All Things Cahill

iCoffin

I’ve got no words for this one.  Brilliant…

26 Feb 10 | Personal | Comment (1)

MA Senate Campaign, Change is in the Air

I don’t talk publicly about politics much.  Not that I don’t have something to say, but more because I think our votes are personal things.  I respect your right to use yours however you want.

I live in Massachusetts.  That makes it easy to be apathetic about politics, as we’ve got a one party state government.  Personally, I am an an independent.

Throughout the fall, I watched as the Democrats argued over which of them would become the heir to “Senator Kennedy’s Senate Seat.”  I have to admit, that rankled me.  It’s not “the Kennedy Seat” as the NY Times called it yesterday, it’s a seat owned by the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and conveyed by us on he or she who is best able to do our bidding in DC.

After the Democratic Primary, their candidate, Martha Coakley, the State Attorney General, literally disappeared from the election.  She tried to avoid debating the Republican candidate, and she acted as though the election was a done deal so long as she kept her mouth shut and managed not to commit any capital crimes before the election.

During that period, in that vacuum, we heard from a seldom heard voice, a Republican with a heart and a message.  That message resonated with many who were troubled, like I was.

Last Monday, Coakley realized that things were rapidly coming unglued.  She tanked in the debate on Monday,  then instead of taking to the campaign trail, flew down to DC to get an infusion of cash from the DNC.  In that same period of time, her opponent was out on the campaign trail, talking to voters in Massachusetts, and managed to rake in $1.3 m in contributions via the web.

Now we’ve got attack ads sponsored by unions, by the DNC and approved by Coakley herself.  It would appear, from listening to them, that they’ve found out some shocking news: her opponent is a Republican.

I can’t speak for my neighbors, but I can tell you that I’m not impressed with Coakley.  I’m voting for Scott Brown, and if you’re one of my neighbors, I hope you will too.

15 Jan 10 | Personal | Comments (0)

New Project – Afternic.com

As of Monday, I’m now working as Senior Software Engineer for Afternic.com (to be clear, one of the senior software engineers).

It’s probably the right time for a change, I’ve basically been working full time on Splitcoaststampers.com now for 14 months and after our server migration project, it had become more of a maintenance project.  The good news was that we had a site that was falling over several times a week and we got it stable to the point that it has not failed in the last couple months.

The new bit of work will be more hard core development than I usually do, but that’s cool.  I need a challenge.  Those of you that have worked with me in the past know that…

When moving projects, it’s often the people we miss most.  I’ve come to respect all the members of both our Premiums team, as well as the fine folks on Splitcoast, Daven, Scott, Jenn, Lori and Beate.

14 Jan 10 | Personal | Comment (1)

Back in the Saddle Again…

Vacation’s over and I’m definitely ready to get back to work and back to blogging.  Over the past week:

• I traded my old Ford Ranger with 186k miles and a trashed U-joint for a 2001 Ford Explorer Limited with 100k, fully loaded.  A dramatic improvement in my commute…
• We celebrated Madison making honor roll.
• Had a great Thanksgiving at my mothers house with my side of the family.  It was excellent to see everyone.
• Worked on some general financial housekeeping chores.
• Finally removed the leaves from the yard.

30 Nov 09 | Personal | Comments (0)

Find Something to be Thankful For…

The holidays are the hardest time for many people.  Instead of a time of joy and togetherness like you or I might seek, they are often caught in a world of loneliness and depression.

For some, dealing with something as simple as having family members all together for a single meal is too much to take, due to past issues or complex family dynamics.  That 40 year old business woman sitting across the table may actually be feeling like a 10 yo little girl who has been exiled to the leper table.

For some, this time of year is not a kick off to the wonder of the holidays, but to an entire season of pain…

Even with the financial crises we face, with layoffs, with war, with uncertainty, there is so very much for us to be thankful for.  Express your thanks tomorrow by helping someone else find those things they can be thankful for.  Help others to experience a holiday without emotional strife and perhaps you’ll find you have made all the difference to someone else.

25 Nov 09 | Personal | Comment (1)

I Can Haz New Logo

I’m all a flutter with the new logo that Sara Williams of Tweaks and Designs bestowed upon me over the weekend.  Sara has done several custom themes for some of the Splitcoaststampers.com Bloggers, like Julia Stainton at Belle Papier which was updated two weeks ago, and Lauren Meader’s My Time Blog.

I was really impressed with the way she was able to work within my image challenged theme to provide a logo that fit easily, and managed to capture the spirit of this blog…very cool.  Thanks Sara!

18 Nov 09 | Personal | Comments (8)

11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Thanks to all who serve and have served.

11 Nov 09 | Personal | Comments (0)

Everything You Think You Know About Blog Traffic Is Wrong

Brian Kirsten, a great engineer and a guy whose opinion I really respect pointed me towards a very important article by Niall Harbison entitled “How Much Traffic Does TechCrunch Send You?”  in which he dissects that actual traffic volume which the tech megablog generated for him.

TechCrunch itself is widely attributed to have over 4m rss subscribers alone, on top of the 2m unique site visitors that Compete.com attributes to them.

From Harbison’s post:

As you can see the traffic numbers are fairly small. I say they are small yet the article was popular by Techcrunch standards with over 400 Re tweets yet as you can see the referral traffic is not massive. It’s clear that the majority of people read the site through RSS and very few click through to the actual source of the story. I must say this is how I read Techcrunch too, I rarely look at sites they cover instead scanning the site for latest news.

Okay, that’s readers that actually made it back the the site featured in the article.  There were almost as many retweets on Twitter about the story as there were visits to the link in that story for the company it was about.  That borders on depressing.

(more…)

08 Nov 09 | Personal | Comments (0)

Sarbanes-Oxley Killed…Round Up the Usual Suspects…

For the record, I’m the last guy you should get financial or economic advice from.  Even so, I was shocked to find a story in the New York Times yesterday, entitled “Good Bye Reforms of 2002.”  The lead ought to grab you:

Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, almost unanimously, by a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate. Now a Democratic Congress is gutting it with the apparent approval of the Obama administration.

The House Financial Services Committee this week approved an amendment to the Investor Protection Act of 2009 — a name George Orwell would appreciate — to allow most companies to never comply with the law, and mandating a study to see whether it would be a good idea to exempt additional ones as well.

Some veterans of past reform efforts were left sputtering with rage. “That the Democratic Party is the vehicle for overturning the most pro-investor legislation in the past 25 years is deeply disturbing,” said Arthur Levitt, a Democrat who was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission under President Bill Clinton. “Anyone who votes for this will bear the investors’ mark of Cain.”

So that’s it.  No more Sarbanes-Oxley Act, no more pesky fiduciary responsibility, no more having to worry about those tiresome investors.

Many of you are saying “so what?”  This I can answer in three words: Enron, Worldcom, Madoff. Surely we all remember those names.  Every single one a case study in corporate greed, each left thousands upon thousands of people financially ruined.  Each case was blamed, fairly or not, on the GOP.  So how is it the Democrats, who I’m always told by the left are steadfastly against corporate greed, are the ones gutting this bill?  Don’t they care about protecting investors, employees, etc.?

The fact is this: they don’t.  Not now, and the next Enron, or the next Worldcom will be entirely their responsibility.  The sad truth is we’re on our own…and we always hve been.  There ain’t no cavalry over that hill and there darn sure isn’t anyone in Washington trying to save us from the next financial debacle.

Now on the other side of the equation, I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how the recession has eased, but has yet to show any job growth at all.   Perhaps the government is quietly trying to make things easier on business in these trying times to enable them to find a way to grow.  It’s clutching for straws, but it’s the only thing I can think of…at least that doesn’t make me want to scream.

So why am I blogging about this? Because other than a single article in the New York Times (kudos to Floyd Norris) there is precious little being broadcast or written about this.

Throw in your own despondent cliche here about history repeating, or old dogs turning tricks, I’m gonna go put what little money I have in a mattress somewhere.

08 Nov 09 | Personal | Comments (0)