Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus

[olkipukki]

Come on, where is your spirit?! 

At least 3 things you can do while WFH... 

1) with your neighbours (remotely)

 

2) with your family

 

3) alone
 

[coppice]

Come on, where is your spirit?! 
3) alone
 

Come on. Its 2020. Who has newspapers to cut up?

[HobGoblyn]

A lot of people would never be able to cope in a situation like people had during ww2.

Of all the things to care about, what I wipe my arse with comes bottom of the list.

A friend was telling me what his dad taught him when he was a youngster (early 1950s) and they had an outside loo.  They used old newspapers as toilet roll and his dad said "if you turn up the corners, you can use them to get the crap out of your fingernails"

[coppice]

A friend was telling me what his dad taught him when he was a youngster (early 1950s) and they had an outside loo.  They used old newspapers as toilet roll and his dad said "if you turn up the corners, you can use them to get the crap put of your fingernails"

An outside loo and no bath or shower was still very common in UK homes of the 1950s. Using newspapers as toilet paper was also very common, partly because it was actually nicer to use than the sandpaper they sold as toilet rolls back then. This was before the availability of cheap tissue strong enough not to disintegrate while wiping.

I was amused recently watching someone talking to a room full of students about how much the UK has changed since the 1960s. He commented about outside toilets going away, to which one of the students responded that they looked at a student house with an outside toilet, totally missing that the speaker was not referring to an additional toilet in the garden. Some people seem too privileged to think.

[bd139]

Oh joy the crazy fuckers are turning up now. I've just had death threats from someone after agreeing with the government handling of things now containment has failed. They accused me of being a shill, that this entire thing is a government plot to kill the vulnerable and disabled and that I was going to get stabbed up. I hope they don't run out of meds for these folk  . Another forum for ref, not this one.

[nctnico]

A friend was telling me what his dad taught him when he was a youngster (early 1950s) and they had an outside loo.  They used old newspapers as toilet roll and his dad said "if you turn up the corners, you can use them to get the crap put of your fingernails"

An outside loo and no bath or shower was still very common in UK homes of the 1950s. Using newspapers as toilet paper was also very common, partly because it was actually nicer to use than the sandpaper they sold as toilet rolls back then. This was before the availability of cheap tissue strong enough not to disintegrate while wiping.

I have a fallback for toilet paper (the pictured one is not mine but similar):

[coppice]

Oh joy the crazy fuckers are turning up now. I've just had death threats from someone after agreeing with the government handling of things now containment has failed. They accused me of being a shill, that this entire thing is a government plot to kill the vulnerable and disabled and that I was going to get stabbed up. I hope they don't run out of meds for these folk  . Another forum for ref, not this one.

These days some people think you're a Nazi and need to die if you don't agree with them what to have for dinner.

[coppice]

A friend was telling me what his dad taught him when he was a youngster (early 1950s) and they had an outside loo.  They used old newspapers as toilet roll and his dad said "if you turn up the corners, you can use them to get the crap put of your fingernails"

An outside loo and no bath or shower was still very common in UK homes of the 1950s. Using newspapers as toilet paper was also very common, partly because it was actually nicer to use than the sandpaper they sold as toilet rolls back then. This was before the availability of cheap tissue strong enough not to disintegrate while wiping.

I have a fallback for toilet paper (the pictured one is not mine but similar):

Your hose arrangement is very common in India. You still need something to dry with. I use a Japanese style bidet toilet, which will both wash and dry, so I have no need for toilet paper.

[PlainName]

Of all the things to care about, what I wipe my arse with comes bottom of the list.

Toilet paper may be preferable to tissues for dealing with a snotty nose, and it's kinder to the plumbing when flushed. Try blowing your nose on newspaper.

[james_s]

These days some people think you're a Nazi and need to die if you don't agree with them what to have for dinner.

Authoritarianism has never gone away. It's amplified by the way the online world makes it so easy for people to exist in their own echo chamber filled with like-minded people, shielding them from any opinions differing from their own to the point that they start to believe that the vast majority of people are on the same page as they are and anyone who does not is a rare outlier and nut job.

[Electro Detective]

Considered a real nutter and or un-Australian here if not following animal racing and sports, and all the false social BS that goes with it,
including smoking, booze, rubbishing the other team and hating on over sponsored rich players and their trophy wives etc = intelligent, constructive, useful, brain food stuff 

and they vote for their favorite poolitical team as well = more 'sports' activity, yay! 

---------------------

Just a thought..   

Are the idiots hoarding the loo paper, planning to embalm themselves pyramid style, once they expire and go to the big supermarket up in the sky? (or down below  )

 

 

[rgarito]

I work as a software/firmware engineer for one of the largest companies that designs the products that most companies use for employees working from home.  We are US-based but have offices worldwide, including in China.  Most of our customers have either transitioned to home work or are actively testing it.  (been great for our stock price so far). 

(I also do some side work as a hardware/firmware engineer for a small embedded design company; I work 2000+ miles away from them and have never actually met any of them, so it's business as usual for me regarding that stuff)

I think it won't be a big deal for many companies, because a lot of at least the larger companies already do a lot of work from home anyways.  But capacity planning, etc are important.  If anything goes wrong, it will be with underestimating the resources required, licenses, etc.

As for us, we did a worldwide test on Thursday, of our tech support teams, just to load test our existing systems.  Most of us work from home a few days a week, but never all at once, so we wanted to ensure there were no surprises.  Went pretty smoothly and it was now announced that starting Monday, working from home is "highly encouraged" for all staff, worldwide, except the few who have to be "hands on" in the office.  We are not closing offices (you still can come in if need be) but most people won't.  For us, being most of the company at least occasionally works from home anyways, I doubt it will affect our operations much.  (I WFH about 3 days a week usually).  Our China and a few other overseas offices were already on mandatory work from home with the offices actually closed and they are starting to transition back into the office, now.

Incidentally, our sales and consulting teams were told not to go INSIDE any customer's office without approval.  Also both foreign and domestic travel now require approval, as well.

[HobGoblyn]

Of all the things to care about, what I wipe my arse with comes bottom of the list.

Toilet paper may be preferable to tissues for dealing with a snotty nose, and it's kinder to the plumbing when flushed. Try blowing your nose on newspaper.

I agree. But in a time of emergency it would still be bottom on my list of concerns

[rgarito]

Dave can you tell me if the corona is spreading less in region like Australia where the temperature is higher than the north planet?
There are rumors high temperature will block the virus...

Thanks

I live in South Florida.  We are almost always warmer than the rest of the USA.  In fact we already hit 90 (F) about a week ago, but we have mostly been in the low 80's.  We are quickly becoming a hot-spot in the USA (my county, Broward, specifically).  Everything here is rapidly shutting down.  By the end of the weekend there will be little in the way of public things left running.  WE are a heavy tourist region, too, and that is pretty much done, now.  Spring break is going on, and we are one of the hot college destinations.  Already some cities (Miami) are telling students to go home and closing a lot of the parties they are attracted to. 

As far as I know, climate doesn't seem to matter and I've seen articles claiming that idea was actually a hoax.

[rgarito]

There is a lot of uncertainty about the statistics, but I've seen no evidence for anything like that. I think that the recent stats for Lombardy in Italy were 40% of those positive needing hospital treatment, and 12% intensive care, but they were just testing those with symptoms. In that case there were around 500 in intensive care mostly from an area with a population that the doctor involved estimated to be around 100,000.

   Given that there are only 2.8 hospital beds per 1000 people in the US, in an area with a population of 100,000 they would only have 280 beds TOTAL.  And many fewer ICU beds.  I was in ICU about a year ago in the newest hospital in this area (I think the hospital had 300 beds) and it only had 8 ICU beds total. So unless there was another ICU in that hospital that I don't know about then there aren't going to be enough ICU beds to handle more than perhaps 2% of the people needing them. On top of that, US officials have already said that currently 65% of the hospital beds are filled and that doesn't include any Corona Virus patients.

   Any way that you juggle the numbers, 2.8 beds per 1000 people doesn't work when 40% of those 1,000 (400 people) need hospitalization! and it certainly doesn't work for the 12% that need to be in ICU when the number of ICU beds is only about .05 per 1,000 people.

I used to work for a long time at a large hospital district here in South Florida (one of the more population-dense areas of the USA, and worse, probably THE most elderly-dense area in the USA).  Your numbers are about right...   The only difference is that usually at least with larger US hospitals, there are several ICU's that specialize in specific things (like NICU for neonatal, CVICU for cardiac, etc).  But the real problem will be ventilators and isolation rooms.  For instance, our hospitals had about 4-6 isolation rooms per floor.  Not sure how many ventilators, but nowhere near enough for the volume of people who would need them.  And something that many don't consider:  Ventilators are only allowed to be operated by respiratory techs.  (remember that a patient's life is literally controlled by a button push on those things; one wrong move...)  And each hospital only has a few of those... 

[Stray Electron]

Dave can you tell me if the corona is spreading less in region like Australia where the temperature is higher than the north planet?
There are rumors high temperature will block the virus...

Thanks

I live in South Florida.  We are almost always warmer than the rest of the USA.  In fact we already hit 90 (F) about a week ago, but we have mostly been in the low 80's.  We are quickly becoming a hot-spot in the USA (my county, Broward, specifically).  Everything here is rapidly shutting down.  By the end of the weekend there will be little in the way of public things left running.  WE are a heavy tourist region, too, and that is pretty much done, now.  Spring break is going on, and we are one of the hot college destinations.  Already some cities (Miami) are telling students to go home and closing a lot of the parties they are attracted to. 

As far as I know, climate doesn't seem to matter and I've seen articles claiming that idea was actually a hoax.

   I agree.  I'm outside of Orlando and we're been having hot weather (90F) and it doesn't seem to be inhibiting the virus.  We jumped from 41 cases yesterday to 71 today. The first dozen or so were travel related but all of the ones after that seem to be home grown.

[Mr. Scram]

I live in South Florida.  We are almost always warmer than the rest of the USA.  In fact we already hit 90 (F) about a week ago, but we have mostly been in the low 80's.  We are quickly becoming a hot-spot in the USA (my county, Broward, specifically).  Everything here is rapidly shutting down.  By the end of the weekend there will be little in the way of public things left running.  WE are a heavy tourist region, too, and that is pretty much done, now.  Spring break is going on, and we are one of the hot college destinations.  Already some cities (Miami) are telling students to go home and closing a lot of the parties they are attracted to. 

As far as I know, climate doesn't seem to matter and I've seen articles claiming that idea was actually a hoax.

Florida is very wet right? Spread would be inhibited by spittle and fluids drying up quicker and that may be less favourable in moist swampy areas. You

[Nusa]

Of all the things to care about, what I wipe my arse with comes bottom of the list.

Toilet paper may be preferable to tissues for dealing with a snotty nose, and it's kinder to the plumbing when flushed. Try blowing your nose on newspaper.

I agree. But in a time of emergency it would still be bottom on my list of concerns

There are these antique devices called handkerchiefs, which are washable and reusable. I actually prefer them when the need is high...softer and easier on the nose.

[TomS_]

I went on holiday (to Australia from the UK at beginning of March), just before all of the "work from home" stuff really started to kick in everywhere.

Im due to return back to the UK at the end of March, but have been keeping an eye on the goings on at work every so often. My colleagues are all on work from home orders at present.

Given I have to travel, it remains to be seen whether they will ask me to stay home for a while to make sure I dont potentially bring anything in to the office. We already had one case of it and the office was cleared out for a deep clean as a result.

One of my colleagues is due to travel with his family to Australia at the same time I am retuning, but with the introduction of self isolation rules for anyone entering the country thats going to make their travel plans quite tricky.

[PlainName]

Of all the things to care about, what I wipe my arse with comes bottom of the list.

Toilet paper may be preferable to tissues for dealing with a snotty nose, and it's kinder to the plumbing when flushed. Try blowing your nose on newspaper.

I agree. But in a time of emergency it would still be bottom on my list of concerns

It would be high on mine simply because being comfortable goes a very long way. We're not going to starve or die of thirst, but even if were were that's a separate issue. Be a bit hungry and it's not a problem - you need the REALLY hungry for that. OTOH, spend half a day with the remains of a wet fart in your pants, or running nose, and you'll soon appreciate the vast difference between having tissue and not.

Edit: and it's not like we are in survival mode. Just imagining having to interact with someone whilst snot is running down your chin is... chilling. Hmmm. Back in a bit - got to check out the corner shop stock...

[james_s]

It would be high on mine simply because being comfortable goes a very long way. We're not going to starve or die of thirst, but even if were were that's a separate issue. Be a bit hungry and it's not a problem - you need the REALLY hungry for that. OTOH, spend half a day with the remains of a wet fart in your pants, or running nose, and you'll soon appreciate the vast difference between having tissue and not.

Seriously?

Do you not have a shower in your home? Have you not discovered handkerchiefs? A rag from an old tshirt works in a pinch as a tissue to wipe your nose.

TP and tissue would be pretty low on my list, it's a luxury that is trivially easy to get by without, I mean it has only existed in modern form since the late 1800's and I don't think it was common outside of the upper class until the 1900s.

[rgarito]

Dave can you tell me if the corona is spreading less in region like Australia where the temperature is higher than the north planet?
There are rumors high temperature will block the virus...

Thanks

I live in South Florida.  We are almost always warmer than the rest of the USA.  In fact we already hit 90 (F) about a week ago, but we have mostly been in the low 80's.  We are quickly becoming a hot-spot in the USA (my county, Broward, specifically).  Everything here is rapidly shutting down.  By the end of the weekend there will be little in the way of public things left running.  WE are a heavy tourist region, too, and that is pretty much done, now.  Spring break is going on, and we are one of the hot college destinations.  Already some cities (Miami) are telling students to go home and closing a lot of the parties they are attracted to. 

As far as I know, climate doesn't seem to matter and I've seen articles claiming that idea was actually a hoax.

   I agree.  I'm outside of Orlando and we're been having hot weather (90F) and it doesn't seem to be inhibiting the virus.  We jumped from 41 cases yesterday to 71 today. The first dozen or so were travel related but all of the ones after that seem to be home grown.

Wow Orlando.  I expect that place to become a real ghost town really soon, with all of the tourism essentially dead.  Is anything up there still actually open (after Sunday)?  We're still tying to tell the college kids to all go home, here.  The beach seems to be business as usual so far, at least in the kids' eyes.  Although tonight they announced that 6 students at one of the local universities just tested positive so things may be changing real quick...

[rgarito]

I live in South Florida.  We are almost always warmer than the rest of the USA.  In fact we already hit 90 (F) about a week ago, but we have mostly been in the low 80's.  We are quickly becoming a hot-spot in the USA (my county, Broward, specifically).  Everything here is rapidly shutting down.  By the end of the weekend there will be little in the way of public things left running.  WE are a heavy tourist region, too, and that is pretty much done, now.  Spring break is going on, and we are one of the hot college destinations.  Already some cities (Miami) are telling students to go home and closing a lot of the parties they are attracted to. 

As far as I know, climate doesn't seem to matter and I've seen articles claiming that idea was actually a hoax.

Florida is very wet right? Spread would be inhibited by spittle and fluids drying up quicker and that may be less favourable in moist swampy areas. You

Not really as wet as many think.  The Everglades are (or at least they should be, but humans have kinda changed that).  But South Florida (Homestead on the south end to a little north of West Palm Beach on the north end) is basically one 20 mile or so wide slab of concrete.  We call them all different cities but in reality, those are just political lines.  It's wall to wall buildings and people down here.  And we aren't in rainy season yet (that's probably a month or more away).  This time of year we don't get much rain although we had a wash-out for 1 day about a week ago.

[EEVblog]

Just heard that public servants will get 20 days extra paid annual leave if they have to care for kids if/when the schools close.
I'd be surprised if they stay open another couple of weeks.

[PlainName]

Have you not discovered handkerchiefs?

Had 'em when I was a kid, not since. They are massively inappropriate for cleanliness at the best of times, and right now you absolutely do not want snotrags festering in your pocket. The ONLY reason everyone used to have a hanky was because strong-enough tissues hadn't been invented when we were kids.

only existed in modern form since the late 1800's

The implication is that whatever used to be good for us is still better than what we have now. Which, pardon my French, is bollocks. The reason we aren't still wallowing in mud and sleeping in caves is because some people just weren't satisfied with what we always had and wanted better. What we have IS generally better. How about you replace your loo with a hole in the floor - good enough for hundreds of years, and still good enough in some parts of the world. Hell, go camping and it's good enough. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, most of us have flushing loos.