• threelonmusketeers
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    2153 months ago

    Which video conferencing platforms give the host the ability to remotely turn on other people’s cameras?

  • @CarbonatedPastaSauce
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    943 months ago

    They’ll have a great view of the electrical tape I put over the camera lens the day the laptop was issued to me.

  • @[email protected]
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    703 months ago

    Flashback to when I watched a naked dude go take a dump while broadcasted to the entire company all hands zoom, like 400+ people.

    • Twitches
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      3 months ago

      Laughs in disabling kernal modual.

      Edit: I really miss hardware switches works only a few have them anymore.

      • @[email protected]
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        93 months ago

        Most of the newer laptops I’ve picked up some have hardware switches, but they do have a physical shutter that can be flipped over the camera which IMO is better as I can visibly see the camera is blocked

    • @InnerScientist
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      123 months ago

      Laughs in “will you allow <website> to use your camera?” (Yes/No)

    • Possibly linux
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      33 months ago

      You also could use VM. From there you can toggle the device passthough

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        I’ve always gotten too much delay with audio/video passthrough to voice calls through a VM, personally.

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          I use a USB pass through, so the VM is connected to the hardware instead of going through 12 layers of software.

        • Possibly linux
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          33 months ago

          Did you use the proper acceleration? Use KVM plus a virtual GPU.

          It is entirely possible your hardware makes it problematic but for me it worked.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 months ago

      Dell? patented a laptop with a motorized switch back in the day. Let’s hope it stays lost in the abyss from whence it came.

  • Possibly linux
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    3 months ago

    I once had someone keep talking on a video call as they took a piss. It was not only audible but incredibly loud.

    • @[email protected]
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      3 months ago

      Just today, I recorded a video to provide training and just uploaded it.

      What I didn’t realize was that five minutes in, my microphone picked up my sweet child screaming about how she stepped in cat vomit and now theres cat vomit all over the house.

      Yeah I’m not doing two takes and wtf microphone, why are you picking up sounds that far away?

      I’m preparing to be mocked once people watch that video.

      • @Buddahriffic
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        3 months ago

        Meanwhile I’ve forgotten to turn off my music playing on speakers nearby my PC and apologized about my music once I realized only to get “what music?” in response. I’m not sure what sorcery went into this mic design, but it’s great!

        Edit: Also, use an audio editor to record that so you can splice different takes together. It allows you to get each part perfect rather than having to decide at some point that it’s good enough because you have to record the whole thing in one take.

        Power point has a slide record mode that lets you redo individual slides, too. It was essential when I had to get a presentation to fit into a 3 minute timeslot while I tend to ramble.

    • threelonmusketeers
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      143 months ago

      A friend of mine once attended a university lecture where the prof briefly ducked out to the loo… and neglected to turn off their wireless microphone, which was still connected to the classroom speakers.

      • Possibly linux
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        13 months ago

        I’m pretty sure this was in a comedy movie. I forgot which one I remember it from

      • @Skullgrid
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        13 months ago

        goddamnit this appeared elsewhere as well but it reminds me of my favourite episode of masameer county.

        “what about your cousin? he married a european woman but his genes are so strong all his kids look like monkeys. 'Grandpa! Grandpa! We love bananas! We don’t know why!”

        while it blares into the function hall the two recently reconciliated families are dining in.

    • @Buddahriffic
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      83 months ago

      I not only mute but say something that invites a reaction on the way to the bathroom to make sure that it is indeed muted.

      • threelonmusketeers
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        93 months ago

        not only mute but say something that invites a reaction

        Hadn’t thought of doing this. Good advice.

    • The Giant KoreanOP
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      53 months ago

      We usually just do audio in our meetings, but I always leave my headphones in my office if I have to go to the bathroom. I don’t care if I’m muted or not.

      • @[email protected]
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        93 months ago

        I bring my headphones, audio on, and then put my mic close to my toilet so they can hear my opinion of their ideas.

      • Possibly linux
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        3 months ago

        Mr. Boring over here

        You got to live a little. Give a presentation to execs while taking a shower

        • @Death_Equity
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          43 months ago

          All the better if you can artfully have objects placed to hide your objects.

  • unalivejoy
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    443 months ago

    This is why thinkpads come with physical camera covers.

    • @Norin
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      143 months ago

      I just use part of a post-it note.

      • @[email protected]
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        73 months ago

        You can get a little plastic window with sticky on one side and keep it closed when you don’t intend to use the Webcam, my laptop now has one built in for the Webcam which is cool

  • @kometes
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    393 months ago

    Ha, I turn it off for your protection. Do you have any idea what I look like in the morning?

  • @Reygle
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    383 months ago

    Try it mofo, my laptop has a hardware off switch for mic+webcam

  • @Etterra
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    353 months ago

    Enjoy looking at the sticky side of some blue tape.

    • @TwanHE
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      203 months ago

      Still think the slide cover on my laptop is one of the most practical features I’ve ever seen

      • @NewAgeOldPerson
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        113 months ago

        Yeah my corpo laptop actually came with it. It’s standard on all our renewed devices now. I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently the CTO deemed it so.

    • @[email protected]
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      73 months ago

      They’d just be looking at the palm rest for me. Laptop is closed and under the monitor stand, having it open just makes Window’s show how well it does desktop scaling.

      • TheRealKuni
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        23 months ago

        You can adjust that scaling.

        • @[email protected]
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          63 months ago

          Haha
          Drag a window into or out of it
          or sometimes even just near it
          Then tell me that’s a solution

          • TheRealKuni
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            3 months ago

            I’ve previously used this wonderful piece of software, which doesn’t really improve that situation much, IIRC, but does make it easy for mouse movement to line up super nicely by using DPI-aware scaling:

            LittleBigMouse

            Not perfect, but very nice.

            • @[email protected]
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              3 months ago

              I’m more referring to how Windows makes a very jarring experience of resizing windows for different display scaling settings.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Yeah, my son convinced me to try having one monitor vertical. His (Windows 10) is close to right, but dragging a window across the gap and you have 2 different size windows. Compared to my computer (LMDE) and it is truly scaled correctly, the window is the same size on any monitor and while travelling between them.

            Still not sure how I feel about a vertical monitor though, it’s great for documentation but just feels so unnatural.

  • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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    263 months ago

    I once saw a university thesis defence back during lockdown, one old guy professor was doing a Donald Duck impression and was wearing nothing below the belt thinking that the camera won’t pick it up anyway.

    Then he got up to get something… and the thing flopped into view.

  • tiredofsametab
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    243 months ago

    All they would see is blackness since my work laptop stays closed. I have an external webcam that I plug in as needed. I also keep it angled up when not in use so, in the very best/worst case where I forgot to unplug it, you get a view of my cieling.

  • THCDenton
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    193 months ago

    The fact that that is a button is insane.

    • The Giant KoreanOP
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      193 months ago

      It’s not actually an option, thank goodness.

      • @atx_aquarian
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        3 months ago

        One of them (Zoom I think) at least used to be able to pop up a request for attendees to turn on their mics. I was glad to see it required permission, and I was not glad to see the host must have clicked that request.

      • THCDenton
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        33 months ago

        Lol got me good.

    • @yemmly
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      -53 months ago

      Or is it insane that it isn’t? I think life would be way more fun with buttons like that.

  • @[email protected]
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    133 months ago

    The last two Dell laptops my work provided me with have little sliders that physically cover the camera. I use them all the time while working from home.

  • @[email protected]
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    53 months ago

    LOOOOL not mine! Optical sensor’s feed is cut by the doohickey, all you’ll get is “no camera.”

    • @mvirts
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      43 months ago

      Interestingly enough teams defaults to the OBS virtual camera on my machine 😁