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-We welcome Adam Engst from TidBITS back to the show!

-Adam comes in to discuss the current times and finding ways to adapt your work life to this new environment

-Things have moved quickly in a short amount of time

-Joe actually headed out west shortly before many of the recent events and had to self quarantine

-Drive through testing for COVID-19 is available but not in all areas

-Adam describes how hard it has been to concentrate on work lately

-This has also affected his local runner’s club events

-Adam’s never had an office and life working from home has been normal for him. But for others, it’s not the norm and it presents its challenges.

-Another unexpected part of this, as Jerry & Sam have experienced, is working with children at home, who have their own work to accomplish.

-It is important to take breaks!

-Sam has a client move to complete that may not be able to shift dates. He is trying to figure out how to deal with that.

-If you do go out, it is advised to change your clothes. But as Adam mentions from an emergency responder, it matters how you take those items off.

-Joe has hardware labor to complete and is contemplating various methods of exchanging equipment, like “dead drops”.

-Take Control Books has a new free book called “Working From Home Temporarily” by Glenn Fleishman: https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/working-from-home/

-Adam’s son attends Cornell University and they, along with other colleges and universities, have their own situations to deal with

-Restaurants are another industry that is taking a major hit and some have shut down operations preemptively since they cannot afford to lose that much business

-Currently, IT consultancies are in demand to support clients with remote support and home office setup. But how long will that last if businesses do not have the money to move forward?

-A discussion brews about newsletters and what we should be said and how much should you push services

-Adam has been pondering what the theme of April’s TidBITS Content Newsletter (https://tcn.tidbits.com) should be. Working remotely will be a prime focus

-Some advice from Adam: Offer something new to your clients if possible

-An amazing product that Adam recommends is called Otter: https://otter.ai - which offers real time transcription and can integrate with a service like Zoom.

-Do your research and get information from verified locations like World Health Organization, CDC, Johns Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

-It’s nice to see people and neighbors offering to help those that may not be able to get their own supplies for one reason or another

-Adam wraps up with some excellent tips about how other countries have dealt with this and what we can do

-In tech news, Apple released new products, including the new MacBook Air! This is discussed on the TidBITS site: https://tidbits.com/2020/03/18/new-macbook-air-features-magic-keyboard-and-lower-price/