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Author: Mark Cahill

Find Something to be Thankful For…

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…

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I Can Haz New Logo

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…

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WordPress 2.8.6 Released and a 2.9 Preview

WordPress 2.8.6 Released and a 2.9 Preview

I got the notice last night that WordPress 2.8.6 was released to fix a pair of security holes.  So I hopped right into the admin console from my Iphone and in 2 minutes, it was updated.  If you have a WordPress installation, I urge you to update right away as well. This will almost certainly be the last release prior to the much anticipated release of 2.9 which is our next major (feature related) release.  Aaron Brazell had a great…

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A Few Coherent Thoughts on Murdoch Blocking Google

A Few Coherent Thoughts on Murdoch Blocking Google

Yesterday Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp, said that he was going to have Google blocked from all New Corp. websites.  That means something From EditorandPublisher.com: The Chairman of News Corp. said in an interview with Sky News Australia (reported here in MediaWeek U.K.) that once the newspapers get their paywalls, News Corp. plans to pull its content from the likes of Google and others. Murdoch said: “We’d rather have fewer people come to the Web site and pay. Consumers…

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Everything You Think You Know About Blog Traffic Is Wrong

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…

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Sarbanes-Oxley Killed…Round Up the Usual Suspects…

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…

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Money for Nothing and Your Chicks for Free…

Money for Nothing and Your Chicks for Free…

(Disclosures: I work for Namemedia, who is technically a competitor of Internet Brands, owners of vBulletin.  I also run several sites that use vBulletin and spend a significant part of my work week working in vBulletin code…) Over the past month, there’s been a slowly erupting feud in the vBulletin community over the new pricing structure that was announced for vBulletin 4.0 by Internet Brands. You see, back in the day, the original vBulletin license cost $185 (originally $160 I…

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Forget Disclosure and Transparency – We Crave Honesty

Forget Disclosure and Transparency – We Crave Honesty

That’s right you heard it here first …the darling of the noveau marketing is “transparency” and unfortunately, it’s the wrong answer.  Transparency and disclosure simply aren’t enough.  For some crimes, Mea Culpa simply won’t cut it. Yes, if you are accepting payment from outside entities in return for writing that blog post or tweeting that little tweet, you need to disclose.  For me, all the “disclosure” in the world isn’t going to absolve you if you’re writing a disingenous post…

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