Remote control

It's just so impressive what you can do remotely these days. The software is great and the CPUs and networks are now fast enough to make it work quite well. Here are a couple of examples.

Sitting at my home on a weekend I get a call about a support issue.
- from my home PC I connect to a VPN at the Halifax office
- from the VPN I'm able to remote desktop to my work PC. The GUI and everything comes up properly. It is responsive. Close enough to the real thing that I'm able to work without really noticing I'm logged in remotely. Remote desktop is just an awesome piece of work.
- from the remote desktop session I use Funk to connect to another server on a different continent. Again everything is responsive. The mouse works the way you expect. I can copy and paste from computer to computer and it all works easily
- after I Funk'ed into the computer on the other continent I was able to see what they had and do the fix
- the chain is home PC -> office VPN -> office PC -> server on a different continent


Here's another example
- sitting from my home PC I connect to the office VPN
- from the VPN I remote desktop into my work PC
- from remote desktop off my work PC I launch an xterm to a UNIX server in the office
- from the xterm window I ssh into a different UNIX server in the office
- the chain is home PC -> office VPN -> office PC -> virtual xterm session -> virtual ssh session


I just find it remarkable all the layers of indirection, all the encryption, all the network traffic. And it comes up great and is nearly as crisp and responsive as being there.

Remote desktop provides other advantages. Before RDP, when it was busy at the office, I had to be physically in the office to put in the extra hours. This meant I sometimes had to arrive at work horribly early. Or it was disruptive staying late or going in on a weekend. Now I can usually put in the extra time from home and still be able to do other stuff around.

The thing you have to be careful about with RPP is you can get a bit too attached to the office. Like just extending your office day from home after supper every night. It can be a bit "addictive".

It's OK in non-peak times to log in for a few minutes in the evenings and check your late in the day e-mail. Or pick off some small thing that was nearly done when you left. But keep it balanced. Your time away from the office is just that.