If you're a moron, like me

One of the banes of my existence is managing the timezone thing - I live in mountain time and work largely with clients and employers who are based on the East Coast. Normally it's not that big a problem, except when I travel there. Flight times are always local time, so you get hosed when you take the flight info stuff from a travel booking site and put it in your calendar - yes it lands at 11:00 pm, but that's mountain, so like 1 am Eastern. I'm forever making the wrong calculations.

Because I am a moron.

But I just added the Mountain timezone to my Outlook display following these helpful instructions from Lifehack, and I'm feeling better already!

Free Videochat Apps Reviewed

One of the most important tools any shut-in has is her videochat. It makes a huge difference when your colleagues see you and more importantly when you see them. Having easy to use tools that don't take a lot of special gear, networks, set up, or technical acumen to use is absolutely essential to a successful telecommuting program.

Stella has struggled on and off with her video conferencing tools. I've slogged along with Skype (even though it when through periods of time when it stopped wanting to drive my camera), I've tried Oovoo and Yugma (not good options because they require so much account set up on the part of your partner), there's WebEx, and my beloved GoToMeeting is promising HD videoconferencing at some point "soon". Yay.

If you're weighing your free options, the nice people at Gizmodo have a good test drive of Google, Skype, and iChat. Check it out.

Telecommuting Fashion Watch: It's Not a Bathrobe

One of the well known benefits of telecommuting is that you don't have to strap yourself into a work costume and trudge into the Real Office. You can pretty much roll out of bed and get to work naked if that's the kind of thing you want to do. I don't recommend this, mind you, because of the prevalence of webcams and windows and suchlike, but hey, I'm not here to judge.

Yes, you can be casual, but that doesn't give you a license to let yourself go, of course. No pajamas. I mean it. But do you need to make yourself uncomfortable? No, I don't think that either. Allow me to suggest real clothes that function like their more pajamaesque cognates.

Bathrobe? No.
Long sweater? Yes!
It's warm, comforting, and because it's long it can be helpful in managing the low-rise jeans/plumber issue that seems to arise these days.

Slippers? No.
Nice sandals? Sure, why not?
I like the idea of having a dedicated pair of house shoes, flip-flops or sandals to slip on, Mr. Rogers-style. I hate the idea of tracking dirt into my and home office, and I would prefer that people remove their shoes. But I understand that you might like to wear shoes to avoid seeming like a complete shlub.

Sweatpants? No.
Yoga pants? Maybe.
Here's the thing about yoga pants: elastic waist. It is a slippery slope from a forgiving waistline to sloth. I'd like to recommend that if you're going to wear work out clothes as clothing that this is only acceptable if you are actually going to or coming from the gym or other actual physical exertion.

I'm tying the belt on my long sweater and saying it over and over like a mantra: it's not a bathrobe.

In Praise of POTS

No, not that pot. Sheesh you people. I mean Plain Old Telephone Service. I've taken a step back in time and obtained a super old fashioned telephone line. No VoIP, no schmancy stuff. Just a telephone. What I like about it is that it doesn't compete for bandwidth with all the other things I'm shoving through my internets. It will work when the power is out so I can call people and tell them my power is out. It works when the internet is out, so I can call my internet provider and tell them the internet is out.

Simple. Maybe not the cheapest thing, but it works.

So now I forward the local Skype number I've set up for my local colleagues to the landline when I'm physically in the office, and to the cell phone when I'm wandering the streets. This preserves the illusion of "I'm right down the hall" but rings in my distant location. I can call reliably, and people can call me directly on the real number when all else fails.

FiOS versus Cable in a Battle for My Internets

The phone company has been sending Stella some postcards lately with a bit of intriguing information: FiOS has come to my neighborhood. We're seriously considering making the switch to fiber optic internets, but I'm just not sure.

Could it really be that much better and faster?

Here are the decision points, most of which, I realize, are irrelevant and crazypants. And yet:

1. Which company is likely to be a more reliable source of customer service? Qwest or Comcast? Who knows?
2. Which company is less of an evil, crippling monopoly? They both kind of are.
3. Is it really faster, the fios?
4. Would the productivity gains we make by ditching the cable television at the same time (because that's what we're thinking about doing) have a multiplying effect on any internets speed increase that we might also see?
5. Can Mr. Commute live without hot and cold running ESPN?

You see, it's quite a quandary.

The Sharpie Company Has a Direct Link Into My Sooooooul

Oh, Sharpie, why do you torture me so? I love every pen you've ever made and own an embarrassing number of them. And now pencils?

Yes!

I mean: may God have mercy on my soul.

Persistent Telepresence on the Cheap

This quick article talks about a couple of free tools that telecommuters like me use all the time. Seriously I'm rarely not "available" on Skype, but this guy goes one step farther: he connects to a Skype instance on a computer on a desk in the remote office and is "there" all day. So people can stop by, see him working, and he can see them. I think this is a pretty nifty idea because it gets at one of the problems that telecommuters all suffer from: out of sight out of mind.

Okay we're all outta sight, man.

But you know what I mean. People all too easily forget you're there, you're working, you are available. By being actually visible, that could help address the problem.

Maybe if the IT guys stick with their plan of replacing my overheating slow rig I'll get them to use the old machine as a disembodied head end-point. It's something to consider.

Update: The Chill Mat Helps

Believe it or not, the chill mat seems to have helped the flagging performance of my laptop. I would have thought that refrigerating my office to ridiculous levels would be good enough for my little buddy, but it turns out that is not the case. I bought the cheapest one, plugged it into the USB and fired it up (cooled it down?).

And the past few days have been Four O'Clock Failure (TM) free. Yay!

Could It Be The Heat?

I don't know if it's just summertime laziness or what, but my computer has a new afternoon trick. Every day around four in the afternoon it grinds to a halt. It's absolutely infuriating because not only is it close to the end of the day, making its usual 20 minute start up a reallly un-appetizing option, but also because it tends to be an extremely busy time of day.

In Stella's line of work there are two busy times: end of the tax year and end of the fiscal year. We are trying to get in as much cash as possible before the end of the fiscal year and so that means we're asking a lot of people to fulfill a pledge, make an additional gift, send us five dollars in an envelope, anything. Solicitations mean email solicitations and my customers all wake up at about 3:45 and say, "Gosh, we might should get that email out!" and send along their datasets and content.

So I really need to crank at 4:30, not click and wait seven minutes for whatever is going wrong in there to redraw the screen.

I am thinking about getting a chill mat for the darn thing - could it be getting too hot by the end of the day? Does that happen?

For the Pen Fetishists

This fantastic blog, Does This Pen Write? -- I love it so much. It turned me on to the fact that there is a National Stationery Show.

I just drooled a tiny bit on the keyboard. I need to be alone with my pens now.

Telecommuter Fashion Forward: Flip Flops

Summer is officially here at StellaCommute headquarters. While we fired up the office air conditioner a couple of weeks ago, it's really kicking into gear now. With that in mind, it's time for our irregular feature on telecommuter "fashion" -- note those are not unnecessary quotation marks, because we're talking about flip flops here, people.

 What Did You Say You Bill Hourly?

For the truly discerning shut-in, these lovely numbers from Roberto Cavalli are ON SALE at Zappos for more than a grand. I kid you not. These are perfect for the telecommuter who doesn't actually need to work for money. Or who bill out at, like, $500 an hour. And really, I'm not sure what you can do at home for $500 an hour, but I'm pretty sure it involves different shoe styles than these.

My Legs are Cold, But My Toes Are Warm

These are the perfect choice for the telecommuter who suffers from chilly calves on those jaunts to the refrigerator. Or maybe you're too lazy to shave your legs every day -- wear these and keep your hirsutism to yourself. Elegant brocade plus white leather mean you can only wear these between Memorial Day and Whitsunday, though, so govern yourself accordingly.

Fringe Benefits

Buckle up, it's going to be a ticklish ride. These shoes will make you feel like you have small flies landing on the top of your feet all day. You'll get a nice workout from twitching and shaking your feet to get them off GET THEM OFF NOW AIIIIIIIEEEEE!

The Enterprise Edition

Something about these just makes me think "Trekkie" and I'm not sure why. The angular cut of the straps, the groovy 70s refrigerator/stove/wall oven color scheme, it's hard to put my finger on it exactly. Hey, they look comfortable.

Okay, at this point I just want to note that none of these shoes is less than $100. For flip flops. Am I so hopelessly out of touch with what shoes should or could cost or is that unreal? Okay, hopelessly out of touch it is! Let's continue...

Not Safe For Work (If Your Job Is Cowboy) 

Don't be fooled by the top people, these will not protect you if a horse steps on your foot whilst you try to saddle him or her. They are very sparkly, though. But bedazzling is, generally speaking, not a safety feature.

Back To Basics

All right, enough of this silliness. These are your basic flip flops, like the ones you had as a kid. They're less than twenty dollars, the straps look like they won't wear you raw, and they're perfect for staggering around your yard looking at flowers while you listen to a conference call.

So there you have it, a nice selection of extremely casual footwear. Please feel free to go to Zappos, where I found these fantastic shoe pictures, and purchase yourself a new pair of flip flops for the summer. After all, as a shut in, you don't spend nearly the money you might otherwise on clothes shoes and stuff. And please, don't call them thongs. That's something else entirely.

Like I Don't Already Look Like a Corpse

This is an interesting product, a monitor top light that is designed to better light online videoconferencers. I think it has potential to make it easier to see people's expressions when doing online video, and I like the idea. Of course part of me thinks, "Nobody wants to see that!" And by "that" I mean "my face at 6 am my time". High-definition cameras for the desktop? Ai, papi, no.

But maybe this is deeply flattering light, like those old makeup mirrors they had in the 1970s where you could change the light (Office - Daytime - Home - Evening) -- the office setting was green, but the evening setting? Mood lighting straight from the best bordello.

I'm sure that the monitor light has the same settings. At least I hope so.

Verdict on the Netbook

You may have noticed the paucity of posts. Stella was on-site last week and not only did I not post, I also didn't even mention it before going away. Rude, I know, but it just kind of crept up on me and before I knew it I was there, and really cranking the work every day and night.

I did something completely revolutionary on this trip: I took no physical books. Yes, I had a paper notebook, and some files and stuff that I was going to need for meetings. But the only book I took was my netbook, and let me tell you this: it worked out really well.

I borrowed several e-books from the library before I left, as well as my collection of the classics from the Gutenberg project, and all of it provided plenty of reading material. I finished up The Scarlet Letter, read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and started an Elmore Leonard novel. And I didn't have to carry them along. One little netbook with all that in it.

Plus I was able to use the netbook as a backup when we were doing a bunch of upgrades to my work laptop. Try that with your average hardcover book!

Or iPaddy.

Or Kindle.

So my verdict: I think the netbook is a win for travel. I've got an Acer AspireOne and it delivered a solid day's worth of battery power -- I read on it on and off from 6 in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon, and I still had juice to go. With the right book reading software, you can read very comfortably on screen, and the other features are nice for other forms of goofing off in your spare time. Having a backup for your main computing device is also very very very nice.

But that's just me. You should do what you want. And if you really want an iPad (and after handling my brother-in-law's iPad I must tell you they are very very compelling) -- well heck you work hard for your money, give yourself a little treat. But if you're a frugal cheapskate like Stella, a $300 netbook will do just fine.

Good Getting Started Advice

This post from Work Happy Now has a ton of good advice on setting up your workspace for good work-from-home habits. All of these suggestions are right on -- good light, good chair, pleasant environment that makes you want to be there for ten hours a day.

Lately the thing I've been appreciating most in my workspace is a plant. I have a palm tree, and I recently moved it from behind me to the desk next to me. I was feeling like I was neglecting it a bit, and having it right there helps me remember to dump the dregs of my water glass on it once a day. Also, I think it gives me a bit of oxygen. My brain needs all the help it can get.

How Much of My Face Do You Need to Face?

I am of two minds about face-to-face meetings. On the one hand, I am a pretty social person, and I love to go to the Real Office and meet with people. I like happy hour, I like lunch meetings, I like wearing shoes, I like bumping into people in the hall way. I recognize that this is useful to me.

On the other hand, I know for a fact that the contents of meetings expands to fit the time allotted. People love to waste time in meetings, and will re-hash decided issues in a way that is not super productive if there are twenty minutes left. I would think busy people would be grateful for an extra twenty minutes to sort through their email between meetings, or make some calls or whatever, but no. Once we're in that conference room together, we're going to discuss things until it's time for our next meetings.

That said, this post from Web Worker Daily notes that there is still value in face-to-face meetings. It's absolutely true. I just wish that there were more web cams everywhere. I find that when people can see me at all (vivacious disembodied head, in person, at happy hour, whathaveyou) they feel better about our interaction. I know they know I'm listening. I need to get a way that all the people I meet with can be visible to me, so I can see their smiling faces.

Maybe it's time to talk to IT about deploying more cheap webcams.

Six Little Ideas About Headsets

I spend a lot of time in a headset and I never know what's going to work for me. I've done wireless, one ear, clip ons, speakers and a mic -- really too many to count. I've recently reassessed my headphone needs and I've come to a few conclusions about what works for me:

1. Wireless doesn't work for me: I like the idea of being able to wander the yard with my headset, but in reality, they clip, cut out, and aren't charged up when I need them.
2. If you wear glasses, an ear-bud style may be preferable: The overhead traditional "can" style headset can pinch your ears against your specs and over the long haul this is painful. In-ear may be a better choice for the four-eyes set.
3. Position of mic is critical: I hate having to find the sweet spot for my mic every time I take a call, so having a mic that is both out of the way so I can sip and snack when not on calls and right there when I do get a call is nice.
4. Changing it up can help: Sometimes I'll use one headset for a few days to give my ears a break, or if I know I'm going to be heads-down working for a few hours, use the speakers for a bit and ignore incoming calls if they come. 
5. Test your sound daily: My computer likes to unset its preferences and options on my sound options, so I do a daily test call to the Skype call testing service to make sure the rig has found the right mic, and that the levels are okay.
6. Know your mute button: This is the most important thing -- know how to mute your mic on the device itself. Oh and know how to un-mute yourself, too. Get good at this because you need to be able to filter out the barking, whining, flushing, or other audio detritus that may occasionally fill your peaceful home office.

So yeah, headsets. I'm a little in love with my new Plantronics earbuds. They are comfy and sound great.  I'm sure I'll fall out of love with them soon, but for now, they are full of awesome.

Telecommuting Fashion Tips

Stella is starting to think about springtime. I notice the birds are singing an awful lot just before dawn (which is when I get up to start my work day). I totally should have pruned the roses last weekend, and didn't get around to it this weekend because I was singing concerts (more about this later). It's still pretty cold outside, but a coming change of seasons gets me thinking about sorting through the clothes in the closet and making sure that I'm not descending into utter sloth.

So what better time for a fashion post?

If you're a man wondering what to wear when you telecommute, I don't have a lot to say to you. Seriously, just put on some clean jeans or trousers of some stripe and a shirt with a collar. Add socks, comb your hair, and bob's your uncle.

No elastic waist pants though, boys. I don't want to have to say this to you again. Just. Don't.

For the ladies, I've got a few ideas for stuff to wear that is comfortable and not yoga pants. Not that there's anything wrong with yoga pants per se, but unless you're also doing a metric assload of yoga in them, you probably are headed down a slippery slope to needing ever larger yoga pants.

Again, not that there's anything wrong with that. But really, yoga pants are for yoga.

You know what's not for yoga? Some tights, and a dress with a bit of a flared skirt, with a cardigan. That would look cute.

You might also try some jeans with not-a-t-shirt. I don't know what shirt you should wear, but one with a collar is a good bet. Or maybe you could try one of those shirts that's made out of jersey but which has a bit of a feature on it -- trim, a twist, some sequins or some such.

Novelty glasses are an interesting choice for those who do a lot of videoconferencing. You can surprise people on the other end of the connection with different looks. Or not.

Okay, this is actually bad advice. You can tell Stella has been in a rut of jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies, and is looking forward to getting back to skirts and summer stuff. I think I can make it until it's time to break those out again.

An Alternative to iPad

Stella just got a netbook, and the first question everyone asks me is "What, no iPad?" Yes, we have no iPads today. The main reason is that terrible terrible name.* I just don't feel comfortable buying things from a company where there are so clearly no women in any kind of product advisory role. Because could no one in Cupertino think of anything better than this?

Seriously, what about iTab -- it's a tablet device, after all. And it sounds retro-low calorie. Whatever, nobody asked me.

* Also: no webcam.

When Are Pajamas Not Pajamas?

Apparently when you call them a suit. Or maybe the question is when is a suit not a suit? When it's made of flannel and costs more than $100. I'm not sure what my position is on pajamas that look like a suit on a webcam. Part of me thinks why not just get dressed? Put on a shirt with a collar, and a cardigan and comb your hair.

An additional part of me thinks that if I wanted to sleep in my suit I could just go and get many martinis in the hotel bar and get to the same place. It doesn't sound as restful as making a conscious decision to slip into nice pjs and really rest.

Stella Has a New Special Friend

Yes, my laptop is pretty small, and that's nice. But sometimes you need something smaller, something that your employer's IT crew doesn't care about, something that's just for you. And that's where my little candyapple red netbook comes in. I became convinced that I needed some form of e-reader after my last two trips on which I read through everything I'd brought on the plane ride there.

That is the worst feeling ever in the history of terrible feelings.*

So something that would allow me to read without carrying six or seven books seems like a good idea for Stella. I looked at e-readers, and then thought about a netbook. And decided netbook. Because I can blog on it, surf on it, skype and IM on it, and read ebooks. I am not tied into a proprietary format and can download free public domain ebooks from the Gutenberg Project (hello Frankenstein and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin), books from the library, and stuff I buy on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I'm kind of excited about this. We'll see how it all works out for me.

*Okay, slightly behind unmedicated childbirth, but friends, it's right up there.