Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Non-obvious remote work techniques

queue.acm.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 87 posts

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#61

Post by jamie_ca »

robotkad wrote: post #2

Does anyone have any suggestions on a platform to facilitate Tip #4: Idling in a Videoconference Room? Zoom is the obvious choice, but wonder if anyone has built something better for this use case?

I haven't used it personally, but https://sneek.io/ will do ad-hoc video chat. Those that aren't "live" on the call are still up on the wall of faces, with a screen capture from their webcam every few minutes.

Avoids the waste of unused video over the network, but still gives a sense of your teammates being live people going about their day.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#62

Post by RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u »

PinkMilkshake wrote: post #47

> makes the mute button easier to find It's odd this is still an issue. I'm not sure why the mute button is not featured more prominently on videochat apps. It's almost the primary feature during a call that makes things go smoothly. Also, there's always one guy who has to say every bloody time, "are you there, have you forgot to unmute?" if you fail to unmute and start talking <100ms after your name has been mention…

Just use a headset with a physical mute button. I've been using this pair[0] for years. It works great.

[0] https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-headset-h800

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#63

Post by bsder »

dorkwood wrote: post #58
bsder wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, yes? Email WORKS JUST FINE . You know what else works fine? A PHONE . I know that actually calling someone on the phone seems to be traumatic for anyone under 35, but hey. If it's really important--call. If it's not that important--why am I being interrupted? Send me email. Chat--all the expressiveness of text with the interruptiveness of a phone call.

What industry do you work in, exactly? I think it would be a very odd thing if I were to ask my co-workers for their phone numbers. They'd probably ask why I needed it, and I'd say "so that I can call you if there's a problem". They'd say "why don't we just use Google Meet, like we do for everything else? Is there something wrong with your mic? I don't understand."

> They'd say "why don't we just use Google Meet, like we do for everything else? Is there something wrong with your mic? I don't understand."

Okay, that's the first real, valid argument I've seen against a phone call. I had no idea that these services had penetrated so far that they are normalized.

However, not all of us operate in "developer-only" land. People external to the company (at least, prior to Covid) would have phones but almost certainly not a "conferencing app". So, giving out your number would be a fairly normal thing to do in the course of business so giving it to colleagues would not be considered unusual--at least in the US.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#64

Post by de_watcher »

PinkMilkshake wrote: post #47

> makes the mute button easier to find It's odd this is still an issue. I'm not sure why the mute button is not featured more prominently on videochat apps. It's almost the primary feature during a call that makes things go smoothly. Also, there's always one guy who has to say every bloody time, "are you there, have you forgot to unmute?" if you fail to unmute and start talking <100ms after your name has been mention…

Some videoconference solutions that are pushed on businesses aren't mature at all: in that Cisco thing when you mute someone it mutes them for everybody (not just for you), so it's hard to have a mixed conference because you either hear people in your physical room twice or remotes obviously don't hear them at all if you use the 'mute participant' button.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#65

Post by de_watcher »

cmehdy wrote: post #60
ghthor wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in my day we called that, push-to-talk. Everything old is new again.

Teamspeak guild, assemble!

Yea, gaming is miles ahead of everything in this area. It obviously doesn't focus on video too much, but audio and text are on point.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#66

Post by rahimnathwani »

solids wrote: post #23

#5 - IMHO you just can’t emulate a physical social event, the biggest problem being that you cannot establish smaller groups which are natural in physical events.

"the biggest problem being that you cannot establish smaller groups"

Zoon has breakout rooms.

Rally.video has tables.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#67

Post by ThePadawan »

RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u wrote: post #62
PinkMilkshake wrote: post #47

> makes the mute button easier to find It's odd this is still an issue. I'm not sure why the mute button is not featured more prominently on videochat apps. It's almost the primary feature during a call that makes things go smoothly. Also, there's always one guy who has to say every bloody time, "are you there, have you forgot to unmute?" if you fail to unmute and start talking <100ms after your name has been mention…

Just use a headset with a physical mute button. I've been using this pair[0] for years. It works great. [0] https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-headset-h800

I do this and it has downsides:

* muting yourself is not clearly visible to the conference app (Your face doesn't get a mic with a strikethrough on the screen). Apps that warn you that your audio device is receiving audio but you are muted on the application level no longer work correctly.

* some apps (Looking at you, Teams) will actually complain that you seem to have deactivated your audio device (of course you did - that's the whole point).

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#68

Post by vladvasiliu »

bjo590 wrote: post #48
dahart wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me automatic idle+meeting detection is not good enough. There are lots of times when I can't chat immediately, but I'm using my computer and not in a scheduled meeting. Pair programming, someone else at my desk (pre covid), programming in the zone, watching a presentation, currently chatting with someone else, etc. etc. I want the expectation that my Slack icon is green to mean that I'm at work and I'll reply som…

Simply don't replay immediately. You'll build the expectations as people learn to work with you. Some people on my team respond immediately 95% of the time. Some people on my team turn off all slack notifications and check it throughout the day. We all work together pretty well.

I completely agree that there shouldn't be an expectation of an immediate reply and rather expect the exchage to be asynchronous. However, that renders to whole "presence indicator" moot, which is the subject of this particular thread.

If I try to talk to Bob and the expectation is that he might take a while to get back to me, it doesn't make any difference to know that he's "available" or "in a meeting". If he's available and coding he might not anwer for an hour. If he's in a meeting and bored he might answer right away.

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#69

Post by iofiiiiiiiii »

ThePadawan wrote: post #67
RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use a headset with a physical mute button. I've been using this pair[0] for years. It works great. [0] https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-headset-h800

I do this and it has downsides: * muting yourself is not clearly visible to the conference app (Your face doesn't get a mic with a strikethrough on the screen). Apps that warn you that your audio device is receiving audio but you are muted on the application level no longer work correctly. * some apps (Looking at you, Teams) will actually complain that you seem to have deactivated your audio device (of course you did…

This is only a problem with headsets that have poor drivers.

Better devices like Jabra headsets integrate directly with Teams and will actually synchronize mute status between the headset and Teams!

Re: Non-obvious remote work techniques

#70

Post by ThePadawan »

iofiiiiiiiii wrote: post #69
ThePadawan wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this and it has downsides: * muting yourself is not clearly visible to the conference app (Your face doesn't get a mic with a strikethrough on the screen). Apps that warn you that your audio device is receiving audio but you are muted on the application level no longer work correctly. * some apps (Looking at you, Teams) will actually complain that you seem to have deactivated your audio device (of course you did…

This is only a problem with headsets that have poor drivers. Better devices like Jabra headsets integrate directly with Teams and will actually synchronize mute status between the headset and Teams!

Cool!

YMMV but 0 of my WFH colleagues own business-grade headsets though. Some have Airpods, and most use Gaming headsets (like I do) or Bose QuietComfort (which IIRC don't have dedicated mute buttons).

Until we find a unified API around all those devices, a prescribed unified usage pattern IMO doesn't make sense yet.

Post reply on HN