Zoom Along: Virtual Meetings Are a Thing
May 5, 2020
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. Apocryphal story: Google Meet session with WFH Googlers. Team leader’s child walks into view of the video cam. Child talks about Zoom and how much her friends like the service.
Well, maybe it’s not true?
But Zoom is a thing. You can get a list of Captain Obvious’ suggestions from Fox News, yes, THE Fox News. Navigate to “11 Best Zoom Tricks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner.” Here’s a sampler: Change your background.
Another? Okay, here’s a secret: React with emojis.
Helpful indeed.
With COVID-19 running rampant around the globe, people need new ways to get their giggles. Reddit and the vast array of social media platforms have run the gambit, so people are now Zoom bombing. Zoom is a popular online meeting platform and now serves as classrooms and the work place. ZDNet shares how Zoom bombing works I the article, “The Internet Is Now Rife With Places Where You Can Organize Zoom-bombing Raids.”
Since people are bored and want entertainment other than Tiger King, there are now online communities where people post their Zoom conference code to request for Zoom raids or Zoom bombing (think digital flash mobs or photo bombers): random insults, play pornography, or even make death threats.
It started on a Discord prank channel (Tiktok’s baby with Facebook Messenger), then quarantined teenagers picked up on the joke. It did not take long for the Internet body to embrace the new trend, causing the FBI to warn organizations to secure their Zoom code. While classrooms and the standard office meeting become livelier with a random Zoom bomber shouting, “Butt” then disappearing, it does become a security risk for more sensitive situations…like Hollywood pitch meetings.
Zoom and its users have doubled up on security, but the Zoom bombers are now targeting: public sessions and posting the results to YouTube. YouTube does not care:
“The video-sharing platform doesn’t appear to have an issue with hosting the videos, as long as they don’t include pornographic content, racist remarks, or death threats — content that’s against the site’s policy. Other than that, you can scream your lungs out during a Zoom raid, and YouTube will have no problem hosting it.”
If you do not want to be Zoom bombed, Fossbytes offers a list of “8 Best Zoom Alternatives For Video Conferencing In 2020.” These include:
- BlueJeans
- Cisco Webex Meetings
- Discord
- Google Hangouts
- GoToMeeting
- Microsoft Teams
- Uber Conference
- Zoho Meeting
But write up forgot about Amazon Chime and Google Meet. Oh, well, good enough.
Whitney Grace, May 5, 2020
Zoom to the Oracle
April 30, 2020
One Dolphin Way is flipping with excitement. DarkCyber spotted “Oracle Wins Cloud Computing Deal with Zoom as Video Calls Surge.” From the truthy real news outfit DarkCyber learned:
Zoom and Oracle did not disclose the size of the deal, but said traffic for “millions” of meeting participants is being handled by Oracle’s cloud service and about 7 million gigabytes of Zoom data per day is flowing through Oracle servers.
With a nifty new computer security wizard providing advice, Zoom is taking steps to become a more reliable outfit. (Never mind that the security wizard was on watch when the unfortunate Yahoo and Facebook glitches took place. It is the PR that counts.)
Will Oracle deal with the Zoom feature of disallowing connections?
What’s interesting is that Oracle is working overtime to gain traction in what looks like a two horse race: Microsoft Azure on the outside and the Bezos bulldozer’s AWS on the inside rail.
Worth watching; that is, if one can connect to a meeting.
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2020
Google Meet: A Zoom Challenger
April 29, 2020
DarkCyber thought that Google Hangouts was the Zoom challenger. Wrong again it seems.
Google Meet will be rolling out in the near future, possibly now. Google’s Zoom is a digital place to hangout. Errr, no. Google Meet is a place to meet. There’s a difference, probably best understood by someone who used one of Google’s numerous chat applications. Meet seems to be another Google “me too” play, but apparently it’s a mature, deep, and unique way to hangout, I mean, meet.
According to “Google Meet Premium Video Conferencing—Free for Everyone”:
Today [April 29, 2020] , we’re making Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, free for everyone, with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. We’ve invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that’s trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months we’ve accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful.
Okay, just get a Google account and anyone can use Google Meet. Will Google Meet be available in China? Russia? Errr. DarkCyber does not know.
Several points from the Google announcement:
- Meet was available to G Suite customers. I am a G Suite customer, and I did not know there was a Google Meet. Hangouts, yes. Meet, no.
- Meet will allow me to stream for up to “100,000 viewers within your domain.” What’s a domain? The write up does not say.
- The write up says, “Free G Suite Essentials for enterprise customers.” Will there be a for fee service offering more than essentials.
Like many Googley announcements, the sizzle is evident. But does the steak have Zoomy features like animated backgrounds, transcripts, and a reasonably coherent interface.
Will Google Meet face the same fate as Shoelace? What? Who? Exactly.
PS. The Meet anigif is retro, even MySpacey.
Stephen E Arnold, April 30, 2020
DarkCyber for April 28, 2020: Free Cyber Warfare Book, Spy Insights, the Info Gap Map, and HaaS
April 28, 2020
The April 28, 2020, DarkCyber tackles four stories this week. This week’s program is available via the DarkCyber blog, Vimeo, or YouTube. This week’s stories include information that is otherwise difficult to locate.
You can download a comprehensive look at cyber warfare published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The book covers cyber intelligence and methods of cyber warfare. DarkCyber’s Stephen E Arnold and former CIA spy Robert David Steele discussed misinformation in a one hour interview which is available on the Phi Beta Iota Web site. DarkCyber includes an extract from the discussion about obtaining hyper local data about people, events, and places. The information gap map illustrates how little digital information is available in free Web search systems. The map makes clear that anyone relying on Bing, Google, Yandex, and other free Web search systems is likely to be drowned in misinformation. The program explains how to access a no cost honeypot as a service. HaaS makes it possible to explore malware and learn about exploits in a controlled environment. The link to the service is provided in the program.
Kenny Toth, April 28, 2020
DarkCyber for April 14, 2020, Now Available
April 14, 2020
This week’s DarkCyber program contains three news stories and one feature. The program is available via Vimeo and YouTube.
Geospark Analytics is the subject of a DarkCyber profile. The company has a new president, a new partner, and a public podcast. What makes these announcements interesting is that most firms engaged in geolocation analysis maintain a low profile. DarkCyber points out the downside of attracting too much attention. Geospark Analytics, a start up, is likely to become a disruptor in what is a little known sector of the law enforcement and intelligence markets. The technology is directly germane to recent announcements about tracking individuals of interest.
DarkCyber reports that bad actors are going to great lengths to make credit card theft easy. The story explains the principal features of a new point-and-click way to obtain names, credit card data, and the codes printed on each card. Also, this type of “skimming crime” is going to be further automated. After paying a fee, the developer of the skimming system will automate the theft for the customer. How much does the service cost? About $1000 but if a customer does not have the cash a revenue split is available.
A 2014 report produced by the US Department of Justice suggests that predictive analytics may not be as reliable as some experts assert The original document was not available to the public, but it was obtained via a Freedom of Information request by a watch dog group this year. The 2014 report reveals information about the somewhat dismal performance of predictive analytics systems. The outputs of these systems from well-known vendors were not helpful to enforcement and legal officials. The DarkCyber story includes a link to the full report as well as a link to a recent analysis of predictive analytics systems efficacy in identifying life outcomes for young people. The results of both studies appear to call into question the reliability of some predictive software.
DarkCyber’s program concludes with a reminder that virtual private networks may not be private. An online news service identified a number of comparatively high-profile VPNs that are not particularly secure. A link to the source document and the name of three suspect services are provided.
DarkCyber is a production of Stephen E Arnold. Programs are released twice a month and provide news, analysis, interviews, and commentary about the Dark Web, cyber crime, and lesser known Internet services.
Programs are available on Vimeo and YouTube. For the current program, you are welcome to navigate to www.arnoldit.com/wordpress.
Kenny Toth, April 14, 2020
The Spirit of HP Management Exists: Quibi Hears an Eko
April 10, 2020
Anyone remember HP’s greatest moments? Paying really, really close attention to some Board of Directors? Buying Autonomy without reading an expert group’s report? Stumbling into the abyss with Alta Vista? Possibly the influence of Meg Whitman and that HP management experience has now challenged the practioners of the high school science club management methods for excellence, judgment, and logical thinking?
I am thinking about HP because I read “Quibi’s Turnstyle Tech Battle Sees Eko Score Accelerated Hearing Date For Preliminary Injunction – Update.” If the write up is accurate, the HP way has found itself into the mechanics of Quibi. Quibi is apparently a short form video service. None of that sitting in one’s pajamas talking about Animal Crossing. These are allegedly pro-grade videos, better than the outputs of TV stars forced to manage their own lighting and audio.
The write up states:
In reality, Eko owns the technology and promptly asked Quibi to cease and desist,” an accompanying flourish filled memorandum of points (read it here) from Eko’s parent company says of the slow-burn confrontation between the parties over the past few months. “In response, Quibi sent an untruthful letter and then filed a declaratory judgment action,” according to the 30-page paperwork submitted to U.S. District Court in California.
I think this means that the HP way allegedly has appropriated a system and method from another firm. That other firm is going to try to obtain justice. Interesting, right. Justice.
The article states that Quibi is free for now. Will the footsteps of Eko’s lawyers echo in the minds of those embracing the sounds of a possible HP anthem “Oh, I’ve Got Hair Oil On My Ears And My Glasses Are Slipping Down, But Baby I Can See Through You.”
Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2020
Video Search: Maybe Find That for Which You Were Looking? Ha Ha
April 9, 2020
Searching for a motion picture online? It is collective intelligence to the rescue at Ask MetaFilter’s thread, “How to Find What Streaming Services Certain Films Are On?” Canadian poster NoneOfTheAbove was perusing this 1000 Greatest Films list and asked for an easy way to locate specific films on streaming services across the web.
The obvious is stated—use Google—with the caveat that those results may not tell you if a membership is required. Another suggestion is to follow links in the movie’s IMDb description, and one respondent notes that if one already has Roku, its search results point to sources available through that subscription. A couple people point to the streaming-service consolidator JustWatch, and one suggests Reelgood as a similar platform. The most descriptive answers, though, discuss Letterboxd:
“Another option is to sign up for a free membership with Letterboxd – that is a social-media movie-logging site that is really [darn] comprehensive. You can track what movies you want to see, what movies you have seen, and make endless lists of all kinds (‘Movies with female leads,’ ‘Movies with cute dogs,’ ‘Movies with Left-Handed Protaganists,’ whatever you want). A lot of members already have their own lists tracking their progress through the 1000 Greatest Movies list. Best of all – Letterboxd links to JustWatch and you can look at the streaming availability for a given movie when you pull it up on Letterboxd. So it may be fun to sign up for Letterboxd, make your own copy of the 1000 list, and then track your viewing progress. …Letterboxd also has a paid ‘Pro’ account where you can filter such a list based on a given streaming service like Netflix, but you may find that that’s overkill.” posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:45 AM on March 31 [1 favorite]
“Bonus of having your own Letterboxd account is that you can already mark the ones you’ve seen and quickly visually scan for the ones you haven’t seen yet, then click through per film to see on which streaming services it’s available. I’ve been going through a bunch of the Criterion Collection this way recently myself. :D” posted by rather be jorting at 12:23 PM on March 31 [2 favorites]
So there you have several options supplied by the hive mind. Even if you aren’t looking for a film right now, this list may be worth bookmarking for future reference. Finding videos remains a challenge. Search has been solved, right? Yeah, sure.
Cynthia Murrell, April 9, 2020
With Security Nailed, Zoom Returns to Its Sillycon Valley Roots
April 8, 2020
DarkCyber knows that you have been waiting for another great Zoom feature. “Zoom: Free Video chat filters Can Give You a long Beard, Devil Horns or an Egg for a Head” reports that Zoom compatible filters have arrived. Plus, you can replace your head in a business video conference with an egg. Well, that’s the story. The write up points out:
With a free app called Snap Camera. Snap Camera has been around since 2018 and it essentially allows you to add Snapchat style filters to video conferencing apps like Zoom.
There are other options; for example, devil horns for frisky Sillycon Valley quarantine sports.
Great innovations cannot be hindered by a mere pandemic.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2020
Voleflix: Public Domain Videos
April 7, 2020
Just a short note to document the existence of Voleflix. This is a public domain video and film site. (Anyone remember Xoom.com?) The Web page says:
Cheaper than Netflix and Prime! Dozens of free public domain movies plus our Voleflix Originals
What’s on Voleflix? This warning sets the stage:
If you are into free and interesting (unusual), point your kick back thing at https://vole.wtf. Yep, WTF.
Stephen E Arnold, April 7, 2020
Google: Ever Amusing, Ever Innovative
April 3, 2020
Quick note about two Google services. (If you are a Googler, jump to another project, preferably one with traction.)
First, Google innovators are going to duplicate to some degree the TikTok approach to video. Hopefully the me too service will lack some of the Chinese craftsmanship. The world does need more 30 second videos, just with pre roll, in video, and post roll advertising. Why didn’t Google think of this ad inventory burner quicker? Right, “think.”
Second, Google has learned (finally) that the Nextdoor.com approach is tough to implement in India. (Google’s service is neighborly for a few months more. The Google announced that it will keep its competitive service Neighbourly alive until October 2020, probably with a lone intern keeping the lights on. Like enterprise search, Neighbourly learned that some services require a bit more than Google imagining sales and sustainable revenue. (Hey, those payoff require work by someone.)
To sum up: One innovation arrives; another departs. So life goes for the Google. I was taught to spell neighborly without the stiff upper lip “u.” I know, I know. I am not neighborly and I don’t get the short video thing.
Stephen E Arnold, April 3, 2020
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