Today, I learned the difference between “Pin Video” and “Spotlight Video” on Zoom. I was giving a speech at my Toastmasters club and wanted to show slides to accompany it. No problem – I shared the PowerPoint window so everyone could see it. I also had to be sure I could see the timer so I’d know when I was getting near the end of my allotted time, so I found him, selected “Spotlight Video” and started talking.

7 minutes later, I was finished; I unshared the screen and deselected “Spotlight Video” so I could see the speakers during the rest of the meeting.

When it came time for my evaluation, I was shocked to hear that my slides never advanced (so my title slide was on screen the whole time) and that the timer was the center of attention for EVERYONE!

It turns out that “Spotlight Video” is an action that only the host or owner of a Zoom meeting can use – it forces that person’s video to be nearly-full-screen for EVERYONE. What I wanted was “Pin Video”, which any attendee can use to make someone nearly-full-screen on their own screen, without affecting anyone else.

The title of my speech? “From Party Lines to Zoom: A brief history of teleconferencing”. At least I didn’t bill it as a “how to do it” talk!

The morning started with a thud – I must have enjoyed the food from La Esquina too much, because my weight was up four pounds overnight! Too much chips and salsa, probably – I’ll stay away from the leftover chips for a while and see what happens.

Diane got bad news from Apple, too – they’d looked at her old iPhone SE and set its trade-in value at zero because the camera didn’t work well. She wasn’t surprised; this was the fourth camera for this particular phone. The first one failed while we were in Amsterdam, where they couldn’t help her because it was a US phone but Apple fixed it as soon as we got home; she’d paid for two more replacements because the camera kept developing funny spots, and it was doing it again when she sent the phone away. I just hope the new iPhone SE behaves better.

I had to do some plumbing repair, but it was easier than I’d feared. One of our toilets started running yesterday – the flapper wouldn’t seal. I turned it off and let the water leak out of the tank, then took out the flapper, assuming I’d need to go to the hardware store and replace it. But I noticed it was caked with green deposits (probably copper, at least I hope so); I scraped them off and put it back, and it seems to be behaving, so I get to stay away from the hardware store a little longer – these days, I really don’t want to go somewhere for only one thing!