Kimber Lockhart is Director of Engineering at Box, where she leads the web application engineering team that builds most new features on Box.

Launched in 2011, Kimber was responsible for #newbox, a major redesign and rebuild of the Box user experience which marked a turning point in the company’s transition to the enterprise market. She’s especially interested in Box’s virality and usability, dreaming up, testing and implementing countless improvements over the last three years.

Prior to Box, Kimber was co-founder and CEO of cloud computing startup Increo Solutions, funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. At Increo, she led the creation of Backboard, a web-based service that allows users to share and review documents in a secure space. Increo was later acquired by Box, in 2009. Keep reading to find out more from Kimber about Box!

If you could describe the essence of Box’s culture in one word, what would that be?

Collaboration. Not only do we build enterprise content collaboration software, our culture really values collaboration: its embedded in the way we work. For example, it’s not unusual to see a few Boxers at a whiteboard talking through a tough code issue or a bunch of designers huddled around a single monitor given feedback. We work hard to maintain this culture, we do not hire people — even experts — that cannot work as a team.

Describe your favorite part of the office.

Probably a duo of rainbow-hued armchairs right next to my team’s workspace. I like to settle in with a project (my favorite is pulling data to solve a problem), a coffee and a couple of hours of time.

How would you describe the best day you ever had at Box?

At a recent offsite, I took all forty members of my team through an exercise to think about our ideal team, product and company at the end of 2013. Even though a number of team members were brand new employees, there were some fantastic suggestions. Most importantly, it was extremely rewarding to see the entire team come together to think about how we can do what we do even better.

Describe your workspace—what does your immediate work area look like?

I have the standard Box standing/sitting desk (though I haven’t quite gotten the standing desk thing down, I still sit when I need to work on anything important). Behind my desk, there’s a stash of supplies for important events — bean bag unicorns for new employees’ graduation from our training period, photo frames for the results of our hack days, and, of course, Kardboard Kimber.

Kardboard Kimber is a larger-than-life-size cutout of me, a holiday gift from the team in 2010. I’ve tried to get rid of her on multiple occasions, but the team just won’t let it happen.

How would you describe the quintessential Box employee?

Enthusiastic and multitalented. Most Boxers are modest, but if you dig deep enough, you learn that one is a former world-famous juggler, and another played professional football (soccer) in Europe, and another was the world-champion baton twirler a few years back. On a stroll through the office, you might encounter a few published authors, at least two trapeze artists, and more than our fair share of stand-up comedians. Boxers are known to apply this same enthusiasm and dedication to their Box roles, and I think that’s a key reason for our success thus far.

Describe one unique/goofy/crazy/weird/quirky thing your team does for a little fun.

We celebrate Boxiversaries. On each team members one year anniversary of being a Box employee, we bring champagne to their desk. After the obligatory speech, the entire team gets together to toast their accomplishments over the last year. At the two year and three year Boxiversaries, the celebration gets a little crazier and the speeches sillier.

If there was one thing you could describe to an outsider to make them feel like a Box insider, what would that be?

Imagine walking down for lunch amongst 600 of your colleagues, selecting your choices from our delicious catering, and crowding into every possible space to sit or stand. On the stage is a hilarious MC, who spends time making up interesting facts about new hires or staging pie-eating contests. After some fun, he turns the microphone over to Aaron Levie (our CEO) for a competitive or product strategy overview or perhaps to Dylan Smith (our CFO). Before heading back to work, it’s likely someone has been honored for spectacular work (or at least for spectacular pie-eating)!

Stephen Harris is the co-founder of Ninja Kiwi, a developer and publisher of flash web games and mobile games. He started Ninja Kiwi in 2006 with his brother Chris. Ninja Kiwi recently acquired Scottish mobile gaming studio Digital Goldfish, which increased Ninja Kiwi’s number to 34 full time people. As a game-maker, here are some of Stephen’s insights into how Bloons Tower Defense was created.

Bloons Tower Defense is a flash web game. We made it when it was just myself and my brother in the company back in late 2007. We took our popular Bloons game idea and worked a tower defense game around it. It was pretty successful straight away so we made a sequel, Bloons Tower Defense 2. A few months later we made Bloons Tower Defense 3 – and that became the first mobile version which was simply called Bloons Tower Defense. This is where things get kind of interesting! Bloons TD4 took much longer to make than the previous ones, given that the competition for eyeballs in the flash gaming space was really starting to ramp up. Production value and length of play was increasing all the time. Add to that our pride to make BTD4 much much better than the previous ones. It took many months but our small team put it together and it was a massive hit. I did all the coding and most of the game design but by then we had a full time artist to help make it look awesome. When it went over to mobile we knew the strength of the brand “Bloons TD4″ was so strong that we had to call it that on mobile even though it was technically only the second BTD to go to mobile. It was a huge hit on the  iPhone. I was somewhat creatively drained after btd4 so we waited a full year before starting on the next one (did other projects in between). The bar was pretty high at this point so there was huge pressure to make it bigger and better in every way. Luckily by then we had expanded our staff enough to be able to really get some quality in. December 2011 we finally got the web version out and it was again an instant hit. One year later it came out for iPhone, getting to #2 on the US charts inside of 9 hours with no Apple feature.

Each iteration of Bloons Tower Defense has been bigger, bolder, deeper and just plain better than the previous. Each version of the game has had innovations that made it stand out from other contemporary TD games, but each time it has become more difficult to come up with new stuff that people will find fun but is also innovative and interesting to work on. Early versions of BTD introduced “on track placeable” items like road spikes and monkey glue which allowed players to have more direct control over how and when they pop bloons, and to get them out of a sticky situation. Bloons TD4 introduced terrain specific towers (the monkey buccaneer) and moving/flying towers (the monkey ace). In Bloons TD5 we introduced tracks with dynamic moving parts, tunnels, special missions (with unique and interesting rule sets) and activated abilities (powerful abilities with cooldowns that are activated when you choose). In addition we added stuff like special agent towers, monkey lab upgrades and tower specialty buildings. Specialty buildings and Monkey Lab upgrades were a way for players to further customise and really own their BTD experience.

The original BTD aesthetic was based off of the original Bloons puzzle game art, which my brother Chris drew. That art style, although a bit dated and clumsy drove most of the brand for several years. By the time we made BTD4 it had evolved to a much slicker look, but still with those roots. For BTD5 we decided it was time for a fresh look. We wanted the art to remain bright and friendly, but it was time for the monkey to lose a few pounds (he was kind of round). We had Tamihana (artist) draw a few tower and monkey concepts and we finally settled on the current look. The rest of the game and the interface just followed from that look.

As a player, I love finding new tower combinations that work well unexpectedly. I love that even when I’ve played the game 100 times in 24 hours and I’m sick of it yet I still really have to test this one thing, I still end up just playing to win. As a designer, I love that everyone who likes the game feels their strategy is the best or that they have learned some secret knowledge on how to beat the game. The true secret is the game is actually pretty easy and all the towers are designed to be fun to play and to essentially kick butt, at least on the easier difficulty settings. The trick is to make the game feel like it’s really working you over pretty hard, but that you can still prevail.

We wanted to deliver masses of content and awesome stuff and basically just blow people’s socks off. From BTD4 we went from 4 upgrades per tower to 8, including the all new activated abilities. That said, regarding towers at least, I thought that might be enough and that adding new towers for new towers sake might cheapen the whole game. I realised though that the perception for our fans would be that we were lazy because we didn’t add new towers, and that they would not enjoy the depth of the game until they’d played it a fair bit (all 8 upgrades per tower). So I came to my senses that we needed at least 2 new towers. We added the Sniper and the Ninja Monkey, both of which are among the most popular and are now firmly rooted in the Bloon TD world. No one on the team was particularly pleased at this huge scope creep, but it was the right decision.

The original Bloons game concepts (in 2007) just had a disembodied dart and aiming arrow used to shoot bloons. Towards the end of the game development we threw in a character just to make it look more friendly, and naturally chose a monkey. The notion of monkeys popping bloons just exploded from there I guess.

I think BTD5 will continue the legacy of the Bloons Tower Defense series as a leader of the genre, at least regarding web and smart phone games. There are several notable tower defense games that are right up there (Kingdom Rush, and the exceptionally awesome Plants vs Zombies to name two) but I still feel BTD5 adds so much more content, depth and value than any other. I also believe our innovations in the genre often become standard for other TD and defense games that follow.

Here to share the inside scoop on Klout is Katelin Holloway, Director of People. As described by a coworker, “Katelin has been there practically since the beginning. She not only understands our culture like no one else, she lives, breathes and inspires it.” Read on!

If you could describe the essence of Klout‘s culture in one word, what would that be?

Resilient. Klout is discovering new and completely uncharted areas of the internet. Pioneering isn’t easy business; it takes conviction, audacity, and might. Above all else, it requires resilience. We’ve built an incredibly strong team that can weather any storm. We stand together, in the name of influencers everywhere.

Describe your favorite part of the office/campus.

I love the kitchen. As in any home, the kitchen is the heart of the company. It’s always alive and buzzing – from informal meetings, to breaking of bread, to the afternoon PBR. I’m pretty certain all of the truly important decisions are made here, not in the board room.

How would you describe the best day you ever had at Klout? What made it so great?

Kloutoberfest, Holiday Party, Halloween – it’s nearly impossible to choose the best day at Klout ever! If I had to cast a vote, I think it would be the Klout Talent Show this last summer. To celebrate a fantastic summer semester with our interns, the team huddled up and performed for one another. We had a fire dancer, rappers, ribbon dancers, and musicians. Seeing how incredibly talented this team is outside of their roles at work was inspirational! The interns topped it all off with a Klout version of “Call Me Maybe”. Adorable!

Describe your workspace—what does your immediate work area look like?

My coworkers constantly give me grief for how tidy my space is. Being in HR, there’s no room for mess. Organization is key! Besides my spectrum of highlighters and Sharpies, our team proudly sports the Holstee Manifesto. And I keep close to Finance because they always have all of the good treats.

How would you describe the quintessential Klout employee?

Kloutlaws, as we call ourselves, are a very unique brand of people. We are not afraid. Every single day we strive for excellence: in our code, in our business, and in ourselves. We don’t abide mediocrity. We don’t waste time on b.s. We ship, iterate, then ship again. We are transparent in our interactions. We are more than a company – we are Kloutlaws. Together, we ride.

Describe one unique/goofy/crazy/weird/quirky thing your team does for a little fun.

At Klout, we value an employee’s dedication to the team. We celebrate employee anniversaries with a fury! Jed Shearer, one of the first Kloutlaws, recently celebrated his 2 year anniversary. We hosted “The Jed Games” to honor Jed’s commitment to Klout. I can’t give away the details, but it involved Rice Krispy Treats, the CEO spilling himself over the front handles of a scooter, and a pretty intense obstacle course. And true to his namesake, Jed took home the trophy at “The Jed Games”.

If there was one thing you could describe to an outsider to make them feel like a Klout insider, what would that be?

Bone up on your old school rap. 2Pac, Biggie — get ready to spit some lyrics and get down on the dance floor. Klout loves a good 90′s dance party! If you don’t know, now you know…

Matthieu Malot, lead artist of EDGE Extended, shares with us a bit of background and inside information on EDGE (Mobigame‘s multi-awarded and critically loved game) and EDGE Extended.

EDGE 2006

There is nothing narrative in EDGE, and it is difficult to talk about a genre for EDGE. With David, before the release we hesitated a lot between a puzzler and a platformer. Finally, journalists and comments in the store mostly call it a puzzler, I would more say platformer, because it’s a lot about instant reflex and synchro. The gameplay is very simple it’s just rolling a cube on it’s edges trying to find the final point inside dynamic mazes to unlock the next level.

The game design is really sharp so we decided to keep the aesthetic very pure. David loves the work of MC Esher and I love the work of Vasarely, but most of the artistic choices were decided by one rule: make it more simple, remove what you don’t need. I even removed the colors for the background…

EDGE 2007

The cube you play is multicolored and flashing, the first EDGE designed in 2008 was a java mobile game, and it was a nice trick to get a dynamic cycling colorful sprite with this limited technology, so we kept it and of course it is also a cool color effect used in lots of Nintendo games as a super power.

As a player, I like that the levels are difficult and sometimes really unfair for the player, I love to rage on a game. But some people give up because of that difficulty. So we put some cool sequences with animated blocks (like short interactive cutscenes) to reward the player during his progress.

Sometimes I play a level and I still enjoy it, we took our time but I think it’s nicely balanced.

The product that came to market didn’t differ that much from the first screenshot mock up I made, it was already isometric, but with a white background and a red cube.

Multi cube test

The game design has been improved while we were creating the engine. There was no original game design for this game just a really cheap demo were you could roll a cube on a grid and try to balance it on its edges, but the feeling was there.

The game realesed on iPhone in 2008 was a port of a java game, made only with 2D tiles and incredible code tricks. It was only bitmaps, there was no polygon at all. But now that we have retina displays and hi resolution screens the game is rendered in real 3D with antialiasing.

In 2008, our team of only two people, entered in the Barcelona Mobile World Congress to get in touch with the mobile gaming industry, but with only one entrance ticket and neck badges for the two of us. There were a lot of guards to filter entrance at each floor so it is a nice memory of an epic infiltration with cooperative challenge to avoid guards, however the gameplay was real.

Level Edition

I don’t know if EDGE Extended will/did have any influence in its game category, I hope its legacy will be that simple does not mean ugly or bad, and also that sometimes level designers are real jerks!

Today, Phil Kench has shared some inside information about Shazam where he is the Senior Product Manager. Read on to find out more!

If you could describe the essence of Shazam‘s culture in one word, what would that be?

Flexible! Shazam has many demands of its team serving media recognitions of Music and Television across many markets, and the team is really good at pulling together to solve problems and evolve the product, regardless of their formal roles in the company.

Describe your favorite part of the office/campus.

Hard to narrow down – there are two:

In the middle of the hub where our iOS development team are located, there is good banter when the team are at work on building new features out.

But… There’s also the kitchen, a naturally social area, where Shazam’s various bakers often deliver cakes and cookies.

How would you describe the best day you ever had at Shazam? What made it so great?

Probably after Shazam v5 came out on the iPhone and seeing the user feedback on the lightning fast tagging – in fact, it’s the fastest tagging in the industry, with results in as little as one second. It had been a lot of work for the team, but really paid off.

Describe your workspace—what does your immediate work area look like?

Nothing too radical, a couple of screens, a release history, quite a few iPhones of different eras, and, now that I look, an awful lot of post-it notes.

How would you describe the quintessential Shazam employee?

Quick to learn, open to change, experimenter.

Describe one unique/goofy/crazy/weird/quirky thing your team does for a little fun?

The competitive hot chicken nugget eating ended fairly quickly, but more recently our very own bagpipe player on the team has been recording audio for our internal testing, which injects a slightly surreal moment when you hear it played back.

If there was one thing you could describe to an outsider to make them feel like a Shazam insider, what would that be?

Shazam is a little piece of magic to our fans, and like all magic, the result is impressive, and hides all the work it took to produce. Everyone at Shazam knows their hard work goes into producing those moments of magic, because it’s worth it for our quarter of a billion users around the world.

Are remote workers a good investment? This is, not surprisingly (given the times we live in), a burning question that affects the entire workforce and economy to some extent. In recent years remote workforces have become a staple in the tech sector, yet there are signs of blowback as companies like Yahoo! decide to reel in remote workers or give them the axe. There is something to be said for seeing people face to face; it’s why Steve Jobs designed Pixar’s HQ building for impromptu bump-ins. At the same time, there is a lot to be said for remote workers. Jason Fried of 37signals is a big proponent Here to help you make up your mind on the subject is the DailyTekk Think Tank. As you’re about to discover, remote workers are generally smiled upon by the panel.

Yes, But It Takes an Investment

Companies should definitely employ remote workers if they’re prepared to make the investment of time, culture, and resources. Remote employees—those who don’t report daily to a corporate office—still require management, attention, staff development, and regular face time with their colleagues. They come with the same amount of overhead and expenses, just different types. But the benefits far outweigh the costs (StackExchange’s David Fullerton has a great article in Fast Company on that very topic this week.

Over 35% of Mozilla’s global workforce—full and part-time employees, contractors, etc—are what we affectionately call “remoties.” And that’s before I count the thousands of volunteers who aren’t even employed by us that contribute every day.

Remoties often struggle to feel connected to those of us who work in offices, and we invest a lot into travel for workweeks, team building, and face time to counteract it. But we also get to hire the best people, no matter where they are and what life circumstance are keeping them in their current location. To stay effective and cohesive, we adapted our culture. Today we flow seamlessly in and out of chat rooms, video conferences, and collaborative document editors to work with people around the world. I have staff in five timezones who I speak with daily. It’s not an event—it’s just how we work. Some days I wonder why I bother going to my office, when I spend most of it on a video chat with my team.

This model isn’t for everyone, and we’re not perfect at it either. I won’t judge those who think it’s organizationally not a fit, who aren’t prepared for the investment, or who feel it’s not right for their strategy. And besides: they’re leaving some incredibly talented people out of their hiring pool as a result— more for the rest of us.

Ryan Merkley (@ryanmerkley) is Chief Strategy Officer at Mozilla, where he recently launched the Webmaker initiative, helping users of the web become makers of the web.

YES! This Is The 21st Century

My answer ia a big YES! This is the 21st century and technology allows us to break free from the limitations of physical location to work across geographical boundaries and time zones. Marissa Mayer’s recent edict that prohibits remote working arrangements will prove to be a short sighted attempt to motivate her employees and will fail miserably.

The key with all this is flexibility. While working from a remote location is not always the best arrangement in all situations; without that option, the organization will miss out on greatly enlarging their pool of possible contractors and employees who may not reside in a near-by physical location and either not willing or able to travel to a central office to perform their work tasks. I love Jason Fried’s stance and philosophy about business and Melissa Meyer could stand to learn a thing or two from him.

It’s the results of the work that matter. If I were Marissa Mayer, I could care less where and when that work was performed, as long as it met company objectives and expectations and preferably exceeded them. Sure, it’s always good practice to schedule time when your team can meet and collaborate in person which helps deepen working relationaships more than remote interaction can. A balanced approach tends to work best. Instead of dictating how your staff has to work, senior leaders should be encouraging ownership of work and make it their prioirty to build trust with their staff. Only then will the entire organization truly succeed.

Marty (@martymcpadden) is the founder and CEO of PodJamTV Productions who also blogs for the Huffington Post.

Yes, How Else Would They Get Work Done?!

If they don’t, how else are they going to get anything done? I don’t know about you, but most of my meaningful work gets done between 5 to 9, not 9 to 5. I’m with Jason Fried on this. While all of our employees come in to the office everyday, when real work needs to get done, it’s GTFO of the office time. As Fried has said, developers and designers often need long, uninterrupted periods of time to get meaningful work done.

When someone taps you on the shoulder or starts a conversation across from you, it rips you away from that place you were. That place where time stands still and you have absolute clarity about what needs to get done. That place where you are under the hypnotic suggestion of the productivity fairy. That place where your brain rewards you with a constant drip of dopamine as you see the results of what you’re creating. A place that, if allowed to stay there, will add more value to the company in 4 hours than a typical 40-hour work week with distractions, interruptions, meetings and manager inquisition.

Chad Halvorson (@chadworks) is the CEO of thisCLICKS, makers of When I Work, a cloud-based mobile employee scheduling software.

Absolutely, Most Companies Should

Absolutely, most companies should be open to allowing people to work remotely. Studies have shown that remote workers are more productive, and companies and employees save time and money by being flexible.

Less office space means less overhead for management, and eliminating or reducing the commute saves employees gas, time and, money that would otherwise be spent on lunches out or dry cleaning.

Absolutely; Remote Workers Are Here to Stay

Remote workers absolutely have a place in today’s tech landscape and we are here to stay, just not on Team Yahoo, unfortunately. Much of today’s online content comes from professionals who work from home, including me.

Just like working in an office, there are pros and cons to working from home.

Here are the benefits I’ve personally experience from telecommuting every day:

• More time with my three kids
• Zero childcare expenses 
• Zero commute
• Zero fuel (and other car-related) expenses
• Zero office politics
• Zero dress code (yes to T-shirts and yoga pants!)
• Flexible work hours

• Loneliness (zero face-to-face interaction with coworkers, no friendly water-cooler talk) Full disclosure: I rent a desk in a nearby co-workspace office to alleviate this, but seldom use it. 
• Putting in too many hours and overworking (working from home makes it easy and quite tempting to work anytime, outside of normal working hours, especially in the middle of the night and even during family meals, at times)
• Lack of productive continuity (due to stopping and starting often to pick up kids from school, take them to extracurricular activities and doctor’s appointments, along with a flurry of household and other family-related responsibilities, including meal prep and laundry)
• Constan pressure of having to be entirely self-motivated and self-disciplined (there’s no client or boss looking over your shoulder, making sure you are doing what you have committed to do)

Working from home gives me the flexibility to forge ahead in my journalism and children’s streaming TV careers AND be an active, involved mom in my three children’s lives. Telecommuting enables me to balance my work and family goals. But the right balance is extremely difficult to come by. I’m constantly battling to stay focused and on-task. Telecommuting certainly isn’t for everyone, but it’s absolutely necessary for me, at least until my kids are grown and off at college.

Kim Lachance Shandrow (@lashandrow) is a Los Angeles-based tech journalist who specializes in writing about social media marketing, startups, smartphones, streaming TV, mobile apps and green technology.

Flipboard is, and always has been, one of my favorite iPad (and now iPhone) apps. It’s often imitated but never, ever duplicated. It’s not just a news reader, it’s an experience. Part of what I love is discovering new sites dug up by Flipboard’s curation team. The user experience and interface were game-changers and continue to be considered among the upper echelons in my book. The intermingling of social content in the “cover stories” section is beautifully, and smartly, done and adds that extra bit of flair and convenience needed to keep Flipboard from disappearing off my home screen. So, ya, I love Flipboard and I’m excited to give you a behind-the-scnenes peek at the company via this interview with Mia Quagliarello who heads up the aforementioned curation department at Flipboard. Enjoy!

If you could describe the essence of Flipboard’s culture in one word, what would that be? Explain.

Awesome. That’s probably our CEO’s favorite word and he usually utters it with so much passion that you can’t help but smile. It does describe Flipboard, though: the team, the experience of building something that people love, and this time and place we’re in right now in history, with so much innovation and ways for us to connect with each other.

Describe your favorite part of the office/campus.

I love how clean and minimalist everything is, with just touches of color—mostly “Flipboard red.” I like that the team here understands that the physical space has a big impact on morale and productivity. Employees seem proud to show off the modern office space, but also, the open, clutter-free environment helps to foster the creativity and collaboration that is so central to our culture.

How would you describe the best day you ever had at Flipboard? What made it so great?

The iPhone launch last December. It was a big moment for the company. We all stayed late into the evening to turn on the switch, monitor the service and follow user reactions and feedback. Todd, a product manager here, brought an airplane drink cart into the office, from which he served a signature Flipboard cocktail. There was all kinds of food and a chocolate fountain. There was a lot of excitement that night, especially for our engineers, who were dealing with huge demand. But it was amazing to be part of and experience.

Describe your workspace—what does your immediate (desk) and/or surrounding work area look like? Have you done anything to customize it?

Everything is white and everyone works on Apple computers, with iPads, iPhones and other devices close by. Our desks are big white tables, attached together to form islands that make it easy to just lean over and ask questions or collaborate. I haven’t really customized my space but that’s what I kind of like about it: there’s little clutter and it’s easy to be mobile.

How would you describe the quintessential Flipboard employee?

Smart and down-to-earth. I work with so many smart people that I am humbled every day. And not only does it feel like we have the best-in-class employees for their disciplines, but everyone is very nice and grounded.

Describe one unique/goofy/crazy/weird/quirky thing your team does for a little fun (such as office olympics, birthday celebrations, etc.)?

We have Beer O’Clock many Fridays, where we have beers and chips and people show others their ideas for new designs, technologies… Another thing is that we ring a gong during every major release. And we had a one-minute dance party on 11/11/11 and plan to do it again on 12/12/12.

If there was one thing you could describe to an outsider to make them feel like a Flipboard insider, what would that be?

Well, Flipboard makes Instagram photos look even more awesome (if that’s possible). So, I would tell the person to come to Palo Alto, snap a photo of a cool car from the front, and post it to Instagram using the #pacars hashtag. Then I would tell them to search for #pacars on Flipboard and flip through what has become a popular internal meme, full of cool cars that were spotted in Palo Alto, mainly by members of the Flipboard team.

Mobile computers have changed the way people interact with the world. From shopping online and meeting new people to organizing carpools and researching history, the Internet and laptops have made life easier for everyone. For example, did you know that the average person spends roughly 66 hours on a computer every month? That fact alone may now surprise you as you’re most likely viewing this site from your computer, but the fact that only 22% of that time is spent via social media might astonish you instead. So before thinking you’re not really attached (more like addicted) to your computer and are aware of how much time you’re on it, read this inforgraphic below. It might just surprise you.

The average person spends 66 hours on the computer every month.

We use the internet to… work research 62%, make purchases %58, find contact info 55.5%, manage finances 50.1%, look for jobs 45.5%, travel reservations 43%

80% of internet users do online research before making a purchase.

Most commonly researched products: consumer electronics 40%, cars 38%, software 28%, telecommunication services 22%, cosmetics 21%, medication 20%, gaming devices 19%, airline ticket 18%, food 17%, credit cards 15%

69% of adults worldwide interact using social media sites.

Social media use accounts for 22% of time spent online.

Most popular social media sites: Facebook 66%, LinkedIn 20%, twitter 16%, Pinterest 12%, Tumblr 5%

The average online courtship lasts 18.5 months; the average offline courtship lasts 42 months.

1 in 8 married couples met on the internet.

59% of adult Internet users look for health information online.

Topics most often researched: food safety and recalls 29%, drug safety and recalls 24%, pregnancy and childbirth 19%, memory loss/dementia/Alzheimer’s 17%, medical test results 16%, chronic pain management 14%, long-term care for elderly/disabled 12%

There have been many charges of hacking leveled at China over the last few years: from hacking reporters email accounts to sinking acquisition deals to stealing trade secrets to trying to gain access to critical infrastructure control systems.

According to security firm Mandiant, China has now been proven guilty (caught red-handed) on the charge of hacking entities within the United States. How should we respond as a nation? Is this is big deal or simply a nuisance? Here to help you decide is the DailyTekk Think Tank. Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know what you think!

America Should Be Proactive

Instead of being mad, the American government should be proactive and put a priority on cyber security and beefing up our defenses. I don’t think the general public realizes how dependent we are on computers and networks in the control and automation of major systems. Our massive electrical grid, communications and financial networks are heavily dependent on complicated network systems. These are all prime targets of sophisticated overseas hackers.

What makes the China situation so egregious is the hacking activity is condoned and even supported by the Chinese government. If China expects to be friendly trading partners with the United States, they need to stop this behavior and the United States needs to start taking cyber security seriously and truly make it a national security priority.

Marty (@martymcpadden) is the founder and CEO of PodJamTV Productions who also blogs for the Huffington Post.

Don’t Add Fuel to the Fire

Cyberarms retaliation against China would only add fuel to the “cyber Cold War.” Instead, American companies and government should focus not only on better defending their most vulnerable networks and rolling out official rules of engagement, but also on encouraging the creation of a mandatory international cyberarms control agreement.

As California Senator Dianne Feinstein pointed out this week, we have long had international agreements to police war crimes, but no such agreements or legislation to govern cyberwar. It’s high time we create them and soon.

Meanwhile, not many people are talking about this in the wake of China’s alleged cyber attacks, but America has engaged in its fair share of cyber espionage and attacks, too, and even owns up to both as a critical facets of national security. Stuxnet, the computer virus that the U.S. used to annihilate Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2010, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Kim Lachance Shandrow (@lashandrow) is a Los Angeles-based tech journalist who specializes in writing about social media marketing, startups, smartphones, streaming TV, mobile apps and green technology.

Demand Extradition

We should be mad enough to demand extradition of those responsible. Hacking isn’t just annoying and disruptive: it costs businesses money. If left unchecked, hacking can destroy small businesses and weaken large companies, ultimately undermining the economy as a whole. Stealing is stealing: it’s no different than if a U.S. hacker were to break into a Chinese company’s network and steal the plans for a new smartphone — it’s a crime. Governments need to cooperate to bring hackers to justice. There are instances in which hacking is used not for profit, but to make a political point. We saw this in the case of Aaron Swartz, who hacked copyrighted academic articles and made them available for free. The laws on the books could use refinement to address instances like the Swartz case differently than instances in which theft or terrorism is the objective, but we all share an interest in protecting our economy and the intellectual property of our citizens. We need to secure our infrastructure, and pay close attention to how sensitive information is handled, particularly as the workforce becomes increasingly remote.

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone (@KerryGorgone) is an attorney, new media specialist, and educator teaching Internet marketing at Full Sail University in Florida.

The Eye-Fi is one of those technologies that actually made me go “Wow, I WANT that.” It’s that cool. Sometimes you see something new and think, “Meh, it’s interesting,” or, “It’s cool, but I don’t have to have one.” That’s not this. This is something that truly made an impression on me when I first heard about it a few years back. That’s why I was excited to interview Ziv Gillat, one of Eye-Fi’s Co-Founders. Here’s how the Eye-Fi came about in his own words:

Between Yuval Koren (Co-Founder) and I, there are two versions of how we created Eye-Fi. Yuval remembers struggling to share photos of friends and family after attending a wedding. In a time before Facebook and mobile sharing was hot, this frustration led us come up with Eye-Fi as a solution. In a slightly different version, I remember my busy life as a new parent providing the spark for Eye-Fi. After having our first child my wife and I didn’t have time to take photos, download and manage them on a computer. Aiming to simplify the process, we wanted to find a way to make taking and sharing photos- leading us to think up Eye-Fi.

At first, we didn’t believe Eugene Feinberg (another co-founder) — when he told us that he could fit everything into the SD card, but Eugene and Berend Ozceri (co-founder) were able to design the card and write the firmware for the controller. Meanwhile, Yuval and I focused on the business side.

We initially thought we would use a USB stick to store and share photos. Users would simply drop the stick off at their nearest retailer and pick up the CD or prints of their images. However, we didn’t like the idea of either creating several sticks for each camera model or creating adapter cables to fit all cameras. The idea that stuck, though, was the card approach. In order to improve the read and write speeds, we designed our own X2 chip. This way, we could use any radio, and any flash on all varieties of cameras.

When we started developing the idea, none of us fully believed that the top ten camera OEMs would support Eye-Fi across 85% of their models. When we won this agreement, we knew we were going places.

No innovation comes without setbacks along the way and Eye-Fi was no exception. In out beta testing, we quickly realized that while our hardware was great, our software was lacking. To improve the performance we hired internal engineers and revamped our server resulting in a much better product.

Currently, our new hires traditionally provide the best entertainment. We “force” our latest employee to perform a solo rendition of Happy Birthday for any office celebrations. He or she is only off the hook until the next employee is hired- and sometimes this takes a while!

Eye-Fi’s legacy will be to make cameras more friendly. We want the user to focus solely on taking the pictures instead of worrying about downloading and managing photos. So, Eye-Fi improved the photo industry by simplifying sharing with Eye-Fi Direct. With this technology, users could take a photo anywhere in the world, upload it to their phone for tweeting or posting on Facebook. While other companies have introduced similar cards, they have not been able to duplicate Eye-Fi’s fully automatic sharing experience.