Diversity coming to Unicode
Tech companies are working with the Unicode Consortium to implement a new skin tone control for character emoji to allow users to more accurately express themselves (and their identity).
We now learn how these companies propose Unicode implement this change using a skin tone modifier. The technique being proposed is simple enough to be implementable and usable on a phone. Additionally this technique is backward compatible with devices that don't yet support the skin tone modifier (i.e. the emoji would fall back to the original non skin tone adjusted version).
The Unicode consortium hasn't accepted this new proposal just yet but it would be hard pressed to turn it down (considering most tech users today are members of a visible ethnic group).
I'm all for diversity and think this is a positive step. Hopefully this becomes a new standard soon.
You can read the proposal here (link).
Fostering entrepreneurship within your team
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Image by Steven Depolo used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
As we move away from very large monolithic style organizations, companies are trying to harness the energizing strategies of startups. One technique large companies are adopting is entrepreneurship within their organizations (what some people call intrapreneurship).
What does the research say?
The literature seems to support the belief that technology firms increasing their entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship) see increased firm performance ((Rauch et al., 2009 - LINK).
Why? Because entrepreneurship allows a firm to quickly add new value thus improving the firms profitability. The research shows that this is a curvilinear relationship which means at some point increasing entrepreneurship starts t have a negative impact
What are the components to entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship requires a special kind of employee that exhibits the required traits but it is highly dependant on the company creating the winning conditions for it. What are the winning conditions?
- Risk - The firm's culture needs to support initiatives that have uncertain outcomes. Entrepreneurship, like a real business start-up, is risky and this philosophy can only be cultivated in organizations that truly believe in risk taking.
- Industry leadership - The firm's culture must encourage leadership within their industry rather than following. Is your company typically a first mover or do you wait to see how how other firms will attempt new strategies?
- Innovation leadership - The firm's culture must encourage technology leadership. It must encourage everyone in the organization to leverage the latest and greatest tools, techniques and products to simplify, streamline and make everything better.
- Aggressiveness - The firm's culture must encourage employees to aggressively pursue competitors markets with better and/or cheaper offering.
- Trust - The firm's culture must trust employees and allow them to make independent decisions (without too much red tape).
These seem like simple concepts but they are very difficult to implement. I have consulted for dozens of companies that have claimed to support entrepreneurship but that clearly did not meet the above requirements (which ultimately caused their plans to fail). You cannot fake any of the above requirements. Changing an organization's psyche from a traditional risk averse slow mover, to one that meets the above requirements is hard. It requires a leader that is completely dedicated.
Helping employees
If the organization is ready to receive these special type of employees and you are lucky enough to find one of these rare gems, what next?
1 - Understanding your organization - Remember that entrepreneurial employees are a special breed and want to operate like founders in a start-up. For them to make the "right" decisions, they need to know what right is and so the more they understand your company the better equipped they will be to make good decisions.
- Provide social information about the company from articles and media publications (who founded it, why, where and how. what is the company strategy? How does it elaborate its strategic plans?
- Explain how the company makes money and how the financial reporting works
- Be transparent and share publicly available financial information in a timely manner
2 - Understand your competitors - Remember that the company requirements to foster entrepreneurship include aggressiveness and industry leadership.
- Your entrepreneurial employees must understand who your competitors are (direct or indirect)
- They must understand how your customers see your firm (honestly). This can be done through formal 3rd party surveys or by employees calling key customers and asking them
- They must understand how you intend to compete and win against your competition
- They must have a detailed understanding of the offerings from your competitors (and any related literature you can provide)
3 - Encourage risk taking
- Your employees should be encouraged to take calculated risks (never discourage it or indirectly indicate otherwise)
- Remember that someone that doesn't make a mistake has never taken a decision
- Encourage and celebrate success
- Encourage and celebrate initiative (even if it doesn't always work out)
- Work with your employees to mutually agree on good risk versus gambling the company's future
4 - Encourage creative thinking
- Involve your employees (when possible) in strategic decision making
- Challenge your employees for creative alternatives to problems faced elsewhere in the organization
- Ensure creative ideas and initiatives are given the support they need to get implemented quickly and with minimal red tape
Get out of the way
Once all of the elements are in place, you should get out of the way and let the magic happen. Employees will need to understand that entrepreneurship requires self motivation and that they are responsible for their own success and failure.
As a manager, give your employees the responsibility for achieving something and the authority for getting the job done. This is the very definition of empowerment. Don't waste your time with empty motivational tactics.
As much as possible, I try to give away my power to my employees. By doing so, I motivate them to give the job their 100% without resorting to stupid tactics or tricks.
- Help your employees increase their circle of influence
- Where possible, give them authority to sign
- Make sure title isn't used as an excuse to limit work or responsibility
- Break old style rules and policies that stifle innovation
- Minimize red tape for initiative approval
A new manager's guide to success
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Image by Dawn (Willis) Manser used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
I have been managing large complex globally distributed teams for over 15 years and many times forget how complicated and scary team management can be for a new comer. This article is an opportunity for me to take a step back and provide some tips to help first time people managers built better, stronger and higher performing teams.
What is a team?
Before we talk about strategy, let's ensure we are all working with the same definitions. Team is:
“A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members operate with a high degree of interdependence, share authority and responsibility for self-management, are accountable for the collective performance, and work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s). A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.”
Contrary to popular belief, most employees actually prefer to work in a team (rather can being a lone wolf). Working as a team creates the feeling of belonging and can actually make work more gratifying.
One of the benefits of building strong well designed teams is that they can be autonomous. With proper design, preparation and training, the team can work as an autonomous entity delivering quality results, self measuring performance and helping itself to constantly improve.
Related Article: Peter’s Principle – Promoted To Your Level Of Incompetence
Many organizations consider leadership as a reward for solid technical performance but this is a mistake. Reward for solid performance should be recognition, financial or equity based. This mistake means many times managers are minted because of technical achievement in their field of expertise and not because the person shows leadership qualities. The reality is a good manager should exhibit leadership skills first. A good leader must allow his/her team to posses the technical skills while the manager coaches, builds and guides.
2 types of teams
There are 2 types of teams and it is important to understand the difference between them. The first type of team is the project team which is assembled for a temporary project and then disbanded. Although effort should be put into building a high performing team, don't waste too much time knowing that this group will be disbanded. Spend just enough time to make sure the team delivers the expected quality and move on.
The second type of team is the work team which a group that is designed to work together for long periods of time (often times for years). This is the team most companies build internally and this is the one where all your time and effort should be spent. This is the kind of team that will deliver the most reward if properly designed, cared for and nurtured.
Skills for first time managers
What are the skills you should look for in first time managers? In its simplest form, you will be looking for 4 characteristics that model the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle of continuous improvement. The 5 skills are:
- Planning - The ability to clearly create a winning game-plan and communicate that game plan
- Organizing - The ability to organize a team around that plan
- Developing - The ability to develop team members and ensure they can deliver to the plan
- Monitoring - The ability to set monitoring guidelines and evaluate performance
Leadership skills
In addition to the 4 core skills mentioned above, effective managers must exhibit very specific leadership skills. These may seem simple (when read as a list) but it is truly difficult finding individuals that exhibit all 4 skills mentioned above plus these leadership skills:
- Having active listening skills
- Ability to convert the larger organizationals goals into achievable team specific goals (explaining how the team contributes to the overall organizational goals is complicated and a difficult skill to master unless you are business minded)
- Open to positive criticism (all leaders, especially people managers, must be genuinely open to criticism from bosses, colleagues and employees)
- Staying on message (just like driving a car, managing a team means you have to constantly re-adjust to keep the team on target. This is sometimes seen as a leader who is flip-flopping therefore the manager must be able to stay relatively on message all the while navigating the corporate land mines)
- being the model for morals and ethics (as the manager, there must never be a situation where you morals or ethics are called into question. You must be seen as the reference to morality and uphold the highest ethical standards)
- being just (rewarding good performance and acting on bad performance)
The manager is expected to be a leader but also have enough technical knowledge to also step in and make "good calls" when needed.
Issues new managers must overcome
Having coached and nurtured several dozen new managers over the years, there are some common obstacles I see new managers encounter over and over. Here are some of the most common obstacles you can expect.
- the reticent manager - the very first question I ask new manager is why they wanted the promotion. Some will give you an honest answer while others will try to skirt around the real motivations. The best case scenario is that the newly minted manager sees this as the next step in their career. The worst case scenario is that the new manager didn't want the position or responsibility but saw this as the only way to get a raise. You will have to dig until you get an answer you are confident is accurate and then work with the person to develop the required beliefs, skills and approach.
- the refusal to share power - Many new managers see the promotion as the opportunity to finally be the big cheese. The reality is that the highest performing teams are managed by leaders who are willing to share power and also share the authority to make decisions. Many new found managers have a tough time accepting the fact that their team will make decisions impacting his/her career.
- understanding the teams true role - the manager must represent the organizations executives to his team and explain how the team fits into the grand enterprise scheme. Every team wants to feel important and sometimes explaining how a team contributes to the overall picture is difficult. This is a challenge that less business savvy managers often face. They themselves do not understand so they are unable to explain it to their teams (recipe for disaster). Failure to communicate a "good" message here can disenfranchise a team and make them useless. The team must understand how they fit into the overall company plan and the targets must be set accordingly.
The first 180 days
Whether you are a new manager, director or VP, there are some tasks that you must perform in the first 180 days of your tenure to maximize your chances of success.
- Win support - the manager must win the support of his/her leadership and go as high as reasonable. Senior management must be convinced that you are the right person for the job, that you have built the right team and that your strategy is right. This is a tough sell and this is where many managers, directors and VPs fail.
- lead with purpose - understand why the team exists and then sell the team members on this vision. The team needs a clear purpose that it can grab onto and believe in.
- choose wisely - I would rather hire someone with the right attitude (with less skill) then someone with high skill (with a bad attitude). If you are taking over an existing team, use the first couple of months to clean house.
Conclusion
Nothing presented here is rocket science or revolutionary but these types of things rarely are. Most of what I have presented is common sense to an experienced executive but not so for someone being thrust into the spotlight for the very first time.
I hope someone out there finds this information useful and it creates the foundation for a great future leader.
$115 worth of Android apps for free for a limited time
Amazon's Android app store is at it again offering $115 of free android apps for free until this Saturday. Some are very good and others are just filler but this promo is definitely worth checking out and I have confirmation that it is valid in Canada, the US and UK so far.
My favourite apps in this bundle are:
- Plants versus Zombies
- Plex
- Fruit Ninja
- Sonic the hedgehog
- World of Goo
- Lapse it Pro
- Longman dictionary of contemporary english
Download it now while these are free (link)
Pac-Man Friends Free iTunes app of the week
This weeks iTunes free app of the week is a modern twist on the old classic of Pac-Man (aka Pac-Man Friends). The price for this app has ranged between $1,99 and $4,99 since release but this is the first it has gone free.
You can download it from iTunes now (link)
Quote about education
The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. - Malcolm Forbes
Quote about improvement
Everything is perfect and there is always room for improvement. - Shunryu Suzuki
Quote about continuous improvement
Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.- Kim Collins
Quote about enjoying work
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius
Quote about freedom
"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell
Nothing is more important than:
- Freedom of thought
- Freedom of belief
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom of speech
Quote about writing
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" Benjamin Franklin
Quote about tools
There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. - Freeman Dyson
Quote about hope
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.- Desmond Tutu
The biggest mistake CIOs are making today
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“more than they can chew” Image by JD Hancock used under Creative Commons License [/caption]
First we saw digitization, then came appification, then gameification, then personalization and now we enter the era of hyper-personalization.
Every consumer wants to feel loved, understood and wants to feel special. Being understood and being special means companies must understand the individual likes/dislikes of each consumer then tailor the consumer's experience during each interaction.
This is done through signals and large companies have spent billions building and buying heavily used apps/service so that they can collect more. More signals means better tools for making hyper-personalization possible.
When you open your Facebook news feed today, you often see elements that are of little interest to you. Facebook learns every time you choose to hide content and tries to do a better job next time. This is personalization. Hyper-personalization means the service will automatically know what it shouldn't show you and your feed will automatically be "clean".
This trend is spilling into other fields including medicine. If you are ill today, you go to one of the larger medical guidance sites, enter your symptoms (as best you can) then the site provides a laundry list of possible causes. It's better than rushing to the clinic every time you feel a little hot, but hyper-personalization demands more.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/38a031b6e1.jpg" alt="">
The Scanadu Scout is a health monitoring, tracking and recording device. It is designed for you will hold it to your forehead and it will scan your vitals then provide customized hyper-personalized recommendations on what to do?
We are seeing pharmaceutical companies working on genetics based medicine in an effort to reduce negative side-effects and provide more effective treatments based on each person's genetic makeup (this is hyper-personalization of medication).
But what about the enterprise?
Most companies I have worked with still do not see the tidal wave about to hit them. Even though there are thousands of signals they can collect from employees, partners, suppliers and customers, most simply do not and waste valuable information that could lead to building a substantially more profitable organization.
The hyper-personalized enterprise could design more efficient employee systems that pro-actively provide the right information to the right person at the right time using the right medium.
If you are a car company, you can equip each of your cars with a car monitoring system that records and uploads millions of sensor data to the manufacturer every evening (when the car is parked in the driveway.) The car manufacturer can then tailor the service maintenance schedule per car based on distance driven, driving style, weather conditions, etc (instead of the generic oil change every x miles). Not only can it be used to generate custom maintenance programs but it should also know where the customer works/lives, where and when it is most convenient for them to take the car in and proactively call the customer with a proposed reservation.
Shifting role of CIO
When I consult with large organizations or start-ups, my first recommendation is to source all commodity services from the cloud (where legally possible). Every dollar you save on non-value generating commodity services can then be used to drive these new hyper-personalization services. Using cloud services also means your hiring strategy will be much more evolved. Instead of hiring 12 employees to manage your email infrastructure, you hire 1 person to manage the vendor relationship and commit the 11 other hires to these new emerging value generating activities.
Many CIOs will not be able to handle this radical shift we are asking them to make. Change is inevitable and pushing back will only force the business unit heads (which see the need for these new services to keep up with the competition) to build the missing pieces themselves [without IT] causing inefficient silos.
A modern CIO will see this as his/her opportunity to become a huge value driver within the organization, instead of the cost centre most IT departments have become.
This modern CIO not only has to have the desire to change and evolve, but must also have a background in general business (finance, supply chain, legal, manufacturing, sales, strategy, etc) and understand the shifting nature of computer science (advanced computation, machine learning, etc).
Rewarded will be the organizations who see this shift coming and adapt quickly. The shift has already started, where does your organization stand?
Joos Orange Solar Charger Review
I love gadgets related to camping or survival. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to test various solar chargers in real world situations and after all the testing was done, the Joos Orange won a special place in my heart.
The Joos Orange is a big heavy plastic box with a solar panel on it. Unlike all of the other major solar chargers I tested, it was the only one that is completely self contained (battery, circuitry and solar panel), waterproof and can be locked to a tree, table or other immovable item.
Although its WATT rating was low (considering its weight), its solar cell is extremely efficient and it performed superbly well in all weather conditions.
It's the power dummy
The best place to start the review is with its power performance. I compared the Joos Orange to the SolarMonkey adventurer, Instapark Mercury and the Goal Zero. The Orange Joos charged my tablets (ipad and Nexus 7) or smarpthone (Note 3 or iPhone 5s) as fast or faster than its competitors.
The built in angle legs held position the Orange Joos in the optimal position to catch the sun's rays.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/eb14503759.jpg" alt="">
These legs are a small touch that made a big difference in the field. Plus it was the only charger I tested that had these angle legs.
The device comes with a 5400mAH built in battery that is large enough to partially charge an iPad or to fully charge an iPhone twice. You can pre-charge the battery before leaving which means the solar panel only has to top off the battery as you use it.
If you have a laptop, they offer a little app (MAC or Windows) that allows you to monitor the efficiency of the solar panels and the battery power level.
In field use
Here comes one of my biggest annoyances with the device, you have to use their USB cables. Why oh why.... Since the iPhone 5s lightning connector was not included in my kit, I used their Joos-to-USB connector plugged into my Apple cable. You can buy the lightning adaptor from them for $10 plus S&H. This one design flaw kept annoying me every time I wanted to charge a device. When you buy the kit, it comes with the basic Apple 30-pin connector, micro USB and standard USB connectors all stored in a weird waterproof zip up bag.
The next version of the Joos Orange should have a standard USB connection. I can't stress that enough. There was one instance where I took the Orange Joos but forgot the proprietary connector at home so the kit was useless.
Once I got over the above issue, every thing else was wonderful. I had a chance to test it in all kinds of weather conditions from direct bright sunlight to all day overcast with rain. In every situation, the little charging light was blinking. Since none of its competitors were waterproof, I was hesitant to leave them out when rain was possible. Plus the Orange Joos seemed to charge faster in every condition. In bright summer sunlight, I charged the battery from completely dead to full in about 9.25 hours.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/fdc48b8f0d.jpg" alt="">
When you add the reflectors (sold separately), they cut charing time by about 35-40%. Which made the great charging time of the Orange Joos even better. Having installed and removed the reflectors about 60-80 times since this summer, you can see a little wear around the screw insertion spots. This won't impact performance but the charger will outlive the cheaper plastic reflectors for sure.
The large hole at the top of the charger was great for attaching to the outside back of my backpack while hiking. Other times I use to leave it at the camp site to charge in the sun and use to lock it to a large wooden picnic table to prevent theft. Nice design touch.
I read over a hundred reviews on various internet sites and a complaint that kept coming up is related to the connector. A small percentage of users complained that after several months of use, the connector would become unreliable and you would have to fiddle with it to "make" the connection. After my months of in field testing, I didn't encounter this issue but wanted to make sure you were aware of it. I emailed some questions to their support team and always received prompt courteous responses. If your device does encounter this connector issue just contact them.
Q&A with the company
During my tests, I had some questions for Solar Joos and thought you may benefit from the answers so here it is.
Q1 - What drove the creation of SolarJoos and the Orange?
"The technology was originally created for commercial phone charging stations(before my time here), but ran into some complications so the founders decided to create a consumer product since there is such a large and growing market for portable power. Since we have the best solar technology it made sense to try to create a consumer product for portable power, we came up with the JOOS Orange." - Dan Trautman
Q2 - What differentiates you from the other major solar player
"What separates us from Goal Zero and everyone else is our patented technology that allows us to use one complete solar cell(as opposed to cutting multiple cells into strips and wiring them together in a series). It is an internal component that takes the 2.6W from the solar cell and 'saves' up enough to output at 5W into the battery so USB devices can charge from the battery. Our competitors have to have enough solar cell strips to equal 5W which is why ours is a much smaller form factor. If half of their solar mat gets covered in shade charging will stop. You can cover 95% of our cell with shade and it will still collect some power from the sun as opposed to not working at all. This is how the JOOS is able to charge in low light(real-world) conditions. Also, the JOOS Orange has an internal battery that the solar cell charges and then the battery charges your device as opposed to having to have the solar cell and device in the sun simultaneously. The sun doesn't have to be out for the JOOS to charge a device if there is power in the battery. We also have a patent on our social media idea for people to be able upload their solar collecting data and compare with other JOOS customers, it will be a much better version of our dashboard diagnostic software." - Dan Trautman
Q3 - What are the 2-3 most striking use cases you know for your product?
" Last year, the JOOS became a pretty popular device for helping keep families connected when hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the US. The JOOS has also helped mountaineers summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Denali, and many other mountains. We also have many customers in the Peace Corps that use it to stay connected while in remote parts of the planet. We've also donated a few units to a US based project that helps bring tablets to schools in remote villages in Africa. the JOOS is their power source." - Dan Trautman
Q4 - How much is a replacement battery?
Replacement batteries are $29.99 and should last 200-300 cycles (about 1 year).
Q5 - Are there any other products in development?
"Yes, many new and exciting things are in the works. We'll have a larger unit for better tablet charging and laptop charging. Plus a smaller version(1 smart phone charge) that will be much more portable geared toward everyday usage and travel." - Dan Trautman
Conclusion
I really liked the Orange Joos Solar charger because it is self-contained (battery plus solar charger), water proof, charged extremely well in all types of weather and durable. If these are qualities you are searching for then buy the Orange Joos and I promise you won't be disappointed.
If however you don't care about your solar panel being self contained. If you don't need a water proof solar charging solution. If you aren't concerned about maximizing charging in various weather conditions. If you need something lightweight then you may want to look at some of the other solar charing kits (like the InstaPark Mercury 10 - link - combined with an external battery).
I'm excited to see what Solar Joos does with future products.
Review of the Ontario Knives RAT 1
A good solid portable knife is a great part of an EDC (Every day carry) kit. There are hundreds of knives on Amazon claiming to be "the one", but the average user wants something solid, dependable and affordable. This is where the Ontario Knives RAT 1 really excels (compared to Spyderco and Kershaw).
General physique
The RAT 1 has an [open] length of 8.6", of which 3.5" is the blade. At 5 ounces, the RAT 1 is slightly heavier than some of the other competitors in this space but I find the weight just right. The design is well thought out and makes this knife extremely versatile. It can be part of your EDC kit, used as a tactical knife and can even be used for light bushcraft.
The blade is a drop point shape with a flat grind and comes relatively sharp out of the box. Ontario Knives sells 2 versions of this knife: satin finish or black coating. Many on the internet have called the black finish "cheap". Many complained that the black finish quickly wore off. Having used this knife everyday for the past 1.5 months, you can see that the black finish is still fairly intact. The satin one is too "shiny" for me, since my personal preference is more "tactical style" knives.
The RAT 1 blade is made of AUS8 stainless steel. AUS-8 is comparable to 440B stainless steel and is considered a mid-range stainless steel. It loses its edge easier than a 440C blade but is easier to sharpen in the field. With my Smith's Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener (link), I can sharpen the blade enough to slice paper in 45 seconds or less. A big win.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/fac7887297.jpg" alt="">
The handle
The handle of the RAT 1 is made of a solid metal housing covered in Zytel plastic. The handle has a nice natural-feeling wave shape which makes gripping the knife easy, even when performing long running bushcraft tasks. The long (5") thick handle make this a fantastically grippy knife.
My only complaint is that the handle is slightly slippery when wet.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/360e43474a.jpg" alt="">
Deployment
Opening and closing the knife is smooth and easy. The knife has thumb-studs on either side making this usable for both lefties and righties. It is not spring assisted (aka automatic opener) but this is a positive since many jurisdictions do not allow automatic opener knives.
Field test
I used this knife religiously for 1,5 months and even took it on some outdoor expeditions. I used it to perform light bushcraft and the knife sill looks new.
Even after an hour of continuous bushcraft use, my hand didn't feel tired and the knife did everything I asked of it.
Conclusion
If you haven't already guessed, I really liked this $30 folding knife (link to Amazon). Ontario Knives gives you a solidly made, durable knife at a budget price. Sure this one is made in Taiwan. Sure they used AUS-8 mid-range stainless steel but this is how they managed to give you so much value at such a competitive price. This is a great deal and anyone looking for an affordable EDC/tactical folding knife should consider it.
<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/99cc3bdef5.jpg" alt="">
The BIG security risk lurking in your email
Many of our most valuable assets are now online (banking, backups, social media, etc). Losing control of these means weeks of work to rectify the situation.
Most internet users often forget that their security is only as good as the weakest link and in most cases the weakest link is email. If a hacker gains access to your primary email account, they can then go through you emails, figure out what services you use and request a password reset from those services (which will most often send the reset link to your email account).
I recently received a frantic call from an old colleague who had her GMAIL account taken over by hackers. Within minutes, they had reset password to many of her most important sites (including her bank, online stock broker, twitter, Facebook, smugmug private photo album, etc). She was devastated and recovering all of her accounts took months.
How could she have protected herself? She could have avoided all of this if she had simply enabled 2 factor authentication for her email service.
Most well known sites now support some sort of 2 factor authentication and you should go enable it now.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication For Google Services
There is a great site called 2 factor auth (link) that lists the larger sites that support 2 factor authentication.
