An extraordinarily stupid time
Bike rides, video feeds, the perils of dogs participating in an interview
I went for a (socially distant) bike ride today. It was brilliant, but my asthma didn't appreciate all the pollen, so I came home a little wheezy. Nobody at the grocery store appreciated my slightly raspy post-inhaler voice. Plus side: lots of extra personal space.
I happened to pass a small anti-social-distancing protest, which consisted of a tight-knit group of mostly middle-aged white guys wearing the shit-eating grins of naughty thirteen-year-old boys, all standing in each other's personal space and filming each other with everything from cell phones to professional cameras with boom mics. They looked incredibly silly.
(This cartoon by Geoff Coates got turned into a poster that's all over town. Nigel Howard is the expressive ASL interpreter for our provincial health officer, Bonnie Henry. Both have been amazing.)
Behind the scenes: Welcome Stephen
My newest colleague Stephen Reid is a muppet. (Actually an extremely sharp and talented guy from Scotland, but everybody insisted he use this take.)
Most of the people on my team have dogs. Since we're all working from home at the moment we get to see a lot of them. Apparently at one point in Stephen's interview loop, his interlocuter's dogs took a moment to start humping in the background of the shot. Stephen diarized the moment for us later:
Video feeds
You can have up to 250 people in a Microsoft Teams meeting, but right now you can only show four of them at a time on screen. (We've announced a 3x3 grid we're affectionately calling the "Brady Bunch" view. Should be out shortly.) Probably in the top three requested features we're hearing about right now: add more video feeds.
It's not just us. There's a new video chat arms race, and it's all about how many people you get on screen at once. Google Meet supports 16. FaceTime supports up to 32. Zoom supports up to 49. Skype and Facebook's new Messenger Rooms have up to 50 people in a room (see! one more than 49!) but necessarily the gallery view ends up needing some reading glasses.
Pre-COVID the idea of adding more video feeds to a gallery seemed a little silly to some of my co-workers. "Why would you want a tiny pixelated view of someone you can't actually see? Especially on a phone?" These days the idea has a lot more sympathy. We're all desperate for human connection. Voice calls and texting aren't enough. You want to see faces, even if they're tiny.
I've noticed a divide about this between K-12 teachers, who want to see all their students' faces, and some higher education instructors, who often think of their lecture classes more like a one-to-many presentation. Of course the extra video feeds start to sound more attractive when you think about smaller classes or seminars. Interested to see how this shakes out as we settle into an ongoing world of blended learning.
Seattle people: Bring out your laptops
Just going to paste this in from an e-mail I got late last week:
As you are aware, the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in the closure of schools in Puget Sound. This has left roughly 17% of more than 500,000 students without access to remote learning. Now through May 9, you can participate in our Puget Sound Laptop Drive. Drop off unwanted Windows laptops or tablets in working condition for donation. The drive-up drop-off site is located outside of the Microsoft Conference Center (Building 33) in Redmond and is open 10:00 AM-2:00 PM daily.
More information: https://news.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/04/24/puget-sound-laptop-drive-frequently-asked-questions/
Inspiration
A moment of spring:
Onward
You - yes, you - are important, and doing the best you can in an extraordinarily stupid time right now. Thanks for reading. Let's get through the next week together.