7 ms·

It feels like the tech news cycle is so predictable... Stage 1: This company you probably hadn't heard of before is blowing up / changing the world! Stage 2 (

by tqi 7y ago

It feels like the tech news cycle is so predictable... Stage 1: This company you probably hadn't heard of before is blowing up / changing the world! Stage 2 (current stage): Actually it turns out this company has some unexpected problems! Stage 3: Actually this company is actively contributing to society's One Big Problem! Stage 4: Actually here is why Zoom actually isn't as bad as everyone thinks! Stage 5: This OTHER company you probably hadn't heard of before is blowing up / changing the world!

vosper 7y ago
Facebook must be enjoying getting a few weeks off
- malandrew 7y ago
  Journalists are like locusts. They move on to the next juicy victim, but time to time return to ravage those few cash cow targets.
  - prawn 7y ago
    The journalists cover all sorts of material. We're the locusts consuming and posting the juicy bits to HN?
    - Kiro 7y ago
      Yes, HN is toxic.
      - prawn 7y ago
        HN is people. People can be toxic.
syockit 7y ago
I am out of the loop as to why Zoom is suddenly "blowing up". Even my workplace is using it now. Previously, we were using either Skype, Webex, or Jitsi. What does Zoom offer that the other three doesn't?
- malandrew 7y ago
  It just works. Never used Jitsi, but the experience is far superior to Skype and Webex.
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    Could you elaborate on this? In what way is it superior?
    - Linkd 7y ago
      From experience with many options, and having used zoom for over a year now: Video quality is better, audio quality is better, video and audio are streamed separately and during low bandwidth situations audio takes priority over video (video starts lagging but audio remains as perfect as possible), seamless to join meetings even when youre not a 'user' of their ecosystem, and has neat UX like informing you that your microphone is soft-muted when it notices you speaking, etc etc.
      - nutshell89 7y ago
        Whenever I've used Zoom from my home connection during the last few weeks, I've experienced laggy, blocky video, occasional audio dropouts (with frequent alert messages within the app to restart the Zoom client's audio), disturbingly high CPU usage, and meetings which take minutes for everyone to join. Honestly in my experience, there's no real benefit when compared with Skype, Hangouts, or Discord except for the frequently mentioned large 50 person+ video streaming.
  - distances 7y ago
    My attempts at Zoom meetings were met with distorted audio, and the organizer quickly changed to Jitsi in both cases. It worked much better for whatever reason.
- gnulinux 7y ago
  My therapist tried a whole bunch of different services with different clients. We first tried doxy.me which is a HIPAA approved tele-medical service. But the quality was HORRIBLE, it was unusable, so she asked me if I would be ok using Skype (since Skype is not encrypted) I said ok (since I need the session more than it being secure). It was fine. Then we tried Zoom next time around. I thought Zoom was better in terms of quality and "just works out of the box". Just a datapoint. Getting video streaming correct is actually pretty hard, it's part of what I'm working on for my day job, and it's a very challenging problem.
JKCalhoun 7y ago
Almost like we should vet them before we all jump aboard.
thaumaturgy 7y ago
...and the even more predictable, dismissive, contrarian response: "Look at how silly and repetitive all the critics are. They always point out problems, haha." Fortunately, we have really enlightened people among us who point that out. Every time.
Razengan 7y ago
And most of that perception of hype (positive and negative) is likely paid for.

by tqi 7y ago

vosper 7y ago

Facebook must be enjoying getting a few weeks off

malandrew 7y ago
Journalists are like locusts. They move on to the next juicy victim, but time to time return to ravage those few cash cow targets.
- prawn 7y ago
  The journalists cover all sorts of material. We're the locusts consuming and posting the juicy bits to HN?
  - Kiro 7y ago
    Yes, HN is toxic.
    - prawn 7y ago
      HN is people. People can be toxic.

syockit 7y ago

I am out of the loop as to why Zoom is suddenly "blowing up". Even my workplace is using it now. Previously, we were using either Skype, Webex, or Jitsi. What does Zoom offer that the other three doesn't?

malandrew 7y ago
It just works. Never used Jitsi, but the experience is far superior to Skype and Webex.
- pmoriarty 7y ago
  Could you elaborate on this? In what way is it superior?
  - Linkd 7y ago
    From experience with many options, and having used zoom for over a year now: Video quality is better, audio quality is better, video and audio are streamed separately and during low bandwidth situations audio takes priority over video (video starts lagging but audio remains as perfect as possible), seamless to join meetings even when youre not a 'user' of their ecosystem, and has neat UX like informing you that your microphone is soft-muted when it notices you speaking, etc etc.
    - nutshell89 7y ago
      Whenever I've used Zoom from my home connection during the last few weeks, I've experienced laggy, blocky video, occasional audio dropouts (with frequent alert messages within the app to restart the Zoom client's audio), disturbingly high CPU usage, and meetings which take minutes for everyone to join. Honestly in my experience, there's no real benefit when compared with Skype, Hangouts, or Discord except for the frequently mentioned large 50 person+ video streaming.
- distances 7y ago
  My attempts at Zoom meetings were met with distorted audio, and the organizer quickly changed to Jitsi in both cases. It worked much better for whatever reason.
gnulinux 7y ago
My therapist tried a whole bunch of different services with different clients. We first tried doxy.me which is a HIPAA approved tele-medical service. But the quality was HORRIBLE, it was unusable, so she asked me if I would be ok using Skype (since Skype is not encrypted) I said ok (since I need the session more than it being secure). It was fine. Then we tried Zoom next time around. I thought Zoom was better in terms of quality and "just works out of the box". Just a datapoint. Getting video streaming correct is actually pretty hard, it's part of what I'm working on for my day job, and it's a very challenging problem.

JKCalhoun 7y ago

Almost like we should vet them before we all jump aboard.

thaumaturgy 7y ago

...and the even more predictable, dismissive, contrarian response: "Look at how silly and repetitive all the critics are. They always point out problems, haha." Fortunately, we have really enlightened people among us who point that out. Every time.

Razengan 7y ago

And most of that perception of hype (positive and negative) is likely paid for.