Please wait...
How about a cheap bed sheet? They shouldn't be looking at the background.
Don't have a way to hang one up? Build it from a few pieces of PVC pipe.
I *could* turn this room into a studio, but I'd have to remove the bed, and if I removed the bed, the problem would go away by itself. Or I could make Aahz happy and just do chroma key and replace the background to make it look like a fully appointed S&M dungeon, might as well not do anything halfway...
The real objective is to create a video image that does *not* give away the fact that I am at home. I have permission to be here but I can't advertise the fact.
You Might Need a Permit to Work From Home,
https://lifehacker.com/you-might-need-a-permit-to-work-from-home-1825154941
Gads... a home occupation permit... I didn't consider anything of the sort when I worked from home at my last job.
The address printed on my business card is a real office where I have a real desk.
Doesn't matter. I spent Friday at the office, and as usual, sat at my old desk with the south facing window. Yay sunlight.
Get a piece of drywall and hand it up behind you? A large piece of poster board?
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/334961/Office-Depot-Brand-Sturdy-Board-Foam/
Hang this from the ceiling using two hooks and some string, use it when you need to .
The more I think about it, the more I like that idea. I can just hang it on hooks behind me and easily stow it away when it isn't in use. Or if I really want to be ghetto I can attach another set of strings to the bottom and two more hooks in the back of the room, and haul the whole thing up to the ceiling when I'm done with it. (I think this way because I spent years around boats, and was a member of the Boy Scouts as a child, and am now a member of the Girl Scouts as an adult.) Now to pick a color to paint it -- probably some sort of drab grey or boring beige.
Today I am at a real desk in a real office, so I'll have to make sure I turn my camera on for a few calls today.
And I just caught myself saying "oh, my instant messenger was turned off, no wonder I was having such a good morning"
I'm looking at PM software again today.. I can't keep it all in my head anymore.
Today will be the third day I haven't had VPN access to our machines in the other office (the one we were forced to leave for the presumably cheaper offices across the state, but close to where I live).
Which means another day of pondering what the fuck I can do to advance anything, when the code I last worked on (about three day's worth of effort) is waiting for me in a machine I can't access, due to a problem nobody has figured out (or at least the problem hasn't been communicated to me).
I am *very* *tempted* to give up on that VPN, build several machines in AWS, and basically set up our build environment there. The problem is, it would cost more, that cost would be pinned on us, and the idea might backfire into lost jobs or something... although they've squeezed us so tight, I don't know who we could lose now and remain functional. Maybe another manager. At the very least, we wouldn't be able to hire another developer, and we're starting to see enough customers that lacking a developer will become a serious issue.
So, yeah, tempting, but I dunno if it's a good idea in the long run.
I wonder if there's a way to circumvent NAT and local security by establishing outbound connections in this office to a server in AWS, then connect to the AWS server to reach the machines in this office. I have enough hardware, I could set up a build environment here. I have just enough bailing wire and duct tape...
Seems a bit silly, though, to install a desktop viewer to provide a graphical interface to what is ultimately going to be a terminal interfce.
Although, it would help me do the Windows dev stuff. Can't use a terminal interface for that.