Web Worker Daily

Although a recent news item about web working conditions were exaggerated, there’s an amount of truth to it. Web working carries some health disadvantages because of stress or the working environment. One of the things you can do to curb these effects is to exercise.

Exercising has many benefits including better sleep, higher endurance, and the endorphin release during exercise also boosts your mood. For these reasons alone, I believe it can improve work performance and help us attain healthier lifestyles. But before we breakout the exercise tapes, here are some general tips:

• Schedule your exercise just like you would any work-related activity.
• Don’t overexert yourself. Start with simple exercises for 10 minutes a day before you move on to more complicated routines for longer periods daily. Also, do some warm up exercises before you begin the more rigorous back exercises.
• If it helps, you can use Web 2.0 tools to measure your progress.

Now, on to the exercises.
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I’m a serial entrepreneur in a virtual world. How did a nice girl like me end up being such a geek? Was it because I read science fiction as a young girl while all my friends were reading romance novels? Did it happen when I played Space Invaders on a neighbor’s Atari? Was it because I watched Star Trek every day after school? I have no real answer for why my brain is wired the way it is, but it’s no wonder I love Second Life.

Part of my online work has migrated over into the virtual world Second Life. Yes, I said work, and no, Second Life is not a game. I actually run several businesses in SL as we residents call it, as Cybergrrl Oh, entrepreneur, producer and host. Some of the businesses in the virtual world are adjuncts to what I do in my First Life, others are completely unrelated and probably things I could never do in “real life.” However, when you’re a freelancer, you take the revenues wherever you can get it!

If you’ve ever wanted to know what a day in the life of a serial Second Life entrepreneur looks like, here’s your chance.

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Shortly after posting a recent article about Google Documents, I was emailed by a director in the Google Documents team requesting more information on how I use the service.  Additionally, a post about Google Gears spurned a blog comment/email discussion with a member of the Google Gears team about how Google Gears could be leveraged with other sites around the web.

This post isn’t about praising Google, rather merely using them  as an example of good customer service.  Google is a large corporation with thousands of employees focused thousands of products/initiatives.  Yet, they take the time to reach out their customer base to enhance their products and gain feedback from users.

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Who says we have to sit at desks to be productive? Leggett & Platt is showing off a product they have in development called the “Starry Night Bed.” I call it a bed made for web workers. Not only does it integrate the kinds of electronic controls we need to do our jobs, but it includes intelligence to make sure we get the kind of sleep we need to face a hard day of work.

The bed includes built-in electronics: wireless Internet connectivity and a wireless keyboard; a built-in iPod docking station; integration to life|ware Connected, a Windows Media Center program that controls home electronics; as well as 1.5 terabytes of storage to maintain your media collections.

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