Working in the light

Back in the early 2000's I had children to care for - my boss suggested that I work from home.

It was great, particularly during the school holidays. I used a mobile telephone for phone calls - I used a headset to ensure clarity. My computer connected back to work over a dial-up modem sometimes the modem call stayed up for a week. 

I was mostly running SQL on a database - the software was set-up so the only screen updates were sent to my computer not all the data (this was a thin-client) set up. Sometimes I would be testing user software, or sending email.

I could spend a lot of time working - work really benefited as did my children.

I remember that my computer mouse stopped working. After investigating I figured out that the sunlight coming in through the window was overwhelming the optical receiver inside the mouse - the plastic walls of the mouse were too thin to use in sunlight. I fixed it by adding aluminium foil shielding to the inside of the mouse. I wrote a mock report - the conclusion was that the organisation did not expect its employees to get close sunlight.