ZsoltBalla.com

The beauty of aging gracefully

Zsolt Balla — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:57:56 +0000

This Esquire Photoshoot demonstrates why I love men’s magazines (more specifically, why I love Esquire).

The 60-picture photoset illustrates four key ages of a woman’s life, with an array of beautifully average models between the ages of 18 and 53. The pictures are associated with a quote (sometimes witty, sometimes wise), a name and a job: the very core of being a woman in the early 21st century.

The slide show is well worth clicking through all 60 pictures and giving a few seconds and a thought to each one of them.

Reminiscing over the web in 1996

Zsolt Balla — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:01:40 +0000

This article is not exactly new, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s about how the online world worked back in 1996 (written in 2009). The Jurassic period of the web, as the piece’s author calls it was, obviously, very different from what we live in today. There were no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Wikipedia – the sites that defines our current daily paths on the internet -, let alone Google, or even Hotmail that were to be launched in the upcoming months and years.

The point of the article, of course, is that if we find it so amusingly remote how the web looked like thirteen (now fourteen) years ago, will we find it amusing how the web worked in 2010, when we look back on it in ten – fifteen years?

The pace of development, is, obviuosly huge, technologies change, big players come and go, but if you ask me, the answer to that very question is no.

Apple is China, Apple is Disney (or what?)

Zsolt Balla — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:02:02 +0000

Apple is both like China and like Disneyland, according to internet entrepreneur and journalist Tristan Louis, who has an essay on the subject up on Business Insider.

According to the thought provoking and provocative piece Apple is like China, based on its arguments in the Adobe vs. Apple war, and Apple is like Disney(land) because it tends to provide an ever so steril, ever so clean and shiny, but ever so closed environment for both its users and its developers.

Which is, of course, fine with some 95% of its users, but, unfortunately for Apple, the 5% turns out to be the the loudest part.

We will not judge Apple or Louis, but the article certainly makes an interesting read.

Site speed is a Google ranking factor

Zsolt Balla — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:35:44 +0000

It is worth noting that after a long period of rumors, expectations, and guessing, Google now officially announced that it takes site speed into account when assigning rankings to potential search results while crawling web pages.

According to Google, making faster websites is beneficial both on the cost end (by reducing operating costs) and from the user experience’s point of view.

According to an internal study driven (and quoted) by Google, if a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there.

While the importance of site speed, among many other factors is relatively small at this point (around 1%), leaving most sites unaffected, the aim proclaimed by Google, a half-second download time for a certain website seem to be beyond reach for many players on the internet.

The secret of highly addictive games

Zsolt Balla — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:39:08 +0000

If it was that simple, everybody would create instant gaming hits, like Bejeweled, Farmville, Tetris and their likes, but really: the secret of highly addictive computer games is simple: simplicity.

Simplicity in rules, and a wide range of complexity in levels, from a no-brainer rookie level to an astonishing world-cup stage for professionals (with gazillions of invested work hours in most cases).

All other things, like design, effects or even, background story only follow the simplicity based user experience, and, in reality, add very little to the game’s value.

Wired Magazine is now (in cooperation with the creators of Bejeweled creator Jason Kapalka) revealing the secret of addictive games. In not more than a few paragraphs (simple, isn’t it?)

Bejeweled Creator Spills Secrets of Addictive Games

The brief history of wireframes (including their future)

Zsolt Balla — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:22:53 +0000

Made by Many has just featured an interesting piece on the history of wireframes (1999-2010), and their possible uses by actual designers now (read: their future).

Wireframes have changed a lot from the early days, when application functionality was lightyears away from design elements. As the two got closer, both the function and the making of wireframes have changed completely. The process now includes the client (who now can read wireframes), and in an ideal world it would end up in a better product.

The article is quite long but it is worth the read.

Pixar president Ed Catmull on creativity, leadership and the power of teams

Zsolt Balla — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:13:08 +0000

In this thrilling interview (made by Economist’s Martin Gilles) Pixar founder and chairman Ed Catmull talks about how a creative company should work to produce the success story Pixar is today.

My Favorite Quote: “I don’t like hard rules at all. I think they’re all bullshit”

Via: Scott Berkun

How to stay motivated after losing your job?

Zsolt Balla — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:23:52 +0000

Follow our tips to stay motivated during the most difficult period of your carreer!

Layoffs, nowadays, can happen anytime, to anyone. In the times of crisis and recession, you don’t have to be a second-class employee to wake up one day and find yourself losing your job. Even worse, it can happen totally unexpectedly.

How to stay motivated after a layoff

The airline industry has an apt term describing the first ninety seconds after a disaster. They call it “the golden time”, because if you are able to act quickly in this short period of time, your chances to survive the plane crash dramatically increase. Similarly, rapid and appropriate action is inevitable if you want to stay on the surface after unexpectedly losing your job. Follow our tips to do just that.

Don’t panic

You’ve read Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, haven’t you? Avoiding panic is the first and most crucial rule if you find yourself in a situation to which you were unable to prepare.

Unlike a plane crash, losing your job won’t threaten your life in any way. Although it may endanger your carreer and it may also cause long-term damages, there’s no real reason to panic. Chances are, that you’ll just find another job, and everything will return to a normal daily schedule, but being laid off can also be a possibility to find a better job, than the one that you’ve just lost. You don’t know what’s ahead, but it may have been the best thing that could happen to you.

Update your resume

You’ll have to dust off your resume as soon as possible. This step is crucial, firstly to “get you in the mood” for looking for a job, secondly to draw a balance of your last position.
When you update your CV, by filling in your responsibilities and achievements, you will be able to see clearly what you have gained from the last couple of years.
You have surely become more experienced, more mature and ready for bigger challenges.

Get What’s yours

Sure, your boss has told you that the company was in trouble, and they regret it, too, but don’t let yourself be lured into generosity towards your own company. They’ll never return the favor.
Talk to a lawyer and ask for everything that’s yours. It’s useful to know the Labor Codes in most countries are very biased protecting the employees: you can ask for a broad range of things, as the employer will do its utmost to avoid a lawsuite.
A win-win situation may not be achieved (as you are losing your job in the first place), but get the most of the situation for yourself, and don’t let emotions drive you.

Prepare a plan

Losing your job definitely hurts, but it’s a huge opportunity to step back and evaluate your career from a slightly bigger distance. Before you start looking for a job, you will have to know exactly what you are aiming for. Ask yourself whether you want to stay in the same industry, or start something completeley different. Ask yourself if you aim for a first class position at a smaller company, or you settle for a lower post, but you want to work for the market leader. Don’t miss this opportunity to start over, if that’s what you really want.

Use your network

It’s essential that you don’t feel ashamed of your situation. Tell your friends and partners about it, but instead of complaining, focus on the fact that you are free to be hired. Use all available resources, like the numerous social networking websites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and tell your old classmates about the position you’re looking for. Send them your CV as well – if they can’t help you, they may forward it to someone, who can.
If you’ve been building a “favor bank” while you were in your previous position, there surely are a couple of people out ther, who “owe you one”. Now it’s high time they return the favor.
Never underestimate the power of your personal network.

Relax

If your previous period was really stressful and busy, just feel free to recharge your batteries before you dive into an active job search. Give yourself a couple of weeks, spend time with your family, find a hobby that you always wanted to do, just never had the time for it. Start studying something, be it a new language, or a professional skill you lacked. The time and money you invest in yourself will surely pay off, when it gives you a carreer boost.
Looking for a job requires a real effort, so make sure you get ready, before you start it. When you begin attending job interviews, you’ll have to make the impression of a competent and a confident candidate. If you haven’t slept for weeks, you’ll fail.

Start freelancing

You may not be able to find a new position immediately, but you’ll almost definitely find works that are need to be done. Start freelancing, or temporize with part-time jobs, even if you want to go back to a cosy full-time employee position.
The experience you gain and the references you collect will make sure that the “carreer gap” between your last position and your new one is not wasted time.

Photo: ramenlover

Ben Barden: “I play to my strengths”

Zsolt Balla — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:36:17 +0000

Ben Barden is a versatile guy, busy with blogging, coding and occasionally composing. The 28-year-old blogger, who is the mastermind behind the increasingly popular Top Ten Blog Tips, and the Zen Working productivity blog tells us about moving to a different continent, his new venture of launching an advertising network for bloggers and why IT people shouldn’t make excuses.

How much of your grown-up life have you spent with blogging?

I had a LiveJournal account as far back as 2002, and wrote an occasional personal blog on my site from 2005 onwards. I didn’t get into blogging “seriously” until November 2007, when I started writing about blogging and website tips without the jargon. I launched Top Ten Blog Tips, my current blog, in late 2008.

Was it a linear growth and development, or was there a trigger point when you decided to “take it seriously”. Did you have a particular reason or motivation to do so?

Well, the personal blog only had a handful of readers, and I got sick of talking to myself. I wanted to write about something that people would actually want to read. It wasn’t much fun posting and getting 0 comments time after time. Once I started writing about blogging and website tips, the blog had a fairly slow but steady growth.

Was it an all-linear growth, or did you discover something to give it a sudden boost?

The only major growth spurt was after I moved to Top Ten Blog Tips. Many of my subscribers moved across, but there were quite a few people who stayed subscribed to the old site. So I decided to kickstart my new blog by writing a guest post at ProBlogger.net. This significantly boosted my subscribers.

I guess I was one of the many, who joined in back then. You seem pretty versatile. Is it because you hated school and preferred to learn a lot of things you were interested in but they never taught you?

Well, school has a bit to do with it, but I didn’t completely hate school, just didn’t like some of it. When I was younger there were a lot of things everybody else seemed to be able to do without a second thought, especially stuff like sports, and I was never that good at anything like that. Since then I’ve found a number of things I am good at. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I play to my strengths.

What brought you to Australia? How come there are so many bloggers located down under?

When we lived in the UK, my wife and I worked full-time, we were well paid, we had no children, and no personal debt – and we were still unable to buy a house. All of those are still true in Australia except for being able to afford a house. But having done it, we have come to realise it wasn’t what we wanted after all. As for Aussie bloggers, the thing about Australia is that it’s a big country and quite spread out. Blogging is a great way to meet new people and I think this may be why blogging is popular here.

How long did it take to reach financial independence? Have you managed to reach it, by the way?

I have a lot of things going on, but I haven’t yet crossed over into making any serious money online. I have made some, but we’re talking a few hundred rather than anything close to making a living online. Many of my projects are done simply because I enjoy doing them. Though it would be good to make some more money, I’d rather have a regular job and enjoy what I do online than do things I don’t really enjoy just to make some money. Blurring the lines between the two is something I haven’t mastered just yet.

You are planning to launch an ad network shortly. What will make it special?

CMF Ads is run by three bloggers who understand the needs of advertisers and publishers alike. We’ve placed loads of ads and we know what it’s all about, we know the target market very well. Our widget will allow a site to run multiple ads on the one widget, with each ad running for 30 days, and the ad that is shown on each widget is random. Costs are low – the base rate is 5 credits, or $1.25, to place an ad for 30 days (although this can be increased if needed). The publisher will get 100% of the credits paid for each ad on their site, which they can use to place more ads or they can cash out, at which stage we’ll take a cut. This is the only tax in the system, which is to cover our costs.

Which social networking site is your favorite one? Is it also the one that brings the most traffic to your sites?

I like StumbleUpon for finding new sites, it’s also been a good source of traffic. Twitter has been good for me too. Those are the main ways I promote my blog at the moment, along with commenting on other blogs.

What do you do to avoid blogger burnout symptom?

Posting three times a week instead of every day. Writing lists instead of a mass of long sprawling paragraphs. Planning my posts before writing them – I list the headings first, then once I have 10, I write the detail.

Plus, it helps to enjoy the process of writing new posts.

What will be the main difference between the state of the blogosphere now and one year from now?

Other than new versions of blogging software, more social networks, greater use of Twitter, more people starting blogs but probably just as many people quitting blogging altogether… not much.
You know, some people have these crazy predictions about the future of the web, and I think too many people get caught up in the technology – hey, a new social network, ooh a software upgrade.
What I’d LIKE to see is people stopping to think WHY they want to blog instead of just jumping right in, then realising they have no readers because they don’t have a clear focus for their blog. I’d also like to see fewer blogs that assume everyone is a PHP developer who uses WordPress, and more blogs that write original content that isn’t only for techies.
Oh, and less of the “Web 2.0″ buzzwords, too. It’s the web, it can’t be versioned.

It’s a bit odd (but nice) to hear it from someone who actually is a php developer. You say on your sites that you okay with your age, still, I proved unable to figure out how old you are…
I may be a developer, but I’m still a user of other people’s applications, and I use my own, too. I can see why tech people go to tech conventions, but what they need to remember is that though technology may be cool and all that, you need to make it do something that people will want to use.
A big issue I have with social networks is that they all do the same stuff- you sign up, log in, you can make friends, send messages, maybe post blog entries… but there isn’t anything particularly compelling with the majority of these sites.
Part of the reason I got into IT was because I was sick of having IT people making excuses for things like bugs or missing features. Once you know how things work, you know when someone’s being up front with you or if they’re just making excuses.

You moved to a different continent to spend most of your days in front of a computer. Have you managed to keep your off-line friends, relations all the while?

Some of them yes, but life moves on, and it is very hard to stay in touch with friends when you move abroad. Even if I’d stayed in the UK, I’m sure we would’ve drifted apart, mainly due to finding a new job.

Facebook is a godsend, but there is only so much you can do when people don’t reply to messages.

Who is your blogging hero?

I’m not sure I can answer that question. Things seem to be in a period of transition at the moment, as quite a few of the blogs I was reading in 2008 have slowed down, disappeared, or haven’t kicked off since Xmas and New Year. I don’t read a lot of the bigger blogs because they seem to post more often than I can keep up with. I do read ProBlogger but he’s had a lot of guest posts, and a lot of them don’t interest me.

What I will say though is that interacting with other bloggers is what makes blogging so enjoyable. Reading and commenting on blogs is something I love to do. The true heroes of blogging are the ones I interact with each week.

More on Ben:

Turnip of Power’s interview in August, 2008

Jamie Harrop’s interview with Ben in September, 2008

The Twitter dilemma: how to tweet value in 140 chars?

Zsolt Balla — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:11 +0000

If you like this article, subscribe to my RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter!

Everybody seems to be nuts about Twitter these days, and although I’m a real greenhorn compared to some of the Twitter-Top-Guns, even I find myself checking my Twitter homepage before opening my mailbox first thing in the morning. Those who use twitter for professional purposes agree that, the key of a successful Twitter profile is constantly sharing (rather: tweeting) value with your followers.

how to share value on twitter

When I first read these words of wisdom, a pretty natural question popped into my mind: how the heck can you share value in 140 characters?

I was unable to answer this question aptly enough, so I’ve plowed through a couple of thousand tweets to find some real value on Twitter. Here’s what I’ve found.

How to share value on Twitter?

Share a read!

It’s easy, because you don’t have to squeeze it into 140 characters. Just punch a title and a URL, and you’re done. If it’s your own piece, add: New blogpost, if it’s someone else’s that you’ve just come across, add: Reading.

It’s always more valuable, if you share someone else’s articles or posts (and similarly, it is more valuable for you if someone else is sharing your ones), but as long as the read you’re offering is valuable and not completely off-topic, feel free to push your own stuff, too.

Share a tip

A tip or advice can arrive in the form of a tweet (you have to be really smart to give an advice in 140 characters, but I’ve seen people succeeding), or in the form of an URL. Tips, advices and how-to-s are always worshiped by Internet users, and Twitter is no different.

Share a handshake

Twitter is a networking site, after all. Say hello to a friend, who just joined the conversation, welcome your new followers, or say goodbye to someone who’s going to sleep a couple of continents away when you’re slurping your morning coffee. You can do it in a direct message as well, however, if you do it publicly, you show their Twitter names to all of your followers, and they’ll just love it.
People come to Twitter to garner attention, so everybody will appreciate a bit of extra limelight.

Share a hug

Attention, fame and referred visitors are one thing, but people also tend to like the idea of being popular. If a tip you received was helpful, say thank you. And do it in front of the crowd of your followers. If your fellow-Twitter(er) made you happy, you should return the favor. (Hint: you can also show your gratitude by ReTweeting the original tip, for the sake of extra publicity).

Share a wink

Be useful by not being so useful all the time! After all your Twitter-friends are not just cold machines. If they tweet that they’ll try to make the most of their day, tell them, you keep your fingers crossed. If they complain about the London weather, tell them it’s the price they pay for the awesomeness of Marmite. Make their day in 140 characters. What can possibly be more useful than that?

Share a laugh

It’s a professional world we’re living in but everybody will appreciate a good laugh. If not, he or she will immediately unfollow you. And that’s the way it should be.

Do you have any other ideas how one can share value in the 140 characters provided by a Twitter Tweet? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. And if you liked this post, let your followers know!

Photo: nathan