[Please scroll down for pictures]
Over the years, I have worked at various Sun campuses - Menlo Park/Mountain View, San Jose/Santa Clara, and Newark campuses. With the workspace consolidation project and the closure of Newark campus, I had the option of selecting my next work location. The options were Menlo Park, Santa Clara, or Work from home.
When I was house hunting,
one of the things on my shopping list was a home office/den on first
floor of the house. Now, it's my chance to put it to good use.
It all began with a talk with my manager. With the agreement of the manager, the first step was using the iWork Category Assessment Tool to analyze the suitability of each workspace category (Sun assigned, Flexible, Home assigned). It asked various questions that one needs to answer honestly. At the end, it provided a suitability score for each category.
After receiving the assessment results and discussing
with the manager again, the iWork Select Tool was used to select the
category and submit an agreement. Then it's shopping time :)
There
is a budget range for each type of equipment: computer hardware,
printer, desk, chair, storage, and monthly telephone/internet fees,
etc. There is also a maximum cap for all costs combined, so if you
spend too much in one category, you will have limited budget for
another item.
Instead of getting a notebook PC (a popular hardware option), I put down an order for a Sunray at home kit, which includes a Sunray 1G thin client, a Cisco VPN router, and a Linksys wireless router. Then a 24 inch Sun LCD monitor. Then a HP3050 printer/fax/copier. I moved a Steelcase Criterion task chair from my former office home (with manager approval and property pass). I evaluated and planned my home office space using a downloadable IKEA office space planning software, and purchased the IKEA workspace furniture and delivery service. I opted to install the furnitures myself to save on installation cost.
With the combination of Sunray 1G and 24 inch monitor running at 1900x1200, I have enough screen real estate to perform all tasks. With the Sunray server running a special version of Solaris 10, the window manager options are CDE and JDS (Java Desktop System/gnome). JDS is the default option and is the latest window manager for Solaris. CDE is the previous generation of windows manager that has been around for years.
Some people may worry about the performance of running a thin client over internet. No worries! It actually runs faster than what I experienced while working from Newark or Santa Clara campus.
The best feature I like about
using Sunray is that it remembers your session. You insert your Java
Card (Sun badge) into the reader slot and begin to work. At the end of
your work day, just remove the card. The next morning you re-insert the
card back in, type in your password, and you have your screen and
applications exactly where you left off before. How great is that!
Besides the persistent session feature, the Sunray thin client uses minimum electric power and dissipates almost no heat and produces no noise. You can leave it on and it's always ready for you.
For the telephone service, I ordered AccessLine, which provides a regular phone number and a Sun internal extension for me that is programmable so it will be forwarded to either my home office, or cell phone, or any other number I program. There is an AccessLine TeleDesk software integrated into JDS for easy switching of the phone forwarding options.
Overall,
it feels like a productive work environment. The time and money saved
in traffic and gas every day translated into more productive working
time, and I have more time left for family after work. It's greatly
improved my work-life balance. For team meetings that happens once a
week, I still try to attend them in person to keep in touch with team
members.
Below are some pictures.
Picture 1: The picture of the home office of the previous home owner. The way I envisioned a home office should look like. Maybe in the next life time :)
Picture 2: My initial part-time home office with furniture moved over from my old townhouse.
Picture 3: Designing for the new full-time home office using IKEA Office Planner software.
Picture 4: The IKEA home office.
Picture 5: With the computer hardware connected. I should replace this with a picture showing Sunray in action (later).
