But, are those persons really working? This is what I experienced at two places we went during the holidays where we had dinners with our relatives. More and more, people are bringing their laptops with them when they move from one location to the other. And, those are not necessary people working in the computer business. While we had the new year's eve dinner with our relatives, someone brought his laptop and checked his email occasionnaly. Then, later on, some children started to chat on ICQ on his laptop. Then, later on, I used my cell phone to check the Universal Thread for monitoring purpose.
More and more we work remotely. So, the real question is "Are they working from their office or remotely?" <s> We have sometimes the impression that when we see someone online that he or she is working from his/her home/office. As we proceed with all the latest gadgets in this technology, more and more tools are available for us to work or do some monitoring remotely.
I remember a few years ago, when I was travelling, I had to prepare my laptop and that was taking a few hours each time. I had to download and install a lot of components, data, etc. Now, when I travel, I mostly just grab the bag and put it in the car. Then, from wherever I am, I just start doing my work as if I would be at home.
More from the Universal Thread
On the Universal Thread recently, a lot of things have seen the light of day. First of all, I would like to talk about the Universal Thread Visual FoxPro Members Choice Awards 2001 which took place during December. The award went well and we got a good percentage of participation despite the fact that it mostly occured during Christmas time. I would like to thank all who participated and we'll all start it over again in December 2002. In the mean time, you can take a look at the winners page at http://www.universalthread.com/VisualFoxPro/AwardResult.asp.
A few days ago, we started to work on the Universal Thread Dashboard. The Dashboard relates to the messages area where a new frame, customizable from your account setup, is available to monitor specific users online, to offer a one click search and a one click time warp. We are presently testing it and will soon release it. The Dashboard will appear for all, once released, but you can turn it off from your account setup. The customization is done from a new tab in your account setup and only available for PUTM. We received many requests to enhance the PUTM capabilities and this is the first feature of the year. We'll look more into releasing more benefits to PUTM members.
Yesterday, we completed the transition we started in September in regards to the static content. The static content mostly relates to the News, Links, Downloads, Articles and similar sections. The final phase of the transition consisted of forwarding the previous Visual FoxPro forum login page to the Visual FoxPro Zone. That page now regroups all previous features of the Visual FoxPro forum login page plus all recent additions such as the Toledo Wish List and the portal to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. The main page will include a small change in regards to the access to those content in a few days. This is the last item to be done in regards to that. The new approach to monitor those content is much easier. With a one click request, you can navigate from the News to the Downloads section for example or change the forum filtering. We also have seen an increase of participation in the Downloads ratings with this new approach as it is much more easier to rate a file and to access other features. We hope you will like the new icons. They are quite cool I believe.
I would like to introduce Gérald Santerre who joined the Universal Thread team recently as a part time consultant. Gérald is an active member of the Universal Thread and has a lot of experience with Web technologies. He is and will be involved in various aspects of the product. By that, I felt that it would be cool to have the monthly profile on him this month. See Page 18 for more details.
In the mean time, have a great new year from the Universal Thread team!