At Home with Tech

It’s not as complicated as it looks. Tech tips for your life.

Category: Work and Career

February 18, 2024

Best Way to Quickly Reset your Zoom Shot after You’ve been Kicked out of your Home Office

Here’s a trick that can help you instantly relocate your laptop to another Zoom-friendly location at home when you’ve been unexpectedly banished from your usual room.

By now, we’ve all identified our preferred Zoom meeting locations at home where you can stream yourself to your world. Beyond finding a quiet space that’s not in the middle of your family’s normal traffic patterns, there are other factors that can make a particular corner Zoom/Teams/Google Meet-friendly.

For me, being close to natural light near a window is important. That’s an easy way to properly illuminate your face. That said, it’s not too hard to power up a small battery-powered LED light or a ring light.

Setting up in front of a relatively organized and clutter-free background is always a best practice to demonstrate some visual order and professional look in your shot. You probably don’t want to show off an unmade bed with unfolded towels and underwear fresh from the dryer heaped on top. (Of course, simply use a virtual background for an easy fix.)

The Most Important Detail in a Good Zoom Shot
Fundamentally, the one detail to nail when generating a flattering Zoom shot is to simply position your laptop where its webcam is at the same level as your eyes.

Your webcam should point horizontally to your eyes. It shouldn’t be focused up your nose towards the ceiling. (This unflattering angle is what you’d normally get if you’re sitting at your desk with your laptop). So, you need to somehow elevate your laptop.

One way to MacGyver that is to stack a few hard-cover books and then carefully place your laptop on top.

Always Have a Backup Plan
Angles. Books. Windows. Backgrounds. Who knew we’d be simulating TV live shots from home a few years back? But we’ve adapted.

The only problem is life invariably happens, and you may suddenly find yourself temporarily displaced from your normal Zoom set up. Then you’ve got to wing it and quickly find a flat surface somewhere else in your home to move your laptop for your next Teams meeting in three minutes.

And that can be harder to find than you may think, considering your family’s needs competing for the same spaces. (The inherent challenges of multiple concurrent remote meetings.)

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just magically plop your laptop wherever you wanted, even if there’s nowhere to put it?
A portable floor laptop stand can do exactly that for you.

Portable Laptop Stand
It’s effectively an articulating standing tray that you can grab with one hand as you escape into another room with your laptop. Think of it as a tripod for your webcam and simultaneously a portable standing desk for your laptop.

Laptop stands are usually designed for presentations on stage or video/media production work, but why can’t you have the same access to this solution for home use?

Another superpower for this kind of stand is it will bring your laptop back to eye level wherever you go, because you can easily adjust its height. No more need to stack books.

And you can fold it up when you’re done.

Time to Choose
Buying one is simple. There are numerous choices online in the $40-$50 range. Some are more expensive, but I don’t think it needs it to be built like a tank to withstand abuse. I know I’ll treat it well at home. I just want it to be steady and not fall over. (That would be bad.)

Amazon has a variety of choices. Here are three options:

I bought the Amazon Basics model, not because the Amazon Basics brand screams ‘best quality,’ but because it’s the tallest. So, when I choose to use it while standing, that would be best for my height.
And it works just fine. In fact, it’s plenty beefy at over 10lbs. You can use it for your laptop, portable projector or any other piece of tech that needs a pop-up surface.

The Importance of Maintaining Visual Communication
Of course, you could always choose another path that sidesteps this entire challenge. Just don’t turn on your webcam. I know many folks follow this practice.

But I’ve said it before… If you want to stay connected to your world from the comfort of your home, you’ve got to show up for your close up.

Always keep your webcam on.

And a portable laptop stand can help make that all the easier no matter which room you’ve been banished to!

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January 28, 2024

How to Hack into Lost Memories during Photo Archiving

If you want to retrieve lost details in some of your memories, here’s a technique I used with photos from my days in Massachusetts that can help fill the gaps in your own history.

Maybe you’re fortunate enough to have an amazing knack for remembering all the details from your life. Names, places and all the people spanning back decades. Me… well, not exactly.

Sure, I’ve retained the important headlines, but there are a variety of supporting details that I may not often think about (especially from years past) that can be a problem.

It can happen when I look at an old photo and can’t remember a name. A former friend…an old work colleague.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so bothered by this data loss in my head, especially if these people are not part of my life anymore. But I can’t let it go. If they were important to me then, they’re worth remembering… any time I want.

But it can feel maddening when you struggle to pull a name from the distant reaches of your mind.

Fortunately, I’ve found something of a cure for this problem.

The Ongoing Challenge
As you may recall, I’ve been organizing and digitizing my father’s photo collection since I took ownership of it after he passed away over a year ago. And that collection also includes my mother’s old photos and my grandparents’ photos.

It’s not like I had never seen and digitized some of these pictures before, but the totality of it is an overwhelming process. As far as I can tell, multiple generations before me never accomplished this goal and left behind a mostly disorganized mess of photos. (Apologies to my ancestors if this is incorrect.)

All that I can do now is slowly do the work. Reconstructing some of the details is necessarily imperfect, but I’m making progress.

My Own Story
I also have my parents’ photo albums from when I was a child. So, I’m digitizing some of those pictures too to fill out the visual story from my early years.

No, I don’t recall all the details from those photos either. Hey… I was a kid. I remember enough.

The Boxes in the Back of my Closet
But I can’t blame my family for all my missing photographic metadata. I must own part of the problem…

I had photos stashed in boxes from my early adult years that I never digitized. Yep. I neglected them just like I said you shouldn’t.

So, I finally decided to properly integrate some into my digital photo archive, and guess what… I waited too long. I couldn’t remember all the names.

These well-preserved photos date back to when I lived up in Massachusetts (when the winters were still wicked cold).

My Massachusetts Days
Yes, I’m a born-and-bred New Yorker. I returned to my home orbit two decades back. But before that, I spent a chunk of my life orbiting Boston. That early New England chapter of my life is mostly a distant memory that barely connects to my life today. So maybe it’s no surprise that I couldn’t remember some details.

But it made me sad. There were so many people… work colleagues and friends who filled my younger life with fun and adventure. And I lost touch with so many. Maybe there’s still a way to repair some of that. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Are Memories Lost Forever?
It was a harsh realization when I first faced the gaps in my memory as I looked at the imagery from my Massachusetts days. What’s gone is gone (or so I thought). I felt I had no choice but to soldier on as best I could.

But then something crazy happened during one weekend.

Magic Memory Repair through Photo Cues
As I kept looking at certain photos repeatedly, I could vaguely sense the names bouncing about in my head. I just couldn’t access them. I tried to concentrate, but nothing came.

So, I had to let it go. And that’s when my mind’s magic-memory-repair-process began.

Later in the day… or the next, a missing name would just pop into my head randomly. I wasn’t thinking about it… it just happened. And this sudden recall occurred over and over, until I realized it was part of a pattern.

I had tapped into some type of memory reconstruction that was clearly juiced by the visual cues of the photos. And my mind continued to subconsciously process the challenge in the background, even after I had stopped thinking about it.

Over the next few days, most of the names flowed back like a gentle stream filling up a warm pond.

Problem solved.

Time to Hack into your Brain
Your actual mileage may vary by using this memory-enhancing technique. But what have you got to lose?

So, go find that box of old photos in the back of your closet and get to work!

The mind is amazing.

Why Reconstruct the Details from your Past?
Beyond the factors of your own memory, the truth is the past is never entirely behind you. It’s never really gone. Your experiences and former relationships live with you every day. These memories help guide you and are a part you… always.

Everything from your past ultimately contributes to who you are today. So, I say it’s always best to remember as many details as possible.

And the visual cues from a well-curated digital photo collection can help you to do exactly that!

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January 21, 2024

Why It’s Time to Refresh your Digital Clones 

Have you updated your personal online brand lately? It’s also probably time to replace your photos that the world can see. Here’s why.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” This quote from the fictional Ferris in the 1986 movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was spot on. And it applies in so many ways today.

It’s hard enough keeping up. It’s easy to forget or neglect your virtual self. Yes, like it or not, we’ve all created multiple online beacons that represent our lives.

Unless you’re focusing enough time to curate your online presence and stay active on social media, your virtual identity can easily start to fall behind your actual existence.

This divergence of realities can create a time warp of sorts where you will start to simultaneously exist in two separate decades.

Pro tip: Everyone should follow one timeline.

Do You Exist?
It’s always important to keep your personal online brand fresh and accurate. That’s healthy in any number of ways.

I’ve said it before that you really don’t exist if you can’t be found online.

  • Your professional self must have a strong and updated LinkedIn presence.
  • Your personal self should engage in some social media activity, if only to avoid missing out on everything your family and friends are regularly sharing.

Today, we’re all effectively micro media outlets, broadcasting our lives out to the world. It’s unavoidable. Sure, you can debate that statement, if you want. (I’m sure there were people in 1920 who insisted that they didn’t need a landline telephone.)

Even if you don’t feel you have a specific need to update your online identity today, it’s always out there working for you. So, you should keep it current.

Post a Recent Photo of Yourself
Have you updated your LinkedIn photo lately? Has it been more than five years? Maybe a decade? Perhaps… never?

Yes, then it’s definitely time to change it out. Look we’re all getting older, and we do look different. That’s not a bad thing. It’s reality. It’s life.

Embrace your reality. It’s all you have.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t maximize your reality. So, use a new great photo you love. (It doesn’t have to be professionally shot.)

And I suggest you pick a photo of yourself that’s warm and welcoming. It’s effectively your greeting card to the world.

Smile!
I’ve occasionally come across LinkedIn profile pics without smiles, and I’m always confused by that choice. Why would someone actually want to look unfriendly?

Other times, I see photos that are poorly lit or badly framed. Then, there’s the example where the person is clearly part of a group pic (awkwardly cropped in).

I don’t want to be judgmental, but I don’t get it. We all have smartphones with cameras. If someone isn’t around to snap a new photo for you, a selfie can work just fine. (Just make sure you stand in front of a window to ensure you’re brightly lit.)

Time to Update your Digital Clones
I get it. You’re busy. We’re all busy. You might feel it’s not critical today how people ‘experience’ you online.

But I would say you can’t wait until the day it’s suddenly important again. Then, it’s too late. You can never really know the true impact of actively maintaining your personal brand online across the years.

I believe it’s always beneficial to promote your own story. And to check out how well you’re doing, simply Google yourself.

No, this digital snapshot of your life will never be perfect. You can’t create total digital clones (well, not yet),

But it is a partial view of the real you.

So, give your online personal brand what it needs to best represent you.
Today… and always.

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