Ask HN: How do you effectively manage remote/telecommuting programmers?

Jeff Atwood did an excellent piece on exactly this issue:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/05/on-working-remotely...

For us Skype is the most crucial piece of infrastructure, with Chat, voice, and conference services we are able to collaborate just like we where down the hall from one another. If you are not used to video conferencing, it can be a little strange at first, but one it becomes the norm, it's literally like walking over to the guys cube next to you and asking a question.

Commit logs.