Because of the large number of emails I received about last week’s column, today we will start with a comment about that column regarding ICE, “In Case of Emergency” for your phones.  I received an email from Bob Brotchie, the man who started the idea.  He recommended an ICE application for iPhones created by him and ems-options.com.  If you are an iPhone user I highly recommend you take a look at this $0.59 application at iTunes.  If you are like me and do not own an iPhone but another smart phone like a BlackBerry, don’t worry, there is an ICE app on the horizon for us too.

Now let’s look at the rest of the story.

Well, speaking of ice, what a weekend we all just experienced in the Shenandoah Valley and of course everywhere else that got the blast from, “Old Man Winter”.  Since winter starts on December 21st this year I should have said, “Old Man Fall”.

But it did make me think of something that is very much computer related to our society today.  That is WAH or WFH; “Word At Home”, “Work From Home” or whatever you may call it where you work.

Years ago the large majority of us could only perform our jobs from the company location.  However, today computers have changed that.

Look at my job for instance.  My job with NTELOS is spent roughly 90% of the time working on my computer or with others about their computers.  Unless I have a meeting to attend I could be anywhere in the world.  From there it would appear to anyone else that I am sitting at my desk helping them solve their computer related problems.

I can be sitting at another computer and log into my desktop at work and actually work long distance on my company computer.  That allows me to be “stranded” away from the office due to a blizzard and still accomplish anything that I normally would sitting right there.

There is excellent software out there called, “GoToMyPC” which allows you to work on a computer from a remote location and it works very well.  It is very easy to install and use.  It currently costs a little less than $180/year; yet, you can sign up for a 30 day free trial before purchase.

There is also another program that is built into many versions of Microsoft Windows called, “Remote Desktop Connection“.  This one is free; however, unless you are a little on the “geek” side of life; it is not the easiest thing to get working properly.

And that meeting I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, I don’t have to be present for – more about that next time.  But until then, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Tags: location, microsoft, RDP, remote, Remote Desktop, Ron Doyle, WAH, WFH, Work At Home, Work From Home