HONG KONG, CHINA – Media OutReach – Jun 15, 2016 – The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), an organisation dedicated to best practices in professional publishing, presented 102 awards for outstanding journalism at its annual SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence gala dinner at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre tonight. 

More than 280 media executives, editors, journalists and industry affiliates from across the Asia Pacific region attended the event. Tara Joseph from Reuters was the master of ceremonies. 

This year’s event featured Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s former president, who made a keynote address via video from Taipei on cross-strait relations and other regional issues.

Mr. Jahabar Sadiq, former chief executive and editor of news site, The Malaysian Insider, also addressed the gathering, giving a first-hand account of grappling with tightening limits on press freedom in Malaysia.

This year, the SOPA Awards received a record number of entries from across Asia competing in 18 categories in English and Chinese.

The lists of finalists and winners are at: http://www.sopawards.com/news-room/ 

A panel of more than 100 judges from around the world evaluated the submissions. The judging panel, including journalists, editors, columnists from leading publications and academics from university media departments, was led by Head of Judges, Jeffrey Timmermans, an associate professor of practice at Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) and director of its undergraduate journalism program. The deputy head of judges was Dr. King-wa Fu, an associate professor at JMSC, The University of Hong Kong. 

“Thank you to all who participated in this year’s event with such high quality submissions, which helped make the SOPA 2016 Awards a big success. Congratulations to all the winners,” said S.K. Witcher, chair of the SOPA Editorial Committee. “Also, a big thanks to our keynote speaker, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, and to our speaker from the media industry Mr. Jahabar Sadiq, for joining us tonight.”  

Raymond Warhola, Chairman of SOPA, said, “The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence are widely recognized as the gold standard for outstanding journalism in Asia. The record number of entries received this year from across the region reflects the value that publishers and editors increasingly place on the SOPA Award.”

“SOPA is also pleased to welcome Ms. Ying Chan as an Honorary Member into our association.  An award-winning journalist, Ms. Chan’s induction reaffirms SOPA’s unwavering commitment to the principles of journalistic quality and integrity.” From 1999 to 2016, Ms. Chan also served as the founding director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong.  

For the second year in a row, SOPA organised media tours at Bloomberg and Google on the same day as the gala dinner. Google hosted a breakfast networking and workshop event, and Bloomberg provided a media tour in the afternoon.

The SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence are supported by Invest Hong Kong (Platinum Sponsor) and Google (Gold Sponsor). CatchOn is the public relations partner, Media OutReach is the newswire partner and High Technology Printing Group Limited is the printing partner.

Event highlights and photos are here: http://www.sopawards.com/awards-photographs/
Videos/transcripts of Mr. Ma’s speech can be viewed here: http://www.sopawards.com/gala-dinner-videos/ 

About SOPA:
The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) was founded in 1982 to champion freedom of the press, promote excellence in journalism and endorse best practices for all local and regional publishing platforms in the Asia Pacific region. SOPA is a not-for-profit organization based in Hong Kong and represents global, regional and local media companies across Asia. The Society of Publishers in Asia is also host to the annual SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence, which serve as a world-class benchmark for quality journalism in the region. www.sopasia.com

HONG KONG, CHINA – Apr 28, 2016 – The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) received a record- breaking number of entries for the 2016 SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence for the second year in a row. Now in their 18^th year, the SOPA Awards attracted more than 700 entries in English and Chinese.

The awards are widely regarded as the most prestigious in the publishing industry in the Asia Pacific region. The list of finalists will be released in May, and the winners will be announced at a gala dinner on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“The number of entries again this year illustrates how much SOPA recognition is valued,” said S.K. Witcher, chair of the SOPA Editorial Awards Committee.  “There was a significant rise in participation by media outlets in Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia. And within the categories themselves, a large increase in the number of entries in the digital news and information graphics categories underscored the growing importance of presenting news for a mobile audience.”

The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence are given in 18 categories, including news, photography and lifestyle coverage. Last year, such local and international organizations as Reuters, the Financial Times, The International New York Times, Time magazine and the South China Morning Post were among the recipients. One of the highlights of the gala dinner is the award for Journalist of the Year, won last year by Nancy Carvajal of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Each category will be evaluated by a panel of judges appointed by the awards administrators, the Journalism & Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong (JMSC), and conducted by a team of 100 judges from around the globe, including journalists, editors, columnists from leading publications and notable academics from university media departments.

The judging panel will be led by Jeffrey Timmermans, an associate professor of practice at JMSC and director of its undergraduate journalism program. The deputy head of judges will be King-wa Fu, an assistant professor at JMSC.

“The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence are recognized as the industry ‘gold standard,’ celebrating the very best in journalistic quality and integrity,” said SOPA Chairman Raymond Warhola. “SOPA Awards are prestigious, and their winners reflect an elite group in Asia. The record number of entries received again this year continues to affirm SOPA’s leadership and unwavering commitment to publishing excellence in the region.”

This year, as it did last year, SOPA is organizing media tours at Bloomberg and Google on the same day as the gala dinner on June 15th. Google will host a breakfast networking and workshop event, and Bloomberg will provide a media tour in the afternoon. For more information, visit http://www.sopawards.com/workshop-and-media-tours/   

The SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence are supported by Invest Hong Kong (Platinum Sponsor) and Google (Gold Sponsor). CatchOn is the public relations partner, Media OutReach is the newswire partner and CTPS is the printing partner.

Tickets for the gala dinner are on sale now. To reserve your tickets for the SOPA 2016 Awards for Editorial Excellence at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 15, please contact the SOPA Secretariat at Tel: +852 3589-9778 / mail@sopasia.com or visit http://www.sopawards.com.

8th April 2016

When you hear the name Marissa Mayer, the first thing that comes to your mind is Yahoo. What most people don’t know, however, is that she has done numerous super impressive things before becoming the CEO of Yahoo in July 2012.

We believe that everyone should be aware of her achievements before stepping into Yahoo, so we created her first Enhancv resume that emphasises on Marissa not only as a professional, but also as a student and as a person.

Did you know all these facts about her?

Marissa Mayer was the 1st female engineer at Google and their 20th employee back in the day when Google was just a startup Larry and Sergey had started at Stanford.

Being a woman in a male-dominated industry, Marissa appears to have always been an overachiever at everything she does.

Taking it back to her years at high school, we can imagine the girl she describes when talking about herself in interviews: shy, geeky and a bit awkward, but a natural born leader and oftentimes the brightest person in the room.

Google’s favorite girl received her education at Stanford, both for Bachelors and Masters, racking up achievements on the way. She excelled in her studies, did various sports, and even volunteered.

Having all of this in mind, it seems more than obvious why Marissa Mayer received 14 different job offers right after completing her degree at the University. The offers were quite prestigious too, including a teaching job at Carnegie Mellon University and a consulting job at McKinsey & Company.

Out of all those options, she chose Google, which set her future career and life path in a very promising direction. According to Marissa, making that choice was not easy.

As she was being overwhelmed by job offers, she gave herself a deadline and started deleting any new incoming emails. She did, however, open the email from Google by accident and the rest is history.

After spending 13 years at Google and participating in the launching of more than 100 features and products, Marissa became the CEO of Yahoo!, getting chosen over their interim CEO Ross Levinsohn.

At that point, Marissa Mayer was 38, a wife, a mother and the chief executive officer of a 30-billion-dollar company.

It’s safe to say that Mrs. Mayer is a big deal, but will she save Yahoo as the company is drowning in front of us? Is their core business really worth $0?

Four years ago the ambitious blonde came in with big plans about making Yahoo a product and media leader, but in order to keep the company going she recently had to do major changes.

Marissa fired 1700 people, which was 15% of Yahoo’s staff, and closed 5 offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Milan.

As Yahoo’s revenue is falling, their stock is losing value and Marissa has investors attacking her for allegedly spending $7 million on a Gatsby party, everyone is wondering what the future holds for the world’s most famous female CEO. Only time will tell.

If you liked Marissa’s Pre-Yahoo resume, then you will like Mark Zuckerberg’s Pre-Facebook one.

References:
Tekla S. Perry – IEEE Spectrum / Rodd Wagner – Forbes/ A&E Television Networks – Biography/ Maya Kosoff – Vanity Fair / Eugene Kim – Business Insider / Claire Zillman – Fortune / Chris Spargo – DailyMail / Denise Garcia – CNBC.  Image Source: Giorgio Monetersino

The unfortunate truth about internet communication today is that it’s too easy for prying eyes to spy on you.

Whether or not you have something to hide, installing encryption software on your computer is the single most effective way of making sure your data remains yours.

Encryption: The Basics

What Is It?

Encryption is a way to protect information. You convert data into a format only someone with a special key may read.

What Is an Encryption Key?

It’s a string consisting of a certain number of bits. A 128 bit key consists of 128 bits. The more bits in a key, the more secure it is.

What Does It Do?

If an unauthorized person who doesn’t have the key accesses a computer or device where encrypted data is stored, they see only scrambled letters or ‘gibberish’.

How Does It Work?

To encrypt data, an algorithm is used. It works like this:

• Plaintext
• Key
  • Block Cipher Encryption
    • Ciphertext

What Is It For?

Personal security. Encryption stops hackers accessing your personal details. This protects you against identity theft and is especially important when using unsecure Wi-Fi networks.

How to Encrypt Data Stored on Your PC

Many types of encryption software are free and easy to download. As a word of caution, it is inadvisable to use TrueCrypt owing to a number of security problems with this particular program.

AxCrypt is a straightforward and convenient choice for Windows.

1. Visit www.axantum.com. On the Downloads page, select the first file from the list.
2. If you’re only after AxCrypt, uncheck any additional software it tries to install.
3. Once installed, the program will ask you if you wish to register. It’s up to you if you’d like to be put on their mailing list or not.
4. Right-click on the file or folder you want to encrypt. Select AxCrypt from the menu and select Encrypt to encrypt one or all of the files in the folder.
5. Choose a passphrase. This will be the encryption key used to encrypt your data. Remember: the longer and more complicated, the better.Note: When opening your encrypted item, AxCrypt will ask you for a passphrase. Type it in and click OK. Don’t tick ‘Remember this for decryption’ as it will remember your passphrase.

If you are using a Mac, AES Crypt is an advanced, simple and free file encryption tool.

1. Go to the AES Crypt website and download the package for Mac.
2. Open up the zip file, un-zip it and open up the installer. Click Continue and install it as normal.
3. If prompted, enter an admin password.
4. Drag and drop the document you wish to encrypt into the AES Crypt app on the Dock Bar.
5. Enter a password to encrypt the file.Your file or folder is now encrypted.To decrypt the file, simply enter the same password.

How to Encrypt Data Stored on the Cloud

Cloudfogger is an easy-to-use method for encrypting files saved to your cloud storage folders, such as Dropbox or SkyDrive.

1. Head to cloudfogger.com and click ‘Cloudfogger Download’.
2. Open the downloaded file and follow the install prompts.
3. Once installed, open the program.
4. Create an account by entering your email and a passphrase.
5. Once registered, you can start encrypting. Right-click on the file or folder you wish to encrypt and select Cloudfogger, followed by Fogg File(s).
6. Your file or folder is now encrypted. Click OK to confirm the protection.

How to Encrypt Your Emails

Virtru is a free email encryption service that will protect any Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo services.

It currently works as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, and also as a mobile app.

Here’s how to install it on your browser:

1. Go to virtru.com and select ‘Get Virtru’.
2. Follow the prompts to install Virtru as a browser extension.
3. Once installed, ensure the extension is allowed on your browser.
4. Click Install Now to complete the process.
5. When composing a secure email, activate Virtru using the top right-hand corner box.
6. You can easily turn Virtru off in emails by dragging the switch to the left. If switched off, the box will change to grey.Note: All recipients need to do is verify their identity to read any encrypted messages – no installation at their end is required.

Another method of email encryption is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). However, these require a bit more technical know-how. A good option for Windows is Gpg4Win, while GPGMail is recommended for Macs.

You don’t need to be a computer wizard to start encrypting, so why delay? As well as secure browsing, encryption gives you peace of mind that your data and personal information are kept exactly as they should be: private.

Sources

• Using AES Crypt on Mac – aescrypt.com
• AES Crypt Alternatives – alternativeto.net
• TrueCrypt Is Not Secure – arstechnica.com
• AxCrypt Alternatives – alternativeto.net
• Encryption – csee.umbc.edu
• Cloudfogger – cloudfogger.com
• What Is Encryption and How Does It Work? – derby.ac.uk
• How to Encrypt Email – digitaltrends.com
• What Is Encryption? – hhs.gov
• How to Hack-Proof Your Wireless Router -netsecurity.about.com
• How to Easily Encrypt Email with Virtru for Free: Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo – networkworld.com
• AxCrypt 1.7.3156.0 – pcadvisor.co.uk
• How to Encrypt (Almost) Anything – pcworld.com
• Data Encryption – princeton.edu
• What Is Encryption? – safecomputing.umich.edu
• What Is Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)? – searchsecurity.techtarget.com
• Storage Encryption Prevents Identity Theft – searchstorage.techtarget.com
• Easy to Use File Encryption with Cloud Support – snapfiles.com
• How to Use AxCrypt to Encrypt and Secure the Files on Your Computer – tiptopsecurity.com
• How It Works – virtru.com
• Virtru – virtru.com

Original Source: WhoisHostingThis.com

“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.” – Carl Jung

With 1.32 billion monthly users, Facebook is one of the most heavily used websites in the world. So what’s the problem?

What is Addiction?

addiction
noun
A strong and harmful need to regularly have something or do something.

Impacts of Addiction include…

• Inability to abstain
• Impairment in behavioral control
• Cravings for rewarding experiences (checking Facebook updates)
• Inability to recognize significant problems
• Dysfunctional emotional responses

Are You a Facebook Addict?

Combined with definition above, can you identify with these behavioral statistics?

Of US Facebook users:

• 63% visit the site at least once a day
• 40% visit the site multiple times throughout the day
• 48% of people check or update Facebook after they go to bed

40 minutes per day &ndash the average time someone from the US spends on Facebook

17% of total time spent on iOS and Android connected devices is spent on Facebook

15% of employees check Facebook during work hours

1 out of 4 people feel ill at ease if they can’t log in to Facebook on a regular basis

Researchers in Norway have developed a way to measure Facebook addiction, as published in the journal Psychological Reports.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale:

1. You Spend a lot of time thinking about using Facebook
2. You Feel the need to use Facebook more and more
3. You Use Facebook to escape dealing with your personal problems
4. You Have tried but failed to cut down on using Facebook
5. You Become anxious if you’re prohibited from using Facebook
6. You Have suffered productivity losses in your job/studies because of your Facebook usage

According to researchers, scoring “often” or “always” on at least 4 of the above may suggest you’re addicted to Facebook.

How to Kick the Habit

Hooked? Spend less time on Facebook by following these steps:

1. Delete tempting Facebook gamesAre you a social Facebooker? If you consider gifting imaginary farm equipment or playing with jewels as a way to hang out with friends, you might want to reconsider your social life.
   1. Click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner
   2. Select ‘Settings’
   3. Choose ‘Apps’ on the left side of the page
   4. Click the ‘x’ next to each app or game you’d like to remove from Facebook

    

2. Remove fake friendsDo you really need to keep in touch with classmate acquaintances from years ago?
   1. Go to your fake friend’s profile
   2. Hover over the ‘Friends’ button
   3. Select ‘Unfriend’

    

3. Unsubscribe from notificationsNotifications can get distracting, especially if you check Facebook every time you get one.
   1. Click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner
   2. Select ‘Settings’
   3. Choose ‘Notifications’ on the left side
   4. Modify how you receive notifications from Facebook on this page

    

4. Turn push notifications off on your mobile deviceWithout push enabled on your phone, you won’t feel the strong need to check each and every notification as it comes in.
   1. Select the highlighted button and scroll to the bottom
   2. Click Account Settings > Notifications > Mobile Push
   3. Un-check things you don’t want to be notified about

    

5. Uninstall Facebook Messenger featureSometimes we can’t say no to chatting with friends online. Prevent the temptation by getting rid of Facebook Messenger.For Android:
   1. Go to Settings
   2. Open Applications Manager
   3. Select Messenger
   4. Click Uninstall

   For iPhone:

   1. Hold down the Messenger icon until the icons begin to shake and an “x” appears in the upper left hand corner
   2. Click on the “x” and select “yes” to delete Messenger

    

6. Uninstall the Facebook app on your mobile deviceFacebook at your fingertips is a big waste of time. Just check notifications later on your computer. They’ll still be there.For Android:
   1. Tap ‘Apps’ icon
   2. Select ‘Settings’
   3. Go to ‘Application Manager’
   4. Swipe left until you get to ‘All’ tab
   5. Scroll through until you find Facebook
   6. Choose to disable the Facebook app

   For iOS:

   1. Hold on to app icon until all apps begin to shake and display an ‘X’
   2. Click ‘X’ to remove Facebook from iPhone

    

7. Take a break by deactivating your accountStill feel the constant urge to check Facebook? Perhaps a vacation from social media is in order. Remember, your data is still saved so you can always reactivate in the future.
   1. Click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner
   2. Select ‘Settings’
   3. Click on ‘Security’ on the left side
   4. Chose ‘Deactivate your account’ at the bottom of the page

    

8. Delete FacebookFor extreme cases of Facebook addiction. Warning: this option will permanently delete your profile.
   1. Click on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner
   2. Go to ‘General Settings’ menu
   3. At the bottom of the page, click on ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’ – this saves your data in the event you need it in the future
   4. Access the ‘Delete My Account’ page, only accessible athttps://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account
   5. Select ‘Delete My Account’

Facebook can get in the way of real life. Rather than ‘like’ an event in someone’s life, BE a part of their life.

Sources

• How to Delete/Uninstall an iPhone App – alvinalexander.com
• Americans Now Spend More Time on Facebook than They Do on Their Pets –businessweek.com
• How Do I Remove an App or Game That I&Rsquo;ve Downloaded? – facebook.com
• How Do I Adjust What I Get Notifications About? – facebook.com
• How Do I Unfriend or Remove a Friend? – facebook.com
• How to Remove Built-in (Bloatware) Apps on Your Android Devices? – facebook.com
• How Do I Deactivate My Account – facebook.com
• How Do I Permanently Delete My Account – facebook.com
• Apps Solidify Leadership Six Years into the Mobile Revolution – flurry.com
• the True Costs of Facebook Addiction: Low Self-Esteem and Poor Body Image – forbes.com
• Our Mission – newsroom.fb.com
• Social Media Update 2013 – pewinternet.org
• 2013 Wasting Time at Work Survey – salary.com
• Social Media Survey Finds Use in Bed, on Waking – sfgate.com
• New Research about Facebook Addiction – uib.no
• Hartman E C (2006), the Population Fix, Nature.
• Addiction – Definition – Merram-webster.com
• Definition of Addiction – asam.org
• How Do I Turn Push Notifications on or off from Mobile? – facebook.com
• How Do I Uninstall the Messenger App from My Android? – facebook.com

Original Source: WhoisHostingThis.com

It’s no secret that many entrepreneurs and those working at startups are workaholics — the average successful entrepreneur works 70 hours a week. Increasingly, however, companies are finding that working fewer hours can be advantageous when it comes to workplace efficiency. In fact, working just 40 hours (or less) might improve productivity even more than those 70 hour weeks.

History of the Monday – Friday work week

• In the early 1900s, the Ford Motor company was one of the first major businesses in America to introduce a 40-hour, Monday-Friday work week
• Up to that point, working six, 8-hour days per week was considered normal.
• Ford’s reason for the change was two-fold:
  • His son Edsel was quoted in the New York Times saying, “We [the Ford Motor Company] believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family”
  • Secondly, Henry Ford believed that well-paid workmen with more leisure time want more things, and thus buy more things (like Ford cars)

What is “Normal”?

Most can agree that working 9-5, Monday to Friday is “normal” for the average American employee, but what is considered a “normal” work week in other countries?

• US
  • Hours per week: 47 hours
  • Average annual salary: $44,888
• Netherlands
  • Hours per week: 29
  • Average annual salary: $47,000
• Denmark
  • Hours per week: 33
  • Average annual salary: $46,000
• Norway
  • Hours per week: 33
  • Average annual salary: $44,000
• Ireland
  • Hours per week: 34
  • Average annual salary: $51,000
• Germany
  • Hours per week: 35
  • Average annual salary: $40,000

Looking at the world’s shortest work weeks, it becomes clear that what’s “normal” is dependent on culture as much as everything else.

• In Japan, for example, death from overwork is such a problem they have a word for it: karoshi

US Companies That Encourage Working Less

These American companies are already exploring the idea of a shorter work week (or at least making sure no one works past 40 hours)

• Treehouse — An online education website that teaches coding and app design
  • Work week: Mon-Thu, 9am-6pm, 32 hours a week
  • Founded: 2011
  • Worth: $10 million in yearly sales
  • From Ryan Carson, cofounder of the company: “Thirty-two hours of higher quality work is better than 40 hours of lower quality work.”
• Basecamp — The company behind the Basecamp online collaboration and project management tool
  • Work week: 32 hours a week from May through October
  • Founded: 1999
  • Worth: Basecamp doesn’t disclose revenues or profits, but both are in the millions
  • From Jason Fried, founder of the company: “When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed work week, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time.”
• BambooHR — The company responsible for online HR management software
  • Work week: 40 hours
  • Founded: 2008
  • Worth: $10 million in yearly revenue, as of February 2014
  • To make the most out of their 40-hour weeks, the company teaches employees to:
    • Limit interruptions like emails or meetings
    • Use tele-meeting programs rather than meeting people in person
    • Let clients know when they’ll be unavailable to make sure problems get solved on work time

Ways to implement shorter work weeks

There are many strategies for companies that want to implement a shorter work week. Here are a few to try:

• Four 10-hour days
  • Pros: Still get 40 hours in per week and an extra day for the weekend
  • Cons: Longer days mean more distractions
    • The more hours an employee works, the more opportunities for distractions arise, leading to greater stress and frustration.
• Offset Schedules (some work Mon-Thu, others Tue-Fri)
  • Pros: Someone is in the office every day of the week
  • Cons: More difficult to communicate between people whose schedules don’t line up.
• 9-hour days, biweekly days off
  • Pros: Most employees will be working the full week
  • Cons: Scheduling days off (if they aren’t regular), can become problematic

Disadvantages to Shorter Work Weeks

There are a host of benefits to working shorter weeks, but it’s not for every company. Here are some reasons not to make the switch:

• Difficulty meeting customer needs
  • The state of Utah went back to traditional Mon-Fri weeks after three years of 4-day weeks
    • Residents complained that services weren’t available on certain days
• Longer days
  • For companies that choose to do 9 or 10 hour days, this can be physically and mentally draining for employees
• Attaining work-life balance
  • Employees may find it difficult to compact five days of work into just four days

Benefits of a Shorter Work Week

The following benefits should tempt any company thinking about making the switch to shorter work weeks–especially startups, where every edge they can get on the competition can be the thing that makes or breaks their company:

• More efficiency
  • Time the average worker wastes during an 8-hour shift: 2 hours
    • Employees need to be more efficient to accomplish more work in less time
• Less time off
  • State employees in Utah switched over to four, 10-hour days in 2009
    • Employees took 9% less time off than in the past 2 years
• Fewer sick days
  • Employees can schedule doctor’s appointments during the week rather than miss work
  • With fewer employees, startups can’t afford to lose any of them to illness
• Increased recruiting ability
  • Working adults willing to give up at least part of their salary for increased work flexibility: 2 in 5
  • A shorter work week can make it easier for startups to attract the perfect talent
• Energy savings
  • The state of Utah switched to a shorter work week and cut energy costs by 13%
  • Startups typically operate on thin budgets
    • Keeping costs low will help keep them moving forward
• Happier employees
  • Long weekends make employees happy, and happy employees:
    • Are 33% more profitable
    • Are 43% more productive
    • Cause 50% fewer safety incidents
• Lower environmental impact
  • Fewer cars on the roads lead to:
    • Reduced consumption of fossil fuels
    • A smaller impact on global climate change
  • Startups that care about the environment can benefit from a PR boost

“The harder we crowd business for time, the more efficient it becomes.” — Henry Ford

Sources

princetonreview.com, history.com, blog.pickcrew.com, scribd.com, geowords.com, redpepper.com, businessweek.com, boingboing.net, money.cnn.com, stats.oecd.org, inc.com, thinkprogress.org, bbc.com, growtheverywhere.com, ryancarson.com, lifehacker.com, crunchbase.com, qz.com, nytimes.com, fastcompany.com, quora.com, linkedin.com, bamboohr.com, inc.com, zoominfo.com, salon.com, npr.org, workoptions.com, america.aljazeera.com, cepr.com, ics.uci.edu, geowords.com

• The Princeton Review: Find a Career
• Ford Factory Workers Get 40-Hour Week
• The surprising reason we have a 40-hour work week
• Henry Ford on the Economic Value of Leisure
• HENRY FORD: Why I Favor Five Days’ Work With Six Days’ Pay
• National Average Wage Index
• Japanese workers fight against karoshi, death from overwork
• The Best Startup Perk: a 40 Hour Week
• Game industry exec celebrates 60+ hour work-weeks
• The “40-Hour” Workweek Is Actually Longer — by Seven Hours
• Worlds Shortest Work Weeks
• OECD: Average annual hours actually worked per worker
• This Company Has A 4-Day Work Week, Pays Its Workers A Full Salary And Is Super Successful
• Should the US adopt a shorter working week?
• Stop Working More Than 40 Hours a Week
• How Treehouse, An $8 Million Revenue Company Operates On A 4-Day Work Week And No Managers
• We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m
• I’m Ryan Carson, CEO of Treehouse, and This Is How I Work
• Treehouse Overview
• To grow your company and make millions, start working four days a week
• Be More Productive. Take Time Off.
• 37SIGNALS EARNS MILLIONS EACH YEAR. ITS CEO’S MODEL? HIS CLEANING LADY
• What is 37signals’s annual revenue?
• Bamboohr Careers
• Why This Startup Has a No-Workaholics Policy
• 5 reasons it’s time for a 4-day work week
• Utah Finds Surprising Benefits In 4-Day Workweek
• Compressed Work Week: Pros & Cons as a Flexible Work Arrangement
• Inside a company that works a 4-day week
• Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change (pdf)
• WHAT IF EVERY WEEKEND WAS THREE DAYS LONG? AT THESE COMPANIES IT IS
• HAPPINESS SECRETS FROM THE STAFF OF DELIVERING HAPPINESS AT WORK
• The Cost of Interrupted Work (pdf)

Original Source: WhoisHostingThis.com

WATCH NOW:

WATCH NOW:

Sometimes, love can be found in the simplest things, like spending a blissful morning in the kitchen.

You can be in the same room without having to do everything together.

It is hugging each other accidentally while sleeping.

Even the most mundane tasks are more fun when you do them together.

Even shopping for food can be exciting.

True love means putting everything aside just to hug.

The biggest dilemma is often what to eat for dinner.

Even if you’re feeling a bit blue, there’s always someone that will hold your hand.

Love is about the little things.

Happiness is when both of you read in bed after an exceptionally tiring day.

Building IKEA furniture is like playing with LEGO when it’s just the two of you.

Sometimes, you have to ask hard questions.

Cooking together often becomes the most challenging and the most fun task.

Even the tiniest problems matter to your loved one.

It’s having those long talks in bed about everything and anything.

It’s when you know your favorite cuddling positions.

It’s having a favorite cafe, where only you two matter.

The cold autumn wind can’t touch you because your heart always stays warm.

Love means knowing when you need to say sorry.

There is nothing more comfortable than falling asleep on your loved one’s lap.

It is about exploring new things, even if it’s just your neighborhood park.

It’s knowing that it’s not always rainbows and butterflies, it’s compromise that moves us along.

As long as both of you are headed the same way…

…Everything will be just fine

Original Source: If you like these heartwarming images, you can find her book on Amazon and BoredPanda.

…feeling the warmth of your hand

Facebook will show you a memory everyday provided you have posted something on that date from any number of years ago.  To turn off this function, follow these steps:

Step 1:
Click on the Arrow in the Top-Right Corner, and select “Hide Post”, when you see the “Your Memories on Facebook” message.

Step 2:
Facebook will tell you it’s sorry, and then you’ll see a link to click for “On This Day Preferences”.

Step 3:
In the “On This Day Preferences”, you can filter out people you don’t want to be reminded of, or you can select a date or range of dates. In this case, we click the “Edit” link next to Dates.

Step 4:
On the proceeding screen, click “Select Dates”.

Step 5:
First select the Starting Date. In this case, we just go ahead and select the earliest year (2003) from the dropdown selection.

Step 6:
Click “Done” to confirm the dates

Finally click “Save” to finish the whole process. With the above method, you won’t see these “On This Day” Memories for at least a year from now.

Original Source: How to Geek

Original Source:  EntrepreneurFail.com

Original Source:  HJ-Story.com

Einstein’s start in life, if boiled down to a formula, would be something like this:

Source: Anna Vital.  Funders and Founders.com

Tinkering with a compass + contempt for school and authority + thought experiments + having an office next to a clock tower and a train station + a government job with a boss who turned a blind eye to what he did at work = genius.

Thinking Visually

There is more to it, according to Walter Isaacson, the biographer, Einstein was an obsessive reader. There was a school that practiced a new teaching method – a visual thinking method. There was a lover,  the only female physics student, who became a sounding board for Einstein’s early work. There was an uncle who was an electrical engineer, letting Einstein ticker with lights.  And another rich uncle in Belgium who was certain Albert was a prodigy ever since he was a kid.

How Einstein Really Started – A Thought Experiment

But what was at the beginning of it all? According to Walter Isaacson’s book, it was a compass. A five-year old Albert was lying in bed sick when his father brought him a compass to play with. Albert asked how it worked. No, just saying that compasses work because of Earth’s magnetic field was not enough. He wanted to know how it really worked.  He wanted to visualize it.

Since that encounter with a compass, and many books later, there was one book that especially stuck Albert’s imagination. So much that he started visualizing in his head everything he read in it. This book was People’s Book on Natural Science. The author specifically asked his reader to take an imaginary trip through space. And Einstein did. At 15, while walking around Italian countryside, he first imagined what it would be like to ride along a beam of light. That was his first thought experiment, one of many more that would later make him who he became.

About his thought experiments, Einstein famously said:

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

How Mark Zuckerberg really started is not how the movie The Social Network showed it.

Source: Anna Vital.  Funders and Founders.com

Mark Zuckerberg meets a computer

His father, although not an engineer, was an early computer enthusiast. Running a dental office he had a vision that computers would change the way people communicate. But for the time being he used them for taking scanning people’s mouths. At age 10 Mark was bored with school. His father noticed and introduced him to his Altair computer. Together they wrote a program that connected the computer at home with the computer in the office. They called it “ZuckNet.” It alerted doctor Z, as he is known, when a patient arrived. It worked better than having the receptionist yell, “Patient here!”

Mark Zuckerberg starts hacking

Mark quickly learned everything his father knew about computers. He started studying with a tutor. Then he started taking a college class in computer science while still in middle school. He read books. But he really started learning to code when he transferred to a private school where he met a programming whiz kid Adam D’Angelo. Together they started hacking. They made an artificially intelligent music player that learned the user’s music taste. Soon Microsoft found out about it and offered money and a job. Zuckerberg was not interested.

There is a running theme in how Mark Zuckerberg started. He would be offered millions and even billions at least 11 times since then, and every time he walked away. He might have a bigger plan every time.

Source: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World

Do most great entrepreneurs focus on one idea or pursue many? A quick look at billionaire entrepreneurs reveals that most of them are serial entrepreneurs.

Source: Anna Vital.  Funders and Founders.com

Entrepreneurs are known for being able to focus on one thing to the point of making it a reality. Entrepreneurs are also known for their ability to recognize business opportunities when they come. These two qualities can be at odds with each other: focusing on one thing while looking around for more opportunities contradicts itself.

For many new entrepreneurs there is a real dilemma here. Should you start a lot of companies, or should you focus your whole life on one, like Zuckerberg?

To answer this question, we collected data on world’s top-earning entrepreneurs – the self-made billionaires who made money through starting companies. This year, there are 1426 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. 960 of them are self-made, while the rest inherited their wealth. We focused on the business history of the 960 to figure out how they made their money. Specifically, did these billionaires make it from a single business, or multiple ones. After crunching the numbers we found that 830 of them made money from more than one business, while 130 derive their wealth from one business.
At the very least, it means that most of the top earning entrepreneurs in the world are serial entrepreneurs, having made money from two or more different businesses.
But what do we mean by “different” business?

How different of a business have these people done? We found the business ventures of the top five entrepreneurs with the most diverse backgrounds. As you look at their histories, you start seeing how they looked for opportunity but didn’t necessarily have a clear billion-dollar plan from the start.

How We Got Data on Serial Entrepreneurs

We analyzed profiles from Forbes Billionaires list and found self-made billionaires, who made money from multiple sources. From there we found entrepreneurs with the highest number of venture who are also the most popular as measured by Google Trends. We carefully analyzed the biographies of each billionaire-entrepreneur to compose a timeline of his ventures. For Richard Branson, to save space, we took only the most popular ventures, as the total number is 400 (according to Richard Branson Timeline of Ventures on Wikipedia). We also clustered very similar transactions as one venture.

The point at which each entrepreneur achieved a billionaire status is approximate. We used data from acquisitions of private companies, public offerings, and major stock price increases to gauge the time when these entrepreneurs hit the one billion milestone:

• Sheldon Adelson became a billionaire after building a casino in Macau, China, and taking the company public. This transaction alone increased his wealth 14 times making him the third-richest American at the time.
• Eric Lefkofsky owned 22% of Groupon at the time it went public at $12.8 billion valuation. Thus Lefkofsky’s net worth was over $2 billion.
• Mark Cuban was one of the co-founders of Broadcast.com, acquired by Yahoo! for $5.6 billion, a transaction that most likely made him a billionaire. In 2011, Cuban was No. 459 on Forbes Billionaire list, with a net worth of $2.3 billion.
• Elon Musk first became prominent as one of the co-founders of PayPal. When PayPal was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion, Musk owned 11.2% of the company, making him a multi-millionaire. He later became a billionaire, when the stock of Tesla Motors, a company he took public in 2010, rose 3 times. He owns a 32% stake in Tesla, which is valued at $5.82 billion, as of August 2013.
• Richard Branson most likely became a billionaire from his airline business that includes Virgin Atlantic (founded in 1984), Virgin Australia(former Virgin Blue), and Virgin America. His second major income source was his record business, that he sold for $900 million in 1992.

Self-Made Billionaire Serial Entrepreneurs

Bill Gates started out in a highly-educated family. But they were not programmers, not even engineers. Or technical people at all. So how did he start to be a genius hacker?

Infographic by Anna Vital.  Funders and Funders.com

His father was a lawyer. A very successful one. His mother a teacher. Reading magazines in middle school he first thought about how cool it would be to open a company. You could say that’s how he started – with a childish dream. Many kids have dreams though, so what happened next?

How Bill Gates  Started To Hack

Next, Bill Gates saw a computer at 13. The school he went to bought one machine and a teletype. He paid for the time to use it. When money ran out, he hacked into the computer to use it for free. Then he got banned by the school. Then the school realized he had a rare skill so they asked him to use the computer and help them find bugs. He started to be a hacker.

Started to Hustle

Next, Bill scored 1590 out of 1600 on SAT. He went to Harvard. Only to find himself unsure about where to start – as a pre-law major or as something else? Reading Popular Mechanics one day in college he read an ad about a new computer. He called them to say that he wrote a programming language for it. (He hadn’t.) He asked if they might buy it. He hadn’t even started to write the language. But, he started to be a hustler. And, yes, the computer company was very interested in buying.

Being a Workaholic

Next Bill sat down with his friend Paul from high school, and the two wrote that programming language that he talked about on the phone. Bill wrote 50% of the code, using Harvard’s computers. Bill coded all day long, slept at the computer, woke up and picked up programming exactly where he left off. Bill started to be a workaholic.

Being a Copyright Guru

When they were done, Bill flew to New Mexico to show this new language he had written called BASIC. The computer company bought it for $3,000. But Bill kept the copyright. Did he somehow know it would be worth a lot in the future? So he started to be a copyright guru.

Started to Visualize the Future

Five years later IBM knocked on Bill’s door to see if he had written an operating system they could buy. Bill hadn’t. But he said, “Yes.” Real quick, he found an operating system from another person in Seattle and bought it. With the copyright. Then he sold it to IBM. For a lot more. This was DOS. And without copyright – they never asked for it. “Who would pay for software?” they reasoned. It’s the hardware that people are after. Bill saw the opportunity to make people pay for software. Bill started to see the future. He was now a visionary.

Bill Gates Started to Be a Perfectionist

Then Steve Jobs showed up. He wanted Bill to write new software that was visual. Programs like Excel and Words. Programs that looked human. Bill got down to work. Jobs thought Bill’s team’s product was tasteless, but Bill kept at it. He got better and better until he got really good. Bill started to be a perfectionist.

Being a Visual Thinker

But Bill was not going to spend his life working on Jobs’ brilliant ideas. Ideas, after all, are worthless until executed. Plus, Jobs’ ideas were stolen anyway. And so it was fair game to do the same. Bill remembered where he saw this idea of visual interfaces – it was Xerox. And now he wanted to create a visual operating system of his own. He called it Windows. He started to be a visual thinker.

Being a Tough Cookie

When Jobs heard about Windows, he went ballistic. He lashed out at Bill calling him down to Cupertino. In front of ten Apple employees Jobs accused Gates for robbing Apple. Bill listened calmly and replied that Jobs stole the idea just as he did himself. Bill started to be a tough cookie.

When Windows launched, Bill visualized a world where every home had a computer, and that computer was running Windows. Bill started to become very rich. And as his vision materialized, by 39 he became the richest man in the world.

Sources:

• Walter Isacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
• GateNotes.com

Image Source:  Kanaka Shimura

McCann Milan, making good use of Optical Illusion, created a brilliant ad for non-profit organisation Exodus Fondazione, called the “Reverse Test”, which shows a road sign behind an empty glass, and water is then poured.  As the water level rises, the arrow on the road sign changes direction from right to left!

WATCH IT NOW:

WATCH ANOTHER: A Similar Experiment that uses Refraction:

Original Source:  500Startups

Image Source:  Statista, Economics A Level

Date: 10 Nov 2015

German automaker, Volkswagen, is offering $500 Visa Debit Cards and VW/Audi dealership credits to its 482,000 US diesel cars owners, in an attempt to compensate them for having installed software designed to cheat emissions regulations. It is said that the $500 Visa Debit Card can be spent on anything. The company will also give them 3 years of free 24-hour roadside assistance.

By accepting the offer, vehicle owners are required to visit www.vwdieselinfo.com, enter their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), their mileage and contact information. They also need to take their cars to the dealers to activate the gift cards.

To be eligible, consumers must be the registered owner of a Volkswagen diesel with the 2-liter TDI engine as of Nov. 8.

The vehicles included in the offer are the four-cylinder diesel versions of the 2009 to 2015 Jetta TDI, 2009 to 2014 VW Jetta SportWagen TDI, 2010 to 2015 VW Golf TDI, 2015 VW Golf SportWagen TDI, 2012 to 2015 VW Beetle TDI and VW Beetle Convertible TDI and the 2012 to 2015 VW Passat TDI. Owners of the 2009-15 diesel Audi A3 will receive also receive the offer.

The company sold about 482,000 of the vehicles with the cheating software in the U.S. and up to 11 million worldwide. VW is facing a criminal investigation in the U.S. and potential federal Clean Air Act violation fines of up to $18 billion.

“We are working tirelessly to develop an approved remedy for affected vehicles, in the meantime, we are providing this Goodwill Package as a first step towards regaining our customers’ trust.

– said Michael Horn, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America.

Affected owners must register for the package by 30 April 2015. This offer is only for U.S. customers.

VW dealers are facing a tougher time selling cars.

[graphiq id=”ehajIlos42p” title=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close)” width=”600″ height=”548″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/ehajIlos42p” link=”http://time-series.findthedata.com/l/1101468/Volkswagen-Stock-Price-Close” link_text=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close) | FindTheData”]

Original Source: VWDieselinfo.com

Prospect or Suspect – Do You Even Know the Difference?

Everyone seems to be a prospect (potential client), but how do you differentiate between a genuine Prospect and a Suspect (a broader audience).

Prospects  are further along the pipeline – they have shown strong signs of interests in your products or services, e.g. they have filled out their personal details, filled in a form to download your white papers, etc.  In essence, they see the value in you.

Whilst Suspects  might have heard of your products or services but would require a lot more pitching. A suspect is anyone who is in your database.

The objective is to develop marketing strategies to convert Suspects to Prospects:

1. Suspects need to be nurtured.
2. Prospects need to be made an offer to become a customer.
3. So always Impress a Suspect, but Educate a Prospect.

Image Source: Digital Trends

Europe as a region has the biggest share of diesel cars:

Percentage of Groups Total:
Peugeot                          42%
BMW & Daimler          40%
PSA                                  38%
Renault                          25%
Volkswagen                  25%
Ford                                20%
General Motors           10%
Toyota                            11%

Source: Wards Auto;  European Automobile Manufacturers Association.  Diesel Image Source from Telegraph UK.  Car Traffic Image Source from Indian Express.

Original Source:  Storypick’s Facebook Page

E.ggtimer.com – a very neat Countdown Timer running in your browser.

• 1/2 min
• 1 min
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Date: 2 Oct 2015

From 0 to 60 mph in just 3 seconds.

Model X is Tesla’s first SUV and third electric vehicle, and vows to be the safest and greenest SUV in history. There are two models: the P90D Signature and the sportier P90D Founder. They come with beautiful double-hinged Falcon wings which require about 30 cm of space on the side of the vehicle.

Its debut has been delayed various times due to production problems, in particularly due to the falcon-wing doors.  However, Tesla already has 30,000 reservations for Model Xs. Pricing start from $74,500 to $132,000 for the Signature series.

The Model X’s main competitors are other luxury SUVs such as Audi Q7 and BMW X5. It will be the only electric model in the luxury SUV segment until Audi releases an electric competitor in 2018.

Tesla delivers Model X, its first SUV http://t.co/fxBeFPAC7g pic.twitter.com/7qIMz24VYM

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 2, 2015

[graphiq id=”as6MDpIkGrP” title=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Stock Price” width=”600″ height=”615″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/as6MDpIkGrP” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12234646/Tesla-Motors-Inc-in-Palo-Alto-CA” link_text=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Stock Price | FindTheBest”]

[graphiq id=”fWMm1UZnfPT” title=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Revenue Last 8 Quarters” width=”600″ height=”502″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/fWMm1UZnfPT” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12234646/Tesla-Motors-Inc-in-Palo-Alto-CA” link_text=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Revenue Last 8 Quarters | FindTheBest”]

[graphiq id=”6kBBAxg3fUh” title=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Net Income Last 8 Quarters” width=”600″ height=”532″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/6kBBAxg3fUh” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12234646/Tesla-Motors-Inc-in-Palo-Alto-CA” link_text=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Net Income Last 8 Quarters | FindTheBest”]

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[graphiq id=”3AgOThCwYdf” title=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Free Cash Flow Last 8 Quarters” width=”600″ height=”532″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/3AgOThCwYdf” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12234646/Tesla-Motors-Inc-in-Palo-Alto-CA” link_text=”Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Quarterly Free Cash Flow Last 8 Quarters | FindTheBest”]

Tesla’s new SUV is ludicrously fast and ludicrously expensive http://t.co/VNZZrJWhXe pic.twitter.com/CulWrFiEuN — Vox (@voxdotcom) September 30, 2015

Meet Model X. Watch it live here http://t.co/Iag2iwIi0l #ModelX https://t.co/TkVQL5PP67

— Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) September 30, 2015

Original Source: Photos by Manufacturer John Lamm, Featured Image by Fortune

Date:  1 October 2015

A law banning smoking inside vehicles carrying children has come in force in many countries, U.K., Australia, Canada, France, etc.  Drivers and passengers violating the law will be fined – even if the windows or sunroof are opened.

Proponents of this Car Smoke Ban law, e.g. Lung Cancer Associations, are very pleased as the law strives to protect passengers from secondhand smoke and improve road traffic safety, for example, preventing the drivers from getting distracted and throwing cigarettes out of the windows.

Smokers and other opponents of this law insisted that you are way better off smoking inside a Volkswagen than breathing in while standing behind one. They argued “We have quite correctly brought in legislation against the harmful effects of smoking inside a Volkswagen, but where is the law about having one run its engine in front of you?“

Volkswagen owner Sanda Watson rebutes: “I don’t see the big deal to be honest, chemicals coming out of the exhaust don’t actually reach me inside the car, so I’m fine with it.”

“If you’re so keen to avoid breathing in any Volkswagen car fumes, then you should just go and live where there aren’t any Volkswagen cars, obviously.”

[graphiq id=”kTVNMqxYFRX” title=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close)” width=”600″ height=”520″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/kTVNMqxYFRX” link=”http://time-series.findthedata.com/l/1101468/Volkswagen-Stock-Price-Close” link_text=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close) | FindTheData”]

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[graphiq id=”eOv003AckdL” title=”Volkswagen AG ADR (VLKAY) Quarterly Cash Holdings” width=”600″ height=”502″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/eOv003AckdL” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/831412/Volkswagen-Group-of-America-Inc-in-Herndon-VA” link_text=”Volkswagen AG ADR (VLKAY) Quarterly Cash Holdings | FindTheBest”]

[IN CASE YOU MISSED IT] How exactly did Volkswagen cheat? http://t.co/hGzaRddtcA #VWGate pic.twitter.com/kvAFpy6ORn

— Eyewitness News (@ewnupdates) October 1, 2015

Volkswagen AG announces action plan to update diesel vehicles with EA 189 EU5 engines. https://t.co/0q7bdtiM2s — Volkswagen (@Volkswagen) October 1, 2015

Image Source:  Zimbio, Cicero

Please Click the green “Got It” button below to Start Answering the Poll!

[graphiq id=”1NzlbbMQdMh” title=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close)” width=”600″ height=”520″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/1NzlbbMQdMh” link=”http://time-series.findthedata.com/l/1101468/Volkswagen-Stock-Price-Close” link_text=”Volkswagen Stock Price (Close) | FindTheData”]

[graphiq id=”gUpF14NcN5X” title=”Volkswagen AG ADR (VLKAY) Quarterly Revenue Last 8 Quarters” width=”600″ height=”532″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/gUpF14NcN5X” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/831412/Volkswagen-Group-of-America-Inc-in-Herndon-VA” link_text=”Volkswagen AG ADR (VLKAY) Quarterly Revenue Last 8 Quarters | FindTheBest”]

Image Original Source: Daily Mail.co.UK

If you are one, then which one are you?  A Manager or a Leader?

People work for the Person, not the Company.
People leave their Manager, not the Company.

The Difference between Managers vs Leaders:

Org Charts can be like Morse Code.  In large organizations, you may sometimes need to decode it to find the real decision makers, upstream and downstream departments etc, the above interesting Org Chart was created by Manu Cornet, do you agree with it?

Source:  Manu Cornet

How do CEOs who sleep for only four to five hours daily can manage to function and run multimillion-dollar companies? appeared as a question on Quora. Below we are republishing an answer from Alexandra Damsker, a CEO of a successful startup.

I don’t have a multimillion-dollar company (yet), but I’m one of those CEOs who function on three to five hours of sleep.

No, there aren’t any drugs involved, nor is there poor management (as far as I know). It’s a variety of things.

First, reduce TV. You sleep much better, and do much more work, when you don’t watch much TV. Your brain is actually less active watching TV than when it’s sleeping. This dullness is addictive. My daughter becomes a giant mess when she watches too much TV — huge tantrums, crying, screaming, complete meltdown. She doesn’t want to eat or listen. It’s like she’s addicted, and I’m taking away her drug. My husband is very similar, without the actual crying. He just sort of grunts more. I’m not certain it happens with everyone, but I’d be surprised if most people aren’t highly susceptible to this “one more show” mentality, and the gape-mouthed stare is the death knell for good work, good eating, good sleep or good play.

I am so incredibly happy that I get to do my job. It makes me excited to wake up, to take the conference call I had today set at the incredibly ludicrous time of 6:30 a.m.

Second, limit carbohydrates. For me, anyway, they just make me sleepy.

Third, limit meetings. Same as carbs. Blah blah blah — hate just droning on, or being droned at. Nothing good comes of this.

Fourth, I actually have specific hours I need to sleep to do well, not a specific number of hours. It’s a quirk of my circadian rhythm, and it’s been that way since my 20s. If I can sleep from 4 to 8 a.m., I’m very happy. However, my home life doesn’t permit that, so I usually end up sleeping from 1 to 4 a.m., and 5 to 6:30 a.m. I have a hard time sleeping in the early morning hours, and love the morning.

Fifth, when I get a few energy slumps, I rely on some tried-and-true solutions: I switch tasks to things I really like (so I save that stuff for sleepy times). I hang out on Quora (dangerous, because I’m on here WAY longer than I should be. There should be a stopwatch or a clock on this thing … !) I go outside. I email or chat with someone personal (not usually on the phone — hate the phone.) I play a set number of solitaire hands. I read the news or one of three gossip sites I frequent (I’m not proud). Or, if all else fails, I take a nap. I usually sleep more on slower days or if nothing is happening on a weekend, but it works out

Sixth, and most important, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LOVE WHAT I DO. I love it so much! I am so incredibly happy that I get to do my job. I have days that suck. I have strings of days that suck. But they are just sucky days — my life is still pretty spectacularly awesome. It makes me excited to wake up, to take the conference call I had today set at the incredibly ludicrous time of 6:30 a.m., to take calls and go to meetings while visiting family, to get over shyness and speak to the stranger next to me on the airplane, to spend the evening playing with my daughter knowing that I’ll be working on a document until 4 a.m. and begging Kinko’s for something.

I mostly just think I am a very lucky person. I have a pretty supportive spouse, a fantastic kid, a wonderful dog.  I’m healthy. I’m privileged to run a company that is about to split into 2, with customers that are acolytes that spare me marketing dollars. People believe in me and my ability to lead, they believe in what I’ve created. I do something that I think makes a difference in the world. And today I’m having a pretty good hair day.

I don’t really worry about the sleep that I get. I get what I can, and do what I have to do every day. Everyone around me is trying to help me out (for the most part), I keep my priorities in order (my kid never suffers, I can’t make myself sick), and I just focus on what I have immediately ahead and in the near future, and what I need to get those done. I truly believe it will all benefit everyone in the end, and my support group does, too.

And that’s how I do it.

Original Source:  Read the original article on Quora by author Alexandra Damsker.  Quora is the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and get insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.  

Original Source: Infographic 1, 2, 3, OS X Daily

On average we live for 78.3 years.  Most of us remember people we meet after age 5.  Assume we interact with 3 new people daily in cities, 365 days in a year plus leap-year days is 365.24.  In total it will be (78.3 – 5) x 3 x 365.24 = 80,000 people.  Is it a lot?  How many people will you impact this life time?

Original Source:  Anna Vital

This below graphic would be helpful when ordering at Italian Restaurants:

Original Source:  Typologies

This seven and a half feet long Baymax bed can be bought on DeNa Store and can ensure you have a good night sleep!  It is made from polypropylene fiber and costs approximately 49,800 yen – that’s about 415 USD.  Who said money cannot buy sleep?

Original Source: DeNa

TOTO, Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer recently opened a Museum in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu, where the company is based.  TOTO has been called “the Apple of Toilet Tech” by many, and Chinese tourists like purchasing TOTO toilet seats, as the company offers a wide range of sophisticated temperature controlled customizable toilet seats.

The TOTO Museum exhibits the History of toilets, featuring toilets from around the world, and a Library of toilet-related reading materials, which definitely worth a visit!

Original Source: Toto Ltd

This infographic was created by WhoIsHostingThis.com which takes you through the 7 common online scams, for example, Scammers may ask you to install a Plugin that claims to show you How Many Times Your Facebook Profile has been viewed.  It is always good to re-visit these cases and protect yourself from fraudulent activities that might compromise your private online accounts, here are the Scammer’s Tricks:

Step 1:
Log in to your Gmail

Step 2:
Click “Compose” to compose a New Email, and then click wherever you want the Emoticon to appear inside the Body of the message.

Step 3:
Move your mouse cursor over the Smiley Face icon, and Click on your desired emoticon.
(alternatively, press “Ctrl-Shift-2”)

This Infographic was created by NextGeneration Recruitment, it summarizes how different the three generations are in terms of Education Level, Qualifications, Key Characteristics, Skills, and Work Ethics.  Do you feel the Generation Gap?  Do you agree with this Infographic?  Write your Comments below.

Nowadays, we all send and receive a few hundreds of emails everyday, how do you add an Emoticon to your Email Subject to capture the recipient’s attention?  One way is to Copy & Paste from FSymbols.

Step 1:
Go to FSymbols and you will see something similar as above.

Step 2:
Click your desired Emoticon, and a pop-up Window will appear:

Step 3:
Just Copy it, by pressing “CTRL-C”

Step 4:
Open up your Email client, and Paste it in the Subject (“CTRL-V“):

That’s it!  Use Emoticons Sparingly.

Extraordinary!

Original Source: Best Health Degrees

Magical Maths, can you figure this out?

Visual Multiplication with Lines:

Alcohol Gifts created an infographic offering insight on what happens to your body 24 hours after drinking a beer.

[findthebest id=”fcdza7NQSrP” title=”Beer Calories Converted into Fast Food Items” width=”600″ height=”741″ url=”//www.findthebest.com/w/fcdza7NQSrP” link=”http://conditions.healthgrove.com” link_text=”Beer Calories Converted into Fast Food Items | HealthGrove”]

Original Source: Alcohol Gifts

A little red book appeared on the desks of all of Facebook’s employees after the company reached 1 Billion users in late 2012.  Little was known to the public until recently.  The book contains lots of motivational quotes explaining Facebook’s company mission, vision, culture, values, etc.

Former Facebook designer, Ben Barry, who created it, published a series of scans from the book, here they are:

Facebook was not originally created to be a company!

It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.

The Little Red Books on the Company’s Shelves:

Changing How People Communicate will Always Change the World:

That means each Facebook engineer is responsible for approximately 1,000,000 people using Facebook!

Moving Target, Myopic yet Long Term:

The Admirable Company:

[findthebest id=”1X9hqnYmHKB” title=”Facebook Inc. (FB) Stock Price” width=”600″ height=”615″ url=”//www.findthebest.com/w/1X9hqnYmHKB” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/14143267/Facebook-Inc-in-Menlo-Park-CA” link_text=”Facebook Inc. (FB) Stock Price | FindTheBest”]

Beautiful Printed Pages:

Neither Snow, nor Rain, nor Heat, nor Gloom of Night Stays these Hackers from the Swift Completion of their Code:

The Quick shall Inherit the Earth — Fast is better than Slow.

When you don’t realise what you can’t do, you can do some pretty cool stuff:

If you don’t do something, somebody else will:

Barry and Everett Katigbak co-founded Facebook’s print studio – known as the Analog Research Lab!

Original Source: Ben Barry’s Website

Everyone has that one client from hell.  The one who monopolizes your time, frustrates the entire staff, and makes unreasonable demands.  If you’ve got more than one, you probably spend 3 out of 4 weekends in office.  If we apply the Pareto principle (or 80:20 rule) to the agency-client relationship, 80% of an agency’s resources are utilized in managing 20% of its clients.

Two things are crucial here:

1.  If these difficult clients don’t generate majority of the revenue, you need to start diverting your resources to the ones who do.

2.  If the difficult ones happen to be your highest billing clients, here are a few useful tips to help you identify and manage them effectively.

Original Source:  Ciplex, Digital Synopsis

Today’s Smartphone/Internet-Addicted Generation is brilliantly depicted in these posters by author Ajit Johnson. Check them out below:

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  Indeed, Shirley シャリー・ウｵン, mother, bento artist, blogger, and cookbook author based in Singapore, created these beautiful “Kawaii Bento”.  Her first bento cookbook “Kawaii Bento” launched in Dec 2014; whilst her second cookbook “Kawaii Deco Sushi” was launched on 11 July 2015.

Original Source: Little Miss Bento’s Facebook page; Little Miss Bento’s Instagram

The above was created for South China Morning Post by Alberto Lucas Lopez, an infographic journalist.  Click here for the full-sized image.

WATCH NOW: 8 Things you can do with Water Illusion Number

Apple Stores are rumored to introduce beautiful Accessories Displays, while at the same time, allegedly streamline the number of 3^rd party products on its shelf, like that to the store recently opened in Upper East Side (located on 940 Madison Avenue, NY), according to a report by Macotakara.

“Uniform White Packaging for 3^rd-Party Accessories can be seen at the new Upper East Side Store as pictured below.” – Macotakara

The report also noted that accessories such as iPhone Cases were placed on Wood cabinets. It is not known for certain whether future Apple Stores’s theme would also be wood or if it is just exclusive to the Upper East Side Store in New York City.

In any case, everyone looks forward to newly redesigned stores by Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and Apple’s SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts!

Original Source: Apple Insider and 9to5mac.com.

WASHINGTON 17 MAY 2015. Apple CEO Tim Cook gave commencement speech to 2015 graduating class of George Washington University: “Someone has to Change the World — it might as well be You.”

The Sidelines are NOT where You want to Live your Life.  The World needs you in the Arena.”

Cook started his speech with humor: “Please silence your cellphones before getting into the speech.  For those of you with an iPhone, just place it in silent mode,” he said “If you don’t have an iPhone, please pass it to the center aisle.  Apple has a world-class recycling program.”

Graduates, Your Values Matter. They are your North Star.  This is the one thing I’d like to bring to you all the way from Cupertino, California: the idea that great progress is possible, whatever line of work you choose.”

Tim Cook challenged graduates to make a difference:

“There are problems that need to be solved, injustices that need to be ended, people that are still being persecuted, diseases still in need of cure,” said Cook,  “No matter what you do next, the world needs your energy, your passion, your impatience with progress.  History rarely yields to one person, but think and never forget what happens when it does.  That can be you.  That should be you.  That must be you.”

He recalled his first meetings with the Steve Jobs in 1997, and how they changed his life.

“In 1997 and 1998, Apple had been adrift for years, but Steve thought it could be great again,” Cook said. “His vision for Apple was a company that turned powerful technology into tools that would help change the world for the better.”

“The process of discovering yourself, of inventing yourself or reinventing yourself, is about to begin in earnest,” he said. “Work takes on new meaning when you feel you’re pointed in the right direction—otherwise, it’s just a job.  And life is too short for that.  We need the best and brightest of your generation to lead.  You don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. Find your North Star, let it guide you in life and work and in your life’s work.”

Cook ended his address by taking a Photo of the graduating class with his iPhone.

I love Starbucks and I make sure all my drinks have Fresh Whipped Cream added on them. Artist @Sleevebucks‘s wonderful drawings undoubtedly would make your drinks even more appealing!

Starbucks barista and redditor Carpe_Natem recently discover a customer’s coffee cup had a beautiful map drawn on it – based on the film “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”.  More photos of this unknown artist’s coffee cup are available on Imgur.

photos via Carpe_Natem