Chuck Anderson via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> writes:
On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 05:59:12PM -0400, Keith Wright via WLUG wrote:
so I plan to try it tonight. I'll report back to this list.
I have never used the camara or microphone on this laptop, I don't know if I have used sound output, it was long ago and might have been a different machine,
Is video chat built into the browser now?
Yes, video chat is built into all modern browsers. They call it "HTML5" and "WebRTC".
Thank you. HTML5 is a good search key. I have a lot of reading to do, but already I learned from wikipedia that
In early November 2011, Adobe announced that it would discontinue development of Flash
I noticed that it seemed to be going away, but thought it was just web site developers getting smarter: "Hey Joe, Why do we make the customers download flash before we tell them about our product?" It's more official than that.
What exactly does Zoom or jit.si do then?
It starts up a WebRTC session over HTTPS to the jit.si server using your microphone and camera to send your video/audio,
As I said, I have never (knowingly) used the camera or microphone on this computer, nor even the speaker/headphones. But I have a few questions: (1) Did you guys see me? I tried to join WLUG meeting last Thu. I never got sound, but I saw some people I recognized, and a picture of myself. I was the guy with the big head. It actually looked bigger than it is, partly because of the firmware in the standard laptop camera which uses AI to zoom in and magnify any slight hint of receding hair, and partly because I was leaning back in a comfy chair with the "Lap"top on my chest. (2) Is the URL https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA still active? Does it work with Microsoft Windows? I am thinking that I could test it out by connecting to WlugMA with my Linux computer while Diane connects with her MS computer. Then we could debug by shouting across the living room. After I quit the WLUG meeting, a poked some menu buttons I had not before and discovered Multimedia ==> PulseAudio Volume Control. By turning that up, I can reliably get sound while playing a *.mp4 with vlc. I tried listening to radio stations (wicn, wbur, wgbh) and it mostly didn't work, but once or twice it did work. I really have no idea why it is sometime but not always. I did notice that when I click (what I take to be) the button to listen to streaming radio over internet it starts looking up all kinds of things I did not ask for (facebook, twitter, chartbeat). I'm wondering if I might have a DNS (named) problem. I have never set up DHCP here, I just assign a static IP address each time I get a new computer. That does not happen often enough to be worth automation. (3) Does HTML5 require DHCP to redirect or forward the data stream? (4) Is there a standard codec or is that something that must be installed to match the whim of the website? -- Keith (Wright) aka Egghead