4 ms·

Did you read the article? "In our particular case, this means that this orange dot appears on the stage output, which is totally unacceptable for anyone using

Did you read the article? "In our particular case, this means that this orange dot appears on the stage output, which is totally unacceptable for anyone using macOS as a professional video tool that sends video output to a video projector." Imagine an orange dot appearing on top of every video billboard in Times Square.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
quadrangle 5y ago
Gosh, everyone who was about to be convinced to go buy a Big Mac will lose their appetite! /s
bryan0 5y ago
I'm sure Parent read the article, but the question is why is this a big deal? For someone not in the live visual space, it's not immediately clear that an orange dot in the corner is "totally unacceptable". > Imagine an orange dot appearing on top of every video billboard in Times Square. I don't think I would notice or care?
- dangrossman 5y ago
  > I don't think I would notice or care? Do you think none of the advertisers, or billboard owners, would notice or care? Those are the clients paying the people that read this site to create and run their live visuals. A 5 foot diameter orange dot on top of their ad is not what they signed off on. There is money at stake. Whether you care or not isn't relevant.
  - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
    As a New Yorker, I’d love to have that sort of visual feedback on the surveillance of Times Square, a public space. And whether I care is quite relevant.
    - dangrossman 5y ago
      Live visuals aren't making a recording, they're reacting to sound inputs in realtime. That's not surveillance. Times Square is already blanketed in actual surveillance unrelated to live visuals on billboards. https://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/ https://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/ https://worldcams.tv/united-states/new-york/times-square https://worldcams.tv/united-states/new-york/times-square https://www.mylivestreams.com/webcam/times-square-live-streaming-street-view/10060.html https://www.mylivestreams.com/webcam/times-square-live-strea...
      - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
        > Live visuals aren't making a recording, they're reacting to sound inputs in realtime. That's not surveillance. Potato, potato. If a billboard has a microphone attached, it's not unreasonable to put a visual tax on it. (Or the economic tax of using dedicated equipment. Nobody is running Times Square billboards off a Mac.)
- Accacin 5y ago
  It's their laptop, they are aware that something is capturing their audio input, and they don't want to be reminded of that in this particular instance. Frankly, it doesn't matter if you would notice or care.
gumby 5y ago
> Imagine an orange dot appearing on top of every video billboard in Times Square. Seems unlikely that whatever's driving the billboards in time square needs to have the mic on...and that a tiny bit of postproduction is a burden on the people making said videos.
- dangrossman 5y ago
  > Seems unlikely that whatever's driving the billboards in time square needs to have the mic on There have been many interactive billboards in Times Square. Some of them are at ground level. The article even mentions this use case: "Those applications don’t even need to be obviously using audio; live visuals often use mic or line input to produce sound-reactive animation and the like" > tiny bit of postproduction is a burden on the people making said videos. What postproduction are you referring to? The dot is added to the video output by the Mac, not added to the video file. You can't edit it out.
  - ohCh6zos 5y ago
    I think I'd love it if every billboard scooping up audio announced it was doing that.
  - gumby 5y ago
    > "Those applications don’t even need to be obviously using audio; live visuals often use mic or line input to produce sound-reactive animation and the like" Why would anyone want to suppress a warning to the user that they are being surveilled?
    - dangrossman 5y ago
      I can't make myself take this question seriously.
    - DonHopkins 5y ago
      They could simply set up surveillance cameras to watch all the people who can see any billboards with orange dots. Problem solved!
philliphaydon 5y ago
I still don't get it. 1) Who uses macOS to run a billboard?!? 2) As far as I can tell the orange dot displays in the menu bar? Does it show in the full screen app???
- jug 5y ago
  Yes, apparently it does show in full screen too. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/693969 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/693969 Removing it in full screen ought to be the easy fix for Apple. By the time you've started the app and are done fiddlign with it while setting it up for production use, it should no longer be a surprise that it's using the mic. Also, AFAIK apps don't use to autostart in full screen (might even be against design guidelines) so there should always be an opportunity to notice any spying in time.
  - philliphaydon 5y ago
    Wow I can't believe it displays on full screen content. :|
- spicybright 5y ago
  1. Have you never seen a billboard or tv screen advertisement break before? 90% of the time it's running windows, and you'll see a very zoomed in top left corner of the desktop. It's absolutely not a stretch someone has a mac mini to run these. That said, only a fool would upgrade to bleeding edge software in this usecase.
  - philliphaydon 5y ago
    I’ve never seen any billboard or electronic advertising running on anything running MacOS. The only time I can think macs were used for anything other than the creation of the content was when we used to put Mac minis into broadcasters to deliver the content to. But we put windows on them.
    - ggenoyam 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

quadrangle 5y ago

Gosh, everyone who was about to be convinced to go buy a Big Mac will lose their appetite! /s

bryan0 5y ago

I'm sure Parent read the article, but the question is why is this a big deal? For someone not in the live visual space, it's not immediately clear that an orange dot in the corner is "totally unacceptable". > Imagine an orange dot appearing on top of every video billboard in Times Square. I don't think I would notice or care?

dangrossman 5y ago
> I don't think I would notice or care? Do you think none of the advertisers, or billboard owners, would notice or care? Those are the clients paying the people that read this site to create and run their live visuals. A 5 foot diameter orange dot on top of their ad is not what they signed off on. There is money at stake. Whether you care or not isn't relevant.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  As a New Yorker, I’d love to have that sort of visual feedback on the surveillance of Times Square, a public space. And whether I care is quite relevant.
  - dangrossman 5y ago
    Live visuals aren't making a recording, they're reacting to sound inputs in realtime. That's not surveillance. Times Square is already blanketed in actual surveillance unrelated to live visuals on billboards. https://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/ https://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/ https://worldcams.tv/united-states/new-york/times-square https://worldcams.tv/united-states/new-york/times-square https://www.mylivestreams.com/webcam/times-square-live-streaming-street-view/10060.html https://www.mylivestreams.com/webcam/times-square-live-strea...
    - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
      > Live visuals aren't making a recording, they're reacting to sound inputs in realtime. That's not surveillance. Potato, potato. If a billboard has a microphone attached, it's not unreasonable to put a visual tax on it. (Or the economic tax of using dedicated equipment. Nobody is running Times Square billboards off a Mac.)
Accacin 5y ago
It's their laptop, they are aware that something is capturing their audio input, and they don't want to be reminded of that in this particular instance. Frankly, it doesn't matter if you would notice or care.

gumby 5y ago

> Imagine an orange dot appearing on top of every video billboard in Times Square. Seems unlikely that whatever's driving the billboards in time square needs to have the mic on...and that a tiny bit of postproduction is a burden on the people making said videos.

dangrossman 5y ago
> Seems unlikely that whatever's driving the billboards in time square needs to have the mic on There have been many interactive billboards in Times Square. Some of them are at ground level. The article even mentions this use case: "Those applications don’t even need to be obviously using audio; live visuals often use mic or line input to produce sound-reactive animation and the like" > tiny bit of postproduction is a burden on the people making said videos. What postproduction are you referring to? The dot is added to the video output by the Mac, not added to the video file. You can't edit it out.
- ohCh6zos 5y ago
  I think I'd love it if every billboard scooping up audio announced it was doing that.
- gumby 5y ago
  > "Those applications don’t even need to be obviously using audio; live visuals often use mic or line input to produce sound-reactive animation and the like" Why would anyone want to suppress a warning to the user that they are being surveilled?
  - dangrossman 5y ago
    I can't make myself take this question seriously.
  - DonHopkins 5y ago
    They could simply set up surveillance cameras to watch all the people who can see any billboards with orange dots. Problem solved!

philliphaydon 5y ago

I still don't get it. 1) Who uses macOS to run a billboard?!? 2) As far as I can tell the orange dot displays in the menu bar? Does it show in the full screen app???

jug 5y ago
Yes, apparently it does show in full screen too. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/693969 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/693969 Removing it in full screen ought to be the easy fix for Apple. By the time you've started the app and are done fiddlign with it while setting it up for production use, it should no longer be a surprise that it's using the mic. Also, AFAIK apps don't use to autostart in full screen (might even be against design guidelines) so there should always be an opportunity to notice any spying in time.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  Wow I can't believe it displays on full screen content. :|
spicybright 5y ago
1. Have you never seen a billboard or tv screen advertisement break before? 90% of the time it's running windows, and you'll see a very zoomed in top left corner of the desktop. It's absolutely not a stretch someone has a mac mini to run these. That said, only a fool would upgrade to bleeding edge software in this usecase.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  I’ve never seen any billboard or electronic advertising running on anything running MacOS. The only time I can think macs were used for anything other than the creation of the content was when we used to put Mac minis into broadcasters to deliver the content to. But we put windows on them.
  - ggenoyam 5y ago