Mr 5 loves lights! And I mean loves them. He has numerous night lights,
grow clocks, torches, lanterns and garden lights around the house. Every trip to Bunnings involves a stroll through the lights section.
A few months ago I thought it would be a good idea (my wife didn’t think such a good idea) to buy a remote controlled LED strip off Ebay.
We’ve taken a while to sort out what to do with it, but today at much insistence from Mr 5 we found a place for them. He has a 4×4 Expedit bookshelf in his room. So as an incentive we said if he tidied it up and made a display shelf out of one level, then I would stick the lights to the back of the shelf to light it up for him.
The results are pretty good, and he absolutely loves it! Total cost about $8 🙂
I’ve written about working from home before, but this guy has taken the home office to another level. This is a command centre style setup with 5 monitors all powered off the 1 computer, allowing him to spread out applications across a big area. I’ve been a long time multi-monitor person going back to days where big CRT screens filled the desk, but I’ve rarely used more than 3 at once.
How much effort has been put into your home office design?
Windows 8, the next version of the world’s most used operating system is due out later this year and it’s parental controls are looking different from the current options available in Windows 7.
The current set of parental controls focus more on Filtering what your children have access to on the internet. The new version focusses more on monitoring what they’re up to and reporting to you.
I’ve talked about filtering your home internet connection on this site before, and mentioned that in the end it probably comes down to educating your kids about what is appropriate and what isn’t.
The new features offered by Microsoft are taking a “Monitor First Approach”. Giving you a dashboard of information about your family’s computer habbits. Items include which websites each user has visited and the amount of time spent on the computer (helpful if you want to limit your kids to a certain amount of “screen time” per day).
We expect you’ll find activity reports a great tool for teaching your kids about responsible computer use. Of course, you can also easily add restrictions by just clicking a link in the activity report. With the simplicity of activity reports, we believe more parents will adopt Family Safety, resulting in a safer computing environment for children.
So you’ve got a baby and you’ve probably got some sort of baby monitor right? It’s probably a boring audio only, plays one lullaby type? Here’s how the geeks do it:
The Problem
A lot of baby monitor on the market these days are using the 2.4GHz or 5.6Ghz unlicensed spectrum. What’s that you say? Well think of it this way, all wireless devices (including your mobile phone, free-to-air television, radio, 2-way radio etc…) use the same kind of technology: radio waves. The government leases the different frequencies to different groups based on what they want to use it for and how much money they pay.
That leaves the rest of us with our Cordless Phones, Home WiFi, Wireless Doorbells and you guessed it, Baby Monitors, with a small range of frequencies to use that don’t require a license. This means that many devices you buy are competing for the airwaves.
Many devices are now digital, so you won’t actually get much audible interference… perhaps the odd drop out or two, but you may notice that while using your microwave oven (this actually sends out static in the 2.4GHz range), talking on your cordless phone or listening in on your baby monitor etc… Things like your WiFi might slow down.
The Solution
So we want something like that fancy baby monitor that can send a picture to your TV, but not have it cause drop outs on your phone or slow your internet.
This is where WiFi enabled webcams come into play. These devices join your home WiFi network (just like your iPad or laptop) and you can connect to them using any web browser. This allows you to pull up a video stream of your baby’s nursery when ever and where ever you want.
Most devices come with software that allow you to connect via an iPhone or Android app, letting you tune in when you’re out. Great for checking up that your kids aren’t running amok when being babysat by the grandparents!
If you spend a little more, you can get versions that have powerful infra-red sensors letting you see the room while it’s in complete darkness. You can even get models that allow you to zoom and pan around the room.
The great thing is, these cameras aren’t any more expensive (sometimes a lot cheaper) than the standard video monitors you’re likely to find in a baby shop.
I am lucky that my job allows me to essentially work anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection. Sure there are times that I need to be in meetings and on-site with clients, but most of my work involves sitting in front of a computer and typing code.
This allows me to work from home from time to time. This basically gives me an extra 2 hours every day with my family that I would normally be stuck sitting in peak hour traffic driving to and from work.
You don’t have to be a programmer to have this kind of freedom either. If your work involves sitting at a computer, typing emails, writing reports, talking on the phone etc… then you can work from anywhere too!
Using Your Computer
The first step to working from outside the office is either connecting to you computer on your desk, or connecting your laptop to the corporate network when you’re not there.
Option 1: Remote Access
If you have a desktop computer at work, then it’s not practical to be lugging that home every time you want to spend a day working from home.
There are a number of solutions to this problem though. They involve installing some software on your computer and then you are able to connect and remotely control it from any web browser on any computer.
LogMeIn Free – This is free for personal use which basically allows you to see your screen and use it as if you were sitting at your desk. You can buy a paid account that allows you to do more, such as transfer files between your work computer and your home computer, but there are other services like Dropbox, Box.net, SkyDrive etc… that allow you to sync you files between any number of computers.
GoToMyPC – Essentially the same thing as LogMeIn, but developed by the guys that did the remote desktop features found in Windows (so apparently better). This service has a small monthly fee and has many of the same features as the paid version of LogMeIn.
Option 2: Laptop
If you have a work laptop then your already well on your way to working from home. Pick it up at the end of the day and take it with you. Without needing anything else, you have access to all the files on that computer and can finish off your reports or anything you’ve been working on.
Most companies have their email accessible to the outside world (to allow you to access email on your iPhone etc). This means that if you’re using Outlook or similar, it may just connect from your home internet connection.
If you need to access files on a shared drive, or internal websites like SharePoint, then you will probably need to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This technology connects securely to your corporate network and your computer is basically connected as if you plugged in the blue network cable at your desk. You will be able to access file shares, email, internal sites, and even corporate printers. Talk to your IT Manager about setting up a VPN connection.
Phones
Ok, so you’ve got access to your work computer or connected your laptop to the VPN, now what about that phone on your desk? You can make is so that someone calling you (even a person down the hall) doesn’t even know that you’re not sitting at your desk in the city.
Option 1: Call Forwarding
The easiest way to set this up is to forward all incoming calls through to your mobile. The downsides to this is that when someone calls you, the forwarded call to you mobile may cost money depending on your company’s phone contracts. Also, if you want to call out you will need to make the call from your mobile (which will count against the plan).
Option 2: Voice Over IP
Voice Over IP (VOIP) sends your voice call over the corporate network (or the internet). This means that if you are connected via a VPN you can run a VOIP client (similar to Skype) that connects to your corporate phone system. All you need is the software (3CXPhone is a very good free client) and a USB Headset. Look for a headset that has a noise cancelling microphone as you don’t want a whole lot of room noise coming through on the call.
Depending on how your corporate IT is setup, you may even have external access to your phone system. This will allow you to connect a physical phone handset on you home desk to the corporate phone system. This is one of the best options, as you still have the physicality of a handset to just pick up when it rings (instead of quickly fumbling for the headset before the person hangs up).
Both of these options allow you to make and receive phone calls like you were at your desk. You can even transfer calls to colleagues just like you would at work!
What are you waiting for?
So we’ve gone over some of the technical hurdles to get you working from home, but what about the boss? This is probably the hardest issue in the whole setup (people always are aren’t they?).
My advice is baby steps. You’re not going to be working at home full-time next week, or even next month. Start by getting the technical steps setup, and if asked why you want to have these things setup mention that you might like to get that report finished over the weekend without the need to come all the way in.
Once you have the technology setup and working in the case of occasional weekend work, you can then start to mention things like your kids have a school assembly item, and in order to not miss any work time you’d like to work from home for the day, pop down to the school, and then back to work in your home office. This way you’re doing the full day of work rather than taking a half day and still having to drive if afterwards.
Once you have been able to prove that you are at least as productive (or even more productive) at home as you are at work, you will be able to start arguing the case of a day or two a week at home to get your “busy” work done.
Now you have an extra couple of hours with the kids a week and you’re still getting the same, if not more, work done.
I’d love you hear in the comments about your experiences working from home, the technologies you use and the methods used to convince your boss it’s a good thing.
