Tag: #videoconference

Having a clear out

We’re having a tidy up of the study to make room for a second office desk and chair.

Over the years what was step daughter #1’s bedroom became the spare room and eventually we moved the computer out of our bedroom and into this room, therefore redesignating it as the study. However, it also became the junk room.

Over years and years, more and more stuff has been pushed in there as either being “useful one day” or “file it later”. To the point where we can’t actually get anywhere near the other end of the room, and now have no idea whats there. To be honest, a bit embarrassing.

With lockdown #2 now underway and the potential for things to change for me at work, it might be possible, or desirable, for me to work from home from time to time. It would also be more beneficial as I do more #bellringing stuff. C is on the computer quite a lot doing whatever it is he does, so if I had a desk and set up too, I could get on with things. I know that I could sit on the sofa with my laptop but that’s not conducive to a nine and a half hour working day. I need a proper chair and desk.

So, desk and chair have been ordered, although the desired chair was out of stock, so was the second preference, so ended up with third choice, which of course was more expensive, but they’re giving it to us at the same price as the first choice, for the inconvenience.

Had a phone call at 07:30 (!) Thursday morning saying that desk will arrive tomorrow. Eek, better start making room for it then.

Why does tidying up always create more mess? C is making a start as the first hurdles are his. Most of my stuff is at the back of the room, so he’s got to make some headway before I can do much. This is going to take some time. He seems to be checking everything and reading things, and deciding that “that would be useful to hang on to” despite the fact that’s its clearly not been used in many, many years.

There are now bin bags, recycling bags and piles of other stuff accumulating in the lounge, ready for the next phase. This is going to take a while.

Which platform?

Yesterday I had a number of virtual meetings both at work and for #bellringing in the evening. This has consisted of using various different video conferencing platforms.

At work we use Starleaf which enables meetings and video conferencing, screen sharing and so on. You have to send your attendees a link with a meeting ID and password and you can dial in on a phone instead.

We have a fortnightly Skype meeting with family members and our daughter. You need a log in for that and connect with other users first.

We use Zoom for #bellringing meetings and to support RingingRoom sessions. Similar to Starleaf with the ability to run polls and breakout rooms as well. I have acpaid Zoom account which often means I’m the one setting the meeting up. Again you can send attendees a link to access the meeting or dial in.

Tuesday evening I was on a meeting with the Communications & Marketing workgroup and we used MS Teams for the first time. It seems to have similar functions to Zoom and Starleaf although it did take a bit of getting into. It wasn’t particularly intuitive at first. Once you get into it it made a bit more sense but I haven’t figured out how to add files or calendar dates yet but probably need to spend a bit more time rummaging around it to get myself acquainted with it. We’re supposed to be getting this rolled out at work eventually.

There are so many different platforms being used for various things sometimes it’s a wonder that it all works. So many log in IDs and passwords to remember.