It sort-of depends. I do infrastructure support; if there's a problem I can't correct over the net, I have to come in. Moreover, it's a good idea to visit your customers on a regular schedule.
I suppose it'd be different for a programmer. I tried programming for awhile, didn't like the isolation.
> Your 24/7 availability will cause boredom in your relationship and lead to much frustration.
That's assuming that your SO doesn't work. My wife works in an office, so it doesn't matter a lot whether I'm at home or in an office, we see each other about the same amount of time.
Besides, I'm not sure I agree. How do farmers manage it? Both spouses are home all the time.
In addition: Get a phone that accepts a headset (2.5mm jack), and try to get a headset that works with both your home phone and your cell phone. I have to use an adapter for the cell phone, but I can still switch the headset back and forth fast enough to take calls from either phone. Or if you're mister money pants, buy two headsets.
I didn't bother with my own fax machine. Any Kinkos (or whatever they're calling it now) will do fax, as will many of those privately owned shipping places.
Music while you work is fine, movies no, porn especially no. Save it for after work.
Beware of distractions. If you have family, they have to understand that being home doesn't mean you are always available.
I established hours when I was working, and the family was not to disturb me during that time unless it's an emergency.
The family has to realize that you're not the "stay at home spouse". You're not free to run every random errand or do every household chore during your working hours, any more than you did so when you were in the office. You may have better flex time and more freedom to take care of non-work issues, but don't fall into the trap of handling every little thing just because you're available. You're not available, you're working. (My wife and I fought over this -- things like dropping the kid off at daycare. When I worked at the office, we each did one half -- one of us dropped off, one of us picked up. When I started working from home, she naturally assumed I'd do both. And all the grocery shopping. And the vacuuming. And dishes, yardwork, dentist appointments. Sorry, no.)
Establish a territory and call it your office, then work from there. I found that it was too easy to nod off or reach for the TV remote when I was trying to work from the couch. Also, I don't know why, but I'm told I sounded more professional when I was sitting at my desk than when I was lounging on the couch.
I had a heck of a time keeping office supplies on my desk. The problem with always having a good supply of pens, paper clips, yellow stickies and printer paper is that everyone knows where to go if they need one of these items. I tried tying a string from the cap of my ballpoint to my desk, but after too many times seeing a forlorn empty cap sitting on my desk with a string tied to it, I finally bought a cheap lockable filing cabinet and put my office supplies in there. It's important for tax purposes too (see below).
If you lack appropriate furniture, check your area for an office liquidator. I found that working from the kitchen table was fine for an hour or so, but not ergonomic over the long haul.
Don't get too comfortable. I got up with the alarm, showered, shaved, dressed, then went to my designated office in a spare room and put in a day's work. At first I just worked in my bathrobe, because I could, but like a Dilbert cartoon, the family started to complain that I smelled like a dead animal and I had to change my ways. I found that when I followed a routine, it was easier to stay focused.
Know when to quit. It's too easy to decide to take care of that next issue, and the one after that, and the one after that, because you're right there. Just as it's important to establish a work ethic, it's also important to establish a quality of life. After you've put in your time, knock off work and do something else. Like, you know, interacting with your family. Or going out with friends.
Have a contingency plan if you suffer hardware or resource failure. In the early days, I had two desktops, two modems and two different dial-up accounts. (One of which, sadly, was AOL, but let's not go there.) I then progressed to one desktop and one laptop, DSL backed up by a dial-up account. Then cable modem backed up by dial-up. Now I have fiber optic backed up by cellular modem. Similarly, I had two phone lines when I used dial-up, and later had home and cell phones on my business card so there was a way to reach me if one or the other failed.
Prepare to be amazed at how much money you save just by not having to buy and maintain business clothes, eat out for lunch, and drive to and from work. These days I alternate between working at home and working from the office, and I see a bump in discretionary income proportional to the number of days I worked at home. Especially with the price of gas.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Talk to your tax preparer ahead of time to figure out what kind of documentation you're going to need, because working at home you can likely take a lot of stuff off your taxes as a business expense. The square footage of yo
IANAL, but I'm fairly certain that you can not enter into a contract where you give up the right to go to court.
My question would be, since that clause is not legal, does that invalidate just that part of the agreement, or does that invalidate the entire contract?
...that stand in the way of widespread (non-geek) acceptance of streaming content. Let's use the diaper commercial as one example: My daughter has long been out of diapers, and I'm not yet in them again, so what is the purpose of watching the commercial? What does the advertiser get from that?
It comes down to this: If hitting the forward and back buttons are going to start costing me money, I'll find a way to view content where that doesn't apply. The content providers don't yet understand, even after all these years, that they're competing with free. They have to do better than expect revenue for skipping past inappropriate commercials before we will agree to use their service.
Usually applications of that type have a time stamp associated with the GPS coordinates. So if the ipad is registering that as the location over several pings during a length of days, chances are it lives there.
What is the PURPOSE of coffee without caffeine? So, you can wait in line for 20 minutes at Starbucks in order to talk to the nice Barista? And that experience is worth seven bucks?
Well, ok fine, it'd be a strange old word if we were all the same. But there's a nightmare in the back of my head that this is the next logical step for the people who want to take away our cheetos.
Dutch police make mistakes, just like everywhere else. And when a police officer makes a mistake that can have dire consequences.
However in this case our police forces wanted to do something, they requested a search warrant. Actually doing something about a minor theft is rare enough that that in itself is almost worth a headline. However for some strange reasons they were not granted a search warrant which is bizarre.
So, minor thefts are common, then? I wonder what constitutes "minor". I travel with high-end camera gear. Perhaps I should re-prioritizing my list of countries to visit...
> According to the prosecutors, a search warrant is 'a very heavy measure,' that should only be used when there is 'sufficient suspicion.' The theft report by the owner was viewed as 'no objective evidence' in the case."
So, what *would* be considered objective evidence? Does a law enforcement offer actually have to witness a crime before the authorities will pursue it? So, for instance, I'm robbed on the street, but there's no objective evidence that it happened because the crime was not observed? How does that work in The Netherlands?
I'll let you in on a little secret: I think every marriage has at least one mother that's a nightmare. In our relationship, it's mine. My wife's mother is a gem and has offered tremendous support, especially when the child was young and I was just learning the massive responsibility of raising one o' them there critters. My mom on the other hand didn't even deign to *see* her only granddaughter her first two years. Her reason? It was too far to drive. Ok, I understand, I'll buy her a plane ticket. But no, she couldn't stand being without a cigarette for the 47 minute flight.
Your mileage may vary, but there is an effort at my company to capture non-private documents and print on the other side. I wonder how that enters into the equation.
I just recently went through a license contract negotiation, which went back and forth with many different versions of the contract before we got one we could sign.
I can't wait for this to be built into printers either. No need to negotiate ahead of time, we could alter the contract *after* we signed it.
Re:Carbon footprint of green laser?
on
The Laser Unprinter
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Does that include the carbon footprint of building and maintaining the laser unprinters?
> Regarding recycling point at retail stores, I'm actually old enough to remember glass milk bottles, so I would be fine with that. I wonder, though, what happens to the returned burned-out bulbs? Do they really get recycled, or do some companies just dump them?
Following up to my own post, I just had an ugly thought -- or do they just carefully rebox them and put them back on the shelf? That would explain the high incidence of infant mortality.
> Don't you love how if you'd followed my asterisk footnote, you'd have seen my addressing the lifespan?
I think we were making slightly different points, but I don't think I'm interested enough to argue about it. You will notice I did address your footnote, at length. I have this sneaking suspicion that 100 years from now, our descendants will look back at CFLs and say "wow, that was as stupid as putting Merbromin on cuts and Thiomersal in vaccines. What were they thinking?" But in the meantime, there are things we can do to minimize the damage.
> In my area, unless you pay a private company you don't get curbside pickup for anything.
Um, isn't that true everywhere? It's a private company here also, but (this is hilarious) you are *required* to have trash service, or the county leans on you. And of course, there is only one trash service available, so you just take it and like it. (Don't you love state enforced monopolies?) (There was a story recently of families in this area who with careful planning recycled *everything*, and didn't need trash service at all, but the county decided they had to pay for it anyway.) The one saving grace is that recycling pickup for the most common items is free (or bundled, depending on your point of view) and the recycling bin is, like, four times the size of the smallest trash can, so you're encouraged to use it.
Regarding recycling point at retail stores, I'm actually old enough to remember glass milk bottles, so I would be fine with that. I wonder, though, what happens to the returned burned-out bulbs? Do they really get recycled, or do some companies just dump them?
In that vein, I once wrote a letter to my state representatives about my experience following one of the aforementioned recycling trucks along a nearby country road. (I live only a couple blocks from the urban growth boundry.) Those trucks have a bunch of bins open on top, and my truck was showered with big pieces of cardboard and plastic milk bottles as I frantically slowed down and tried to avoid the worst of the debris. To my knowledge, they are still like that. (I didn't even get an acknowledgement of my letter.) So, when you see trash on the side of the road, don't think too ill of your fellow man -- it might just be recycling that escaped. My point being, I do carefully sort my trash and put the paper and plastic in the big bin and bottles in the little bin, and put out my offering to the recycling gods every two weeks. But I don't have any idea where it goes after it leaves my house. For all I know, it becomes landfill. But now I know part of the answer -- at least some of it becomes debris on the side of the road.
And don't even get me started on the abysmal state of beverage container deposit return.
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It sort-of depends. I do infrastructure support; if there's a problem I can't correct over the net, I have to come in. Moreover, it's a good idea to visit your customers on a regular schedule.
I suppose it'd be different for a programmer. I tried programming for awhile, didn't like the isolation.
> Your 24/7 availability will cause boredom in your relationship and lead to much frustration.
That's assuming that your SO doesn't work. My wife works in an office, so it doesn't matter a lot whether I'm at home or in an office, we see each other about the same amount of time.
Besides, I'm not sure I agree. How do farmers manage it? Both spouses are home all the time.
In addition: Get a phone that accepts a headset (2.5mm jack), and try to get a headset that works with both your home phone and your cell phone. I have to use an adapter for the cell phone, but I can still switch the headset back and forth fast enough to take calls from either phone. Or if you're mister money pants, buy two headsets.
I didn't bother with my own fax machine. Any Kinkos (or whatever they're calling it now) will do fax, as will many of those privately owned shipping places.
Music while you work is fine, movies no, porn especially no. Save it for after work.
Beware of distractions. If you have family, they have to understand that being home doesn't mean you are always available.
I established hours when I was working, and the family was not to disturb me during that time unless it's an emergency.
The family has to realize that you're not the "stay at home spouse". You're not free to run every random errand or do every household chore during your working hours, any more than you did so when you were in the office. You may have better flex time and more freedom to take care of non-work issues, but don't fall into the trap of handling every little thing just because you're available. You're not available, you're working. (My wife and I fought over this -- things like dropping the kid off at daycare. When I worked at the office, we each did one half -- one of us dropped off, one of us picked up. When I started working from home, she naturally assumed I'd do both. And all the grocery shopping. And the vacuuming. And dishes, yardwork, dentist appointments. Sorry, no.)
Establish a territory and call it your office, then work from there. I found that it was too easy to nod off or reach for the TV remote when I was trying to work from the couch. Also, I don't know why, but I'm told I sounded more professional when I was sitting at my desk than when I was lounging on the couch.
I had a heck of a time keeping office supplies on my desk. The problem with always having a good supply of pens, paper clips, yellow stickies and printer paper is that everyone knows where to go if they need one of these items. I tried tying a string from the cap of my ballpoint to my desk, but after too many times seeing a forlorn empty cap sitting on my desk with a string tied to it, I finally bought a cheap lockable filing cabinet and put my office supplies in there. It's important for tax purposes too (see below).
If you lack appropriate furniture, check your area for an office liquidator. I found that working from the kitchen table was fine for an hour or so, but not ergonomic over the long haul.
Don't get too comfortable. I got up with the alarm, showered, shaved, dressed, then went to my designated office in a spare room and put in a day's work. At first I just worked in my bathrobe, because I could, but like a Dilbert cartoon, the family started to complain that I smelled like a dead animal and I had to change my ways. I found that when I followed a routine, it was easier to stay focused.
Know when to quit. It's too easy to decide to take care of that next issue, and the one after that, and the one after that, because you're right there. Just as it's important to establish a work ethic, it's also important to establish a quality of life. After you've put in your time, knock off work and do something else. Like, you know, interacting with your family. Or going out with friends.
Have a contingency plan if you suffer hardware or resource failure. In the early days, I had two desktops, two modems and two different dial-up accounts. (One of which, sadly, was AOL, but let's not go there.) I then progressed to one desktop and one laptop, DSL backed up by a dial-up account. Then cable modem backed up by dial-up. Now I have fiber optic backed up by cellular modem. Similarly, I had two phone lines when I used dial-up, and later had home and cell phones on my business card so there was a way to reach me if one or the other failed.
Prepare to be amazed at how much money you save just by not having to buy and maintain business clothes, eat out for lunch, and drive to and from work. These days I alternate between working at home and working from the office, and I see a bump in discretionary income proportional to the number of days I worked at home. Especially with the price of gas.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Talk to your tax preparer ahead of time to figure out what kind of documentation you're going to need, because working at home you can likely take a lot of stuff off your taxes as a business expense. The square footage of yo
Each of you has a paddle shaped object, and you use a physical ball, see, and... oh never mind.
IANAL, but I'm fairly certain that you can not enter into a contract where you give up the right to go to court.
My question would be, since that clause is not legal, does that invalidate just that part of the agreement, or does that invalidate the entire contract?
We need a test case.
It comes down to this: If hitting the forward and back buttons are going to start costing me money, I'll find a way to view content where that doesn't apply. The content providers don't yet understand, even after all these years, that they're competing with free. They have to do better than expect revenue for skipping past inappropriate commercials before we will agree to use their service.
Thank you. It's amazing how many people don't understand the difference.
Usually applications of that type have a time stamp associated with the GPS coordinates. So if the ipad is registering that as the location over several pings during a length of days, chances are it lives there.
> Yes- the TSA hires from ads on Pizza boxes and gas pumps.
That explains a great deal.
Wow, sarcasm really doesn't work in this venue.
I just burned my copy of Pretty Baby (1978) and the entire first season of Glee.
What is the PURPOSE of coffee without caffeine? So, you can wait in line for 20 minutes at Starbucks in order to talk to the nice Barista? And that experience is worth seven bucks?
Well, ok fine, it'd be a strange old word if we were all the same. But there's a nightmare in the back of my head that this is the next logical step for the people who want to take away our cheetos.
Dutch police make mistakes, just like everywhere else. And when a police officer makes a mistake that can have dire consequences.
However in this case our police forces wanted to do something, they requested a search warrant. Actually doing something about a minor theft is rare enough that that in itself is almost worth a headline. However for some strange reasons they were not granted a search warrant which is bizarre.
So, minor thefts are common, then? I wonder what constitutes "minor". I travel with high-end camera gear. Perhaps I should re-prioritizing my list of countries to visit...
Something I don't understand --
> According to the prosecutors, a search warrant is 'a very heavy measure,' that should only be used when there is 'sufficient suspicion.' The theft report by the owner was viewed as 'no objective evidence' in the case."
So, what *would* be considered objective evidence? Does a law enforcement offer actually have to witness a crime before the authorities will pursue it? So, for instance, I'm robbed on the street, but there's no objective evidence that it happened because the crime was not observed? How does that work in The Netherlands?
I'll let you in on a little secret: I think every marriage has at least one mother that's a nightmare. In our relationship, it's mine. My wife's mother is a gem and has offered tremendous support, especially when the child was young and I was just learning the massive responsibility of raising one o' them there critters. My mom on the other hand didn't even deign to *see* her only granddaughter her first two years. Her reason? It was too far to drive. Ok, I understand, I'll buy her a plane ticket. But no, she couldn't stand being without a cigarette for the 47 minute flight.
Right, but the counter-argument might be that with malice aforethought, you altered *your* copy before putting it in offsite storage.
I wonder if we eventually see some kind of sealed (either electronic or physical) container approach, overseen by a notary.
Your mileage may vary, but there is an effort at my company to capture non-private documents and print on the other side. I wonder how that enters into the equation.
I just recently went through a license contract negotiation, which went back and forth with many different versions of the contract before we got one we could sign.
I can't wait for this to be built into printers either. No need to negotiate ahead of time, we could alter the contract *after* we signed it.
Does that include the carbon footprint of building and maintaining the laser unprinters?
Everyone will know what it means.
> Regarding recycling point at retail stores, I'm actually old enough to remember glass milk bottles, so I would be fine with that. I wonder, though, what happens to the returned burned-out bulbs? Do they really get recycled, or do some companies just dump them?
Following up to my own post, I just had an ugly thought -- or do they just carefully rebox them and put them back on the shelf? That would explain the high incidence of infant mortality.
> Don't you love how if you'd followed my asterisk footnote, you'd have seen my addressing the lifespan?
I think we were making slightly different points, but I don't think I'm interested enough to argue about it. You will notice I did address your footnote, at length. I have this sneaking suspicion that 100 years from now, our descendants will look back at CFLs and say "wow, that was as stupid as putting Merbromin on cuts and Thiomersal in vaccines. What were they thinking?" But in the meantime, there are things we can do to minimize the damage.
> In my area, unless you pay a private company you don't get curbside pickup for anything.
Um, isn't that true everywhere? It's a private company here also, but (this is hilarious) you are *required* to have trash service, or the county leans on you. And of course, there is only one trash service available, so you just take it and like it. (Don't you love state enforced monopolies?) (There was a story recently of families in this area who with careful planning recycled *everything*, and didn't need trash service at all, but the county decided they had to pay for it anyway.) The one saving grace is that recycling pickup for the most common items is free (or bundled, depending on your point of view) and the recycling bin is, like, four times the size of the smallest trash can, so you're encouraged to use it.
Regarding recycling point at retail stores, I'm actually old enough to remember glass milk bottles, so I would be fine with that. I wonder, though, what happens to the returned burned-out bulbs? Do they really get recycled, or do some companies just dump them?
In that vein, I once wrote a letter to my state representatives about my experience following one of the aforementioned recycling trucks along a nearby country road. (I live only a couple blocks from the urban growth boundry.) Those trucks have a bunch of bins open on top, and my truck was showered with big pieces of cardboard and plastic milk bottles as I frantically slowed down and tried to avoid the worst of the debris. To my knowledge, they are still like that. (I didn't even get an acknowledgement of my letter.) So, when you see trash on the side of the road, don't think too ill of your fellow man -- it might just be recycling that escaped. My point being, I do carefully sort my trash and put the paper and plastic in the big bin and bottles in the little bin, and put out my offering to the recycling gods every two weeks. But I don't have any idea where it goes after it leaves my house. For all I know, it becomes landfill. But now I know part of the answer -- at least some of it becomes debris on the side of the road.
And don't even get me started on the abysmal state of beverage container deposit return.
Ah, so you know my family.