My doctor told me that sitting at a desk all day was slowly killing me. So I purchased a standing desk adapter. Then my doctor said I ought to take better care of my feet. So I purchased a massaging foot mat to go with my standing desk. Now my doctor says that I need to do more exercise rather than standing still all day. So I purchased a standing desk treadmill. I suspect my doctor might work for Amazon... Anyway, this is the popular-on-TikTok EgoFit Walker Pro. It's a short little…
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One Friday last year, I posted some farewell messages in Slack. Removed myself from a bunch of Trello cards. Had a quick video call with the team. And then logged out of my laptop. I walked out of my home office and sat in my garden with a beer. The following Monday I opened the door to the same office. I logged in to the same laptop. I logged into a new Slack - which wasn't remarkably different from the old one. Signed in to a new Trello workspace - ditto. And started a video call with my…
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(Written mostly for myself) Install DroidCam I use DroidCam - which converts your Android into a wired or wireless webcam. Set the resolution nano /etc/modprobe.d/droidcam.conf Add the following text: options v4l2loopback_dc width=1280 height=720 Most video call services are limited to 720p, and streaming 1080p and higher via USB isn't always possible. Interact with the Android My Android's screen faces away from me - so I can't easily touch or interact with it. Here are two useful…
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Sitting down all day, every day, is killing me. Well, my doctor thinks it probably isn't brilliant for me and recommended trying a standing desk (as well as boring things like exercising more, drinking less, and eating fewer pies). I already have a fancy WFH desk which holds all my stuff. So I decided to get an adapter. I deliberately went with the largest I could find - while keeping the price below my employer's £150 budget. So this is the snappily named DWS28-02N. It's a chunky-monkey of a …
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I've been experimenting on my colleagues (sorry gang!) and I've found that video meetings go a little better when they start with a bit of mood music. This is, of course, highly unscientific and just a little bit silly, but it is fun. I log in to Google Meet a minute before the meeting start time and immediately share a YouTube video. Meet has this nifty ability to directly stream the audio from a tab - so I don't need to hold my microphone to my speakers. It's a low effort way to set the…
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A year ago, I decided to buy a new Linux laptop. I also decided to switch to using it full time for work. I've always used Linux for personal use - but was mostly stuck with MacOS for work. I don't like MacOS. Since I was WFH, I decided to switch to full time WFL - Working From Linux This is a brief list of what hasn't worked. As ever, while I'm grateful for my employers' enlightened BYOD policies - this is a personal blog post. The good new is, most of my life is spent in the browser. I use …
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(This blog post is going to be UK specific, and biased towards jobs that I've personally done.) How much does it cost to go to work in a physical office? I'm going to try and list all the things I have to pay for just in order to be able to show up. This ignores things I can claim back on expenses (although that's an issue if you don't have sufficient credit access). Commuting is the big one. At one time, I was paying close to £4,000 for a train into work. I've since moved closer to work, …
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As part of my MSc, I fell down a research rabbit-hole of 1980s "Office Of THE FUTURE!!" articles. Ultimately, I couldn't find a way to include it in my research - so you're getting my cast offs. So, I present to you some choice predictions from "Technology and the office of the future" by B. W. Manley. Low cost computers (VDU) - yup! Data storage - the article talks about storing "the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on one side of a disc — words and pictures". Digital n…
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I have a conundrum. I'm not very good at social stuff. But I know that buying a couple-of-dozen doughnuts it a nice gesture for a team. So, every few months, I used to pony up for a case of sweet treats. I'm not a manager, or team leader, or anything like that. I just know that an unhealthy amount of sugar is a nice way to bond with colleagues - and meet new people in the office. And, much like buying a round in a pub, I'm aware of the loose social obligation created by me greedily eating…
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Back when I worked for an ISP, my employer paid for me to have broadband. I was expected to work from home a few days a month and they needed their workers to have high-bandwidth connectivity. Because it was a business expense, we all received BIG SCARY WARNINGS that the broadband was only to be used for work. Absolutely no domestic use allowed. *nudge nudge wink wink* Of course, everyone ignored that directive and used it for web-surfing after-hours. Was that theft? Our employer paid the…
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I expect everyone will be writing these pieces soon. So here's my cliché-ridden effort. I've found this year to be... liberating. I can stay up all night, knowing I can roll out of bed and be instantly at work. I can be as social as I like - and I can decline invitations if I'm just not in the mood. I can read a good book over lunch, rather than hunching over my desk eating Pret. Or I can take a lunchtime nap. No going to a crappy pub, I can order in the exact beer and cider I like. No going …
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Turn your Android phone into a USB webcam with DroidCam. I can't believe it took me a whole fucking year of pandemic-time to discover this app. My laptop's webcam is... basically fine. It's a cheap 720p sensor with a tiny lens. It doesn't really cope with low light, and the picture is a bit fuzzy and grey. If you're on a conference call with me, I look like this: I've got an old Samsung Android phone which I don't use any more. It's one of those with billions of megapizels and quantum…
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