I also saw one where somebody’s human wandered thru the room during the meeting :-).
Strangely, cats react to humans the way the dogs here are to each other. What ever makes them think I want to see that?
I’ve read too many horror stories about Zoom and refuse to risk my computer with it. I strongly suggest using Webex, Skype, or one of several other alternatives instead of Zoom, a product with bugs that can damage a user’s computer and/or the user’s security. One headline says “500,000 Hacked Zoom Accounts Given Away for Free on the Dark Web.” Many Zoom meetings have been “bombed” (interrupted by juvenile gatecrashers). Many corporations, school districts, and other organizations have forbidden the use of Zoom. There are about 10 alternative virtual-meeting programs, one of which (Webex) my book club has used.
At the time I sent this in, it was POURING RAIN (the edge, perhaps, of Cristobel), so the heading just wrote itself.
I’ve been doing ZOOM Yoga with the yogini I used in WI; haven’t had yoga for over five years and am SO GLAD the Zoom works so well. I, too, was concerned, but as I have a MAC and the company has been working to fix the issues, I decided to go ahead with it.
Bob Peters: The meetings aren’t for YOU; they’re for each other.
Using Zoom with any group must be a cartoonist’s lifeline when Cartoon Block sets in. I’m surprised we haven’t seen Lemmings one where there’s too many having trouble logging on for the meeting!
I appreciate the concern with internet security, but counter to Boise Ed’s experience, my company (fairly large, multiple thousands, multiple areas of the country) adopted the Zoom professional version over WebEx. And the IT folks preach every day on security and cyber risk. At this point I guess i’m lucky in that using Zoom for work is sanctioned, so if we get zoom-bombed I can say it’s not my fault!
Functionally, I like Zoom, seems to be a good interface. And Microsoft et al are playing catch up on the features, e.g. >9 picture galleries on calls. All I know is that all of this tech is better than a party line!
“500,000 Hacked Zoom Accounts Given Away for Free on the Dark Web.”
Forgive my ignorance, but of what use to anybody is a hacked Zoom account?
Zoom-bombing, spam, dissemination of racist and other offensive content. That sort of thing.
If nobody will pay for them, they can’t be much use now…
Spammers and creeps use a lot of free stuff to cause trouble. If someone crashes your Zoom meeting to splash racist stuff, I doubt you’re comforted by, “Well at least they didn’t have pay to do this!”
Apparently if the Zoom meeting is invitation only – it is much more secure.
On a Sunday late in March I had a telephone call from the president of the Manhattan chapter of my embroidery guild that the region director needed a list of our chapter members’ names and email addresses as she was setting up for the chapters to use her ZOOM account to each have a meeting. Having never heard of Zoom (I am a company of one as is Robert and my clients don’t even all have computers) I asked her what it was. She explained. I commented to her that it was nice of the region director and I would send the list of members (which they have anyway), but I would probably not participate as I don’t have a camera, microphone or speakers attached to my computer (desktop). She told me that none of these are needed – which confused me. I asked her how it worked in more detail and asked how I would be seen with a camera, talk without a microphone or hear without speakers – this confused her – she did not have them either and had been in Zoom sessions. (Obviously she must have them and not know about them.)
Of course starting during the following week I have heard about Zoom constantly.
Now, I did not mention to her that my laptop has all of these things as they are all shut off and I have so many problems in general with this particular laptop that I could see myself having problems at the meeting which would embarrass me as I am the computer go to person in the chapter. (With this laptop I write things and before they are posted or saved they just disappear- poof. It took me awhile to figure out that when the cursor was jumping around the screen (and making me into the “curse er”) it was because the number lock would shut itself it off – a great thing to happen when at work in accounting. It also shuts itself off if I forget and put the lid down for a minute – even though it is set not to do so. So I did not attend the April Zoom meeting.
Our chapter – Long Island, NY – has a chapter member who lives in Iowa. She is a member of the Iowa chapter and its region and several years ago our region was offering a class she wanted to take – so she looked online and liked our chapter website (yay Robert) and joined our chapter and has stayed a member even though she is never here. I missed “meeting” (Okay – the info window about my browser just popped up for absolutely no reason – this is why I do not trust this laptop.) her at the online meeting.
So I was bound and determined to attend the May Zoom meeting. Robert turned on the camera (I know how to turn on the sound) and set up the laptop fore me. Not hard at all and the laptop behaved – of course the member from Iowa had to miss that meeting. I also found out that one can participate through chat without a camera or microphone, though since members were mostly showing the needlework they had done the past month, without a camera it is pretty boring.
So when the June meeting rolled around I was raring to go – I found something to show for show and tell. I set up the laptop myself – making sure that everything worked the night before. I was the first person at the meeting when the chapter president opened it up – looking at the photo on the Zoom screen I saw that despite clearing up the area behind me that could be seen – I had missed a dangling Micro Center bag. I got up and dropped the bag on the floor out of site – I saw in the photo on Zoom that this had been done. Then my photo disappeared off the screen. I signed out and back in. I tried hooking up wired to the Internet instead of wifi (sitting in front of the wifi router any way). Nope, I saw and heare them, they heard me, I saw our member from Iowa – but neither she nor any one else saw me.
Hopefully by September when our next meeting is we will be able to meet in person – though our meeting space is a bit tight.
There is a provision in Zoom for someone to participate without computer, just on a voice telephone. To them it is more or less like a conference call, to video Zoom participants the telephone-only callers do get a video square in the grid but it shows their name or number (or a profile icon if at some time they registered from a computer or device other than the plain-ole voice telephone.)
Yes, I just recently did the telephone-to-Zoom thing, because I wasn’t willing to risk my Mac on Zoom’s problems. Fortunately, I knew all the people involved and could recognize them by voice. Otherwise, I think it would have been less satisfactory. (I had urged them to use one of the other 10 or so programs, but …)
Problem is that this was a “look at what I made” “look at what I am working on” sort of meeting, no class attempted as we have at our normal meeting. So while I could see their work, I could not show mine and Pat, the one who had to come on the group on her phone using the chat feature could see none of them.
Our June meeting is generally a party as it is the end of our meeting year. I normally bring quartered turkey sandwiches so I know that there is something I eat. I thought of making a turkey sandwich and sitting and eating it in quarters during the Zoom meeting – good thing I didn’t as no one would seen to see me and maybe get the joke.
For the future, maybe send some images to one of the others to show.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Yes, it’s caught on!
I also saw one where somebody’s human wandered thru the room during the meeting :-).
Strangely, cats react to humans the way the dogs here are to each other. What ever makes them think I want to see that?
I’ve read too many horror stories about Zoom and refuse to risk my computer with it. I strongly suggest using Webex, Skype, or one of several other alternatives instead of Zoom, a product with bugs that can damage a user’s computer and/or the user’s security. One headline says “500,000 Hacked Zoom Accounts Given Away for Free on the Dark Web.” Many Zoom meetings have been “bombed” (interrupted by juvenile gatecrashers). Many corporations, school districts, and other organizations have forbidden the use of Zoom. There are about 10 alternative virtual-meeting programs, one of which (Webex) my book club has used.
At the time I sent this in, it was POURING RAIN (the edge, perhaps, of Cristobel), so the heading just wrote itself.
I’ve been doing ZOOM Yoga with the yogini I used in WI; haven’t had yoga for over five years and am SO GLAD the Zoom works so well. I, too, was concerned, but as I have a MAC and the company has been working to fix the issues, I decided to go ahead with it.
Bob Peters: The meetings aren’t for YOU; they’re for each other.
Using Zoom with any group must be a cartoonist’s lifeline when Cartoon Block sets in. I’m surprised we haven’t seen Lemmings one where there’s too many having trouble logging on for the meeting!
I appreciate the concern with internet security, but counter to Boise Ed’s experience, my company (fairly large, multiple thousands, multiple areas of the country) adopted the Zoom professional version over WebEx. And the IT folks preach every day on security and cyber risk. At this point I guess i’m lucky in that using Zoom for work is sanctioned, so if we get zoom-bombed I can say it’s not my fault!
Functionally, I like Zoom, seems to be a good interface. And Microsoft et al are playing catch up on the features, e.g. >9 picture galleries on calls. All I know is that all of this tech is better than a party line!
“500,000 Hacked Zoom Accounts Given Away for Free on the Dark Web.”
Forgive my ignorance, but of what use to anybody is a hacked Zoom account?
Zoom-bombing, spam, dissemination of racist and other offensive content. That sort of thing.
If nobody will pay for them, they can’t be much use now…
Spammers and creeps use a lot of free stuff to cause trouble. If someone crashes your Zoom meeting to splash racist stuff, I doubt you’re comforted by, “Well at least they didn’t have pay to do this!”
Apparently if the Zoom meeting is invitation only – it is much more secure.
On a Sunday late in March I had a telephone call from the president of the Manhattan chapter of my embroidery guild that the region director needed a list of our chapter members’ names and email addresses as she was setting up for the chapters to use her ZOOM account to each have a meeting. Having never heard of Zoom (I am a company of one as is Robert and my clients don’t even all have computers) I asked her what it was. She explained. I commented to her that it was nice of the region director and I would send the list of members (which they have anyway), but I would probably not participate as I don’t have a camera, microphone or speakers attached to my computer (desktop). She told me that none of these are needed – which confused me. I asked her how it worked in more detail and asked how I would be seen with a camera, talk without a microphone or hear without speakers – this confused her – she did not have them either and had been in Zoom sessions. (Obviously she must have them and not know about them.)
Of course starting during the following week I have heard about Zoom constantly.
Now, I did not mention to her that my laptop has all of these things as they are all shut off and I have so many problems in general with this particular laptop that I could see myself having problems at the meeting which would embarrass me as I am the computer go to person in the chapter. (With this laptop I write things and before they are posted or saved they just disappear- poof. It took me awhile to figure out that when the cursor was jumping around the screen (and making me into the “curse er”) it was because the number lock would shut itself it off – a great thing to happen when at work in accounting. It also shuts itself off if I forget and put the lid down for a minute – even though it is set not to do so. So I did not attend the April Zoom meeting.
Our chapter – Long Island, NY – has a chapter member who lives in Iowa. She is a member of the Iowa chapter and its region and several years ago our region was offering a class she wanted to take – so she looked online and liked our chapter website (yay Robert) and joined our chapter and has stayed a member even though she is never here. I missed “meeting” (Okay – the info window about my browser just popped up for absolutely no reason – this is why I do not trust this laptop.) her at the online meeting.
So I was bound and determined to attend the May Zoom meeting. Robert turned on the camera (I know how to turn on the sound) and set up the laptop fore me. Not hard at all and the laptop behaved – of course the member from Iowa had to miss that meeting. I also found out that one can participate through chat without a camera or microphone, though since members were mostly showing the needlework they had done the past month, without a camera it is pretty boring.
So when the June meeting rolled around I was raring to go – I found something to show for show and tell. I set up the laptop myself – making sure that everything worked the night before. I was the first person at the meeting when the chapter president opened it up – looking at the photo on the Zoom screen I saw that despite clearing up the area behind me that could be seen – I had missed a dangling Micro Center bag. I got up and dropped the bag on the floor out of site – I saw in the photo on Zoom that this had been done. Then my photo disappeared off the screen. I signed out and back in. I tried hooking up wired to the Internet instead of wifi (sitting in front of the wifi router any way). Nope, I saw and heare them, they heard me, I saw our member from Iowa – but neither she nor any one else saw me.
Hopefully by September when our next meeting is we will be able to meet in person – though our meeting space is a bit tight.
There is a provision in Zoom for someone to participate without computer, just on a voice telephone. To them it is more or less like a conference call, to video Zoom participants the telephone-only callers do get a video square in the grid but it shows their name or number (or a profile icon if at some time they registered from a computer or device other than the plain-ole voice telephone.)
Yes, I just recently did the telephone-to-Zoom thing, because I wasn’t willing to risk my Mac on Zoom’s problems. Fortunately, I knew all the people involved and could recognize them by voice. Otherwise, I think it would have been less satisfactory. (I had urged them to use one of the other 10 or so programs, but …)
Problem is that this was a “look at what I made” “look at what I am working on” sort of meeting, no class attempted as we have at our normal meeting. So while I could see their work, I could not show mine and Pat, the one who had to come on the group on her phone using the chat feature could see none of them.
Our June meeting is generally a party as it is the end of our meeting year. I normally bring quartered turkey sandwiches so I know that there is something I eat. I thought of making a turkey sandwich and sitting and eating it in quarters during the Zoom meeting – good thing I didn’t as no one would seen to see me and maybe get the joke.
For the future, maybe send some images to one of the others to show.