Robert Ellison

Robert Ellison

Welcome to my blog. Nothing on here necessarily represents the view of my employers, educators, parents or other ancestors. I've been blogging here for 19 years so there is a fair amount I don't agree with any more either.

Professionally I make software products. Over the years that has involved banging out code by hand, leading teams and bringing teams together through acquisitions. I also have to sell those products and I currently run customer acquisition, marketing and product analytics for an expert marketplace. I co-founded and was the CEO of an angel backed software startup. I also ran a micro-ISV for many years. If you want the gory details most of them are on LinkedIn.

I write a lot about code here, sometimes entire projects and sometimes highly specific and idiosyncratic issues. I also write about product development and marketing (and also see the etcetera section for anything harder to classify).

Making software has long been my hobby as well as my profession. I used to ship shareware under the Catfood Software brand — Catfood Earth and Catfood WebCamSaver are both still going strong with regular updates.

My other passions are photography and hiking.

I focus on landscape and astrophotography, both still and timelapse. I also like to photograph wildlife when I get the chance. Like everything worthwhile this is a constant journey of learning. I'm embarrassed about where I started, and hope to feel the same way about my current work in another few years. You can browse my photography and timelapse collections and I regularly post on both topics.

This blog started as a place to talk about hiking. I still post new hikes and I'm starting to add hyperlapse videos to many of these. Given where I live most are San Francisco Bay Area adventures.

I'm a dual national and follow US politics with the zeal of someone who had to work hard to win citizenship and UK politics with the increasing nostalgia of a disloyal subject. I write about current events and unrealistic plans to fix both systems from time to time.

Lastly, even after all of the above (and more, I have two kids but have never become a daddy blogger), I still find some time to read a book or watch a movie. This has resulted in many reviews.

I write primarily for my own sanity, but I love it when I help someone else. If I make you think, laugh or just fix a bug please leave a comment or send me an email.

Contact Robert Ellison

You can email me at [email protected]. or follow me at @[email protected]