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Review: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="199" mce_src="http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4388/jobsbiography1026.jpg" src="http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4388/jobsbiography1026.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: 332px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 8px; max-width: 640px; width: 225px;" width="135" />I've just finished a marathon session of reading all the way through<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/steve-jobs/id431617578?mt=11" mce_href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/steve-jobs/id431617578?mt=11" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Steve Jobs</a> on my iPad -- and I'm sure Jobs would have appreciated the odd harmony of people reading his life story on a device he helped create.</div>
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After reading his biography, I'm no longer convinced that Steve Jobs would have liked me if we'd ever met in person. At least not at first. More likely, he'd have torn me a new one in our first meeting and told me that I sucked and everything I did was worthless. Then, in our second meeting, he'd have parroted my ideas back at me as though they were his own. It was apparently one of his signature moves, and it probably would have made me want to throw a chair at him.</div>
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But even if I had been provoked that far, he most likely would have just bellowed that I should have thrown a better chair.</div>
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Reading biographies is perhaps a different experience for me than it is for most people, since I spent most of my Master's thesis examining the concept of truth in biographical works. Most of the memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies I've read have fallen into one of two categories. Either the text was something designed to lionize its subject and make him or her seem larger than life, or else the writer had taken pains to focus on only the parts of the subject's life that fit into a clean narrative arc while leaving everything else on the cutting room floor, an approach that leads to easy and almost cinematic storytelling but leaves out much of the facts.</div>
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Neither approach to biographical writing strikes me as particularly true; in fact, almost every biography I've read seems to contain about as much actual truth as an episode of Star Trek. The tendency to over-praise or over-dramatize is both pernicious and pervasive throughout the various forms of biographical texts.</div>
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Walter Isaacson's 656-page profile of Steve Jobs falls in neither category. It is quite possibly the truest biography I've ever read. In the process of telling the unvarnished truth about Steve Jobs, it dispels much of the myth and magic surrounding the man and his legacy. It does not depict Steve Jobs as the information age's equivalent of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with an iPad in each hand. It would have been easy for some misinformed hack to portray Jobs that way in a quick cash-in "unauthorized" biography soon after Jobs's death, but it also would have been closer to fiction than biography.</div>
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What Isaacson gives us instead is a portrait of a man with keen insight, brilliant powers of observation, and a stubborn determination to "put a dent in the universe." However, the biography also depicts a man with deep flaws, some of which arguably contributed to his early death. It humanizes a man who's spent much of the past decade as a living legend in multiple arenas, and it gives valuable insight into the person Steve Jobs was, not just the icon he became.</div>
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After reading his biography, I get the sense that no matter how brilliant Steve Jobs was or how many fundamental shifts in our landscape he spearheaded, in the end, he was as human as the rest of us. It's a testament to Isaacson's skill as a biographer that readers can at last obtain the picture of Steve Jobs as a human being rather than a legend.</div>
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Jobs's reputation as a control freak was legendary, yet he relinquished all control over the contents of his biography. It's a surprising move from a man who insisted on so much control over all of his life's projects -- the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad were all born and thrived partially because Jobs refused to cede control over them. Jobs explained his motivations to Isaacson for his atypically hands-off approach to the biography. Partially it was because he wanted his children to know him better, flaws and all. It was also because he wanted to make sure that only someone possessed of all the facts about his life would write his story. "When I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn't know anything. They'd get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say."</div>
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Jobs's biography manages to allow him to get the last word in many debates. Many of the people who have toasted both him and his achievements will find themselves bearing the brunt of his last barbs against them. Some, like Jobs threatening to go "thermonuclear" on Android, have already been outed. Others are a bit more deeply buried within the text, but once found they're both candid and a bit stunning.</div>
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"IBM was essentially Microsoft at its worst," Jobs said, reminiscing about the early days of the personal computer revolution. "They were not a force for innovation; they were a force for evil. They were like AT&T or Microsoft or Google is." My jaw dropped at this quote, but another later on in the book was more alarming. Immediately after heaping praise on his successor, Tim Cook, Steve said, "Tim's not a product person, per se." Considering that at many other points in the book Jobs heaped scorn on people like Bill Gates or John Sculley whom he also considered more concerned with profits than product quality, his unfiltered opinion of Cook's product sensibilities definitely raised an eyebrow.</div>
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Much of the biography will be familiar to hardcore Apple enthusiasts. Chapters on the birth of the Macintosh will be familiar to anyone who's read Andy Hertzfeld's recollections at folklore.org, and if you're a regular TUAW reader there won't be too much in the chapters about the iPod, iPhone, or iPad that you haven't already read. Older Apple fans will likely find the earliest chapters about the founding days of Apple not much more than a refresher course. But I suspect that few people will be able to read the entire book andnot discover some surprising fact about Steve Jobs that they didn't already know.</div>
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If you come into Steve Jobs already hating him, the biography gives you plenty of reasons to hold onto that opinion. If instead you view Jobs as a personal hero, there are plenty of episodes within his life story that might make you reconsider that opinion. Isaacson doesn't shy away from describing Steve Jobs's darker moments or personality deficiencies, some of which border on the downright despicable. To put it lightly, Steve Jobs was not a "people person."</div>
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One of his ex-girlfriends read about Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the DSM and said, "It fits so well and explained so much of what we had struggled with, that I realized expecting him to be nicer or less self-centered was like expecting a blind man to see." Even his closest friends, like Apple design guru Jonathan Ive, noted that Jobs often exhibited a vicious and unnecessary lack of empathy for those around him. The fact that so many people all over the world have been lauding him since his death, both friends and dogged competitors, speaks to the complex and paradoxical nature of Steve Jobs, a man whose greatest goal was to establish empathy between people and technology but who often displayed precious little empathy of his own.</div>
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Isaacson's biography of Jobs isn't a character assassination by any means (though I do wonder why the first third of the book dwells so often on Jobs's body odor during the 1970s). That said, I still feel terrifically sorry for any employees who find themselves at the mercy of a supervisor who uses Steve Jobs as a managerial handbook, just like the legions of young would-be entrepreneurs trying to emulate the callous Mark Zuckerberg they saw in The Social Network.</div>
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If anyone comes away from reading Steve Jobs thinking that being a leader makes it okay to be an asshole, they'll have missed about 99 percent of the point. Anyone can cut an employee to shreds or throw epic temper tantrums at the slightest provocation, but replicating Jobs's intuition, perfectionism, dedication, and vision is arguably something that only one person in seven billion can manage to pull off.</div>
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Steve Jobs is at its core the study of the man himself, but along the way it's also a fascinating history of the genesis, near-death, and resurgence of Apple. It also describes the birth, near-death, and ascendancy of Pixar, with fascinating details I've never read before. As the book follows Jobs through the personal computer revolution, the birth of the Macintosh, his "wilderness years" at NeXT and Pixar, and his return to Apple and subsequent paving over of the landscape for the music industry, cell phones, and tablet computing, Steve Jobs's biography also offers incredibly detailed insights into how our world shifted from the hobbyist computing era of the mid-'70s to the ubiquitous techscape we live in today. Steve Jobs didn't enact any of these revolutionary changes singlehandedly -- his biography takes pains to make that clear -- but he was most assuredly at or near the center of all of them.</div>
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Though the book makes his flaws obvious to readers, it also makes clear that we would be living in a very different world if Steve Jobs hadn't set out to put a dent in the universe. Anyone with even a passing interest in Apple's history, and anyone who's ever wondered how so very much about the technology landscape has changed so fundamentally in just 35 years, owes it to themselves to read this book.</div>
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Review: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'

I've just finished a marathon session of reading all the way through Steve Jobs on my iPad -- and I'm sure Jobs would have appr...

Samsung Galaxy S II 2000mAh Extended Battery Revealed

Samsung Galaxy S II 2000mAh Extended Battery Revealed

As you may already know, the battery on the Samsung Galaxy S II, through some excellence in the hardware in the phone, awesomeness in th...

Gary Marshall: ISPs are now the internet police

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And so it begins. BT has been ordered by the High Court of Justice to block access to Newzbin2, a site largely devoted to sharing illicit copies of files.</div>
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It's the first time BT has been ordered to use its Cleanfeed porn-blocking system to block non-pornographic content.</div>
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It won't be the last.</div>
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And it won't do a damn thing to stop piracy.</div>
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Slippery slope</div>
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The term slippery slope is banded about all too often, but this time it's justified. This is not a case of a firm being ordered to stop breaking the law. It's a firm being ordered to stop other peoplebreaking the law. Today it's BT and Newzbin2; tomorrow, inevitably, it'll be other ISPs and other websites.</div>
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Worried yet? Let's ratchet things up a notch. How about ISPs being ordered to block sites that break the law in other countries? As The Guardian reports, a court ruling about Star Wars costumes opens the door for English people and organisations to face legal action for breaking other countries' copyright laws.</div>
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It'd be funny if it weren't so serious: anyone with even a passing knowledge of how piracy works knows that going after specific sites is a giant game of whack-a-mole. But there's more to this than piracy. Blocking copyright infringement sets a dangerous precedent.</div>
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Copyright cops</div>
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The BT ruling is worrying because it turns ISPs into censors, and of course copyright infringement isn't the only kind of content people would like to block.</div>
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We've had calls to ban sites that espouse extreme political views, sites that promote anorexia, sites that discuss ways to commit suicide. If BT can block Usenet archives, why can't it block everything that anybody thinks is unpleasant or undesirable - like WikiLeaks, or anti-Scientology sites, or anything that isn't appropriate for under-fives?</div>
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Crazy? Look at Australia, where child-protecting politicians seriously proposed an outright ban on all online content that wasn't suitable for children. If it wasn't behind an age verification system, the politicians said, ISPs should block it completely.</div>
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As we reported in PC Plus: "Such mandatory filtering would be based on the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) blacklist, which, if the leaked version posted on Wikileaks is genuine, includes a dental surgery, a dog kennel and a travel agency."</div>
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The legislation has been delayed on the grounds that it's completely bloody insane, but it may still make its way to the statute books in 2013.</div>
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The only difference between Australia and the UK that I can see is that their politicians shout "we must protect the children!" while our politicians seem more concerned about protecting corporations.</div>
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As I wrote a few weeks ago: "This week, bad things include MP3s and streaming football matches. Next week, who knows?"</div>
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Gary Marshall: ISPs are now the internet police

And so it begins. BT has been ordered by the High Court of Justice to block access to Newzbin2, a site largely devoted to sharing illic...

Nintendo's Miyamoto confirms Zelda HD for Wii U

Legend of Zelda creator, and all-round Nintendo demi-god, Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that young Link will finally get a hi-def makeover courtesy of the Wii U. Miyamoto rubber-stamped the news that we've been awaiting since Nintendo showed-off a Wii U demo at E3, containing HD footage from a potential Legend of Zelda game. He said the Wii U "is a HD system, our first HD system, and we want to create a real HD Zelda game for it," "You will see a lot of these in-depth and deep experiences in terms of visual style. You will also see some play styles that are fun and interesting because of the play structure." Touchscreen controller friendly? A Zelda game for Wii U has been touted as one of the ways gamers would make use of the new touchscreen controller, as it would allow players to keep a constant eye on maps within the game. The HD outing would be the second ground-breaking installment of the franchise with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D impressing on the Nintendo 3DS. Wii U games not all HD Meanwhile, Miyamoto also told Kotaku that not every game on the console will come packing HD graphics, saying that the company will put no pressure on developers to deliver a hi-def experience. While the system is rumored to be at least as powerful as rivals Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, that doesn't mean that every game that comes to it will be an HD game. "We are not planning on putting any restrictions in terms of requiring developers to leverage HD in a particular ways," Miyamoto said. "Even if you are using a simplier visual style it will still look very beautiful."

Nintendo's Miyamoto confirms Zelda HD for Wii U

Legend of Zelda creator, and all-round Nintendo demi-god, Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that young Link will finally get a hi-def makeover ...

d.fund: The Startup Seed Fund For Designers

<div> <div></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1673/dfund360.png" width="225px" /></div> </div> Dave McClure’s 500 Startups has unveiled d.fund, a seed fund dedicated to mentoring and funding designers who want to start their own companies. The new fund, which will start accepting applications for its first class in May, will give seed funding to design-minded founders of different startups. The d.fund was announced during the closing remarks of the 500 Startups Demo Day in Mountain View. Enrique Allen of 500 Startups says while some of the world’s most successful startups were founded by designers, most people in the profession are still “mercenaries for hire, helping other people get rich.” He cited YouTube, Tumblr, Airbnb, Android, Flickr, Foodspotting, Slideshare and others as examples of the companies designers have built. His argument: Designers can become great entrepreneurs because of their deep understanding of people, their expertise at figuring out what people want and their potential to become visionary communicators. Allen says designers have the desire to create great companies, but they don’t have the mentorship and education opportunities currently available to technical or business founders. The d.fund hopes to fix that by giving designer entrepreneurs access to mentorship by some of world’s most successful designer entrepreneurs. It’s essentially a startup bootcamp. To get the d.fund off the ground, Allen and 500 Startups is challenging the world’s top designers to invest $50,000 to the fund by the end of the month. Then, 500 Startups and its partners will match those investments, creating a multi-million dollar investment vehicle for designer founders. In May, d.fund will open up applications for its first round of investments. To find them, d.fund will advertise its existence at design schools and guilds around the world.

d.fund: The Startup Seed Fund For Designers

Dave McClure’s 500 Startups has unveiled d.fund, a seed fund dedicated to mentoring and funding designers who want to start their own compan...

Skype wants the people to fix Skype 5 for Mac, will you answer the call?

<img alt="" border="1" hspace="4" src="http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4675/33111skypeformaccompeti.jpg" vspace="4">Skype 5 for Mac leaves something to be desired -- we know it, you know it, and looks like Skype knows it too. That's why our fav VoIP app is soliciting the help of you, the people, to improve its UI. Skype's running a competition to find the one chat style to rule them all, and it starts taking custom CSS submissions April 8th. The contest has three rounds, with one judges' and one people's choice in each, followed by the selection of a grand prize winner from the six finalists. People's champs get an Apple TV and those picked by the judges snag a WiFi iPad 2, and all the winners get a copy of CSS3 for Web Designers and a year's subscription to Skype Unlimited World Extra. The grand prize is an eleven-inch MacBook Air, an iPad2, and the ego boost that comes with knowing your chat style forged in the flames of competition will be included in a coming release of Skype. Up to the challenge? Hit the source link for the full details.Skype wants the people to fix Skype 5 for Mac, will you answer the call? <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/skype-wants-the-people-to-fix-skype-5-for-mac-will-you-answer-t/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">via</A>

Skype wants the people to fix Skype 5 for Mac, will you answer the call?

Skype 5 for Mac leaves something to be desired -- we know it, you know it, and looks like Skype knows it too. That's why our fav VoIP ap...

How to Locate People by Their Cellular Phone Numbers

Call the number in which you are interested in the owner's identity. You can ask whoever answers who they are and often, if it is a business, the person answering the call will identify the business name as well as their first name. This is the easiest place to start your search, involves the least amount of effort and costs no money.Call your phone provider and ask them to trace the number whose owner you are trying to identify. In many cases, they can provide you with the information, especially if the calls received have been continually harassing or threatening in nature.Type "reverse phone number look up" into your Internet search window on your computer. This will bring up many websites that will look up a phone number and for a small charge, they will give you the name and the address of the phone number's owner. Some of the sites will give you the opportunity for a background screening. Some examples of these sites are Intelius.com, Phonetracedetective.com and Locatecellphonenumber.com (see References).Type the number into your search engine browser. It is possible by doing this that the search will produce the name and address of the owner of the phone number, especially if it belongs to a business.

How to Locate People by Their Cellular Phone Numbers

Call the number in which you are interested in the owner's identity. You can ask whoever answers who they are and often, if it is a bus...

Technological Advancements Made Accessible To People All Over The World - Facebook Video Chat

Communication has come a long way since, and we are still part of the evolutions and innovations in modern science and technology. Since ancient times, communication is what we use to interact to one another. Whether in the form of drawing, sculpting, conversations and whatnot, it evolved and evolved into something we pretty much do in our everyday lives - through the virtual world. Top social networking sites like Facebook allowed every member to upload their own innovation to technology in any way they want to; from as simple as making surveys, to more complex options like publishing your own video game. What caught my attention though is the way a simple webpage, managed to have its own communications tool. For those who haven't used Facebook yet, this webpage can let you view different profiles of your friends, at the same time, send messages, and even chat online. With the addition of applications, it was made possible for Facebook to have its own Video Chat. Don't get carried away though, as this baby is still a work in progress. Aside from the noticeable differences between applications that doesn't rely on webpages and java scripts, VOIPs like Skype and Yahoo! still has the edge compared to these aspiring software engineers. Sure, it's really fascinating that you can do everything in one account, and one webpage. But you still have to accept applications made by the major companies are built to perfection every version it releases. Although the good thing about having everything in one page is the simple fact that you just need to enter one website - Facebook. Not only does it save RAM on your computer, it also lessens pages that pop up in every communications application that you are using, making your online experience a little bit more relaxing. What I found disturbing though is that most video chat applications in Facebook have a common flaw - It broadcasts automatically. It can be a total inconvenience as you may forget to log out and do other stuff while you are away from your keyboard. All in all, <a href="" rel="nofollow">Facebook Video Chat</A> applications can be useful, and at the same time, a tool that can potentially invade your privacy. Remember that not everyone who makes applications is professionals. Some people choose to earn quick cash, and computer hacking is just one of their fortes. Remember to only allow applications that you trust, and just because it sounds good, don't mean it's the best application out there.

Technological Advancements Made Accessible To People All Over The World - Facebook Video Chat

Communication has come a long way since, and we are still part of the evolutions and innovations in modern science and technology. Since anc...

Protecting the American People Through Technology

It is amazing the latest technologies used in the United States Military; we have certainly come light years in a very short time. Our military is the most technologically advanced army in the World. Today we can control whole Armies with Blue Force Tracking, PDAs, Bio-Metrics, under skin RFID, all by satellite, RF, non-active pinging, AWACS, etc. There is even talk of figuring out ways to track your enemies troop movements, Red Force tracking by hacking into their system, then marching them into your strong points or over whelming their system and crashing it or disrupting it to cause chaos. The superstars of the research and development world, those folks at DARPA of course have all sides figured out before deploying such technologies. Since we are doing all these things and have all these technologies now. We can track Student VISAs and people of interest from questionable countries and possible International Terrorists by way of RFID active ID cards, Real ID programs, under skin RFID active Satellite tags. We can even track rental cars, cell phones, computer surfing, emails, phone calls, etc. Some privacy advocates are a little concerned and probably for good reason, as no one wants a NAZI Germany type police state. For instance if we were to continue this forward movement based on fear from International Terrorists and therefore track everyone, are we still in fact living in a free society? Who might decide who is good and who is potentially bad? One might even ask you; what thoughts did you come away with after watching; "1984," "Gatica," or the latest rendition of the Genre with Tom Cruise in "Minority Report" where one could be arrested for evil thought before an event? And if we fail to use these technologies, then who are we to blame when another International Terrorism Attack happens? The question of protecting the American People through technology, is not an easy one, yet we need to draw a line somewhere and decide if it is worth it and then evaluate if it is actually working or simply depriving the good citizens of their freedom of travel, speech, press, gun ownership or ability to pursue happiness. Think on this for me.

Protecting the American People Through Technology

It is amazing the latest technologies used in the United States Military; we have certainly come light years in a very short time. Our milit...

In Depth: How to keep people on your website

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.illo_flat-200-200.jpg"> Today's consumers have more choice than ever, especially online. Competing attractions are just a click away, so it's vital to engage your audience's attention and give them a reason to stay on your site – and want to come back to it again and again. This elusive component of web design is often referred to as 'stickiness'. Stickiness is important for various reasons. "Getting a user to return frequently is more cost-effective than trying to convince new users to come to a site," points out <a href="http://www.pod1.com/">Pod1</A> ecommerce strategist David Hefendehl. Once users are engaged, "adopters will help you to spread the word and promote your site," adds <a href="http://abduzeedo.com/">Abduzeedo</A> founder and designer Fabio Sasso. The right kind of sticky It's critical that stickiness stems from positive user experience, leading to loyalty and users not wanting to leave. "When designing, never think of literally getting people stuck," says <a href="http://www.cxpartners.co.uk/">cxpartners</A> principal consultant James Chudley. "I've heard of nasty UX where important information has been made deliberately hard to locate, 'trapping' users. Instead, focus on users' needs and serve them well. As a result, you'll get the kind of 'stickiness' you want." Also be careful who you use the phrase 'stickiness' around, adds <a href="http://www.digitaria.com/">Digitaria</A> senior web analyst Dexter Bustarde. "It's a popular web industry term but it carries a natural negative connotation to most outside the industry," he points out. When talking to clients who don't themselves bring up the phrase 'stickiness', Bustarde suggests using the term 'essential' instead. "Having an 'essential' site is aspirational, while still capturing everything web developers and marketers think of when using the term 'sticky'." First impressions Design is integral to a site's stickiness. "People react to gut instinct," Chudley says. "If a site doesn't look professionally designed, they won't stick around – particularly if they're looking to buy something." Bluhalo's marketing and business development manager Jocelyn Kirby concurs. "Looks matter," she says. "First impressions count. Before contemplating a return visit, a user must engage with a website." In providing a user with what they're looking for, in a usable format that looks good, you're partway towards achieving stickiness. The ideal is to not make people think. "Optimise a site's design to deliver the most intuitive user experience, and deliver the desired end result to the user with little effort," continues Kirby. "This contributes to the likelihood of the user returning." Of course, good first impressions are just the starting point: you have to make them last. A strong design is one that doesn't just look pretty but guides users and encourages them to interact or share. "Visuals and branding are important, but what's important is how those visuals and branding are integrated with the structure underneath the surface layer," says Bustarde. "You can have a gorgeous looking layout, but it has to work. If a visitor clicks on what looks like a compelling button but it doesn't really do anything, you've hurt yourself twice: you've presented something that feels broken and discouraging, and you've missed out on the opportunity that was created with your great visual cue." Style and substance Underpinning visuals and structure is content, arguably the most important single component when it comes to stickiness. To get repeat visits <a href="http://bkwld.com/">BKWLD</A>'s director of interactive production Dan Fields suggests "putting what's most useful and compelling in the most logical, strategic position". Fields points out that once a 'visual language' is created and a user knows where to find sticky content, it's easy to train them to find it, helping to ensure they'll stick around. In the fight for eyes and hits, video is definitely worth considering. "We're constantly visually stimulated, and video often achieves engagement where text and imagery cannot," says Kirby. "Regularly updated videos maximise repeat visits from people looking for new content. "Since video hasn't seen the amount of contribution text content has, early, enthusiastic adopters will reap the benefits in natural search rankings, given the relatively low amount of existing competition compared to blogs and websites." However, video by its nature takes time to consume, and so Chudley warns that it "should be of a duration commensurate with the nature of what's being conveyed," adding that he recently saw a 25-minute video for a web service that should have been a quickfire elevator pitch. The result: zero stickiness. Social engagement Compelling content within a strong, usable design will guarantee some stickiness, then. But the relentless march of Facebook and Amazon suggests that reactive design is increasingly important. <img alt="Amazon" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.c_amazon-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Sites that react to users' needs can result in longer session times and encourage return visits. Customisation involves a personal investment on behalf of the user, and when someone has given time to a site, they're more likely to become loyal. "The method to choose depends on your site and audience," says Sasso. "If you can automatically provide reactive design, that's often better than making users customise things themselves, because that comes with a learning curve." With Facebook having trained people to click on 'like' buttons, a low level of active participation should be fine for most sites to increase stickiness. We Love copywriter Melissa Bennett suggests this will soon become commonplace. "Facebook plugins vary from enabling users to 'like' or recommend things to allowing users to make comments and show profile pictures of friends who've already signed up – they're essentially letting brands encourage users to explore more," she says. "And what I see when looking at a site with a Facebook login will be different to what a friend sees. In the future, sites will be completely relevant to individual users. This will make them extremely sticky: by making content relevant and contextual, catering to what we want to see, a site will create loyalty." However, Bustarde warns that anyone focusing on a similar kind of targeted content must "avoid the creepy sensation that comes with seeming to know too much about your visitors" – a problem Facebook's arguably having to deal with. Other means of social engagement can also enhance stickiness. Hefendehl cites Gurgle.com, the Mothercare-backed community for first-time parents. "It's run as a non-direct sales channel," he explains. "By identifying a need for a core target market, the site offers sticky content in the form of help for parents." Others tap into existing networks such as Flickr, YouTube and Twitter. "These are all great tools to achieve extra stickiness," says Jonathan Smiley of design company ZURB. "People come from these sites and spend incredible amounts of time on ZURB.com. Why? Because they want to learn more after viewing one of our videos or reading our tweets." The important thing is to ensure the sense of community always remains – poor management of social media can harm perception of a brand, which can wreck stickiness. With communities in place and visitors returning, it's useful to examine additional outreach possibilities, although Hefendehl says to be mindful that most people aren't techies. "RSS readers are good to push content out, but are limited to a very small percentage of people who use them and understand what they do. Newsletters and email marketing are more effective tools to get users back to your site. A carefully planned email strategy will pay for itself in no time." Even better, he says, is to find a way to enable user-generated content: "Everyone loves seeing their content published or their comments picked up by a website's owner." Getting the design and content right are key when making your site sticky, but so too are technical factors. If your site is slow to load, users might not even bother waiting, no matter how much amazing content it contains. Assuming this hurdle is overcome, ongoing speed must be maintained to hold a user's interest. "The longer people stay, the more engaged they'll become, ultimately increasing the chance of their desire to return," says <a href="http://bluhalo.com/">Bluhalo</A>'s Steve Clarke. Strike a balance But remember that web design is a balancing act – don't get spooked and rip out or oversimplify your content in the name of stickiness. "People are willing to wait for something, within reason," points out Bustarde. "For instance, most people don't mind that Netflix's online movie player takes a minute to load, because they're expecting to be with the site for hours." However, at the other extreme, the same wait for 30 seconds of content would be a poor experience. Fields also recommends that designers resist temptation to shove 'sticky' hooks above the fold. "Thanks to long scrolling sites such as Facebook, people are no longer afraid to scroll," he says. "Sometimes, telling a story and creating pacing on a page is good. Just as stories have conflict, climax and resolution, why shouldn't a website sometimes use that same convention?" <img alt="Facebook" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.c_facebook-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> One shouldn't underestimate users, argues Fields, and warns against confusing a short attention span with the notion that users don't want content. "The important thing is to ensure that content throughout your sites is of a high quality – that, ultimately, ensures users will be willing to wait, engage and return. Speed and pacing are especially important for mobile sites, although 'sticky' in the mobile domain rarely equates to 'more time' – instead, less is more in this space. "Keep things simple," recommends <a href="http://www.codecomputerlove.com/">Code Computerlove</A> founder Louis Georgiou. "Have content targeted for the device it's consumed on, remove noise and visual clutter, keep options relevant and obvious, and make things light and quick," he says. Hefendehl agrees, suggesting sites offering quick access to important information to ensure return visits. "A bad example is Transport for London's site, which loads too much content when accessed via a smartphone," he says. "By contrast, National Rail offers exactly what you need on the go, allowing easy access to train times and destinations." <img alt="Apps" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.c_apps-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Whether on the desktop or mobile, fast sites demonstrably lead to increased stickiness, which can in turn increase revenue. ZURB's Bryan Zmijewski explains that the agency has seen revenue bumps on ecommerce sites of up to 30 per cent simply by making pages load faster. Speed testing Objectively measuring a site's speed is fairly simple, thanks to modern tools. Clarke recommends Firebug, which "provides a list of how long each element takes to load, helping to identify those causing delays and enabling you to focus on improving specific content load times." Hosting provision also plays an important role in delivering good speeds. "Load testing will give you an idea of the capacity of your servers," he says. "A poor result indicates that the server needs to be optimised or that additional server capacity is needed." Sometimes, this can pay rapid dividends. For example, Hefendehl explains how Pod1 upped the number of UNIQLO UK servers for Christmas, to cope with increased demand, and the resulting site speed bump helped conversion rates rise by 50 per cent. Unsurprisingly, UNIQLO subsequently decided to retain this server setup. <img alt="Uniqlo" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.c_uniqlo-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Unfortunately, measuring how site speed affects visitor engagement isn't always as straightforward. "Many analytics tools recommend placing code at the bottom of a page, but on slow sites the tool may miss the fact someone's even visited," says Bustarde. "For sites you know are going to have a relatively long load time, one possibility is to let your analytics tool track when a visitor first arrives and then treat their first action on the site as a sort of mini conversion." Hefendehl also argues that measuring a site's stickiness differs depending on its business objectives. "It could be time on site; it could be returning visitors per campaign; it could be number of transactions; it could be cost per acquisition," he suggests. "There's no general rule for measuring this." To that end, don't be too reliant on time-based feedback alone: in fact, says Chudley, doing so can be dangerous. "You can get a skewed impression of site success," he points out. "A client once delighted in telling me that user visits averaged over 20 minutes. In reality, his service should have led to short visits but the site was hard to use and people were getting stuck…" <img alt="Speedy website" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Net%20features/207/NET207.f_sticky.c_speedy_website-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Ideally, look for a range of indicators when judging the stickiness of a website, and make them relevant to the site. If the site is designed to offer quickfire information, look for short visits with people returning regularly. If the site aims to keep people engrossed for hours, ensure that's what's happening. If you're providing interesting content for people to grab, the tracking of downloaded files in tandem with return visits and growth might be enough to indicate a site's success regarding stickiness. "This will all change from site to site, but should detail whether visitors are doing what you expect," says Bustarde. Having stickiness as your overriding goal requires the strategy of proving value. In the end, what some visitors find useless and trite, others will find essential. It's your job as a designer to aim the right content at the intended audience – and to ensure that everything sticks.

In Depth: How to keep people on your website

Today's consumers have more choice than ever, especially online. Competing attractions are just a click away, so it's vital to engag...

The Alternative Workplace - Changing Where and How People Work

I was visiting with an agent recently, and he was talking about losing a key employee that was moving because their spouse was transferred to California. He was talking about not wanting to deal with the hassles and challenges of replacing someone he had finally trained to do a great job. Their responsibilities in the agency included office manager and Account Manager for large Commercial accounts.My suggestion was to keep the person, and allow them to work from California. His first response was to point out that the person was not licensed in California. However, the idea was not to write new business in California but to continue their current job from a remote location. Although it took some time, this owner came to realize what is becoming a national trend - the migration to Alternative Workplaces. When, where and how people work is changing on a daily basis.If your agency is considering Alternative Workplaces, here are 6 questions you will need to answer as you make your decision.Question #1Do You Have A Business Reason For Considering An Alternative Workplace? Working virtually is not "benefit" or a "perk". Creating an Alternative Workspace is no different than any other decision regarding the operation of your agency. Moving to a virtual way of doing business requires a business decision that supports how your agency does business. Here are some valid reasons to consider virtual staff:o	Difficulty in finding qualified staffo	Alternative to brick and mortar due to limited workspaceo	Desire to retain qualified staffAs with any business decision, "do the math" and determine potential revenue (such as new/retained business), anticipated expense (such as the cost of expanding workspace or building a new office) and projected ROI (based on income earned or expenses saved). If you don't have a definite business decision that will make the agency money - do not consider an Alternative Workspace at this time.Question #2Does Your Agency Have An Open Culture and Proactive Management? Rigid agency cultures will have a difficult time adjusting to the transition to an Alternative Workplace. Even though you explain why some staff are able to work from home and others must come to the agency every day, your decision can still create resentment. If your agency is considering an Alternative Workspace, a good time to begin is immediately. Agency culture is not changed overnight. Having a flexible culture is essential to working virtually. Here are some milestones that indicate an open culture and proactive Management:o	Staff feels safe approaching Management with suggestions and concernso	Staff has a strong level of trust in Managemento	Management feels safe confronting staff with areas of needed changeo	Management has created a consistent method of communication with the staff such as regular staff meetingso	Management informs staff of their plan to introduce new ways of doing business, such as changing to Alternative WorkplacesQuestion #3Are You Willing To Establish Clear Ways To Monitor Staff Productivity? One of the first questions I am asked is, "How do you monitor performance for staff that work from home?" The answer is actually quite simple. Every staff position needs, and deserves, a clear job description that includes measurable requirements, expectations and boundaries. The old stand-by where owners want staff that "are mature enough to know the right thing to do and just do it" is an excuse for leadership that is not willing to lead.When it comes to virtual staff, job descriptions and expectations are even more critical. Looking over their work during the day is not possible. Instead, Alternative Workplaces require structures such as:o	Well defined job descriptions that include measurable expectations and productivityo	Well defined consequences that includes both positive and negative resultso	Scheduled reports to Management that provides accountabilityo	Regular communication with the virtual staff so they have regular feedback on the quality of their workQuestion #4Does Potential Virtual Staff Have A Home Office Environment Suitable For A Professional Way Of Doing Business?Just as an Alternative Workspace needs the right person, it also requires the right work environment. A clean desk and professional workspace is important in the agency; and it is even more essential for virtual staff. The kitchen table is not an appropriate work environment. Before implementing an Alternative Workspace, Management will want to establish clear guidelines for working virtually. Some of these guidelines might include:o	A dedicated workspace with a desko	No indoor pets, such as dogs, that can create distractions and inappropriate interruptions during business phone callso	Adequate lightingo	No young childrenQuestion #5Is Management Willing To Invest In Tools, Training and Technology Required For Alternative Workplaces? Alternative Workplaces require a considerable investment in tools, training and technology. Some agencies may try to limit their expenses by asking staff to use their own computers. However, privacy laws and computer liabilities such as viruses and hacking make it essential for an agency to have equipment it can monitor and control its use.Here are some investments needed to implement successful Alternative Workplaces:o	Computer/Monitor (If dual monitors are used in the agency, it should also be part of a virtual office)o	Printero	Dedicated Phone Lineo	Web Camo	Internet Accesso	A virtual private network (VPN) is a private communications network often used by companies or organizations, to communicate confidentially over a public network. A VPN can send data e.g. voice, data or video, or a combination of these media, across secured and encrypted private channels between two points.o	DSL: DSL stands for digital subscriber line. It uses ordinary telephone lines and a special modem to provide an Internet connection that can transmit high-bandwidth information to a user's computer. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals. The data part of the line is a dedicated connection to the Internet and does not interfere with use of the telephone. DSL is high speed and is always connected to the Internet.o	Cable Internet: Cable Internet uses your local cable TV line to receive broadband Internet content. This data rate far exceeds that of modems and is about the same as DSL. Your local TV cable company is typically the cable Internet service provider.o	Dial-up access: Although Dial-Up may be available and reduce expenses, it is not recommended for an Alternative Workplace. Slow performance will affect the quality of work provided by your staff.o	Satellite Internet: If cable or DSL aren't available in your area, or if the slow dial-up access speeds are not acceptable, consider using satellite internet. It's available to you if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and have an unobstructed view of the southern sky. The service is expensive and the data rate is not as fast as a direct line, but it is a good connectivity alternative if you live in an isolated location.You will also want to consider additional resources such as:o	Online Agency Management System (such as TAM Online or AFW Online)o	Computer Trainingo	Cell Phoneo	Soft Skills Training Including:o	Effective Letter Writingo	Email Etiquetteo	Public SpeakingAn important consideration for any agency is consistency in how files are stored, applications are configured, etc. The reason is so that, if a staff member is out because of illness, termination, etc, any other member of the staff can easily slide into their position. This is also true with your virtual staff.Some items to establish consistent methods include:o	Outlook - How folders and signature is set upo	Paper Port - If your agency uses Paper Port, the folders should be set up the sameo	Voice Mail messageo	How activities are recordedQuestion #6Is Agency Management Aware Of Legal Implications Of An Alternative Workplace? Tax laws are always a consideration when dealing with changes in how you manage staff. But Alternative Workplaces have created new considerations for staff working offsite. Many of these changes have been brought about by the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Privacy Act (GLBA). Some areas to consider include computers, cell phone, PDAs and other electronic devices:o	Protection of NPI (Non-Public Information) and other client datao	Method of destroying data stored at the Alternative Workplaceo	Method of backing up and restoring dataBecause of the legal aspects of Privacy Laws, you are advised to consult with your attorney and E&O carrier to determine your risks and resolutions.Tips For Staying FocusedYou may have up-to-date technology and training, but you must have also effective strategies that help your employee stay focused. Here are some tips that will help them:o	Start working at the same time. Treat telework days like regular workdays: get up, get dressed, and be "at your desk" at the usual time.o	Establish a schedule. Keep work hours similar to the ones you would keep if you were working at your office. Your manager and your co-workers will appreciate knowing when you'll be available.o	Limit distractions. Be careful not to replace office-based interruptions with home-based ones (such as children, neighbors, and friends).o	Plan ahead. Take the appropriate work home. Some work may be better suited for the home office than other work, so be sure to plan the telework a day ahead.o	Take breaks. Plan time to get up and move around. Consider going for a walk or a run during your lunch break to keep your mind fresh.o	Focus on objectives. Work with your manager and colleagues to define clear goals and objectives against which your performance can be objectively measured.o	Consider using instant messaging. Similar to a chat room, IM is a fast means of communicating with one or more people in real time over the Internet. IM gives you a way to show and update your communication status throughout the day. For example, when you need a couple of hours of undisturbed concentration, set your status as "Busy" and let everyone know that you'll be slower than usual to reply to e-mail messages and phone calls.	 	 		 			 				 					 						Ted Baker is the president of Advanced Automation, which for 17 years has offered agency consulting services addressing a variety of management and agency development issues. He also is an author and frequent conference speaker. Ted can be reached at <a href="mailto:questions@advancedautomation.com">questions@advancedautomation.com</a>

The Alternative Workplace - Changing Where and How People Work

I was visiting with an agent recently, and he was talking about losing a key employee that was moving because their spouse was transferre...

Why Do People Hack?

As a computer technician and tutor, I get asked a lot of questions about technology and computers in general. The one question that out-ranks all the others in the number of times I've been asked is this: "Why do people hack?"Myth: Hackers are bad. Actually, hackers are merely computer programmers who go in to someone else's code and reorganize it somehow. The term is well charted and defined by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker" rel="nofollow" target="_new">Wikipedia</a> and doesn't directly refer to anything malicious. Quite the opposite; hackers are programmers to whom we owe a lot of thanks for working out troubles in software and the Internet.Truth: Hackers actually lay claim to a Manifesto from 1986 that inspires curiosity and fairness and being accountable for one's actions. The manifesto was written just after the author's arrest for "Bank Tampering." His best lament is, "my crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for." Indeed, the pressure of being constantly watched forced "The Mentor"'s resignation in 1990. To all hackers, he is considered a living legend.The Answer: The damage that's done on the Internet and perhaps to your computer or your neighbor's computer isn't done by true 'hackers.' Would you call a graffiti vandal an artist or a 'painter' in the classical sense? Little folks spray paint buildings because they can. Sometimes it may feel that it's the only way to leave any mark with a life that feels too small for anyone to notice.Peers notice though. The greater the achievement, the greater the coverage. It's a dark fame from a malicious act with no definite target. YOU weren't meant to suffer from an attack; the attack was meant to be seen, however. The first Internet Worm in history was actually a good experiment that grew systemically accidentally crashing every computer it came in touch with. Many malicious code writers and 'crackers' begin honestly enough just learning how to write code.With any knowledge comes a tipping point where a decision has to be made. You eventually get better than the average person and able to do things that bend outside what was meant to happen. Most skills don't leave one wondering if they can damage other people's property (the cook doesn't graduate culinary school wondering if they should poison people for example), but computer programing reveals that there's an awful lot of stuff out there that's ready to break or corrupt with a little push in the wrong direction.When you learned to walk, did you step on ants? Why? "Because I could; because they were there; because I wanted to; because it looked like fun." I'll bet your answer isn't because you like hurting or killing things. As you matured, you used those same feet to take you somewhere. In time, all the modern crackers will mature and most likely become brilliant members of programming society.There is no one magic answer. It's something that happens and you aren't the target. You don't understand it because you don't do it. It is a crime, but it's often just a juvenile act of poor choice and misdirected skills. Defend yourself with anti virus softwares, don't fall for e-mail scams and know that someday those mischievous feet will be somewhere good.	 	 		 			 				 					 						Bryan Applegate has learned a lot about computers in the last two decades. In teaming up with Dinarius, Inc he uses his powers to do good by being a tutor. More free lessons and advice can be found at <a href="http://www.dinarius.com" target="_new">Dinarius.com</A>

Why Do People Hack?

As a computer technician and tutor, I get asked a lot of questions about technology and computers in general. The one question that out-r...