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How and why?
I have a few books, and they are on shelves, but they are very hard to keep clean, how is it done?
Specifically keeping dust off, unless I go full Dexter with a clean room, duct tape, poly sheets and the like.
I'm not going to break them all out an wipe them down, so how do they do it? do they just buy new books for the camera?
I just feel so sorry for them having to feel they have lie about their usual lifestyle.
Like the low grade celeb cocks on Come Dine With Me who borrow flash gaffs for their episode.
I've got a fair number of books and they don't need much upkeep to look clean, though tbf some of them are behind glass. Those that aren't just require a very occasional waft with a feather duster, they don't seem to really get properly grubby.
My video call meeting usually start with the ..... What room are you in......
Due to a screaming baby I am working in the campervan. Raises a few eyebrows that
My laptop is on the shelf under my desk, it's only been requested that I open it to activate the camera once.
I just feel so sorry for them having to feel they have lie about their usual lifestyle.
Don't forget the strategically placed guitar.
My team gets to see the festering shithole that is my spare room.
Im sure I read that trump has a wall of fake books in his tower for photo ops
the Zoom culture of lockdown has made your background suddenly very important
My lawyer wife is WFH from my office.
Her clients are impressed by her extensive interest in bicycles.
At least I hope they are, more likely wondering why there's not a law book in sight. 🙂
I’m still hoping to see Economics for Dummies on some politician’s shelf, maybe tucked next to a pop up book.
I just go to work...
Dude on BBC breakfast earlier. Pretty strong shelf game going on.
Better than the call I had last week when a colleague had a clothes stand with their family's underwear drying on it behind them.
Not one of those books is titled "how to position your video camera correctly" either.
Discovered a few days ago that with MS Teams you can have it change your background for you; has numerous of its own - or you can upload your own.
I've found some internal stock photos of our office on the intranet. Occasionally set one of these as my Teams background.
One a big 150 person call about business change and redundancies one of the people I work with set his as the external view of a JobCentre+. Surprisingly it went down very well with the directors.
Yeah, Teams can do that, it can also blur the background which is great if you are having a party in the same room.
I know that people at my old work bought chromakey blankets for behind them when they were doing meetings with video. That's goign a little too far. Me, I have small enough bandwidth that the video chops if I enable the camera. or at least that is my excuse for leaving video off.
Several people have commented on what looks like an impending avalanche of badly-stacked books, cds, lights, chargers,...
People do look though don't they ? One of my colleagues is obsessed with another colleague's house and I've been asked about specific things on the shelves
I tried a blurry background but people said it was too trippy; head kept apearing & disappearing from the shot and was disembodies most of the time. Fairly shit laptop, maye that's why
Mostly I am on the dining table so just a plain wall and a world map. If my wife is having a meeting too, then it's an emergency decamp to the kitchen. Then it's a lottery. Could be a pile of mucky dishes, kids paint brushes, bike lubes, dead herbs... It's never going to look good.
I didn't know about the Teams background options. Might have to try that.
You can upload background of classic TV sets from BBC
A Tory minister had a prominent biography of Hitler on display one day. Wasn't there the next time I saw him in telly
Tsk, people on this forum are such amateurs. You hold the book up vertically, open end facing your victim then you blow all the dust off into their face.
People do look though don’t they ? One of my colleagues is obsessed with another colleague’s house and I’ve been asked about specific things on the shelves
It’s actually not a bad thing,bit of a distraction seems to ‘settle’ some people.
I put a bit of effort into getting our team more accustomed to video calls From day one and tbh it’s paid dividends.
I tend to use the teams background thing to add a bit of consistency as I tend to work in different rooms and I don’t want people reading the titles of my erotic book collection 🙂
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@BCredibility
Yeah more people need to use backgrounds on Teams. I've yet to see someone with a facerig set-up either, I'm tempted...
Dude on BBC breakfast earlier. Pretty strong shelf game going on.
Jeez. Surely thats the arse who prompted this thread. Want to smash a guitar over his head, cut his hair with blunt scissors and set fire to his books.*
How about show us you bookshelves!
On 2nd thoughts, how about not. Don't need STW winkle displays too do we!
*sorry, had a bad night
**not sorry enough to not hate him
Our CEO has challenged us to find the most interesting background pics for Microsoft Teams Video calls in all our meetings. I was presenting to our investors, from a street in Herculaneum yesterday....
I don’t think it’s wise to threaten to cut off a black persons dreadlocks, joking or not
The first few remote meetings we had were always filled with general chat about where everyone was and their respective backgrounds.
Our CEO took an early lead in that competition with his conservatory looking out over the Scottish hills. Bastard.
I liked Pauls Merton's question on HIGNFY. " How many of those books have you read (pause) or colourded in?"
I don’t think it’s wise to threaten to cut off a black persons dreadlocks, joking or not
LoLZ. Fair enough, I didn't even notice his ethnicity tbh. I'll just wash his hair then
I can imagine the worry to be honest. I don't do video calls, but if I had to I would probably relocate to a different part of the house.
Book shelves are full of my wife's counselling/mental health books so that wouldn't look good!
My wife does zoom on the kitchen table in front of these:
But it doesn't provide much interest for the nosy book spine readers 🙂
No bookshelves in my home office.
Bearshelves.
I'm sat in front of a cabinet without about 60 teddy bears in it.
It's apparently quite disconcerting for video callers to gaze into 61 sets of staring lifeless eyes.
61 sets of staring lifeless eyes.
Pretty much standard for any large video conference call.
there as pic of John Barnes (ex liverpool winger) doing a chat on BBC with a few spicy DVD's on the shelf behind him
(not sure if that was real or fake - but made me chuckle)
A guy got in touch with me about a week into lockdown and ordered one of my framed prints saying he wanted some nice artwork to put on the wall behind him for when he's on Zoom calls.
I have obviously been doing social media posts ever since saying 'need some nice artwork to put on the wall behind you on zoom calls?'. I've had quite a few takers 😀
@AlexSimon - that is a truly lovely thing
I appear to be the only person at my place who lives in a normal house. As I have two young kids there are drawings of theirs on the walls, toys everywhere etc. Other folk have what appear to be show homes. Just spaces that don’t look lived in at all.
business change and redundancies one of the people I work with set his as the external view of a JobCentre+.
I like this idea.
I have a regular Zoom catch-up with guys from local town - that is, we're all from Elgin but I'm the only one actually here - Glasgow, Edinburgh and London/Baku. I experimented with a download background from the local hotel bar (off their website) completely fooled them for a couple of minutes, had I photoshopped the barman or a regular that would have nailed it I reckon.
Dude on BBC breakfast earlier. Pretty strong shelf game going on.
That guy buys his books by the yard (there are great lengths of spines which match up), so I’d question how many he has opened. If I’d ever had so much space to myself I can’t imagine having the inclination to keep it clutter free (who even with kids hangs all their guitars neatly on the wall and hides the amp unless they don’t really play them that often), so he either has an army of cleaners or leads a rather sad lonely existence (I suspect the former but because I’m jealous I’d like to believe the latter).
I'm fairly sure David Olusoga reads the books on his shelves, or he wrote them.
There's a pretty popular twitter account on this very subject: https://twitter.com/bcredibility?lang=en
@Binners - thank you. Definitely best project to date. Doesn't look quite as good now we've put the dining stuff back in front of it. Ah well.
Good that you've been able to benefit from the zoom rush. At least they'll have some nice artwork to keep looking at when this is all over!
That twitter feed has some good ones - not sure the commentary is always on-point though.
I’m fairly sure David Olusoga reads the books on his shelves, or he wrote them.
So all the matching ones are either his complementary copies or remainders? The only books I’ve ever bought that match for more than three books have been when updating the office library (Yes certain reference material is only available in print format).
The only other explanation is that he arranges his books by publisher and impression which is just plain weird.
I’m still jealous of the space though
Ha, if only. The area I work in looks like a bomb has gone off (twice), all except the little area behind me that can be seen from the webcam.
Show me a neat bookshelf and I'll show you someone who doesn't read books.
Chuckling at the comments that suggest historian David Olusoga's books are never read or fake ('bought by the yard') because they're neat and the spines line up!
Thanks for the laugh guys 🙂
In all fairness David Olusoga appears to have both a bookshelf and reference library. I'm sure he uses both to varying degrees. I wonder what the trophy's for though - BBC TV Historians vs BBC TV Scientists 5-a-side?
It's kind of embarrassing that some people don't believe others could possibly have read a few books.
BBC TV Historians vs BBC TV Scientists 5-a-side?
In response to my own post I just read the Twitter bookshelf thing and it's a bloody BAFTA. Boring. 'A House Through Time' is shit-hot though.
Thanks for the laugh guys
That's [i]kinda[/i] the idea.
It's not just his bleedin books so though is it!
We've been having a laugh with DIY Teams backgrounds, using screenshots of each other so it looks like we're in the same room etc.
Being John Malkowich poster is my next idea.
Dude on BBC breakfast earlier. Pretty strong shelf game going on.
That guy buys his books by the yard (there are great lengths of spines which match up), so I’d question how many he has opened. If I’d ever had so much space to myself I can’t imagine having the inclination to keep it clutter free (who even with kids hangs all their guitars neatly on the wall and hides the amp unless they don’t really play them that often), so he either has an army of cleaners or leads a rather sad lonely existence (I suspect the former but because I’m jealous I’d like to believe the latter).
You do realise that’s David Olusoga, writer of a number of books on racism and Black issues, whose presenting the ‘A House Through Time’ programme at the moment that centres on a house in Bristol connected with slavery, is a Professor, and those guitars, if you’d actually taken the time to look instead of sneering, are all acoustic, so don’t need amps!
A mate has a bunch of guitars and other stringed instruments, his are all hung on the wall like that, it’s the most sensible way to keep them out of the way but accessible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Olusoga
A mate has a bunch of guitars and other stringed instruments, his are all hung on the wall like that, it’s the most sensible way to keep them out of the way but accessible.
Mine are like that. It saves a lot of space as they are above the pedal boards and amps.
If the people in your zoom meeting are busy looking at the respective backgrounds of each other's video, then gain yourself an hour by ****ing off pointless meetings.
I hate meetings. They are either a way of people palming off responsibility and work or imparting bad news.
I hate meetings. They are either a way of people palming off responsibility and work or imparting bad news.
Before lock down when we worked in this thing called an Office, which some of you will be too young to remember, I would have agreed.
However, since the great plague of 2020, I've actually found MS Teams to be really useful and the video calls work way better than I'd ever expected.
I know that people at my old work bought chromakey blankets for behind them when they were doing meetings with video.
My projector just happens to project there... and there is a large white sheet.
I experimented with a download background from the local hotel bar (off their website)
Try this see if it's recognised
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f4uUikHken8CCgBK7 
CZ in shocking sense of humour bypass post
Have just been through my old Macbook to look at some photos I could use and have found some nice (but seasonal) ones of campfires in snowy forests and, for some reason, a lot of random shitty outdoor gyms and accommodation in Afghanistan. I need to try the other laptop and see if I have some better ones.
Various Shining stills did not go down well today...
I was proud in a recent interview when I was told that we looked like we have some heavy duty bookshelves.
he was right, they are 1" thick, 8' by 30cm depth shelves and they are probably overloaded. The book cases on the other side are full of science and guide books
Various Shining stills did not go down well today…
Oddly I was planning to post the youtube of where he’s typing away and having the argument about being interrupted 🙂
On our team feed as we have a Few prima Donnas.