A couple of unrelated Zoom stories submitted by users:
Porn Zoom bomb forces cancellation of Fed's Waller event
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/feds-waller-virtual-event-canceled-after-zoom-hijack-2023-03-02/
A virtual event with Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller was canceled on Thursday after the Zoom video conference was "hijacked" by a participant who displayed pornographic images.
"We were a victim of a teleconference or Zoom hijacking and we are trying to understand what we need to do going forward to prevent this from ever happening again. It is an incident we deeply regret," said Brent Tjarks, executive director of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), which hosted the event via a Zoom link. "We have had various programs and this is something that we have never had happen to us."
Zoom Boss Greg Tomb Fired 'Without Cause'
Video conferencing platform Zoom has sacked its president, Greg Tomb, a former Google executive:
Mr Tomb's contract was abruptly terminated "without cause", according to the company in a regulatory filing.
The businessman had taken up the role in June 2022 and had been active on earnings calls and overseeing the company's sales.
A spokesperson for Zoom said the tech firm isn't looking for a replacement.
Mr Tomb reported directly to chief executive officer Eric Yuan, who started Zoom in 2011 and was at the helm as the company became one of the pandemic's biggest winners.
Zoom became a household name as people needed to stay at home, and screen time increased.
[...] "We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyse our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities," Mr Yuan said.
[...] Zoom is trying to diversify. Last year, it announced plans to integrate email and calendar features and a chatbot to help users with troubleshoot issues. Zoom Sports is also in the works.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @07:49AM (3 children)
They wanted to show porn but want plausible deniability. Those perverts, always thrusting erect penises in our mouths and ejaculating on our faces and dancing and kissing all the hot men and dancing and bouncing and rubbing oil on our bodies and taking coke and dancing all night long. Disgusting.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @08:02AM (1 child)
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your zoom call.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @08:13AM
The call is cumming from inside the house.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday March 09, @10:25AM
Your depiction is suspiciously detailed...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday March 09, @10:02AM (9 children)
Porn questions aside, what are public funds doing being wasted on proprietary, closed source systems and a proprietary, closed-source web app at that? The benefits of staying with Free and Open Source Software are many and have been gone over repeatedly, even at policy-maker level. At the very least, even if they feel they must use proprietary closed source services and systems, they absolutely need to insist on ones that fully utilize open standards to avoid the possibility of vendor lock-in.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday March 09, @10:18AM (6 children)
God forbids public money should ever be spend on closed source, proprietary technologies [military.com].
But hey, take comfort in the knowledge that it isn't really public money being wasted: it's more national debt that will never be repaid.
(Score: 3, Touché) by canopic jug on Thursday March 09, @10:51AM (2 children)
That was a handout to Amazon and Google, a thank you bonus to Oracle, and good old fashioned bailout for M$.
But yeah, actually investing a future is sure out of fashion -- in both halves of the oligarchs' uniparty.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Thursday March 09, @02:54PM (1 child)
Hey now, you're assuming the Pentagon wouldn't have screwed up a cloud service even worse than M$. That's a very large assumption.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Thursday March 09, @02:54PM
Then again, they might have been able to do it just as well/better, and only have cost 100 times as much.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 09, @02:07PM (2 children)
>national debt that will never be repaid
That was the prevailing opinion throughout the 1960s to 1990s, until 8 years under the Clinton administration suddenly did pay it off.
Temporary aberration, W fixed that.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by GloomMower on Thursday March 09, @03:27PM (1 child)
> That was the prevailing opinion throughout the 1960s to 1990s, until 8 years under the Clinton administration suddenly did pay it off.
It is my understanding this only happened in 1835. Under Clinton the budget was balanced meaning no deficit or some surplus, not paid off all the debt.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 09, @04:04PM
>Under Clinton the budget was balanced meaning no deficit or some surplus, not paid off all the debt.
Yeah, true... Clinton only lasted 8 years, not long enough, and it wasn't him, or the party in charge, that made the difference, it was dot com fever ignoring tax implications that pushed the budget past balanced into surplus territory. But, still, instead of immediately opening the flood gates on new spending they did leave monetary policy in-place so that the debt was being paid down, until...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Troll) by Mykl on Thursday March 09, @08:19PM (1 child)
Oh yes, I agree - all software used by Government must be Open Source.
For that matter, we should also ensure that our valuable infrastructure (roads, power networks, gas pipelines) are built and maintained using non-proprietary equipment and materials. All trucks, earth-moving equipment, power tools, adhesive formulae etc must have their designs, firmware and software all openly shared. Public hospitals should be banned from using any drug that is under patent, and those medical devices sure as hell better publish their schematics and code openly!
I sure as hell hope that our Defence department isn't using anything protected by trade secrets! How dare they buy missiles from a company that doesn't openly share the formula for the explosive payload and explicitly describe exactly how someone at home could build the missile themselves?!
Those scumbags at the Mint haven't yet openly shared the specifications for the equipment used to print money. It's a vile act of proprietary government monopoly!
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday March 13, @10:39PM
To be honest, I did expect at least one Troll mod, though I feel that "Disagree" is more appropriate.
A question for the modder - why do you feel that all software must be open source, yet it's OK for the government to use proprietary technologies in other equipment, such as medicine, weapons, infrastructure etc?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday March 09, @10:14AM (1 child)
I bet it was a legit participant who was watching porn on the side because the damn Zoom meeting was boring and didn't realize he was broadcasting the smut live.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Thursday March 09, @10:17AM
Well, you can rest assured that a lot more people will tune in for the next attempt. Because ... umm... they want to hear that fellow speak... what's the topic of the whole sermon again?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 09, @11:33AM (6 children)
>what we need to do going forward to prevent this from ever happening again
Breathe normally, learn to use the (existing, adequate) moderator tools to mute audio and blank video of any distracting / inappropriate participants, and carry on.
Also, participants asking for links to the censored content should use 1:1 chat messages.
Any other solutions would lead to broadcast delays and destroy the interactive nature of the media format.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Thursday March 09, @11:48AM (5 children)
I worked on what was then called video teleconferencing back in 99-01. It was essentially a zoom call via T1's, a PC, camera, mic, and touch screen. Whoever brought up the 'call' had admin rights to mute, cut video, or outright boot any participant.
Zoom does not have these features? I find that hard to believe.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 09, @12:23PM (4 children)
It does, but not everyone can even get themselves off mute, much less bring up the participants list and mute others.
I did a couple of video conferences in the late 90s over DSL... We ended up using the cameras to share choppy still images while we routed our audio over POTS conference call speaker phones.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday March 10, @03:46PM (3 children)
Sounds about right.
It was underwhelming with a complicated setup and usage.
Compacting it all into a smartphone /PC /laptop with functioning video & app sharing makes it work proper.
A big red mute / kill button would seem to still be needed.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 10, @03:58PM (2 children)
Again, the button can be there, as big and colorful as you like, but if nobody cares enough to understand what it does... that's the problem with most of the software these days (and for all time): users.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Saturday March 11, @06:47AM (1 child)
Pink maybe? ;-)
You are correct of course. Users not using their software correctly was the source of most service calls I ever took.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 11, @01:53PM
In the old days, I used to blame myself. Yeah, I just made this thing up that nobody had ever seen before and it was obvious to me, but maybe not too well (if at all) explained, so, yeah, I could have done better.
These days, I work with a team. We do pre-design user interviews, human factors analysis, usability testing, clear and complete documentation, standard interfaces that have been around for 20+ years, and if anything we have more stupid user errors than before.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1) by DadaDoofy on Thursday March 09, @02:49PM (1 child)
A legit meeting participant inadvertently did a screen share.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday March 09, @03:04PM
Sounds like they need a chairman to select who gets to speak or screen-share at any time.
Just like any large in-person meeting.
And the chairman must pay attention and know how to use Zoom to do this.