All Things Cahill

One of the big technological leaps that made the personal computer possible was the disc drive.  Al Shugart, founder of Seagate, a key innovator in disc drives, passed away on Dec. 13 due to complications from heart surgery, according to Business Week. Shugart’s influence went far beyond Seagate, however. His freewheeling, engineers-come-first philosophy helped propel the drive industry to a truly remarkable pace for innovation. Indeed, while even nontechies are conversant with “Moore’s Law,”—the idea that computer chips get more…

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Without a doubt this is one of the best posts I’ve read in a long time.  Mary Schmidt discusses situational excellence.  I remember in one of my first jobs out of college, Roy Catignani explaining to me “Keep your eyes on the cheese.”  I’ve seen many a project hamstrung by issues that had little or no real impact on the project or the end deliverable.  Remember, in web projects 80% is a good rule of thumb – if you’ve got…

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Open E (Live @ The Tabernacle)

by John Blog tagging is when one blogger posts on an issue and tags (“you’re it”) other bloggers to have them post on a theme.  This one is “5 Things You Don’t Know About Me.”  Think of a blog chain letter. My now defunct “Fishing New England” website used what has become a standard blog format…in 1995.  So I can argue with some validity to have been one of the first blogger. I once owned a company that sold Women’s…

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I get a lot of email.  Probably 50 a day minimum that I actually need to read.  The problem is those are sprinkled in over 700 emails that come to me at my various addresses.  That means that under 10% of my mail is actually the stuff I’m looking for. Gmail (for my personal stuff) keeps up fairly well. Relatively few false positives (where something important gets delivered to the spam bucket).  The corporate email is a nightmare.  I currently…

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Both David Churbuck and Rob O’Regan have are right on my wavelength this morning.  It must be something in the air. Churbuck has an excellent list reflecting the lesson’s he’s learned in 11 months at Lenovo (as he terms it, a $14 billion start up).  All of them key ideas, but here are two that really stick with me. Interactive/Digital marketing feels hotter to me in 2006 than Online Journalism did in 1994 in terms of potential impact and disruptive impact….

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Okay, I’ve given Edelman enough grief over the past few months that I am glad to be able to post this.  They’ve been running a campaign for Walmart which they’re calling internally “Candidate Walmart” – which is being run as a political campaign – right down to the win big or lose it all nature.  From the Wall Street Journal: If Mr. Scott, the chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., seems like he’s running for office, it’s no accident. For…

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Mary Schmidt posted today about corporations that abandon their websites.  A truly prescient post, one all of us in corporate marketing should read…twice. My Bottom Line Perspective: Marketing, advertising and PR aren’t dead in their present incarnations (yet). But, all three are changing radically in both definition and execution. The successful companies in the Intention Economy will be the ones who realize marketing is everything you do – not just a department, glossy brochure, or goofy advertising campaign. Who needs…

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This one’s a request from Jill…

Bane of retired tech writers and farmers alike – the gopher.