The book explores the seemingly small factors that can create epidemics both good and bad. It was interesting to be run through several examples of things that changed because of factors that we would often overlook. I recommend it on audio book, played double speed.

There’s a good synopsis of the book at Notes of Intelligence.

Oddly enough, the sum of tips from the following articles is the answer to life, the universe and everything. How can you not check out these articles from Smashing Magazine about optimizing the design of your website?

1. 8 Tips to Help Your Website Convert
2. 10 Useful Web Application Interface Techniques
3. 9 Common Usability Mistakes in Web Design
4. 10 Principles of Effective Web Design
5. Five More Principles of Effect Web Design

Thanks to Michael Sanders for the tip. I think I’ll be reading Smashing Magazine more often now.

I just stumbled across a myriad of free online resources for learing. Here’s my top 7 list of things I’d like to learn for free.

1. Self-education on advanced business concepts from The Personal MBA(tm).
2. A political science course or some lectures on entrepreneurship from Academic Earth.
3. Just about anything on YouTube EDU.
4. Brush up on my German, learn coversational Hebrew or Mandarin Chinese from Learn10, podcasts from OneMinute Languages or Mango Languages.
5. Religious scripture classes from BYU with my wife.
6. Something that sounds great like, Economic Analysis for Business Decisions from MIT.
7. Course lectures from Cal Berkeley on iTunes U.

Yes, it is possible to have your own Outlook signature! Take a look at the following instructions, and use mine as a reference. It has a professional and casual signature and a little installer to get them in the right place.

Novice:

Open Outlook and select Options from the Tools menu. When the dialog box opens, select the Mail Format tab and look at the Signatures section. You’ll be able to set your signature for new messages and for replies and forwards. While I use my professional signature for new messages, I have decided to use a more casual signature for replies and forwards. Make your choices and then click on the OK button to save it. You’re done!

Expert:

1. Drop txt, html and rtf versions of your signature in C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

2. In Outlook, Tools|Options|Mail Format|Signatures. Pick your signatures.

3. Done.