
Home warriors - terpua
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11819706&fsrc=RSS
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marvin
I've stopped trusting "improvements" to office life. It is obvious that all
these ideas help everybody do more faster, but as we all know, the increased
productivity has not had any material effect on the wages of American office
workers. This article attacks the wrong side of the issue; it's not about
whether telecommuting will cause problems for the individual worker. If this
is really a good idea, any problems will be sorted out in due time. The real
debate should be about whether the individual employee has any interest in
accepting things like these.

Telecommuting has great promise, but I'm almost at the point where I'd like to
say 'fuck you' to any company incorporating such aids. Giving half my wage
(and rising, thanks to this!) to an executive is not my idea of earning a
living.

Where they are applicable, startups use all of these techniques anyway. And
the workers actually get more than superficial benefits. There's nothing to
prevent small companies from going the same route...

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joshwa
$6-33k for "telepresence?" Skype video chat + cheap webcam accomplishes the
same thing for $25.

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mhartl
In this vein, you might find this Robert X. Cringely article interesting:
[http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070831_0028...](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070831_002850.html)

Money quote:

 _Video conferencing has been around for a couple decades, but telepresence is
different from that. You can see the entire other side of the conference
table, for example, and the people who are sitting across from you appear to
be life sized. They can see you and you can see them. When another person
speaks to you they can look you in the eye. Body language and emotions are
easy to detect and the sound of each participant seems to come from his or her
direction. You can watch the people who aren’t talking to see if they are even
paying attention. It really is tele-PRESENCE and the fact that you are looking
in a video screen is forgotten after a minute or two._

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danw
They even make sure to decorate all the rooms used in the system identically
with the same lighting so as not to ruin the effect

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cschneid
HP Halo rooms do exactly that. They are an arced desk in a room, with 3 giant
screens in front of you. Exact same furniture, exact same lighting, exact same
environment.

And it's amazing how well it all works.

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nazgulnarsil
cities are vestigial for high technology jobs. the only thing they make sense
for is manufacturing.

