Gyroscopic Investing

Is it just me, or is everyone else ready to take an axe to the specific part of their computer that holds the Zoom app?

My division held a virtual happy hour last night via Zoom, which was my fourth Zoom event of the day. I was sick to death of it by then, but a glass of brandy sure works wonders. Anyway we ended up turning ourselves into potatoes or elves using the Snap Camera app, and decided that would be de rigeur for all faculty meetings from now on. Highly recommended!!! You install Snap Camera (part of Snapchat, though you don't have to sign up) and then choose Snap Camera as your zoom video device. Virtual backgrounds are nice too, but only if you have a more up to date laptop than mine.

Also in case you all haven't seen the warnings: Zoom developed a nice conference platform but they've been almost criminally negligent in the area of security. Which is especially interesting given that my university contracted with them on the assumption that they're HIPAA compliant. All the red tape demanded by HIPAA was met, except that they lied about the end to end encryption part. Glorious. The thing is practically malware, so don't use it if you don't need to.

I've been hearing a lot of buzz in the software community about how vulnerable Zoom is. I haven't really investigated the details though. Something about how Zoom effectively turns your computer into a web server.

As an aside, the fact that millions of people around the world are now telecommuting has presented gaping wide holes in the security infrastructure of much of the world's industry.

Also, IT teams in general are stretched thin trying to accommodate so much online work. This means that the Coronavirus has begun to act like a feint, where attention is diverted from other surface areas of attack that are now defenseless.

hmm, clunky software, and everyone is using it. Should I be buying ZM stock in the Vp?
Or is Google and everyone else going to put out their own version?

Google tried, but Hangouts was a dismal failure. Skype was the platform of choice for a long time, but then Microsoft bought it and the quality went downhill faster than an Olympic ski run. Everything else (Gotomeeting, Cisco webex) are either mega-expensive or painful to use (or both). Facetime works but is totally unreliable if there's more than 2 people on the call.

I don't know why video conferencing is so hard to implement, but let's just be glad that one company managed to pull it off. Pugchief, those friends and family calls are great! My family does same but insist on using Facetime, which means you can only see one or two others on the video.

We just attended our first ever Zoom wedding, perhaps 30 people or so attended. Wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

I signed up for AWS Chime conferencing. I expect AWS to know more about security than some fleazy start-up. Only $3 per meeting. No subscription fee.

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:24 pm We just attended our first ever Zoom wedding, perhaps 30 people or so attended. Wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

You may now click the bride

dualstow wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:38 pm

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 1:24 pm We just attended our first ever Zoom wedding, perhaps 30 people or so attended. Wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

You may now click the bride

Outstanding! (The wedding was outside).

I agree. Kriegs is good value.
I don’t even know what Tokyo Drift means, but I’m still laughing about the picture he painted of Smithers on the motorcycle.