{"id":200513,"date":"2021-03-18T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/03\/18\/strange-times-require-strange-tools\/"},"modified":"2021-03-18T18:07:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:07:00","slug":"strange-times-require-strange-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2021\/03\/18\/strange-times-require-strange-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange Times Require Strange Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pleased to present for your consideration, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/3\/15\/22331744\/zoom-escaper-sabotage-meetings-fake-audio-problems\">Zoom Escaper<\/a>, which provides technical subterfuge to allow one to get out of a remote meeting:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">Had enough Zoom meetings? Can\u2019t bear another soul-numbing day of sitting on video calls, the only distraction your rapidly aging face, pinned in one corner of the screen like a dying bug? Well, if so, then boy do we have the app for you. Meet <a href=\"https:\/\/zoomescaper.com\/\">Zoom Escaper<\/a>: a free web widget that lets you add an array of fake audio effects to your next Zoom Call, gifting you with numerous reasons to end the meeting and escape, <i>while you still can<\/i>. <\/p>\n<p>You can choose from barking dogs, construction noises, crying babies, or even subtler effects like choppy audio and unwanted echoes. Created by artist <a href=\"https:\/\/lav.io\/\">Sam Lavigne<\/a>, Zoom Escaper is fantastically simple to use. All you need do is download a free bit of audio software called <a href=\"https:\/\/vb-audio.com\/Cable\/\">VB-Audio<\/a> that routes your audio through the website, then change your audio input in Zoom from your microphone to VB-Audio, and play with the effects. <\/p>\n<p>You can watch a video tutorial on how to set up Zoom Escaper and listen to a sample of the various sound effects <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/r_LhwsMAaAc\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><\/span><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r_LhwsMAaAc\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">If you\u2019re running Zoom Escaper, you can\u2019t actually hear  the sound effects yourself. But I was able to test the site\u2019s  functionality with the help of my colleague, <i>Verge<\/i> news editor Chaim Gartenberg. Here was his opinion of the various effects Zoom Escaper had to offer: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Urination<\/b>: \u201cThat sounds very fake. Also, I\u2019m not entirely sure what the plan is to sell this as a reason to leave a call?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Construction<\/b>: \u201cThis sounds like you literally stood in  the middle of a construction site. I think the sounds need to be a bit  more muffled to sell it, but it\u2019s very good.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Man Weeping<\/b>: \u201cThose are the sobs of a broken man. But who\u2019s crying \u2014 is it your roommate, your partner?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Bad Connection<\/b>: \u201cThis one works really well. Your audio is coming through broken up and disrupted. Get off the call.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Echo<\/b>: \u201cExtremely annoying and very convincing. This  sounds like a busted Zoom connection. If someone I was speaking to had  this, I\u2019d tell them to get it fixed. It wouldn\u2019t be feasible to have a  meeting with that.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Wind<\/b>: \u201cIf you were trying to skive off work, I\u2019m not sure how you\u2019d convincingly sell gale force winds in your own office.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Dog<\/b>: \u201cThat sounds very real. It sounds like a dog barking outside, but maybe not the sort of thing you\u2019d need to take care of?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><b>Upset Baby<\/b>: \u201cThat baby sounds decently upset! This is definitely something you should go and check on! Go and take care of your baby!\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This is so very tempting.<\/p>\n<p>Also, it&#8217;s art, according to its creator, artist Sam Lavigne. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pleased to present for your consideration, the Zoom Escaper, which provides technical subterfuge to allow one to get out of a remote meeting: Had enough Zoom meetings? Can\u2019t bear another soul-numbing day of sitting on video calls, the only distraction your rapidly aging face, pinned in one corner of the screen like a dying bug? &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1167,1067,1025,1085],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-communications","category-technology","category-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}