{"id":116,"date":"2002-12-11T08:48:38","date_gmt":"2002-12-11T13:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alevin.com\/?p=116"},"modified":"2002-12-11T08:48:38","modified_gmt":"2002-12-11T13:48:38","slug":"eds-mobile-office-rating-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/?p=116","title":{"rendered":"Ed’s mobile office rating guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

from Ed Vielmetti’s Vacuum email list<\/a>
\nIn thinking about how to find places to carry on my daily work, I started composing a rating guide for the mobile office location for the
\ntelecommuter. This involves the key technologies of
\n– wireless Internet on your laptop
\n0 stars: no signal
\n1\/4 star: pay-per-use rental computers
\n1\/2 star: pay-per-use wireless; free computers
\n1 star: free wireless with strong signal
\n– a mobile phone, and a place to talk on it
\n0 stars: no signal
\n1\/4 star: signal, but no place to talk – too noisy or too quiet
\n1\/2 star: signal, a place to talk, but no door to keep private
\n1 star: signal and a door to shut, or a wireline phone and same
\n– Kinko’s services (print, photocopy, office supply)
\n0 stars: nothing, and nothing nearby
\n1\/4 star: you know where to go to, but it’s inconvinent
\n1\/2 star: within walking distance, or local but incomplete
\n1 star: more copy, fax, print tools than you know how to use
\n– coffee, tea, or other convivial snacks
\n0 stars: you go hungry
\n1\/4 star: institutional burnt black coffee
\n1\/2 star: your own kitchen, or a place to snack sans atmosphere
\n1 star: a place to hang out with comfy couches and people around
\n– power outlets
\n0 stars: none to be found
\n1\/4 star: only for the floor polishing machines
\n1\/2 star: at some places to sit, but not many, or not enough
\n1 star: one seat, one power outlet
\n– books
\n0 stars: only the ones you carry on your back
\n1\/4 star: a smattering of resume how-tos and business best sellers
\n1\/2 star: a store or library or good personal collection
\n1 star: a major research library or exceptional special collection
\nNo one organization that I know of offers all of these in one place. E.g.
\nThe library. Our library is working on mobile wireless, and has lots of public use computers (1\/2 *), but there are very few places you can engage in phone calls without bothering someone (0 *). There are copiers but no office supplies (1\/2 *), no food and beverages allowed (0 *), but plenty of power (1 *) and more reference and popular books than you’d ever be able to read (1 *). Total rating: 3 of 6.
\nKinko’s. These vary more widely than I’d like, and no particular store is guaranteed to have them all. Generally there’s at least a for-pay computer but sometimes you can get full internet via the printer stations (1\/4 – 1 *). Your co-workers will notice if you’re on the phone (1\/2 *), but there are office supplies and copiers galore (1 *). The beverage selection is almost always utilitarian and office-spartan (1\/4 *). Power is readily available (1 *) but the only books you will find are
\nmotivational and self-help (1\/4 *). Total: 3-4 of 6.
\nYour favorite coffee shop. My favorite is Cafe Ambrosia, which has no Internet at the moment (0 *) but makes up for it by having power outletsat every table (1 *). Phone calls are expected (1 *), there’s good coffee and even comfy couches to sit on (1 *). It’s within a short walk of a Kinko’s (1\/2 *) and Borders #1 (1\/2 *) so the lack of books and copiers on site are easily made up for in a pinch. Total: 4 of 6.
\nMy home office. Good internet (1 *), decent power though I need another power strip (1\/2 *). Exceptionally good place to make or take phone calls (1 *). The kitchen is downstairs, but it’s self-service, and convivial is not really the way to describe the office — there’s no way you could have a four person meeting here (1\/2 *). Getting copies made is a pain (1\/4 * – could be improved with investment). As for books, there are lots of books here, but not always the specialized reference or brand new books that I can get downtown; give 1\/2 * for the library, and another 1\/4 * for the #5 bus that takes 10 minutes to get downtown where the books live. Total: 4 of 6, with notes for improvement that would add 1 more star almost all the way to 6 except for “convivial”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Ed Vielmetti’s Vacuum email list In thinking about how to find places to carry on my daily work, I started composing a rating guide for the mobile office location for the telecommuter. This involves the key technologies of – wireless Internet on your laptop 0 stars: no signal 1\/4 star: pay-per-use rental computers 1\/2 … Continue reading “Ed’s mobile office rating guide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prDRq-1S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alevin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}