrade had quite the knack of putting our patience and diligence to the test over the last 17 months. Frustration has been something we accepted and learned to deal with in a manner where our passion to succeed provided a stepping stone for any challenges we had to face. The project has been financed and developed in-house, which seemed to be the biggest challenge over the last 17 months!

Mytrade.co.za is only a few days away from launching it’s first sizable marketing campaign, so check out our promotion page coming soon, spread the word and get involved. With 728 users and 1683 listings, Mytrade is surprisingly the second Biggest Online Marketplace in South-Africa, after only a mere 50 days!

For more info visit www.mytrade.co.za or email us on beta [at] mytrade.co.za

Click Here to follow us on Twitter
Click Here to join our Fan Page

We should be treating the whole issue of climate change and global warming with a far greater degree of priority than I think is happening right now.

My Personal opinion is that Global Warming is far too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it. People need to educate themselves as to what Global Warming is all about and how each individual can make a difference.

Every nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and security threat posed by global warming.

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents. It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world. We as human beings, not only South-Africans, we simply must do everything in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late.

The science is clear. The global warming debate is over. We need to take action. We need to take it NOW! The power is in your hands TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

JOIN EARTH HOUR 2009 - 28 MARCH, 8:30pm to 9:30pm.

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Tech minded individuals refer to it as a CDN. ie; FB CDN (Facebook CDN) - known as a “Content Delivery Network”. So what is a “Content Delivery Network” and how would it benifit South-African Facebook users?

Content Delivery Network - is a distribution system on the Internet that accelerates the delivery of Web pages, audio, video, CSS style sheets, peer-to-peer processing and may even offer server-side processing of Java and ASP scripts combined with other Internet-based content to users around the world, most often for the purpose of improving performance and scalability.

The CDN replicates the content provider’s files in servers, better known to our local tech boys as “caching servers” or “edge servers,” located in geographically dispersed datacenters. Internet Solutions (IS) to my knowledge, driven by Ronnie Apteker at the time, was the first CDN service provider in South-Africa, which remains an “ambrella word” within our local online community due to very slow internet reach and expansion of such services.

Strategically placed edge servers decrease the load on interconnects, public peers and private peers, freeing up capacity by accessing an African CDN, instead of loading all traffic on a backbone or single peer link which would drastically slow down our South-African social experience. a CDN can offload these by redirecting data (uploads and downloads) to geographically dispersed edge servers.

Because closer is better, web caches store popular content closer to the user. These shared network appliances reduce bandwidth requirements, reduce server load, and improve the client response times for content stored in the cache.

Theoretically, the closer the content to Africa, the faster the delivery to South-Africa (as apposed to accesing a Silicon Valley based core server) and the end users will likely experience less jitter, fewer network peaks and surges, and improved stream quality of HD media content - especially in remote areas throughout South-Africa, which improves the end-user performance and increases the global availability of content.

Just to update everyone - Mytrade Public Beta launch is due in a couple of weeks, so please check back soon as the date will be announced right here on my blog. For an Inside Scoop or any questions, please email me directly on beta[at]mytrade.co.za , otherwise connect with me on Facebook or Twitter

Mytrade is a young South-African Startup - a totally unique Social Marketplace where you can buy what u want, sell what you have and make New friends while you’re at it!

Vinny has just secured a Series B round investment of $20 million for Synthasite.com from Luxembourg-based Reinet Fund.

$20 million in a recession?

The news of the investment became widespread within minutes and Vinny has left the online community in a buzz of excitement! News of this enormous investment has left many in disbelieve and the question that seems to be on every one’s lips are “how has Vinny been able to secure a $20 million investment with the current Global economic slowdown?”

Now first off, an investment from a VC fund is a process, not a decision made and executed within a week. Vinny briefed me on this major investment in 2008 already, almost shortly after the shock of Lehman brothers’ crash that left Wall Street shares in turmoil, which saw consumer confidence plummet, in turn creating a spiral effect on our Global Economy. So how has Vinny not only been able to keep the interest of Investors, but also provide them with the trust of growth throughout this very tough period?

The Synthasite recession-proof model

In the first quarter of 2008, I met up with Vinny for coffee and we discussed the future of the online industry and the impact of a “FREE” market. Synthasite’s fundamentals in business remain the same: People and companies everywhere will need websites… today, tomorrow, in 5 years time, weather in a recession or not.

This is where the depth of Synthasite’s business model and the confidence investors have shown in the platform playes key in successfully securing a $20 million Series B round investment (following their Series A round investment of $5 million from the same investors)

The mere confidence the Reinet Fund investors have shown in Vinny and Synthasite to increase their investment by a further $20m, is evident that the Synthasite model is recession-proof in that as people get retrenched, they start their own small businesses, and therefore need websites.

Also a great example to look at is that companies and individuals alike (who would in better days go running to their closest Web development company for a website) are now tightening their belts and looking at cost saving solutions that is fast, simple and user friendly. Synthasite is the solution!

Synthasite is here to stay

It goes without saying that online advertising expenditure has dropped and online ventures that rely solely or even partially on advertising (as with The Times and most other news/media companies) will have a tough uphill battle to keep head above water in 2009.

With that said, I personally believe Vinny has in actual fact turned the recession actualy to Synthasite’s advantage in terms of a user friendly, cheaper and faster Ajax based website creation software/Tool. Also, advertising will in future be carried as a lucrative “Bonus” in Synthasite’s monetization process and I don’t ever see it becoming their core backbone of their business model.

Featured Sites - Created Using SynthaSite!
     

Even with the great software they have pulled off, I think Vinny’s experience, passion and out of the box thinking towards the online business sector (other than that of a mere developer) forms part of the whole package Reinet Fund has invested in. It takes an entrepreneur to build a great online platform, but it takes a serial Entrepreneur to hire an amazing team and turn it in to a lucritive business. This I believe has given Vinny great edge with the investors and the $20 million investment is evident!

Companies that can not only shelter, but shine in a time of recession, are the one’s that is in it for the long run and Synthasite not going anywhere. The amazing team Vinny has put together forms a great part of this whole success story and I believe there’s only greater things to come for Synthasite. I wish you guys all the best and an amazing 2009 lying ahead. 

Hard earned success is sweet! - Rock On Vinny!!

Mytrade Launching in March - watch. this. space!
Click for Preview

We have seen an exciting year in online development not only within south-Africa, but on a global scale. Blueworld Communities has grown from strength to strengh on a weekly basis and companies like Afrigator stepping up to be the next Big online Startup in SA, to mention only a few.

So what is to be expected online in 2009?

Social Media and Web 2.0

With the world staring at a recession, we have seen a huge drop in online and offline advertising expenditure, though Social Media will cease to be such an “experimental” field in online marketing and will start to become part of the main core of good campaigns.

2009 will see social media becoming more accessible to mainstream audiences and merging of websites, information and mapping of services playing a major part of the online user experience. Web 2.0 compact’s the online magnitude of user participation - which means that the power of this time is that we are all producers, putting you control.

More companies will make their online presence known with Social Media and online trading being at the forefront of these changes. We will see more people make a living online and home based online businesses full or part time playing a major role in the online growth as our economical crisis in South-Africa continues to strain.

Online Growth

Only a year before the eventful 2010 soccer World Cup, online companies belting on monopolies will be forced out of their comfort zones as 2009 will see an array of new startups and investments. Prices of broadband has decreased for the 3rd straight year and 2009 will be no exception as our market has had more than 100% year on year stable growth.

Experts believe that South Africa’s broadband reach will be close to 2.5m subscribers by 2010, and the landing of Seacom and other submarine cables in 2009 and 2010 will mean more affordable international bandwidth and hence cheaper broadband services. South-African Facebook membership has grown from an already impressive 320, 000 to just short of a 1,000,000 subscribers in 2008 alone!

In conclusion

2009 sure poises to be promising, but then again no one anticipated a near global recession, yet it happened and has affected each and every individual in some way.

The Arabs have a saying: “Trust in God, but tie your camel!”

Our market seems to be ever increasing its reach and exposure, so despite all, 2009 is set to produce more major changes and everyone needs to be on top of their game if they stand any chance of competing.

“If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, and you don’t do it… it won’t happen!!”

Hope everyone has a wonderful Festive Season, a safe journey wherever you may go and all of the best for 2009!

- by JP van der Spuy

If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it. - 13 year old Laura Suzuki

David Suzuki (Laura’s father) is someone I’ve always endured much respect for, as an activist of global development, entrepreneurship and his love for the environment, he has dedicated his life’s journey to improve what other people take for granted. I personally think we all can learn a lesson from the trail he has laid down to be worthy.

We strive to succeed in a world where Web 2.0 and technology sometimes become our core focus and becomes more important than the future of our existence, nature or our families. Technology and the Internet keeps going forward, but the essence of our human survival is failing to keep up.

Crime, Corruption and Xenophobic attacks are clouding our daily lives and although everyone discusses these issues, no one really steps up to do anything about it, make a difference or give back to a community that everyone overlooks in order to nurture their own lives.

I believe a partly solution to our future and current issues in our country lies within the communities of today who CAN make a difference! Education is the starting point and the disregarded essence behind the growth of our future generation. Education is key and I believe most of our current issues hover above Education.

There’s a hand full online guru’s so to speak striving to make a difference out of pure altruism, without any hidden agenda and I truly respect the work they do, not only on a personal level, but also a professional level.

If a 13 year old girl can raise the necessary funds to travel all the way to a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil and move the world by her speech, you can also make a difference.

13 year old Laura Suzuki

I had this urge to embarking on a new journey. If we all do our bit, even just the smallest bit, we have a much brighter future ahead in South-Africa.

Now instead of just discussing issues, which in most cases seems to be the norm, I will be teaming up with some great minded online individuals and hereby announce future plans of The Give Life Foundation - Supported by anyone who feels the need to make a difference!

a Blog and Official Website will be launched mid-end 2009 and will present every South-African with the opportunity to make a difference!

www.givelife.co.za

Please share, indulge, comment and get involved! Discuss ideas on how we can all make a difference and drop me a comment with your thoughts on this initiative.

Kind Regards,
JP van der Spuy

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
http://www.unitedforafrica.co.za
http://www.jpvanderspuy.com

Personally, Google’s probably the Nr.1 “most amazing company” on the World Wide Web, probably because I’ve read The Google Story and my “googlefoo” (which is a phrase my friend claims he invented) is top notch.

Nevertheless, this question was addressed to me during an interview by a Social Web mediator, so I thought I’d do a little bit more investigative work as to how awesome Google really is. What I discovered, blew me away…

Stress Release. We already knew that working for Google had certain advantages, but believe me, this Media Giant of the search motor takes the welfare of its employees seriously… as shown by this decompression (stress) capsule that is impermeable to sound and light…

Getting Around. A slide allows quick access from different floors… There are also poles available… they are similar to the ones used in fire stations. imagine that!

Food. Google employs over 6 internationally qualified chefs as well as waiters and butlers. Employees can eat all they want from a vast choice of food and drinks. They even have a diet menu to suite the special needs of their employees! Google rocks!!

Work Station: Each employee has at least two large screens. each desk has an IP phone for employees to phone anyone at any given time during the day. There are 4-6 ‘Googlers’ per office.

Innovation: Large boards are available just about everywhere throughout the offices of Google in Silicon Valley, because “ideas don’t always come when seated in the office” says one of Google’s managers and creative strategist.

Leisure. This is where things just get whack! Pool tables, Foosball, Xbox games, cocktail bar etc. are available in many areas. Google even has their own gym for their employees including 6 squash courts and a 55m x 35m indoor swimming pool as well as roof top swimming pool on hot days for employees on lunch or staying late at the office.

Word on the street is that some employees even hang out at their offices on off days as well as public holidays and Google is planning to stretch their “Googleness” to the limit by building a slick and modern Google village for employees in 2009 ..extreme!!

Communication. On each floor, there are private cabin areas where employees can attend to personal affairs. These cabins all have different themes (as seen above) and is done in a North Pole kind of setting. Each Cabin even has a built in Coffee/Hot chocolate machine. Intense!

Technical Support. Problem with your computer? iPhone not working? No worries… Bring it to the “oh so cool” surf… I mean Tech Shop! There’s even drinks available while you wait for your computer or phone to be fixed… They even have a guy employed solely to fix employee’s cellphones! so sick!!

Health. It gets better! Hard day at the office? No problem, Google will relieve the stress! Professional masseurs (masseuse) available. I mean think about this, a game of Xbox and a Strawberry daiquiri while on lunch and on your way up to get back to work, catch a quick 10min massage! The life!!

Rest. As if the masseurs was not enough, this room provides massage chairs that you control…. while you view relaxing aquariums and listen to sounds of the ocean… are you F@#%! with me?! is there anything Google does not have?

Ambiance. There are many books in this library… even some about programming!! Wonder what the future might hold for Google employees? maybe a Google Airport next to their “Village” for traveling employees? How about a time machine so that their employees can go play with the Dinosaurs during lunch break!

Few questions that come to mind though… when do they work?  How much do they pay to work there?  And where do I send my application?

Hopefully MyTrade is heading in the same direction and will one day have a “fufi slide”, RedBull fridge, tattoo parlor as well as a paintball and putt-putt course in our offices!

Nevertheless, any company trying to uplift their working enviroment and create a really cool atmosphere for their employees… Google’s “been having it” !!

There’s been a lot of rumors and speculation surrounding the 3G iPhone coming to the shores of Africa. As many naysayers have annouced, “Even South Africa has no iTunes Music Store and the Apple presence in South Africa is meager”. All this deliberation has been proven inaccurate as Vodacom announced they’ll be offering the 3G iphone to their customers by the 20th of July 2008, this is part of the ten-country deal that Vodafone has signed with Apple to supply the iPhone to the continent.

It is expected that the new iPhone will come in a variety of colours and with 3G connectivity, integrated GPS and other new exciting features. Check out iPhonefan.co.za for an up to date on all iphone related news.