This is probably me being a bit dense. I'm on a video call with two other people. Alice is on the left of my screen, Bob is on the right. Why isn't the audio in stereo? (Zoom lets you send stereo audio - but only of you have a stereo microphone. Whereas I'm talking abound individuals sending mono and receiving to stereo.) Every video conference system I've used delivers the audio in mono.…
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One of my lovely colleagues made an small speech during a recent meeting. She was delighted to announce that she was heading off on maternity leave next month and looked forward to seeing us all next year once the pandemic was over. There were the usual round of congratulations and how-will-we-cope-without-yous. But a few of us were left a little blindsided. For the last 10 months, we've only…
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I once drove my company car to my company's office and then drove around the company car park for 20 minutes looking in vain for a parking space. Whereupon I double-parked across a couple of cars, flipped on my hazard lights, and dialled in to my Very Important Meeting. Half-an-hour later, I drove home to think about my life choices. I then started looking for a new job. From the moment I…
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I've spent six-months working from an old kitchen table, and there is never quite enough room for all my monitors and associated kit. With the news that we're all going to be working from home for a while longer, my employer very generously agreed to pay up to £150 for a WFH desk. So I spent £147. It's a gorgeous and spacious model. Lots of rooms for monitors and gadgets - and a chunk of s…
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I've made no secret of rather enjoying this enforced period of remote work. Sure, it has had its challenges - but there have been so many fringe benefits. Less commuting! No crappy-canteen lunches! More time to sleep in! And, today, I was reminded of another benefit. I am terrible at remembering names. Many a time someone has bumbled up to me in a corridor, asked my opinion on something, and…
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ISPs suck. They're designed to. The A in ADSL stands for "Asymmetric". That is, your download speed is faster than your upload speed. This makes sense for most domestic purposes. Most people suck down a lot more than they push up. But we've now entered the (permanent?) work-from-home era. If you're anything like me, you're spending more time broadcasting video than you ever did before. It's…
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Inspired by my friend Meri's WFH Setup Tips, I thought I'd share my home-working setup. We've moved house recently, so I'm still finding my feet - but as I work from home fairly often, and have a bit of RSI, I thought I'd show you what I've got and how I use it. The desk is just a plain IKEA table. Supplemented with a cheap Argos desk which didn't quite fit all my kit - so it becomes a side…
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Due to COVID19, I'm using a wide range of video conferencing services. Those of us who have work-supplied laptops usually have locked-down hardware. No unauthorised apps can be installed. That's not a problem for Google Hangouts - it just works in any browser. No need to install plugins or apps. Voice and video just work. But Zoom - one of the most used VC services - falsely claims that users…
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