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Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

businessinsider.com

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Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#181

Post by blondin »

markmark wrote: post #178
blondin wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same. known zoom for a while... the "it just works" and "it has better quality" comments are very surprising to me and got me skeptical. are skype, slack, gotomeeting, hangouts, meet, webex, &c. all really crashing on people now? in a huge conspiracy? things i thought could be the real reason: novelty (for some/most people), popularity (someone online famous/influencer mentioned it), shadow marketing, luck. but wikip…

I've been working at remote-first companies for about the last four years, my current and previous company independently tested a bunch of video conferencing apps and both settled on zoom. It just works better than the alternatives. Yes better than skype, slack, gotomeeting, hangouts, meet and webex (and teams, since that's the other big one). Sometimes it's call quality, sometimes it's stability, sometimes it's usab…

good for you but i respectfully disagree. i have also used many video conferencing software, including zoom for many years.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#182

Post by Kiro »

prawn wrote: post #113
malandrew wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Journalists are like locusts. They move on to the next juicy victim, but time to time return to ravage those few cash cow targets.

The journalists cover all sorts of material. We're the locusts consuming and posting the juicy bits to HN?

Yes, HN is toxic.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#183

Post by wolco »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #31

I know it's beside the point, but who are these people heartless enough to break into Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to tell them how good Alchohol is? There isn't even any monetary benefit. Who the heck thinks this is funny?

Alcoholics know. SomeoneAp doing that in a zoom conference wouldn't upset someone as much as smelling it

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#184

Post by Larrikin »

blondin wrote: post #181
markmark wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been working at remote-first companies for about the last four years, my current and previous company independently tested a bunch of video conferencing apps and both settled on zoom. It just works better than the alternatives. Yes better than skype, slack, gotomeeting, hangouts, meet and webex (and teams, since that's the other big one). Sometimes it's call quality, sometimes it's stability, sometimes it's usab…

good for you but i respectfully disagree. i have also used many video conferencing software, including zoom for many years.

So zoom sucks and you've tested the alternatives but don't offer one?

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#185

Post by girvo »

harry8 wrote: post #169
Zenst wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Number 10 has had Video Conferencing since 1998 (I set it up with college and received first call from there), was H320 via ISDN2 affair and had dedicated black box encryption unit GCHQ supplied and dealt with. DOH (Department of Health) also had dedicated VC rooms as did all the regional officers and MCU bridging for multi point conferencing was outsourced when needed. All main DOH sites could do upto 384 with bonde…

>Also fairly sure GCHQ probably bashing their heads on the table. Not nearly hard enough. Not even close to hard enough. They need help with that, possibly with heavy machinery.

A hydraulic press could be useful here, I think.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#186

Post by randycupertino »

syockit wrote: post #80
tqi wrote: post #36

It feels like the tech news cycle is so predictable... Stage 1: This company you probably hadn't heard of before is blowing up / changing the world! Stage 2 (current stage): Actually it turns out this company has some unexpected problems! Stage 3: Actually this company is actively contributing to society's One Big Problem! Stage 4: Actually here is why Zoom actually isn't as bad as everyone thinks! Stage 5: This OTHE…

I am out of the loop as to why Zoom is suddenly "blowing up". Even my workplace is using it now. Previously, we were using either Skype, Webex, or Jitsi. What does Zoom offer that the other three doesn't?

> What does Zoom offer that the other three doesn't?

We switched to Zoom from Skype and Webex simply because it was cheaper.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#187

Post by jdietrich »

opless wrote: post #179
viraptor wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to send all available qualities of the stream yourself. Normally the server does the recompression for lower qualities. That means: more processing power and more bandwidth needed. Where normally you'd be able to send 720p, now your device may not be able to handle doing both that and lower quality (2-3 streams) at the same time. This multiplies again with screen sharing. Basically it's doable, but if you ca…

Ugh. Multiple compression streams? Why? 720p would be too much IMHO.

>Multiple compression streams? Why?

Zoom automatically switches between quality levels based on your connection speed, who's talking and the size of the viewport. 720p would look fairly rough when fullscreened on most non-mobile displays, but it's orders of magnitude more than necessary when viewed as a thumbnail on a mobile device. Making multi-user video work in a mostly seamless fashion is a surprisingly hard problem.

Using a single stream would substantially degrade the experience, which may be a worthwhile tradeoff for high-security environments but certainly wouldn't be a worthwhile tradeoff for most users.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#188

Post by cs02rm0 »

Zenst wrote: post #161
Thorentis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised they're even allowed to use Zoom for a national cabinet meeting. Wouldn't the Gov have its own video chatting software that is self hosted?

Number 10 has had Video Conferencing since 1998 (I set it up with college and received first call from there), was H320 via ISDN2 affair and had dedicated black box encryption unit GCHQ supplied and dealt with. DOH (Department of Health) also had dedicated VC rooms as did all the regional officers and MCU bridging for multi point conferencing was outsourced when needed. All main DOH sites could do upto 384 with bonde…

They'll undoubtedly have new iterations of that, based on the same premise that they install and own the kit at each end.

I suspect Zoom just happens to be the choice this particular group has settled on. While across government people have been scrabbling to just make something work now that security's previous modus operandi is being trumped by the need to let people work from home.

Government even more than the private sector have been slow to allow for home working. I'm hopeful this will change that.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#189

Post by anon9001 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #54
zionic wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan

I should have phrased that differently. I know it's largely parts of the 4chan crowd. But who are those boards? Why are the people who go there so nuts? Do you ever wonder if you've unknowingly met these people in real life? Chances are we all have, right? How do they manage to be so terrible and then go on with their lives?

/b/tard here. If you do public stuff on the internet, it's practically the obligation of the internet to show up and do something stupid.

As far as I can tell, somewhere over the last 15 years, people began to confuse "the internet" with "real life". It's important to know that hosting a public space on the internet is not the same as hosting a public space in real life.

I don't think this is even a so terrible example of trolling. A well run AA group could use it as a teachable moment to reinforce their message. It's certainly memorable.

And the people trolling are probably all hanging out on discord, making friends, having the modern equivalent of old-fashioned fun. Just a bunch of bored people seeing what they can get away with to entertain themselves on the internet.

When I was a kid, the neighborhood boys got caught throwing rocks at cars just because they wanted to see what would happen. They also stuck firecrackers in things. Once some teenagers took a baseball bat to every mailbox on the street while hanging out of a car window. Trolling an AA zoom meeting is significantly less bad than any of that.

I would argue that trolling is actually a bit higher-minded than previous generations of trouble-making. When you're restricted to operating only online, outside of physical space, you have to be a bit more clever in your trouble-making. Clever probing of the world to see how it responds is fun, especially with the constraint of "must be done entirely online". It's also largely harmless, because nobody can get physically hurt, and it leads to better safeguards in our online systems.

If you view trolling in that way, I think it's really a sign that our culture is advancing. If a successful troll is possible, it indicates some kind of weakness that needs to be patched. You can't stop the trolls, so you might as well extract what value you can from their work. Also what and how they troll is a sign of the times. The Trump presidency was fairly predictable if you watched the steady increase in what we'd now call "alt-right" ideology on 4chan. As goes /b/, so goes mainstream culture. I guess, in a way, you could say that trolling is a art.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#190

Post by randycupertino »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #54
zionic wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan

I should have phrased that differently. I know it's largely parts of the 4chan crowd. But who are those boards? Why are the people who go there so nuts? Do you ever wonder if you've unknowingly met these people in real life? Chances are we all have, right? How do they manage to be so terrible and then go on with their lives?

> But who are those boards? Why are the people who go there so nuts?

I mean, in my darker, misanthropic side of my personality I think it would be pretty funny if someone Zoom-bombed my really, REALLY boring monthly electronic Database system update training I have to go to on Thursday morning at 7am for 90 minutes, and like... played videos of puppies or something. But I get a chuckle out of that thought and drink my coffee and pay attention to the training like I always do.

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