Thanks to the Pinko Pox, a *lot* of people are now working from home. And a lot of people are discovering that their employers are less interested in actual productivity than the *appearance* of productivity, something I discovered years ago at ATK (by the end of my time there I could get my whole days work done within the first half hour, and the need to try to look busy the rest of the day literally drove me buggo until the end).

Workers Are Using ‘Mouse Movers’ So They Can Use the Bathroom in Peace

Short form: if you work remotely using a company-supplied computer, chances are that the computer has “bossware” installed that tracks mouse/cursor movement to make sure you’re at the computer and on the job. So if you get up to take a leak or answer the door, your employers will know in a few seconds that you’re not moving the mouse anymore, and you could get in trouble.

Never fear: the free market is here to help with any number of “mouse jigglers” that will give the *appearance* to bossware that your mouse is being constantly manipulated. Some of these are bits of USB hardware. Some are software. Some are actual mechanical devices. My favorite, though, are simply YouTube videos: play the video on a phone or tablet and place an optical mouse on it; the moving lines spoof the mouses optical sensor into thinking it’s being moved.

Heh. The entrepreneurial spirit will always find a way to stick it to the man.