Adventures in home working

After an initial abortive attempt at using Skype I started to use it again yesterday with impressive results. Certainly BT to BT calls seem excellent, BT to cable was where I had the problems last time I tried. In fact I was so impressed that I purchased a SkypeIn number and unlimited voicemail for £24 for 12 months, which is a lot cheaper and more flexible than installing a business line. I then setup my Treo so that when I am at home all of my calls are automatically forwarded to my SkypeIn number and hence to my main desktop. When I leave home all calls revert to my Treo.

Anyone wanting to test out the quality – if you know me – ring my mobile on Wednesday; chances are it will divert you to my SkypeIn number, even better get Skype yourself!

If it all works as expected then my wife will be pleased because I won’t be hogging the home telephone line, and it’s much easier working with my microphone and PC speakers than with a conventional phone/speakerphone. I need to test it later on my Tablet over wireless so that I keep my home mobility.

Whilst investigating I also came across a really useful web application called Public Mind, which Skype is currently using to gauge demand for new features.  I found it because I searched google for “Trillian Skype” because I wanted to know if Skype had a plug-in for my favorite Instant Messaging agregator/portal Trillian pro.  anyway they didn’t but 286 other people have voted for that feature.  On their site they say:

Public Mind is helping Skype to find out what new features its users want the most.  This is a free service that lets you join with others to leverage the Internet and get what you want. Use it to gather critical mass, demonstrate real demand, and get Skype to take action.  Zero spam

This stuff is now mainstream, Skype has over 1 Million customers who have signed up for SkypeOut, the gateway to the analogue voice system.  As I write there are 2.3 Million people on-line using the free Internet Skype to Skype service.

It’s been widely reported (see this article for example) that Microsoft are back porting WinFS to XP.  This is a very intelligent strategy on Microsoft’s part.  A few months ago I wrote about strategies that Microsoft could adopt to compete with Linux, well I missed the most important strategy, which goes like this:

• Back port the pillars of Longhorn to Windows XP
• Wow 3rd party software developers with the new platform capabilities (PDC Tech-ED)
• Convince their bosses that a new version of their applications – that takes advantage of these capabilities – will allow them to sell more copies, or convince people to upgrade
• Establish Longhorn’s credibility as a stable and secure platform (because of the Longhorn Fundamentals)
• Fix the problems that prevent applications running without admin priv and make installation with admin priv easier.
• Demonstrate that Longhorn and XP can provide both Rich and Reach capabilities, via Terminal Services,  an upgraded Web browser and Smart Client support in the form of Java and Click Once .NET applications (in .NET Whidbey)
• Convince the hardware vendors that Longhorn will help them sell more hardware
• Provide time for the new third party applications to arrive that take advantage of Avalon, WinFS and Indigo and the Whidbey release of the .NET Framework.  During this same time build customer confidence that Longhorn has great compatibility with existing Windows XP applications.
• Provide a compelling home user value proposition to get end users familiar with the environment and its advantages, build their confidence and get them to start to push their employers to upgrade
• Provide an amazing version of Office (after office 12) that truly provides a new value proposition by:
• being collaboration centric
• being a better development platform for web services
• exploiting WinFS (and the other Pillars)
• supporting peer to peer team working (like Groove done right – as a platform) and security scenarios
• by tighter integration with an offline enabled and greatly enhanced version of Windows SharePoint Services
• Convince corporates that Longhorns cost of ownership benefits, through improved security, stability and manageability and then sprinkle a bit of value on top.
• Make deployment and management very easy especially for SME’s through either an upgrade route or a clean install with improved free migration, deployment and maintenance tools.

A shorter version of the above

• Think Applications, Applications, Applications, Applications …
• ie get the new Longhorn friendly applications on XP, prove existing applications work on Longhorn, win over the home user with new applications (games, productivity, entertainment and home user security, backup and management); then ship your own killer application Office System 13 and wow them.
• Security, TCO and all that is then just icing on the cake.
• I repeat again Microsoft has figured it out its the Applications that are their key value proposition over Linux

What’s the evidence:

• All of the key APIs will be available on XP and Longhorn
• Most of not all of the APIs will be available on Windows 2003
• The new version of Office is going to be collaboration centric
• Microsoft are giving Unix Services for Windows away for free and will probably build it into longhorn, providing Posix API support
• Longhorn server is going to include many many improvements to Terminal Services which will be exploited by the Longhorn client (my guess from these clues)
• The next version, which will be Longhorn optimised will have all of the best ideas from Groove integrated, (peer to peer, leverages AD where it can, collaboration works over HTTPS)
• They have made a good start with an enterprise and inter-enterprise collaboration product (not quite as well integrated with the directory as SameTime yet) with Office Communicator, LCS and Live Meeting.  In 2 to 3 years these are going to be excellent products.
• Application development on Windows is still popular, there is not a wholesale switch to the web, and of course in the Games and entertainment dominated home market this is even more the case.

A survey to be released Tuesday by Evans Data Corp., Santa Cruz, Calif., shows that 43 percent of developers surveyed who said they are Visual Basic developers, plan to cut back on their use of the popular Microsoft development platform.

Of those saying they plan to reduce their use of Visual Basic, 37 percent said they plan to migrate to Visual Basic .Net.—largely from Visual Basic 6.0, the last non-.Net version of the product. Yet, 31 percent said they plan to move to Java and 39 percent said they will be migrating to C#, Microsoft’s Java-like language for building Internet applications and Web services.

Although, Visual Basic is used by 52 percent of all software developers, this survey—which Evans Data completed in April—indicates that not only is the Visual Basic follow-on language popular amongst VB developers, but so is Java and C#.

I used to be one of those “everything on my laptop” sort of guys until I started working from home.  Now I use the device pyramid principle, which is another way of saying that I exploit the strengths of 3 devices to offset the weaknesses of those same three devices.  I works like this:

My least powerful, but most accessible device is my Treo.  I can access anything on it with a couple of clicks, and its up and running in a second (actually its always on but it takes a second to activate the screen).  Because it’s my phone I never leave home without it.  The information I carry on it is the basic stuff:

• Contacts
• Diary
• Email
• Todo
• eWallet

But because it’s always with me it’s important that I also have stuff for entertainment, (music, books) and work to fill in any otherwise dead time (RSS feeds, tech conferences, email).

Next comes my Tablet,  it’s much bigger, takes a couple of minutes to get going, and even longer to find what I am looking for.  However being more powerful it has everything that the Treo has plus:

• All my scanned documents
• All my current work
• Everything I am reviewing
• My notebook
• All the eBooks, documents and web pages that I am reading
• My NetSnippets library
• All of my music
• Tech Videos I have downloaded to watch
• Instant messaging via Trillian Pro to AOL, MSN, SameTime and Jabber

I only take my Tablet with me when I know I will be sitting around,  when I go out for a walk (I always stop off for a bite to eat or a drink), when I go swimming or take the kids to some event or when I go into work or travel.

When I get home out come my Tablet and Treo,  they then take on their home roles.  The Treo in its cradle diverts its calls to my home phone network (and hangs on my belt during housework) the tablet next to my keyboard for note taking during conference calls.  The Tablet is wireless so it quietly syncs in the background.

At home for serious work I use my desktop and labs, they have everything on my Tablet and the following additions:

• A video library
• Much more screen real estate
• A top quality keyboard and mouse
• All of my archived documents
• My extensive software library
• Everything full text indexed X1 and MSN Desktop Search
• A range of virtual machines for testing, evaluation and secure access into my company
• All the backups

The key to making this work is as follows:

• As the devices get bigger and slower/less convenient to access they get more powerful
• Each device suites it’s environment and I manage the type of work I do in those environments
• The tablet has everything the Treo has and more
• The desktop has everything the Tablet has and more
• Every device is naturally in sync with the other, automatically, or in the case of the Treo with a single button press
• Every device complements the other, and offsetting its weaknesses so their is little compromise

Any downsides:

• It’s more expensive
• There is more to go wrong (but if any device fails I can live with just the other two for a while)
• It took a little setting up

Since I started working from home I have increased the amount of house work that I do, my share is:

• Washing the clothes and putting them away
• At least one set of washing up
• Tidying the kids rooms
• Bed time stories

I don’t mind doing it to much,  but I have recently found that I actually quite enjoy it because I listen to technical conferences or pod-casts on my Treo to keep me occupied (except when reading the bedtime stories ).  Today I was listening to the 2nd Tablet PC Podcast that JK has just started, more details on his blog.  and I found that I was actually looking around for more cleaning to do so that I could listen to the end.  Debbie (wife) was pretty pleased when she got home!

I have gradually refined my workstation design, and its changed quite a lot since the last time I posted.  So I thought I would provide an update.  This first image shows an overview of the whole environment, there are some key points to look out for:

• First I two PC’s shown at the bottom, the one on the left is my desktop, running Windows 2003 Server, with 2GB of memory and VM Ware Workstation and all of my other applications.  This PC drives the three monitors via two ATI graphics boards.

Behind the PC’s in a curtain that my wife made for me that hides one hell of tangle of cables!

On top of the centre monitor is a USB web cam.  On the CRT monitor is my headphone jack and volume control and my Secure ID token (dual factor authentication) for my company VPN connection.

The two monitors centre and left are 19” TFT’s that run at 1280*1024.  The one on the right is a 19” Flat CRT.   I tend to use the one of the left for email, reference materials, instant message discussions etc.  The one in the middle for writing, presentations and reading, and the one on the left for Trillian Pro (docked far right) and web searches, and web reference material I am gathering up as I work as a set of tabs in Maxthon.

Lets look at things in a bit more detail now:

Working from the left again,  right next to my keyboard is my HP TC1000 Tablet in slate mode ready for jotting down notes etc.  I syncs wirelessly in the background with my email and files and I can use it wireless anywhere in the house and garden,  further afield it has a GPRS connection.  When I don’t need it it slides under the shelf out of the way.

Then there is a wireless mouse,  that slides under the shelf as well.  You can see just above the mouses cubby hole is a small pad of paper, sometimes I still prefer to make notes on paper.

The on the right is one of two DECT (wireless) phones.  These phones pick up my landline calls and my mobile calls when my Treo in its cradle, because the reception is better on the wireless phones than on the Treo and they are easier to hold.  We also have phones through the house, so i don’t have to carry my Treo everywhere I go in the house just in case I get a call.

On the top of the shelf is my speaker phone.  Its on a long cord so I can drag it onto the main desk and then I can sit back in my comfy chair with my feet up making notes on my tablet when I am on conference calls.

Whenever I go out I suspend my Tablet and drop it in my backpack and grab my Treo and I am off.  My backpack has everything I need when I am out walking and has a swim kit just in case I am tempted to pop into the pool.  It’s really small and light, but is ultra comfy which is important to me as it minimises the load on shoulders which are often in pain.

On the other side of my keyboard you can see my Treo in its cradle.  As soon as it slots in the cradle it forwards calls to the house phone number,  and when I take it out of the house, it switches off call divert (unless I ask it not to).  Then in the tray under my desk shelf is my TO READ pile,  I still get a few magazines.  Another pad of paper sits between the paper tray and the shelf and above that with the green glowing light is the microphone for skype calls.

Finally their is another PC (2GB again), which is running GSX server and my lab environment. which is currently running, Windows SharePoint Services,  Red Hat Enterprise linux 3, Windows XP VPN connected to my company network, Windows NT 4 to remember what things used to be like and Red hat Linux 8.  VMWare is just so cool!

Way over to the right tucked away in the corner is my printer, copier, scanner.  Its a HP D125xi with a sheet feeder and two paper trays,  one with good quality and one with cheap paper.  My wife makes more use of it than I do as a printer,  but I scan almost everything into PaperPort Pro which converts everything to PDF files.

Anyway thats a pretty good high level introduction.  Follow the links above for more details.