mysteries

Discover The Hidden Mysteries Of Ancient Egypt - Freemasonic Scientific Author Helps Reveal The Real-life Mysteries of Ancient Egypt

Let the mysteries of Egypt lead you on the path of enlightenment.




mysteries

Victoria Napolitano's Renowned Luxury Lifestyle Savvy Brings New Book, Castle Mysteries on The French Riviera, to Life

This Mademoiselle French Collection Mystery Series Takes the Reader On A Heart Pounding Trip Through Five Countries




mysteries

Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

  • Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
  • Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

  • Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

  • The mute button is an icon rather than words.
  • The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
  • As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

  • Pros:
    • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
    • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
    • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
    • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
  • Potential Cons:
    • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

  • Pros:
    • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
  • Unrelated Con:
    • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

  • Meet
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
    • Windows: Control + D
  • Teams
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • Zoom
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
    • Windows: Alt + A
    • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

  • Cisco Webex Meetings
    • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • GoToMeeting

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!




mysteries

Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

  • Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
  • Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

  • Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

  • The mute button is an icon rather than words.
  • The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
  • As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

  • Pros:
    • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
    • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
    • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
    • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
  • Potential Cons:
    • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

  • Pros:
    • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
  • Unrelated Con:
    • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

  • Meet
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
    • Windows: Control + D
  • Teams
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • Zoom
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
    • Windows: Alt + A
    • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

  • Cisco Webex Meetings
    • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • GoToMeeting

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!




mysteries

Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

  • Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
  • Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

  • Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

  • The mute button is an icon rather than words.
  • The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
  • As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

  • Pros:
    • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
    • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
    • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
    • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
  • Potential Cons:
    • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

  • Pros:
    • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
  • Unrelated Con:
    • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

  • Meet
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
    • Windows: Control + D
  • Teams
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • Zoom
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
    • Windows: Alt + A
    • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

  • Cisco Webex Meetings
    • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • GoToMeeting

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!




mysteries

Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much

Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world.

As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking.

Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.”

That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk.

In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time.

Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now.

Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking

Why does this keep happening?!?

Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk.

Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.”

We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted.

Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders:

  • Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.
  • Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place.

Meet is only slightly better:

  • Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail.

Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted:

Teams is the worst offender:

  • The mute button is an icon rather than words.
  • The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.
  • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.
  • As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator.

Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted:

  • Pros:
    • Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.
    • The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.
    • The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.
    • The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator.
  • Potential Cons:
    • While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state.

Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls:

  • Pros:
    • The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.
    • The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.
  • Cons:
    • Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.
  • Unrelated Con:
    • While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬

I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use.

But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs.

I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for.

Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted

So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again?

This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it):

The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key.

If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.”

There are two traps in this reflexive thought process:

First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)

In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music.

Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker.

This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? 

So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.

If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume:

Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now

Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem!

In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting:

  • Meet
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + D
    • Windows: Control + D
  • Teams
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • Zoom
    • Mac: Command(⌘) + Shift + A
    • Windows: Alt + A
    • Hold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute

Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis:

  • Cisco Webex Meetings
    • Mac: Ctrl + Alt + M
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + M
  • GoToMeeting

Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut!




mysteries

CLARKE, N.: Mysteries of the Horizon / Dial 'H' for Hitchcock / Swift Severn's Flood (Vanhoorne, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Thornton, Clarke, S.Smith) (8.574097)

Nigel Clarke has always been fascinated by virtuosity and timbre—it is the brass band genre that has lent itself most to his passion for musical athleticism. Dial ‘H’ for Hitchcock is an imaginary film score in the film noir vein, complete with classic and chilling sound effects, while the heroic, brooding and violent Swift Severn’s Flood was inspired by a line from Shakespeare. Cornet concerto Mysteries of the Horizon examines the atmosphere of paintings by René Magritte, and Earthrise celebrates one of the most iconic photographs in history and the drama of the Apollo 8 mission.




mysteries

Mysteries of pristine Kimberley wilderness are being unravelled at last

It's home to as much biodiversity as the Great Barrier Reef, but this remote area of Western Australia has been largely a mystery to scientists, until now.




mysteries

Mysteries of Amazon shipwreck at Inverloch unravelling as erosion and wild weather reveals more

Storms and erosion at Inverloch reveal never-before-seen parts of a 155-year-old shipwreck, the Amazon.




mysteries

Winners of Tickets to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Costume Exhibition

You’re in luck if you love Miss Phryne Fisher, TV’s elegant lady detective.




mysteries

Jeremy Wade Explores World's Most Astounding Underwater Mysteries in All-New Discovery Channel Series, "Mysteries of the Deep" Premiering May 27 on Discovery Channel

The series was previously scheduled to roll out Thursday, April 2 on sibling Science Channel.




mysteries

The Mysteries of the Faceless King

.

Coming soon from PS Publishing is The Mysteries of the Faceless King, the first of two volumes collecting the best of Darrell Schweitzer's short fiction. Beautifully made, with a cover by the estimable Jason Van Hollander.

Also, an introduction by (cough) me. Here's how that begins:

Once upon a time . . .None of the stories collected herein begin with those words, though some come close. But they might as well. For Darrell Schweitzer writes a very traditional sort of story. His fiction is almost always fantasy, which is a mode nested deep in the roots of Story; usually horror, a mode as old as nightmares; and very often weird fantasy, a much more recent mode but one that is dear to his heart. Most could have been written a hundred years ago—or, with equal ease, a hundred years in the future. This is not a criticism. Timelessness is precisely what he is after.

PS Publishing has posted the entirety of the introduction online, preparatory to publication of the book sometime this month. So if you're curious as to what I said, you have only two options. You can buy the book. Or you can read the intro online for free.

But if you don't buy the book, you won't get the stories. You're in a quandary.

You can find the entire introductory essay here. Or you can just go to the PS Publishing website and wander about, marveling at how many of their books you want by clicking here.


And I should remind you . . .

The ebook of The Iron Dragon's Daughter, the first of three stand-alone fantasies in the Iron Dragons Trilogy, goes on sale tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1, 2020) for the one day only for only $1.99. That's a good deal. But only tomorrow and only in Canada and the US.


*




mysteries

CBD News: The oceans have long captured the hearts and minds of people around the world. The mysteries of its depths, the wonder of its creatures and the power of its waves have fed our curiosity and imagination since ancient times.




mysteries

Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries

Days before a national lockdown in the U.S., Daniel McDonald realized his life’s work had put a unique tool in his hands to fight COVID-19. The assay kits his team was about to have made by the tens of thousands could be repurposed to help understand the novel coronavirus that causes the disease. McDonald is Read article >

The post Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.




mysteries

Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries

Days before a national lockdown in the U.S., Daniel McDonald realized his life’s work had put a unique tool in his hands to fight COVID-19. The assay kits his team was about to have made by the tens of thousands could be repurposed to help understand the novel coronavirus that causes the disease. McDonald is Read article >

The post Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.




mysteries

Uncovering the mysteries of the 'crazy beast' – Science Weekly podcast

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to be our focus on Science Weekly, we also want to try look at other science stories. In this episode, Nicola Davis speaks to Dave Krause about the 66-million-year-old fossil of a cat-sized mammal dubbed ‘crazy beast’. A giant in its day, we hear how this now extinct branch of mammals – known as Gondwanatherians – offers new insights into what could have been

Continue reading...




mysteries

Chickens may help solve the mysteries of the human eye

A new study on chicken embryos may help researchers understand how humans developed their sensitive daylight vision.




mysteries

Computer program solves mysteries of fossilized leaves

The new program can learn and classify leaves so well that it could reveal the "tree of life" of ancient plants.




mysteries

The mysteries a house holds

There's nothing profoundly serendipitous about it, I know. If you've inhabited a space for eight years, you're bound to stumble upon all manners of souvenirs when you decide to vacate it. They assume the form of objects that had been existing on the sidelines of your consciousness. And while you chide yourself for giving into materialism, for having accumulated an over-abundance of things, especially those having no ostensible utility, you're also forced to reconcile with the fact that some memories are lodged so deeply within your subconscious they can only be recalled through sensual re-exposure to an affiliated entity.

So this thing-object that had become peripheral to your daily life becomes a wily talisman. It lurks between the pages of a dusty book, or sits innocently among a pile of medical reports, or hibernates within the antechamber of a desk drawer. Because I'm already in a state of heightened emotion, given the fragility of the present moment, every such talismanic encounter acquires extended dimensions.

For instance, this morning, noting how empty our living room was beginning to look, especially after my partner had begun to unscrew the wall-mounted shelves, I took a picture on my phone and sent it to a few friends and my immediate family. Then I sat down to write this column and found that I had left on my desk, a small pile of pages I'd found here and there. Top-most was a typewritten page whose second-last paragraph read thus — "What I had now was a room that was completely clean and shiny, like a room in an insane asylum from which all dangerous objects have been removed." Two line-breaks later, the next sentence read, "The room was the portrait of an empty stomach."

I hadn't dated when I'd typewritten these. I must intentionally not have left a trail, and it felt as though a message I'd sent in an imaginary bottle years ago had suddenly floated to my shore from the other side. As I re-read the lines, it occurred to me they could be from a Clarice Lispector novel, possibly an excerpt from The Gospel According to GH, the scene in which the protagonist inspects the vacant room of her ex-servant, discovering, amid the emptiness, a caricature that had been drawn on the wall and left behind. The rest of the book involved a mystical revelation over the eating of a cockroach, which I still don't have the stomach for.
I could be wrong about it being Lispector. I could do an online search, but I've already disconnected my broadband connection, and my phone internet is too slow to take on additional loads. I'm content with not knowing. I've been revelling in these small mysteries of what and how and where and when and why, or through whose intercession a thing came to be in my possession.

I had, at some point, committed to my life as a single woman, and to being located in Delhi, having this apartment as my base. I hadn't foreseen this moment of relocation. I hadn't expected that by the first week of May, 2020, I would be a married woman preparing to go live in her husband's home. It was not what we had anticipated even when we were getting married. But at some point, it seemed the most sensible, practical decision.

And so here I am on the threshold of leaving an apartment I had continued to live in through thick and thin, through fire, flood, and drought, through several moments of deep financial distress, when I didn't have enough money to buy vegetables. Yet, unlike the room in Lispector's novel, this increasingly minimal apartment feels more like a chamber filled with the still resonating echoes of the many incredible friends my life has been peopled with.

My closet has shrunk in size and the clothes I have retained are those capable of fitting into one suitcase that I can check in when we board our flight to Italy in the first week of June. I know I have to return to India when I'm able to continue my fieldwork. But I'll only return when I'm confident that my travelling to visit artists in their studios doesn't put either them or me at risk. When our rent agreement terminates, on May 21, we will temporarily move into either one of three friends' apartments, depending on which of their colonies have the least entry restrictions. If things work in our favour, we should be able to make our flight.

When I step beyond my door for the last time, it'll be the most empowered version of me that will be saying goodbye to the most incredible eight years of my adult life. With me at all times, until we arrive at whatever becomes our destination, Italy or Goa, will be this photograph that leapt out at me while I was flipping through a page of a book I was couriering to Goa. In it, I'm radiantly reaching my hand out to an anonymous someone. Because of the manner of the photograph's rediscovery, how it had been placed on the page, it acquired symbolic valence. It looks as though my past self was reaching out to whatever future self was to discover it.

In this moment of unprecedented contact, I felt the coalescing of all my past selves and their seeding within the abundant body of a woman boldly foraying into the domestic unknown.

Deliberating on the life and times of Everywoman, Rosalyn D'Mello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover. She tweets @RosaParx
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mysteries

From blood clots to ‘Covid toe’: the medical mysteries of coronavirus

The wide variety of Covid-19 symptoms seen by doctors is confounding the scientific community




mysteries

Mysteries of Mars / Fabio Vittorio de Blasio

Online Resource




mysteries

Mysteries Unearthed at the Armoury

The 2012 summer digging season yielded everything from human and animal burials to sawpits and fencelines. Staff Archaeologist Meredith Poole puts the clues into context.




mysteries

These Aren’t Minions. They’re Robots That Swim Around Solving Mysteries

Scientists just released robots that look like Minions into the Pacific Ocean. The little bots are on a mission to unravel one of the great mysteries of the sea: what the hell are marine larvae up to?




mysteries

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider : the new machine for illuminating the mysteries of universe / editors, Oliver Brüning and Lucio Rossi (CERN)




mysteries

Waters of the world: the story of the scientists who unraveled the mysteries of our oceans, atmosphere, and ice sheets and made the planet whole / Sarah Dry

Dewey Library - GB659.6.D79 2019




mysteries

Melodies Unheard: Essays on the Mysteries of Poetry / Anthony Hecht

Online Resource




mysteries

At the edge of time: exploring the mysteries of our universe's first seconds / Dan Hooper

Dewey Library - QB982.H658 2019




mysteries

Mayan Mysteries

Mayan Mysteries Explained - The Feathered Serpent Speaks




mysteries

Hölderlin's Dionysiac poetry: the terrifying-exciting mysteries / Lucas Murrey

Online Resource




mysteries

Pluto's mysteries revealed and a daily news roundup

Alan Stern discusses the first scientific results from the New Horizons July 14 flyby of Pluto, which revealed details about the dwarf planet's geology, surface composition, and atmosphere; Catherine Matacic talks about dino temps, Paleo-sleeping, and editing pig organs. Hosted by Sarah Crespi.




mysteries

Yet more everyday science mysteries [electronic resource] : stories for inquiry-based science teaching / Richard Konicek-Moran ; botanical illustrations by Kathleen Konicek-Moran

Konicek-Moran, Richard




mysteries

The Mysteries, resurrection, and 1 Corinthians 15 : comparative methodology and contextual exegesis / Terri Moore

Moore, Terri (New Testament teacher), author




mysteries

Dionysiac Mystery Frieze. Room 5 of Villa of the Mysteries




mysteries

The James boys in St. Louis; or, The mysteries of a great city




mysteries

A double play, or, Two mysteries in one net




mysteries

The Isle of Wonders; or, The mysteries of the echoing cave




mysteries

Phallic worship : a description of the mysteries of the sex worship of the ancients ; with the history of the masculine cross; an account of primitive symbolism, Hebrew phallicism, bacchic festivals, sexual rites, and the mysteries of the ancient faiths.

[London?] : Printed for private circulation, 1886.




mysteries

Mysteries Unearthed at the Armoury

The 2012 summer digging season yielded everything from human and animal burials to sawpits and fencelines. Staff Archaeologist Meredith Poole puts the clues into context.




mysteries

Conservators consult Forbes Pigment Collection to solve artwork mysteries

Library of 2,500 samples offers clues about hues, both old and new




mysteries

Crawly critters’ mysteries and marvels




mysteries

Letters to the editor: History mysteries