How to keep working when the lights go out
No electricity for a day means no Internet right? Adam Turner is surviving a day without power thanks to the mobile office.
A strange stillness has descended over my house. The fridge has stopped humming. The assortment of PVRs and media centres have ceased their infernal whirring. The lights have stopped flashing and the speakers have fallen silent. A day without power has sent me back to the Dark Ages.
A few weeks ago I received a letter to say they'd be working on the power lines around the corner today. The result - no electricity for eight hours. In many workplaces it would be time to down tools and head to the pub, but not here. It's still business as usual thanks to the mobility revolution - with a mobile phone, music player, computer, broadband modem and swag of online services all proving their worth today.
A few years ago I thought about buying an uninterruptible power supply, enough to protect against brown outs and keep my desktop PC and cable modem up and running for a little while should the power go out when I'm on deadline. Since then I've switched to a notebook (first Windows and then Mac), with a wireless broadband card tucked away in my travel bag. I also keep all my data synced with the cloud. What was primarily designed as mobility solution also doubles as a handy short-term business continuity solution.
I had plenty of warning that the power was going to go today, so I charged up my iPhone and shuffle last night along with three notebooks (ThinkPad, MacBook and Eee PC). I've also got two mobile broadband sticks at my disposal, using 3 and Vodafone. As a result I've got enough juice and bandwidth to get me through the day and I can easily jump between computers and operating systems thanks to Google Docs, Fastmail, mBox and MobileMe.
Even if I were to lose power without notice, I'd have a few hours up my sleeve (depending on how charged up my notebook batteries were). That's enough to get everything in order and make arrangements to work elsewhere - the local cafe is fine as long as I can get a seat down the back near the power points.
Of course working without electricity has its drawbacks. I've lost access to my network drives and I can't pump music throughout the house using Airtunes. The Blu-ray player and five big-arse televisions sitting in my lounge room are expensive paperweights right now, which has forced me to reshuffle my reviewing schedule.
The biggest inconvenience is that I need to refrain from opening the fridge, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for someone who sits on their butt all day in front of a computer.
A few years ago a day without power would have turned my life upside down, but thanks to mobility and the cloud it's business as usual when the lights go out.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 1
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neo
Nov 13, 2008 5:46 PM
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Working without electricity? Or do you mean AC power? Heaven forbid one must pick up a PEN!! ;-) |