Let me back up a little. A few months ago, the team I work on started discussing standing desks after we all read an article about how sitting all day at work shortens your lifespan. A few of us wanted to try it out, but it’s a challenge to get your desk raised to standing height and once it is done, it’s not easy to get back to normal sitting height. This means if we made the switch, it would have to be more or less permanent. We shelved the idea and decided that when we move to our next office, we will have them build our workstations to have both standing and sitting desks so that we could easily switch back an forth when we wanted.

However, one of my co-workers, Daniel Slaughter, decided a few weeks ago that he didn’t want to wait anymore. Armed with a box and some trash cans, he built himself a makeshift standing desk. Soon after, our manager, Dave Poortvliet, started standing up as well. After seeing their success for a couple of weeks, I decided that I would also jump on the standing bandwagon. So, last week, I grabbed myself a box and a couple trash cans and built a standing desk.

As you can see, it’s a little DIY, but it gets the job done quite well. My monitor and laptop stand are sitting on upside down trash cans. The keyboard and mouse are sitting on a regular shipping box that we had lying around. One of the added benefits of this is that I can quickly remove the box and convert my desk to sitting if, for some reason, I want to sit for a long period of time. Since I didn’t want to have the office buy me a new, higher chair, this works out really nicely. Though it isn’t pictured, I also have a nice anti-fatigue mat to stand on that the office bought for me. It helps a lot.

So, after working like this for a few days now, I have to say, I am loving it already. I won’t say it is easy to stand all day. My legs do get a little tired by the end of the day and I’m a lot more exhausted when I get home at the end of the day. Though, I could argue that’s a good thing. I think that proves that my body is doing a lot more work during the day than it did before, which can only be beneficial to my health.

There’s a lot of things I really like about it, other than the obvious health reasons. First, I’ve noticed my posture getting better. I force myself to stand up straighter during the day. When I catch myself slouching, I straighten up. Second, I find that I’m a lot more productive. There has been a lot of talk about standing desks leading to productivity and I have to agree so far for me. I’m much less likely to get distracted at work by Facebook or news articles and when I do venture off task, I’m much more likely to get back on track quickly. I have no idea why this is, but it’s an interesting observation. Finally, I enjoy work a little more. I don’t know what it is but I feel less zoned out sometimes. Even though I’m still at my desk all day, I’m moving around more, which makes me feel more active and engaged. Sometimes, I’ll even catch myself dancing a little. Which, if you’ve seen me dance, is a little embarrassing.

All in all, I’m excited to keep standing up at work. The switch so far has been really nice and other than a little soreness in my legs and feet, it has been painless. If anyone wants to experiment with this and there workplace allows it, I would highly recommend it. Here are some helpful pointers that I’ve figured out so far. First, make a temporary desk that you can easily dismantle if you get tired. Or if you have a laptop, clear some space that you can sit down and work on the laptop. I find that at lunch and at a few times during the day, I like to sit down and take a break. I’m sure these breaks will be less frequent as my body gets used to it, but it’s helpful in the adjustment phase. Which brings me to another tip of sitting down occasionally while you adjust. Finally, get an anti-fatigue mat and work barefoot if you can. The first day I stood up, I was wearing my shoes and standing on the hard ground. My feet were killing me by the end of the day. I figure that your shoes are meant to support you while walking, not standing around. And the mat adds just enough cushion to keep you comfortable.

Do you have experience standing up at work? Do you have any questions about making the switch? Hit me up in the comments!

Of course, my younger, more vigorous self thought this was something that someone could just work out a little and go do. Over the years since watching Ironman on TV, I had all but given up on my dream of being called an Ironman.

That is, until last year. In September, I started running for the first time since I was in high school. Ever since I stopped playing football back then, I have slowly gained weight, year after year, before hitting my peak of 240 lbs last year. At points, I had tried working out. I attempted to eat healthy here and there. But nothing seemed to work and eventually, I would just give up. I wasn’t happy with myself. I hated the way I looked but more importantly, I hated the way I felt. Overeating made me feel disgusting. Sitting behind a desk all day and then going home and sitting in front of a TV all night made me feel worthless. It was time for a change.

This is me at my biggest - 240 lbs

I don’t know what sparked me to do it but one day, I decided “I’m going to run a 5k”. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it. I wasn’t looking to become a runner. I just wanted to say that I finished a 5k once in my life. My goal, back in September was to be ready for the River Bank Run in my hometown of Grand Rapids. That race is in May. I figured that was a good 8 months to get ready. Then I heard about a 5k at my alma mater, GVSU, for homecoming. This was at the end of October and only about 8 weeks away. I decided that was going to be my first race. So, I began training with a program similar to Couch to 5k (though slightly different and, honestly, not as good. I would recommend C25k to any aspiring runners).

At first, I hated it. Well, I didn’t hate it, but it was really hard. However, it was rewarding and I wanted to keep going. After a few weeks, running started to become fun. And, surprisingly, it became something I looked forward to! There were many nights that I couldn’t wait to fall asleep so I could get up the next morning and go for my run. Running started to become easier and easier and it became a relaxing time of the day where I could be alone. I never could have imagined that working out could feel like that.

Eventually, race day came and I nervously lined up with a bunch of other people who looked like they were going to leave me in the dust. I had no idea what to expect but I figured I would end up being the last person to finish, in front of the walkers. Fortunately, I had my amazing sister with me (who herself is an avid runner) and she agreed to stick with me, no matter what. Honestly, without her during that race, I would have given up a number of times. No matter how hard you train, nothing prepares you for that first race. I went out too strong and by the second mile, I was dead and ready to walk. My sister kept pushing me to keep running and run I did. I ended up finishing my very first 5k in 28:35, which was under my goal time of 30 minutes. As I crossed the finish, I found it hard to keep my emotions in check. There were several times that I nearly broke down and cried. Somehow, I fought back the tears and hugged my mom and sister and thanked them for all the support. It was the most accomplished I have ever felt.

With my sister after finishing my first 5k

After that, I was hooked. Running was in my blood now and I couldn’t wait for the next race. I couldn’t wait for the next run! Over the next few months, I continued running but more importantly, I started cleaning up my diet. There’s something about working out regularly that makes eating right so easy. Days when I was lazy with my diet, I felt it in my run. And so I tried to stop being lazy with my diet. Feeling good while running was a great motivator. Soon, I was passing on lunch with co-workers to eat my salad and fruit instead. My portions at home started to become smaller. Before I knew it, 6 months had passed since I took up running and the scale was telling me I was 40 lbs lighter. But more important than what the scale told me, I felt better than I have ever felt in my entire life. Clothes fit me correctly. Food tasted better. I didn’t feel disgusting after I ate. I had more energy throughout the day. The world just seemed like a brighter place and I couldn’t wait to get out and explore it.

Finishing my latest 5k in February - 40 lbs lighter!

So here I am, in March of 2012, feeling better than I have ever felt before and I want more. I’m at 200 lbs now and my next weight goal is 180. But I don’t really worry too much about weight now. It’s more about how I feel. Yeah, I probably want to eventually be around 160, but as long as I continue to feel the way I do now, I don’t really care too much about what the scale says. I judge my progress towards my goals in a different way now. Remember how I started off talking about Ironman? Well, here’s where it finally comes back in.

My current big, long-term goal is to finish an Ironman by the time I am 30. That’s a little less than 5 years from now. It still seems crazy to me, but then again, 6 months ago, running 5k seemed crazy. To this end, I have a progression worked out. In May, I will be running in the River Bank Run. However, I will be doing the 10k now instead of the 5k that I challenged myself to back in September. Then, this summer, in June, I will be competing in my first triathlon, the Grand Rapids Triathlon, in the Sprint distance (that is, about .37 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike and a 5k run, 3.1 miles). This fall, I’ll continue to ramp up my running by doing the half-marathon in the Grand Rapids Marathon. In 2013, I’ll return to the River Bank Run to run the 25k this time (about 15.5 miles). In the summer (as long as I actually enjoy the triathlon), I’ll do an Olympic distance triathlon (a little less than a mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 10k run, about 6.2 miles). In the fall, I’ll once again return to the Grand Rapids Marathon, this time completing the full. The following year, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing running wise, maybe more half and full marathons, or maybe even getting crazy and trying an ultra-marathon (anything over 26.2 miles). I do know, however, that Summer 2014 will be the year I do a half-Iron distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run). If all goes according to plan, that will hopefully put me on target to compete in my first Ironman in 2015, at the age of 28.

Of course this is all subject to change based on a number of factors. I want to make it an aggressive goal so I keep my eye on the prize and also to allow for a little room to meet my 30 year old goal in case something goes wrong in the next 5 years. And of course, I’ll still be doing more 5k and 10k races in here. And probably other distances as I figure out which ones I enjoy running.

I wrote this post for a couple reasons. First, I find that it is incredibly motivating to have your goals written down in a public place for everyone to see. There’s a lot of accountability knowing that anyone could potentially call me out for not completing my goals. It really helps keep me on track. Second, when I was starting out (heck, in my mind, I’m still starting out), I found stories of other people’s journeys to be incredibly inspiring. My hope is that someone might stumble across this post and feel inspired to take that first step towards living better.

Christmas this year, with my beautiful girlfriend (who has also lost a lot of weight!)

With that, I want to close with the most important lesson that I’ve learned so far. No matter what you choose to do, make sure that you enjoy it. Trust me when I say that it will never work if you don’t enjoy it. I struggled for years with diet and exercise because it always felt like a chore. It was something that I didn’t want to do, but that I had to do. I no longer feel that way. Running became something I wanted to do, not had to do. Same with eating right. It was something that I enjoyed because I felt good and I liked what I was eating. There’s not a single plan in the world that will work for you if you don’t enjoy it. Maybe running won’t be your thing. You might find you love taking a karate class. Or maybe just hiking in the woods with your family. Only you know what that is going to be. But you won’t find it until you get out and start trying some things. I wish you the best of luck on your journey. If you need some encouragement or just want to share your own success, don’t hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.

My girlfriend and I have been seriously working on saving money over the past couple of months. For her, it is because she is a poor college student. For me, I want to pay off all of my debt and save money for various things. However, this makes it difficult for us to go on fun and interesting dates. It’s also hard for me personally because I’m extremely old fashion, so I insist on paying and since I kind of like her, I enjoy planning nice things to do with her.

And with a face like that, who can blame me?

With all that said, recently, most of our nights together involve making dinner at home and curling up on the couch to watch a movie or TV (currently, we are speeding our way through Boy Meets World. Old school, I know). Quite honestly, we both are pretty content in this life. We love to cook and we are pretty happy doing just about anything with each other. Still, sometimes, you just want to get out.

You can only take so much of this

To that end, last night, we were sitting in my apartment, contemplating what to do with the evening. Faced with another night on the couch with Cory Matthews and friends, we decided to see what was showing at the cheap theater nearby. After watching a few trailers, we decided on a little movie called Like Crazy and set off to the movies. After the show was out, we were a little hungry and were debating if we should just go home and eat leftovers. Suddenly, my girlfriend had the brilliant idea of going to a local restaurant we both like, Twisted Rooster, and sharing an appetizer and our favorite entry, fish tacos. This was a great solution to saving money and eating less (another goal we are both working on). After a delicious dinner and a great movie, we went home satisfied that we not only had a great date night out, but also did it on the cheap. Total cost for a movie and dinner for 2: $30. I’d say that’s a big win!

We also occasionally go into space.

Do you have any suggestions for dating on the cheap? Share them in the comments!

I have loved computers for as long as I can remember. From the early days watching my uncles fix our family computer, to learning about how the Internet works in high school, to studying Information Systems in college, I have loved learning about technology my entire life. I have watched the web grow and evolve my entire life and have come to expect that anything and everything can be found there. We have an amazing and unprecedented resource available to us. Something that mankind has never had throughout our existence. SOPA and PIPA are steps towards censoring and, I fear, ending one of the greatest resources on the planet.

In our current economic climate and in these trying times, protecting business is important. And I understand the role that protecting copyright has in this need. But these two acts are not the solution. Simply stated, they go too far. They will stifle innovation and entrepreneurship on the web, one of the biggest areas of growth for our nation. So, I ask you, please stand against these legislation for the people you represent.

Respectfully,
Nicholas Nelson

It can’t be understated how much of an effect Steve Jobs has had on not only on me and the field that I work in, but on our society in general. It seems odd to talk about the CEO of a tech company like we talk about Steve, but there was no one with a vision for how technology could make our lives better like Steve. Whether you use (or like) Apple products, his work has had a profound affect on the technology that you use.

I have no doubt that my children and my children’s children and my children’s children’s children will be learning about Steve Jobs in the way that I learned about Edison, Einstein and Franklin as a kid. At a time when people were doubting that anybody would ever need a computer, Steve was putting one in every home. While we were all still buying CDs from Best Buy, Steve was revolutionizing the digital music industry. While we were all addicted to our primitive Blackberries, Steve saw the possibility of the world in our pockets. While everyone was stuck thinking of computers as boxes on our desks or laptops in our bags, Steve was dreaming up a revolutionary tablet that would change the way we think about computing. His contributions to the world of technology are unprecedented.

I could go on and on about the way that Steve changed our lives. But it’s simple enough to say that because of Steve and his vision for design and functionality, your grandmother can use an iPad. And not only can she use it, but she understands and enjoys it more than any other computer you could possibly give her. Steve brought technology to a level that is usable and enjoyable by everyone. That alone is reason to celebrate this man.

Steve will be greatly missed by a world that looked for his vision and passion for technology and the way it could change the world. Rest in peace, Steve. The world is a less magical place without you in it.

Mentions

History

I still remember when these nifty little things were in their infancy. I remember when it was just starting out and you would put @rob at the front of a tweet if you wanted to reply to your friend Rob, even though his screen name was likely not Rob. As Twitter grew, this was no longer possible, of course. And slowly, Twitter began to incorporate @s into the service, first just as replies, then later as mentions.

How they are used

To properly use a mention on Twitter, you will first want to ask yourself “is this something that I want the person (or organization) that holds the account to see?”. Or, more importantly, is this something they need and want to see. Said another way, these are meant to be a conversation with the account holder. You want them to know you tweeted this and/or you want them to respond. The most obvious case is when you want to reply to someone’s message. Most Twitter clients and even the website have this feature built in nicely. The other case would be, perhaps, when you want to get the attention of a person or company. For instance, if I wanted to tell my friend Dan that I got the concert tickets for us, I might tweet something like “Hey @danielslaughter, I got those tickets!”. Or maybe I just bought a new pair of jeans from the Gap and I want to tell them how great they are: “Just picked up a really sweet new pair of jeans from @gap”.

When to not use them

You should not use mentions when you are talking about a subject and you want to group these messages together, even if the subject is an organization that has a Twitter account. We will talk more about this when we discuss hashtags, but here is an example of how not to use mentions: “Man, that writing exam was hard! @gvsu”. In addition, you should not include a mention in a tweet that has nothing to do with the subject. For instance, even though I am a member of the @gvwebteam, I don’t need to include this in every tweet. You should not do the following: “Going out to the bar to get wasted. @gvwebteam”. Not only is that a good way to annoy people, but it is also a good way to get fired!

Hashtags

History

Hashtags have also been around for a very long time, though they are just now becoming popular among Twitter users. Hashtags were originally used to pull in tweets to a 3rd party site where people could go and search for tweets about a particular topic. This really helped users to find information about a topic they were interested in and for organizations to group all the chatter about their event in one place. Adoption was slow at first, but once Twitter started to include these in the service, they became highly popular and are used quite frequently today.

How they are used

Hashtags should be used when you are talking about a topic or want to group the conversation about something in one place. Even if you are talking about an organization or person that has a Twitter account, if you do not directly want that account to be notified or they will not find anything useful in the notification, you should use a hashtag. For instance, if I was going to Bonnaroo, I might want to tweet “Heading to #bonnaroo! Can’t wait!”. This way, people who are searching for #bonnaroo will find my tweet. In addition, people who follow me can click on that hashtag and see others who are talking about that subject.

When to not use them

Obviously, based on what was said above, hashtags shouldn’t be used when you want to directly mention someone and want them to be notified. For instance, if I wanted to tell my girlfriend how much I enjoyed spending the day with her, I wouldn’t want to put: “Just had a wonderful day with #annethel!”.

I hope this little summary of mentions and hashtags helped those who are confused about the subject. We should all try as best as we can to adhere to these standards that have been established by the users and are encouraged by Twitter. In this way, we can make Twitter useful, organized and, most of all, fun! If you feel like I have made an error above, have any questions about this subject, or just want to provide your own input to this subject, feel free to comment below!

Reid Hoffman
Partner at Greylock Partners

Introduction

Web 1.0 was a very low bandwidth environment. We went out and searched for files. HTML, PDF, Flash, etc. We went into cyberspace not as ourselves, but a different person

Web 2.0 mixes our real life and the web. Our presence online is our real personality. The apps are used to help us facilitate our real life connections. Blogging, social networks, mobiel, etc.

What is web 3.0?

What people have said

• Bandwidth
• Mobile
• Video
• Location

We are generating massive amounts of data with all of our activities online. What we should be looking at for the future, for web 3.0, is what we are going to be doing with all of this data.

Challenges

• Privacy
  • What are corporations doing with this data?
  • What are governments doing with this data?
• Truth vs. Lies
  • With all the data being generated, how do we know what is the truth anymore?
  • Many people will stop basing decisions on their own thoughts, but data provided

The Data

Rule 1: Never ambush your users. Ensure that you a trustworthy with your data collecting from the data.

Rule 2: Not all data are created equal. Identifying information is more important to protect.

What can we do with the data

Mashing up data from our website with other websites to make it easier to navigate the data to find useful information. Example: taking “tag” data on LinkedIn and comparing that with skills on Wikipedia to find marketable skills to add to profiles. Mint.com mashes up our financial data with data from other users and helps you make decision on your spending by comparing it to others. Also, they look at what a lot of people are spending money on and try to bring in offers to help people save money.

Creating Web 3.0

10 rules of entrepreneurship

1. Disruptive change: when you start something, think “is this new and game-changing?”
2. Aim big: is it going to affect the whole industry?
3. Build a network: networks enable us to have a distributed intelligence store.
4. Plan for good and bad luck.
5. Maintain flexible persistance
6. Launch early enough that you are embarrassed by lack of features
7. Always keep your aspirations and aim high, but don’t drink your own kool-aid
8. Having a great product is important, but it’s more important to have a great method of product distribution
9. Pay attention to the culture of your hires from the beginning. They will be hiring the next group of people.
10. These rules are not laws of nature. You can break them.

Presented By

Genevieve Wilkins
Creative Director at DCI Group LLC

Michael Cooper
Web Accessibility Specialist with W3C/WAI

Introduction

The 50+ demographic is the new target market on the web. Our vision decreases as we get old and people are living longer. Therefore, there are more people over 50 that are on the Internet.

WAI – Web Accessibility Initiative

Focused on making the web accessible to people with disabilities. Part of the W3C. The goal of the W3C is to make the web accessible to all, so the WAI springs out of that. Founded in 1997, 3 years after the W3C.

How the Web Impacts People with Disabilities

• Perception of content; the output from the computer
• Interaction with content; can you input into the computer?
• Understandability of content; complexity, structure of content.
  • Some people may have learning disabilities.
  • Visually impaired people use a 1-dimensional approach to the Internet, while visual users use 2-dimensions.

Assistive technologies sometimes but not always used to help with these issues

• Output
  • Screen reader
  • Screen magnifier
  • Braille display
  • Captioning
• Input
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Speech
  • Switches

WAI Guidelines

• Guidelines
  • Authors: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
  • Authoring Tool Developers: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
  • Browser and assistive technology developers: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)
• Technologies
  • Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA)

Designing for Accessibility

• Accessibility is both a design and technology issue
• Some issues are principally design (e.g. color scheme, page layout)
• Some issues involve good use of technology (e.g. proper encoding of features like headings, regions, lists, etc)
• A good design reduces need for technological accessibility features, and makes it much easier to implement them when needed
• Universal design: designing for all users makes a better experience for even those without identified special needs

Guidelines Support Materials

• Background
  • WCAG Overview
  • WCAG 2.0 at a Glance
• Guidelines
  • WCAG 2.0
• Support materials
  • Understanding WCAG 2.0
  • Techniques for WCAG 2.0
  • How to Meet WCAG 2.0

How Often to Standards Change?

Guidelines change as technology changes, however the guidelines are written to be as technology independent as possible. The techniques change often, depending on the technology.

Phil Zimmermann
Zfone

Sorry for the lack of formatting and the random nature of the notes. Just trying to get down the things he is saying.

When PGP was first founded, it was to protect against governments. Now, organized crime is becoming the new threat model. Spam, botnets, phishing scams, etc are the new threats to the average internet user. The most popular target for identity theft is children because they don’t do much with their identity.Most crimes are known about very quickly, but identity theft can take much longer, especially in the case of children. The crime itself depends on you not being aware of the situation. The Pentagon spends lots of money on situation awareness, which are systems that help know what is going on on a battlefield. Situational awareness is something we should have on our side when our identity is at stake. The criminals are banking on our lack of situational awareness. We focus a little too much on digital signatures, but those can be spoofed. We need to step away from our computer screens a little and live in the analog world.

Hugo Liu
Chief Scientist at Hunch
@dochugo

Jennifer King
PhD Candidate at University of California at Berkeley
@kingjen

Mat Harris
CEO at BizGreet Inc
@matharris

Noah Weiss
Project Manager at Foursquare
@noahweiss

Vijay Ravindran
Chief Digital Officer at The Washington Post Company
@vijayravindran

Why is personalization important?

Life is too short to see random stuff. We have the ability and the data to show you relivant data, so why can’t we? But it is important that users understand where the personalization comes from and how you know this data about the person. If someone wants to know why, there needs to be a pathway to tell the user why they are seeing this. There also needs to be a way for the user to turn it off if they are uncomfortable with it. Users don’t read privacy statements, and they don’t read it when you change it. We need to take back privacy from the lawyers. Great relationships come from intimacy and customers want to be intimate with a brand. But it must be done right. This is as important as supply chain optimization in the 90s. It is affecting our economy.

What is the line between great and creepy personalization?

Trust is fleeting once you have violated it. Expectations is crucial. The user needs to have control over what is shared and what is personalized. And the privacy should be the most strict when the user starts. Start conservative to gain trust. “Don’t try to get laid on the first night.” But don’t hide your intentions. Personalization should be a dialog with the user.

Should personalization always be opt in?

Users don’t always understand what is going on behind the scenes. With a single facet model, the user might understand (Twitter, Foursquare) but when a user is being tracked across multiple sites, it is much more confusing and creepy, so these should be opt in. Product design is like designing a building. You wouldn’t make a building that isn’t easy to get out of, but there are a lot of online communities that are hard to opt out of. Opt in can be an opportunity to get the user to provide more data, or better customize their experience, if they understand the benefit they will see.

Customization vs. personalization

Customization is allowing the user what they want to see and what they don’t. Personalization is about using data to derive information about the customer.