Microsoft dips Teams in the metaverse vat with avatars ahead Microsoft Teams users are getting more ways to express themselves to other participants on those increasingly frequent video calls. Redmond is continuing to add features that enable users to change the look of their environments during video meetings, from blurring the background to putting shots of scenic vistas behind them …
Teams is the most bug-ridden piece of crap that I'm forced to use on my PC several times a day. The only app that I use more often is Outlook (which works flawlessly).
And *this* is what the Teams product management gurus decide to spend their time on? The way it's supposed to work is that you look at what your customers want and deliver that, not throw all your efforts at trying to turn a business tool into a nursery-school app.
>not some intern's project that by mistake got released to the world?
Because any intern you hire today has been using a computer daily for 10-15years
Whoever designed teams had a computer described to them by somebody who had only seen one in a 1950s SF movie
(I was going to list all the things wrong with it, but there isn't enough space in this margin)
Managers are lamenting that only 50% of people turn on their webcams in Teams meetings.
Here's me, a humble developer, sharing my desktop with the terminal, editor, or debugger open. Perhaps that's where I'm going wrong. My productivity is low because I should forget that nonsense and look nice for the camera.
> redraws your eyes looking directly at the camera - and yes it is creepy as fsck
That does sound incredibly creepy. Why do I have a mental image of Roger Rabbit's Judge Doom?
I've done that by using glass from an old picture frame in a 45º frame and a cloth to keep the camera in the dark so the glass turns into a mirror (plexi just doesn't reflect that well IMHO).
The only problem I had was that I had to pollute an iPad with Teams (and it only works for people meetings, reading anything in mirror script is hard). It worked, but it was just too much faff in the end and I now only have Teams on an old, empty iPhone so it cannot get its dirty mitts on any important data (our Wifi only connects you to a DMZ, and the VPN is not installed on the phone either). And yes, you can't read much on an iPhone either :).
I don't use it much, though, only for outsiders. We have far more secure facilities for confidential work.
> Video filters allow users "to ... better express yourself by bringing your personality to each meeting."
Gawd no, one of the better things about video calls is being out of reach of some particular "personalities".
And you just know that is *those* people who will spend the time on this, making sure all the participants get "the full benefit of their presence in this meeting".
Oh, let them. A bit of butyric acid will soon get that back offline, trust me.
For those who don't know its smell, have a full platoon of soldiers do a 50 mile march with full backpacks, then sit them down and get downwind from them while they all remove their boots and socks simulteaneously.
That, but so concentrated that merely briefly taking the stopper off a small bottle of it will render a corridor unusable for hours.
As I "accidentally" discovered when at school..
:)
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