Five years ago, after selling advertising space in various publications around the world, I started my own barter exchange company in Hong Kong, and you'd be surprised how many people wanted to exchange their barters, mainly for lingerie. Three years ago I sold shares in the barter company to a US "dot com" company, who would buy anything that wasn't bolted down. We continued the barter exchange business, introduced an e-commerce site and invested in a small industrial auction company in the Philippines.

While the barter business is still with us, the e-commerce business went to the big e-graveyard in cyberspace, as did many others.

 

However the industrial auction business became the biggest part of our business, and our auction sales of heavy machinery rose from USD 1 million to USD 36 million within 18 months. I attend our auctions in Dubai, Jakarta and Holland and they are hard work but great fun. I get involved in everything from driving a truck, clerking, registration of customers, caring for investors, meeting government officials, giving media interviews and, best of all, giving speeches!

Luckily nobody speaks or understands English, so I can say whatever I like provided I include the word "shazaam" every now and then.

 

My focus now is finding JV partners for operations in China. This involves finding the right site and sorting out important logistical challenges such as determining the most strategic location for the office water cooler.

 

Dear Phil,

 

This is a common occurrence because many Webmasters often create the "title" of the main web page by starting with the word "Welcome" (such as "Welcome to the ABC website") so, when you save it, the website is filed under "W" for "Welcome" instead of under "A" for "ABC Company". Here is an example.

Other Webmasters make the mistake of just using the domain name (e.g. "abc.com") as their "title", which also makes it difficult to retrieve. Here is an example.

Worst still, some Webmasters don't even bother creating a "title" page at all, and this makes logical retrieval impossible. Here is an example.

To avoid making the same mistake with your website, tell your Webmaster to ensure that the "title" portion of the HTML coding used on your website begins with your company name or perhaps a brand name. Moreover, if people conduct a search for your website, the title is generally used for search display purposes, so the importance of a good title cannot be understated.

To check the current title of your website, look at the very top left of your website (the blue portion). Yours, The Geek.

A small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand -- a grandmotherly, older woman.

He approached her and asked: "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded: "Why, yes, I know you Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a rising big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you very well."

 

The lawyer was absolutely stunned.

 

Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across he room and asked: "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

 

She again replied: "Why, yes I most certainly do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. The man can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him."

 

At this point, the Judge rapped the courtroom to silence and ordered both counselors to approach the bench.

In a very quiet voice, he said with menace: "If either of you asks her if she knows me, you'll be jailed for contempt!"

"My wife was very immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats.