Making the most out of a bad job (help a programmer out)
I'm stuck in a well paid job in a country where switching job (programming/computer science related) is not an option unless you relocate elsewhere. My wife doesn't want to move and I do not intend to leave her. This job pays well but as I said it's kind of 'particular': bosses are totally uncapable and fragile persons. We're a small company funded by rich guys who really can't run anything: they keep us 8 hours a day in front of a monitor in a nice office doing absolutely nothing. As long as we're there to fix some easy computer problems that show up once in three months, they're content with us doing nothing. They're rich (I'll never understand why they founded this company in the first place, possibly out of boredom) and they don't want to hire a contractor for the few hours of actual work they require: they prefer someone on-site all the time to be 'ready anytime' (economic-wise this is a catastrophe).
Since I'm in this bad situation I'm trying to make the best out of it: how can I use my programming and computer science skills to have an extra profit during those 8 hours? I constantly try to study new things / prepare for the interview that may never come (since I can't relocate right now), but that's not enough.
My bosses clearly stated I can train, do programming work or anything I want during those hours. As far as I know there isn't a market for creating and selling e.g. Java libraries, those things are either developed by companies or made available opensource.
Any idea on how could I make the best of those hours revenue-wise? I feel that being kept doing nothing for that much time is affecting my self esteem and possibly my mental health in the long run.