coronavirus Archives

Jul32020 by EPHNo Comments

Netbook For Your Lock-down or Break-out Laptop of Destiny?

I’m starting to think about how this Fall and early Winter will look if we see more cases coupled with seasonal cold and flu outbreaks in my area. I work in the north and miserable weather is the norm, as are colds and flu season surges every year.The cold and wet end of the year has traditionally been the most prominent time for sickness and misery for those who try to keep working even when bed rest and hot tea would be more appropriate. Summers are short and humid with lots of mosquitoes, so many who don’t have to be outside stay indoors most of the year. This may be the reason we see a lot of cold-related illnesses, not from being outdoors, but from being indoors. As luck would have it I usually spend a lot of time outdoors in the rain and snow......loving it! Actually more so because...

May212020 by EPHNo Comments

Change is a Monster!

Blog, Future, Recent Posts

Welcome to the inner sanctum. My remote office away from home across the wet, muddy path that leads to the shed within a shed. A fortress of solitude where one can contemplate complex and fascinating problems that have baffled even the most brilliant intellectual sectors. Under a dimly lit LED that reflects off the 70's SciFi influenced aluminum foil bubble wrap that insulates each wall, I toil away as the wind howls, thunderclaps, and rain beats against the outer hull. (for this inner sanctum reminds me of a ship adrift on a sea of perplexities) Well used computers and monitors display multiple terminal screens of data. Information on many things relegated to the command line or the shell - some trivial and some of the intrigue. Processed bits and bytes of standard output regardi...

Mar302020 by EPHNo Comments

Fear of The D4rk

Blog, Recent Posts

With ominous predictions of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the US alone, and the worst possibly ramping up in the next few weeks, many people are starting to experience feelings of dread. Life has been altered into an almost nightmarish state. For those who have been personally affected by the virus, the nightmare is all too real. Loss of family members, illness, complications from the disease, loss of income, (unemployment number predictions don't look very good at this time) and trying to defend against an invisible menace wears heavy on many.For some, this may seem like a weird sort of holiday. Those who feel they are immune to the worst of the disease may have rude awakenings if it turns out that they are not. For others, this may seem like a major inconvenience, which of course ...

Mar292020 by EPHNo Comments

The company has left the building

Blog, Recent Posts

What is a company? Is it a building, an office, a memo, a directive to point the way into the never-ending cost-cutting unknown? No, for a lot of the world the company is the people who do stuff that in some shape or form creates some value. It’s the people who move things, make things, fix things, maintain things, process things. The situation now has many of your companies (the people) no longer in the office or buildings, but working from home. In some cases, not even working, just not at work. Luckily your company still has long digital tentacles that can somewhat tether your workforce together through often meaningless conference calls and possibly poorly animated web-based meetings, (hooray for extra-long PowerPoint presentations) but this approach does have limitations. Monitor...

Mar82020 by EPHNo Comments

Heed the Plough Wind

Blog, Recent Posts

Like the Plough Wind before a storm - the news and internet are buzzing with impending doom from the Corona Virus. The noise has gone up a few levels recently, but still, some companies may be waiting too long before pulling the trigger and asking their workers to work from home (if they can - some work doesn’t permit remote options). Of course, there could be some extreme mitigation ideas that could involve being stuck at work. Image the doors closing as giant padlocks and chains reinforce the stay in the office mandate.....ah, but that would never happen in the free world........right? Dedication versus incarceration, what an image that conjures up. If your area falls under a state of emergency you may be seeing difficulties already impacting everyday productivity....