The Modern Taipei Office

Here you can complete all your modern office tasks, and yet be surrounded by green trees, clean air, and even elderly practicing tai chi. Don’t believe me? Let me give you a task by task breakdown of how to perform while in a public park:

• Get a Double-Battery Laptop: Ditch that ball and chain of a desktop, and free yourself from the need for a desk. Buy a laptop and add a second battery. Both will cost you around $2,000 but then you can compute from anywhere for up to eight hours. Me, I have a joe-cool HP tc4200 Tablet PC with an extra battery pack that gives me six hours of location agnostic computing.
• Find a WiFi Hotspot: Okay, I admit it, I am a WiFi addict. I need my broadband wireless Internet. I even bought a ZYXEL AG-225H Wi-Fi Finder just to hunt for wireless Internet without having to turn on my laptop. Here in Taipei, Wi-Fly covers about half the city with WiFi for about $3.50 per day. In Qing Cheng Park, I found an unsecured WiFi channel to use, not uncommon in urban areas.
• Download Sype: Skype is
  software that you can call anyone else, anywhere in the world using your computer and the Internet. If they also have Skype, your call is free. If you use Skype to call traditional landlines or mobiles, it’s a few cents a minute (or free for US phones). No need to waste precious cell minutes or pay crazy hotel or international rates. From Qing Cheng Park, Taipei, Taiwan, I’ve called Mom in Florida, StudCuz in London, my co-workers in DC, and clients all around the world.
• Find a Comfortable Seat: I prefer wooden park benches or patio bars, myself, but don’t limit yourself to classic seats. I saw one woman typing from a lawn chair and others are known to compute while on camel back. Only worry about sun glare on your screen or sunscreen on your bare skin.

  Now that you have the basics covered, its time to get your office life uncovered.
  Tell your boss you’re gonna save him office space rent, increase productivity, and be a happier worker. Just be careful of birds. The modern Taipei office does have one drawback – bird droppings.