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The Dangers of Sharing Your Screen With Co-Workers (seattletimes.com)

"if you must goof off at work, then at the very least manage your notification settings so that your alerts are muted, and aren't broadcast on the big screen when you screen share in the boardroom," warns the New York Times -- offering several examples of what can go wrong.

An anonymous reader quotes their follow-up report: Whether it's happened to you or in front of you, many of us are familiar with the screen-share disaster: the accidental exposure of something private while projecting your screen before a group of colleagues.

The only surefire way to avoid this is to do as the lawyers recommend and keep your personal things on your personal devices and your work things on you work computer. Sonia Farber, a partner and founder of , acknowledges that may not be feasible for everyone. "But, to the extent that you can keep some separation of church and state, you should make every effort to do that," she said.

The Times offers a checklist for "how not to ruin your life (or just die of embarrassment) with a screen share" -- offering common-sense tips like managing desktop notifications and signing out of messaging apps before meetings. (And of course, not leaving open any tell-tale browser tabs.) But have Slashdot's readers seen (or experienced) any screen-sharing disasters in their own lives?

Share your stories in the comments. What are the dangers of sharing your screen with co-workers?

132 comments

  1. VM by Chas · · Score: 3, Informative

    If I have to screen-share, I have a VM for that.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:VM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grinr isn't screen-sharing, that's not what they're talking about. You're disgusting.

    2. Re:VM by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I have to screen-share, I have a VM for that.

      Sounds like you're doing your best to make your job as difficult as possible. What's wrong with using the flexibility of the tools at your disposal. There's no reason to share screens when modern conferencing programs let you share individual windows or secondary desktops.

    3. Re:VM by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sounds like you're doing your best to make your job as difficult as possible. What's wrong with using the flexibility of the tools at your disposal. There's no reason to share screens when modern conferencing programs let you share individual windows or secondary desktops.

      Conferencing programs might, but projectors generally don't have the option.

      Instead, what one properly does is set the projector as an extended desktop screen. The laptop screen is the main display, the projector the secondary display. If you need to show something on there, you move the window over to the secondary display. Slideshows are easy - every presentation package I've seen has the ability to use a secondary screen for the slide while leaving the application in full view on the primary screen, so you can muck about on your computer while giving your presentation (it's also used to display slide notes to the presenter).

      Only amateurs set the projector to mirror the main display. (It also helps to have laptops with non-HDTV resolutions, so if you don't want everything resized awfully on unplugging the projector, you quickly learn to use the secondary display function.)

    4. Re:VM by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      What one properly does is segregate the personal and working information onto separate machines.

    5. Re:VM by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

      100% Agreed - this is exactly how I handle the issue.

    6. Re:VM by Chas · · Score: 2

      Primarily because there ARE so many tools for modern conferencing.
      And I work with a myriad of clients. All with their own favorites.

      If I'm working on Windows, I'm NOT junking up my primary-use OS with all that crap.
      If I'm working under Linux, much of it won't install. And my issues with junking a primary-use OS.

      As such, I have a sacrificial VM for all that.
      If it blows up on me I lose nothing.
      I simply clone the clean base image and spin up again.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
  2. Streamers deal with this by Edward+Nardella · · Score: 2

    There are numerous instances of streamers exposing things unintentionally, r/livestreamfails if you wanna see. Just have two accounts on your PC. Or if you're paranoid, 2 OS installations.

    --
    My sig doesn't address Anons, sigs aren't visible to them.
    1. Re:Streamers deal with this by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Funny

      I find it much simpler to have a double personality. If something happens, just blame the other guy.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Streamers deal with this by bondsbw · · Score: 2

      Or just a second display. Share that screen, not the main display (where your notifications pop).

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  3. The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.com? by apparently · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Solid job by the submitter and editor on this one. A++.

  4. Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by Nova+Express · · Score: 1
    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

    1. Re: Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, thet guy literally got away with straight up child porn, totally unscathed. At this point they are just mocking us

    2. Re:Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by ls671 · · Score: 2

      Haha, a few decades ago, while in a school lab with Sun workstations, we could wait until the teacher was looking at a student screen and popup a porn site on the screen.

      It would basically go like this:

      1) open shell
      2) export DISPLAY=(ip of the target)
      3) $ netscape http://pornsite.com/
      4) hit control-C to make the browser window disappear. For the teacher, it looked like the target student had raised the window by mistake then, minimized or killed the window by himself.

      Funny thing is that even the teacher didn't have a clue. I guess the systems were pretty open back then. Also, each work station had a big sticker with its IP on it!

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    3. Re: Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine all the cartoon characters scarred for life.

    4. Re:Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by Kyr+Arvin · · Score: 1

      Funny thing is that even the teacher didn't have a clue. I guess the systems were pretty open back then.

      Back then, yes. :-) Every Linux distro I know of now has had 'xhost -' as part of its startup. If you can set your DISPLAY to an IP and its X server accepts that, well you have just as much access to everything, including devices, as a regular user does. You can watch their screen, keylog, etcetc.

    5. Re:Kurt Eichenwald is the classic example by ls671 · · Score: 1

      True enough, I run my browser under a different username locally and I have to do xhost +SI:localuser:<username> so my browser user can access the X display on the same machine.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  5. Many other ways by bahwi · · Score: 1

    If you're giving a presentation, you can turn wifi mode off. Or use a separate account (Win + Linux both allow this, I'm sure Mac does too).

    Lots of ways other than total segregation, which isn't a bad idea but is really not practical.

    1. Re:Many other ways by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Try actually doing this before you recommend it. Many shared screen tools are based on a network connection, not a video cable plugged into the laptop.

    2. Re:Many other ways by bahwi · · Score: 1

      "If you're giving a presentation"

      Usually a video cable....

    3. Re:Many other ways by denbesten · · Score: 1

      "If you're giving a presentation"

      Usually a video cable....

      Miracast is becoming pretty popular for presentations it is directly built into about half of our conference room monitors, allowing the presenter to be anywhere in the room untethered by a cable.

    4. Re: Many other ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "total segregation, which isn't a bad idea"

      nocontext

    5. Re:Many other ways by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      That setup would not include telecommuters. Many people use tools like Webex for just such presentations.

    6. Re:Many other ways by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      At least on Windows, a Miracast display looks just like a wired display to the rest of the system. PowerPoint automatically puts you into the mode where Windows 10 notifications are silenced, but a lot of other applications have their own ad-hoc notification mechanisms (Thunderbird, I'm looking at you!) and don't respect the silence command.

      At work, you can often see a few meeting rooms' Miracast targets from one room. This isn't a problem except in one room that you would expect to support Miracast, but doesn't, and is right next to the lab director's office - it's very easy to accidentally project onto his wall display and wonder why nothing is showing up in the room that you're in...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    7. Re:Many other ways by Oligonicella · · Score: 2

      Total segregation is easy. Simply don't do personal things on a work-connected device.

  6. Solved problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My MacBook turns on do not disturb automatically when I connect to a TV or Projector. I thought this problem was solved 5 years ago.

    1. Re: Solved problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, but it doesn't change your background picture away from your My Little Pony porn, or hide your bookmarks for Gay Anal Shenanigans Forums."

    2. Re: Solved problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that you buttluver261?

    3. Re: Solved problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would I want to hide my bookmarks for "Gay Anal Shenanigans Forums"?

  7. Times have Changed by nukenerd · · Score: 2, Informative

    There was a time, when knights were bold and engineers were men (I mean there were no women engineers), that some presentations would be spiced with pictures of naked young ladies thrown in here and there. Kept people awake. No naked selfies of the presenter though (which is perhaps what TFA is about) or anything else for the gays, thank God.

    1. Re:Times have Changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those were the days! Now everything sucks.

    2. Re:Times have Changed by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I had a co-worker who would throw those in to keep people attentive and paying attention to his presentation, so they wouldn't miss the next easter egg to show up. They weren't necessarily naked pictures; most of them were humorous and did well to keep people from falling asleep or (these days) doing something else on their phone.

    3. Re:Times have Changed by Sique · · Score: 1

      When should that have been? The second wife of my grandfather was an engineer. And my grandfather died more than 20 years ago.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    4. Re:Times have Changed by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Never in 35+ years working have I seen that.

    5. Re:Times have Changed by Bigbutt · · Score: 1

      Shoot, it was like that when I went through Marine Corps boot camp back in ‘74.

      [John]

      --
      Shit better not happen!
    6. Re:Times have Changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, maybe. Try 40 or 45 years though. Even in lectures at the university once in a blue moon, usually by a very popular speaker.

    7. Re:Times have Changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shoot, it was like that when I went through Marine Corps boot camp back in ‘74.

      [John]

      Are they still doing it today, because it would tend to explain a lot when it comes to male Marine behavior towards women.

      Sadly, that statement is based in fact.

  8. Embarrasing as it gets by turbidostato · · Score: 5, Funny

    I once saw an uber-boss who, unadevertly let us see a black window with letters.

    It ended up being a vim session from some code she was debugging.

    Imagine the tremendous embarrassment: a boss doing something useful!

    1. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      You should have yelled at her for it.

    2. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She was 'debugging' with an editor...I believe it was an actual woman.

    3. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Surely the greater shame is using Vim when EMACS is far superior.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Funny

      Jesus AmiMojo, it's bad enough you come to Slashdot and argue women and black people are people too, but to start a vi vs emacs flamewar? Do you not care about karma at all?!

      (I agree though, Emacs is the best)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    5. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are plenty of female devs at the university where i work. Its only uncommon in places where their co-workers attitudes would make them feel unwelcome. Its not hard for good devs to get another job if they want to.

    6. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      :q!

    7. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nano you freaking nerds. Use nano.

    8. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What OSes can you host under nano?

    9. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      Debugging? She probably didn't know how to exit.

    10. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, I prefer pico de gallo rather than than nano as the tomato chunks are too big in nano.

    11. Re:Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      you can exit vim? How?

    12. Re: Embarrasing as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lots of assumptions in your statement - like that the reason ladies do not like companies is: basterds colleagues there or that that devs working at university that you work too are good or predominantly good. The statement about good devs getting job at will is also false - while being good at something offers an advantage there is no sure way to determine goodness of a particular candidate other than watching them work for a sufficient amount of time. HR etc use proxies like opinions from previous workplace or tests. None of the methods is certain to give give you a perfect match and all have false positives and false negatives which means good developer or not you are never certain to get a job other than you fit into normally secondary criteria like gender or friendship with the boss of HR person. Ladies on average do like people more than machines (including code) and do not like to work overtime - which means their preferred way of working suits the university atmosphere. I am sure however that when quota everywhere are voted into a law we will see some interesting things happening. Hey but I am a privileged white old man so what do I know.

  9. Dumb question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are the dangers of sharing your screen with co-workers?

    The dangers are very obvious. Also, put tape over the camera on your laptop - some video conferencing apps will enable your camera without asking if you had it disabled.

    1. Re:Dumb question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you have a video camera on your laptop?

      Why would you install software capable of sending images of your screen to remote entities?

    2. Re: Dumb question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most good-specced laptops have one.

      Why would you have software able to do it? Pretty sure Windows and Mac have that shit built in, so any PC that had a use case excluding Linux has it built in.

    3. Re:Dumb question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm currently experiencing (whince whince, erratic head movements) exactly such a thing in my company.
      I've never seen such a tragic try at making a collaboration app as Microsoft Teams. It feels like the worst Lotus Notes/Domino implementation minus all the functionality that Notes had as a client. I know it was big and sluggish but at least it _did_ a lot. Behold my feedback session with one of the implementing IT guys...
      IT guy - Yes, but all the programs are modular and only opened if needed!
      Me - OK, I like the idea of that. Unix does that too you know, 1 program that excels (haha) at a specific task.
      IT guy - Exactly! You get it.
      Me - But why do I have to wait 15-20 seconds (Core i5, 16GB RAM, SSD laptop) for a program to open a file on our internal sharepoint server? Is it because of the mfa taking a long time to connect to Azure, or to check all the file permissions and restrictions and coming back or is it because it's loading the O365 web program within the Teams app?
      Because opening the file in my locally installed application takes about 3 seconds.
      IT guy - ...
      IT guy - But it has conferencing and collaboration!
      Me - You mean a conferencing app that turns your mic off but your webcam on by default? Who thought that was a great idea? Good thing I have a physical slider on my webcam so even if it's turned on you won't see squat. Oh and it doesn't work well with screen sharing and dual monitor setups. But who has those these days, right?
      IT guy - Clearly you are just looking for flaws!
      Me - I guess so, or maybe I've seen this same sort of thing done right 20 years ago and you're making mistakes novice Notes/Domino admins were making back then. And those who don't learn from history are bound to make the same mistakes. Q.E.D.

    4. Re:Dumb question by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      This may not help with the other bits of Teams, but SharePoint shares (including the files tab in Teams) can also be used as a OneDrive for Business share. If you hit the 'Sync' button in the SharePoint share, it will sync the entire share in the same way that OneDrive does (things are loaded lazily, but then they're local and they're sync'd in the background). This also works directly from Office, so files open as fast as if they were local, but you get all of the collaborative editing stuff via the desktop version of Office.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  10. www.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had a boss who used to sit with us until the VP wanted him in the office next to him, 100ft from us. It was pretty clear he was slacking off, camped out down there. The boss plugged in his laptop for a presentation, and started typing www. The browser's first address and presumably first choice based on his activity was www.reddit.com.

    Another time I was working with a Mac laptop and preparing a presentation for 200+ people to see. What I didn't know is bloody Macs will autoplay whatever video is open/paused. Kind of ruined a positive surprise.

  11. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Seattle Times subscribes to - and republishes - stories from the New York Times (and other places) - that's what happened here. I regularly see gardening stories in the Seattle Times which are completely worthless because they're actually written by someone living in a completely different east coast climate zone. Oh, and last fall they had a headline story about a huge (but harmless) spider invading houses and scaring people... a spider which only lives on the US east coast.

    I understand why they purchase stories from elsewhere, but before publishing they should at least vet whether the stories make any sense for the Puget Sound audience...

    Anyway, back on topic: I read about four paragraphs of the linked story - you shouldn't bother. It's drivel written by someone pretending to be a writer - it would be a better fit as a Facebook post or in a supermarket magazine targeting women.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  12. lowest common demonimator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know, anyone who needs to have this explained to him, much less have an entire "report" with "examples of what can go wrong"....? Yeah that person should probably pack up his/her desk and go sell pencils on the freeway offramp with a cardboard sign that says "ANYTHING HELPS".

    LOL@vword: brainy

  13. seperate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Back when I was able to work, I was even very reluctant to give my employer my phone number! If they wanted me to use a phone or computer at work, the employer provided it, and I didn't use it for anything but work. Employer-owned devices stayed at work. My personal devices are just that: Personal. That means not to be used during work hours or for anything work-related. I did take my cell phone to work, in case of a breakdown on the highway (I lived 20 miles away from work). It was turned off during work hours.

  14. biggest error while screen sharing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1) tabs for xhamster and pornhub with a search showing your girldfriend's youngest daughter's name
    2) actual results for #1
    3) screen sharing with video enabled when your boyfriend walks in naked and starts compaining about the stretching you cause.
    4) screen sharing with your Tinder date when your GRINDR date for later today messages you.

  15. Solved Problem by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    We have an in-house messaging system that allows you to select any online and logged in employee and either share your screen with them or request to view their screen. ( Remote control of screen is also possible if you specifically allow it once a screen share is established. ) This is damned handy for walking a co-worker though a procedure.

    Instead of an all or nothing approach, you can choose what you want to share.

    Entire desktop or just specific windows / applications. Example: Of the bazillion windows up on my screen(s), I only want to share the spreadsheet.
    Result: They only see the spreadsheet, nothing else. Any window that pops up or overlays the spreadsheet is blanked out / empty on their end.

    It is far safer to choose the latter over the former in the event a message comes in, or email previews pop up on screen and whatnot.

  16. separation of church and state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No such thing. This is a myth perpetuating by libtards who ignore the inconvenient truth that the foundation of this country is CHRISTIAN. If you are not christian, you live here by our grace and nothing more.

    1. Re:separation of church and state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the Constitution.

    2. Re:separation of church and state by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the foundation of this country is CHRISTIAN

      “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” -John Adams

      "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. ... But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding...." -Thomas Jeffersion

  17. That happened to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Big, meeting with all our departments. Had to show something on the web, forgot I was looking at NSFW stuff an hour before and BAM! There it was, projected on the conference wall.

    Next thing you know, I receive dozens of emails every day asking me what the best sites are for furry, mlp and futanari porn... It's really annoying!

    Well, here's one with all of that: e621.net (NSFW, obviously)

  18. Shared all day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had a coworker forget to turn off screenshare after a client status call.

    She shared her entire workday. ...and guess what? She fucked around the whole day shopping, writing nasty personal emails and instant messaging.

  19. Reply all by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    to email is another horrible mistake just waiting to happen.

    Seen that a few times. Makes me shudder.

    1. Re:Reply all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A simple change which would massively reduce accidental 'reply all' - just move the 'reply all' button further to the right so it's not next to 'reply'.

      Too obvious?

  20. You gotta ask yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the CEO ain't down with big anime tiddies, do you really want to work for such a company?

  21. This is /. by ChoGGi · · Score: 1

    If your background isn't goatse then you're doing it wrong.

  22. Seen at a corporate session on content protection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A guy was going to give a talk about content protection in front of a very large audience of a big telco.
    He slips his thumb drive to get access to the slides (was 15 years ago), and everyone gets to see that "spiderman divx" folder on the big screen. He just said " weeeel, I'm not the only user of that drive" and started the bullshit.

  23. Personal messages among co-workers... by Lorens · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was giving a presentation to higher-ups AND to senior people we were the clients of. My big mistake was setting up the projector before setting up the presentation. The link to the presentation was in my mail, but when I went to get it, a colleague had just sent me a mail with a funny/sexy picture which got displayed on the big screen X-{

    Nobody said anything, but I think everybody saw it.

    Moral: set up your presentation *before* you connect to the projector (and shut off your mail etc. when you project, of course). Also keep NSFW in your personal accounts, because hey, that's the definition of NSFW.

    1. Re:Personal messages among co-workers... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      I thought it meant "Not Safe For Wife"!
      We need more acronyms!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Personal messages among co-workers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also a good idea: turn off that stupid preview pane in Outlook.

    3. Re:Personal messages among co-workers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wife + Work = Worf

  24. No sympathy by Livius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Employers treat employees pretty badly, but is it really asking so much to expect people to behave like professionals while at the workplace?

    1. Re:No sympathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100% of the time you're at work, all 2000 hours every year? Yes that is too much to expect.

    2. Re:No sympathy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is not asking too much, but apparently enough people don't act professionally so you'd have to fire 75% of the staff and wouldn't be able to operate business anymore... :(

  25. Easy answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just have no sense of shame

  26. Waste of time by emzee · · Score: 1

    I can't believe I turned off my ad blocker for that piece of crap article.

    1. Re:Waste of time by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Don't turn off adblock, silly rabbit! Turn off style sheets. Content will display. They have to for accessibility. ;)

      On Firefox that is: View->Page Style->No Style

  27. Kurt Eichenwald by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    One obvious recent example is Kurt Eichenwald, who posted a screenshot of a flyer that he claims was anti-semitic. One of the tabs open in the background was for tentacle porn.

    Eichenwald was doing some pretty sketchy things and pissed off a fair number of people. This ensured that the tentacle-porn thing got strewn across the internet far and wide, to the gleeful delight of everyone who hated him.

    1. Re:Kurt Eichenwald by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      What's amazing is he claimed that "he couldn't find tentacle porn". Either he's the world's worst journalist who can't use Google (which will list all kinds of it, if you Google for Tentacle Porn) or he's flat out lying. Either way, he's killed what little credibility he had as a journalist (incompetent or lying about a story).

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re:Kurt Eichenwald by mentil · · Score: 1

      He might not know how to disable safesearch. In related news, he has to ask children to open bottles of pills for him, too.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  28. Yeah, well. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, well.

    Next post : The dangers of sharing your spouse with "Co-Workers".

  29. Extend Desktop by denbesten · · Score: 3, Informative

    Try out "Extend Desktop" instead of "Clone Displays". In addition to generally keeping popups from presenting, it gives the presenter a screen for non-presentable activities, such as taking notes or doing some quick research.

    1. Re:Extend Desktop by Lorens · · Score: 4, Informative

      And your typical presenting programs should recognize that and use your laptop screen for showing a big timer, the slide notes, and a miniature of the next slide up. PowerPoint Advanced Skill.

    2. Re:Extend Desktop by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      AFAIK, Keynote already does that.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  30. Interview scheduling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guy on my team shared his screen with me one time - first thing I saw was his Outlook, and the top 3 or 4 messages were from various different headhunters confirming interview times with other companies.

    I'm his manager.

    1. Re: Interview scheduling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd want you to see that, if you were my manager too.

    2. Re:Interview scheduling by PPH · · Score: 1

      Are you certain those were real? Perhaps he was angling for a raise/promotion.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  31. Good story by Kludge · · Score: 5, Funny

    A coworker of mine was hosting a presentation on his laptop, but left on his Outlook notifications. Every time he received an email, a bubble would pop up over the right lower corner of the presentation for a few seconds with the subject of the incoming email. People's eyes are naturally drawn to things like that, so I knew everyone was reading his email subject lines, just as I was.
    I took out my mobile device and sent my coworker an email with the subject line, "Dave, you should turn off your Outlook notifications so ppl do not read them."
    I got big laughs.

    1. Re:Good story by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      Who cares if people can see your Outlook notifications, unless you're getting personal emails on your work account, which would be stupid.

    2. Re:Good story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is amusing how very knowledgeable people with programming or very knowledgeable roles at computer companies do nothing to clean up distracting background notifications at all. Because, interestingly enough, Android 7+ (and maybe 5 or 6), Windows 10 (not sure if 8) and MacOS have implemented Do not disturb modes that let you filter notifications. On Android you can even block sensitive details from showing on your lock screen beyond the name of the application or even mute an app from showing there altogether.

      But back to a screenshare for demos, folks will have a presentation and get the a few email, Skype for Business and Slack notifications as well as random distractions, reminders and other noises that could be prevented by just shutting off a few programs that have nothing to do with the presentation at all :)
      Especially true if they have left themselves signed on without setting themselves appropriately as away on the chat program and someone starts pinging them repeatedly. You know the kind: periodic one-line pings providing more details, separated enough to be very annoying when they could have been a single discreet summary. And these senders don't take the hint that you're AFK or not available.

      There should be some presentation etiquette, because a workstation is for lots more than straight documents and code these days, so there is quite a bit of amusing "oops" material out there to see, even if not necessarily embarrassing.

  32. A memorable screenshare incident by Roger+Wilcox · · Score: 1

    A few years back, there was a new member on my team that had very recently transitioned from a QA role elsewhere in the company to a development role on my team. This new member was very outspoken and a little naive. In my opinion he was a bit out of his depth, which is understandable given that he was in a new role. However, this new member insisted on sharing his thoughts about absolutely everything during team meetings when a more prudent course for someone so new might have been to observe the process from a more reserved position for a while.

    At one team meeting, our scrum master was sharing a workflow board from a remote location. He must have forgotten he was sharing his screen because during one of the outspoken new team member's interjections he opened up his email and starting writing a note to the boss. "I don't think XXXXX is a good fit for our team..." Everyone, including the greenhorn in question, saw him composing this message.

    Somebody spoke up and told him aloud over the conference line that we could all see what he was typing. Awkward silence. Major faux pas. I'm sure the scrum master got a stern talking to after that meeting, and I don't think he was ever able to salvage his relationship with the new developer. The new guy left the company within months.

    1. Re:A memorable screenshare incident by Oligonicella · · Score: 2

      So... mission accomplished?

  33. Got a baby doll in front of my students by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My wife shared my mail address for some time (years ago, living in a 3rd-world country, yeah, she didnâ(TM)t have a mail address). Years later I was teaching a class and had my mail casually opened in a tab. I decided to lookup something in my mail to show my students and there it was a message from a popular bidding site (MercadoLibre): YOU GOT YOUR BABY DOLL FOR 5 BUCKS!

  34. no longer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the foundation of what remains of this country is TALMUDIC RABBINICAL JUDAISM.

    You must accept this before you can do anything about it.

  35. Keyword left in google search panel during demo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Human-chimpanzee hybrid"

  36. but it's legal now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was on a video conference recently where a colleague was sharing his screen. Mid way through, he switched screens to find and pull up some supporting material. For the 2 minutes while he was talking and searching for the material, he inadvertently exposed his gmail inbox. In the middle of the screen were emails related to a delay in his online weed shipments. Canada had recently legalized marijuana, but was having a hard time keeping up with the demand for online orders, hence the delay. Did I mention that we're part of a conservative American company? The other participants in the call were furiously messaging each other, and laughing their asses off. It was a video conference, so even though they all muted their audio, they were miming everything.

    Colleague never figured it out, despite some pot references later in the call. I was crying laughing for the rest of the day.

  37. Share the application, not your monitor by Quinn_Inuit · · Score: 1

    Whenever I WebEx, I always make sure to share only the application, not everything that appears on the monitor. This occasionally slows me down switching from application to application, but I always know precisely what other people are going to be seeing on their screens.

    --

    Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
  38. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    I honestly don't think that's what happened here. Editor says, "...warns the New York Times" and then gives a link to seattletimes.com.

    It's not that difficult to understand this fuckup.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  39. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [...] Oh, and last fall they had a headline story about a huge (but harmless) spider invading houses and scaring people... a spider which only lives on the US east coast. [...]

    It was Tim Cook in a spiderman suit.

  40. Re:Seen at a corporate session on content protecti by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    That is just awesome. Hahaha, that reminds me of Bill Gates Windows '98 BSoD video for some reason. That one just never gets old =p

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  41. Tan all day. Jan all day. by TheDarkener · · Score: 1

    I remember this one time I accidentally forwarded a picture of my boss and I at Sandles, Jamaica to everybody in the company. She was sunbathing naked.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    1. Re:Tan all day. Jan all day. by dougTheRug · · Score: 1

      Did you have to quit? How did you recover the situation?

    2. Re:Tan all day. Jan all day. by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      He was the regional manager at Dunder-Mifflin in Scranton, PA so no, he wasn't punished for that or any of the other incidents that were much worse.

      --

      Enigma

    3. Re:Tan all day. Jan all day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, did I "whoosh"?

  42. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or they were linking to a NY Times story published in the Seattle Times to avoid the NY Times paywall.

    "By LINDSAY MANNERING - The New York Times"

  43. Unintentional Easter Eggs by mentil · · Score: 1

    During a college presentation, a classmate included a screenshot of their Windows desktop in one of their Powerpoint slides or whatever. The window only covered part of the screen, so there was a folder on the desktop, clearly visible, labelled 'Tranny Vids'.
    I did my own presentation and a dorm-mate kept laughing whenever I went to a new slide. I asked him later if I left behind any easter eggs, and he said "on every slide!"
    Doh.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  44. Just use 2 accounts by flajann · · Score: 1

    on your laptop. One for your Powerpoints or other business apps you want to use, and the other for your private / personal affairs. It does not have to be even separate OS account. I have many Chrome accounts, and I always create a company one for wherever I am working at. A separation of concerns. :)

  45. Matter closed by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    If it's that embarrassing, don't do it on your work computer.

    If you're a freelancer and you use your own machine, have separate user accounts for work stuff and crossdressing midget porn. That was just a hypothetical example.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  46. Workspaces by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    This problem disappears when you use Linux style Workspaces. You used to be able to use them in Win 7. Windows 10 workspaces are horrid but still do the job.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  47. Can they imagine the surprise on your face... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As your BBW wife shafts you in your ass at the swinger party that the boss and a few other executives attended and are all egging her on while doing the nasty with not their own partners? And this is a video on the giant screen at the AGM in front of all the shareholders!

    This is a complete fantasy of course.

  48. ChomeBook solution by Richard+Kirk · · Score: 1

    My personal solution (which I do not expect to fit everyone) was to get an Asus Chrome book. I had a work Mac at home, and it started going wrong. I realised I would have no internet access of my own if it went, so I looked at getting a tablet, or something. I could get a ChromeBook for £230 at the time, which was cheaper than any equivalent tablet before you added the case and the keyboard. I have been using it for my home and commuting stuff every since. No camera, so you can't accidentally broadcast pictures. Outlook works best for mail. I tend to use my Mac at home for work e-mails, and home e-mails as well, because it is on a table, and has a better keyboard and screen; and use the ChromeBook when commuting (wi-fi on the coach), or at home when I am not working.

    My original intent was not to separate work and home stuff. It happened by accident. But I like it.

  49. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

    Solid job by the submitter and editor on this one. A++.

    Or perhaps a great way to get around the NYT paywall.

  50. Pregnancy disclosure by dougTheRug · · Score: 1

    I had a boss once who accidentally disclosed her pregnancy with a Windows desktop notification that said something along the lines of "my pregnancy, week X. Now your baby is beginning to blah blah..." She had to recover the situation with a one-on-one meeting with each of us, to discuss the confidential nature of the disclosure. When she did eventually disclose to her boss the reaction was not supportive. She got screwed over by the company eventually, which was unfortunate.

  51. Friggin' der... by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    The only surefire way to avoid this is to do as the lawyers recommend and keep your personal things on your personal devices and your work things on you work computer.

    The company machine is theirs and isn't for your personal use, as so many people argue here. If you're self-employed, you're an idiot of you don't have two machines.

  52. Re:one time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you *wiped* your dick out you're not going to be fucking anyone ever again.

    Retards sometimes say the funniest things by accident.

  53. BYOD by Bigbutt · · Score: 1

    Many workplaces are moving towards bring your own devices. Right now mine gives me a couple of bucks a month to host their email on my phone and there’s discussion on doing the same for laptops/desktops.

    Personally I snagged a second phone and only host company email on it and any other company business on it (like company phone calls). But not everyone will go that far.

    Microsoft 365 is available to us without being logged into the company network. Same with WebEx and MS Teams. And even our Jira system and Service Now system.

    So I expect we might see something similar when we get to BYOD for your computer. Either buying a second work laptop or desktop or possibly having personal stuff pop up during a meeting, assuming you don’t properly sandbox the prsentation.

    [John]

    --
    Shit better not happen!
  54. I was a suit for Mobil Oil ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... a systems analyst ca. 1990. We were looking at "just-in-time-inventory," to reduce storage space for things the refinery seldom needed, and to replace that stuff with high-volume tools, fittings, and instruments.

    The Internet was new and I remember using Netscape to browse, and I was searching with Webcrawler.

    In a large conference room, I was slated to show how the Internet (1200 baud US Robotics modem) could help in gathering information.

    On the big screen, I projected the search for "just in time inventory."

    To my horror, the screen showed a woman to whom nature had been very good and she had one fishnet stocking leg on a stool and was wearing practically nothing else.

    The narrative contained yellow highlighted terms, " Just in time for Valentine's, we are fully stocked with a very large inventory of these and other naughty items sure to delight."

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  55. WebEx lets you choose what to share by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

    When sharing your screen on WebEx, it asks you to select the program to share.

  56. Containerization and VM's by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

    1) Each messaging application should be in it's own container, and or on it's own VM.
    2) You should keep multiple browsers and use containers in that browser.
    3) Make sure you always use TOR and VPN's when navigating to non-work sites.
    4) Use remote servers when possible for all non-work related material, and connect to them over TOR.
    5) Backup and Wipe your data / information before any meeting or time you need to share information.

  57. It can easily matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you are part of a "need to know" project, or you are a manager who might get an email with subject "layoff list for your department" from your boss's boss...

  58. Disasters of screen sharing by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

    Yes. Yes, I have a story. And it is the funniest thing I have seen this century;

    Permit me to share The Saga of Morgan

  59. Three examples: by linear+a · · Score: 1

    Three examples: 1 Working with corporate database team member. That person needed to look up the system password for my database and brought up their master password list for all the DBs they managed. I managed to get a screenshot of that (maybe 30 various corporate DB systems). 2 Colleague shared screen for a meeting. We ended the meeting but he didn't stop the screenshare and I switched to another window to do other stuff. Came back later and he was busy messaging on a (non-explicit) dating site. 3 Twice, a colleague closed his remote sharing software but the sharing did not stop on my end. All visible trace of the software was closed on his PC but I could still see his desktop. Called him to troubleshoot and he could find no trace on his PC that it was running except that the screenshare software windows service was still running under Task Manager.

  60. turn it all off by sad_ · · Score: 1

    yes, it's annoying as hell, popups everywhere, drives me nuts, it even worse as there are also sound notifications, so you don't only get popups with personal stuff in them, but there are pings and poofs and jingles during the whole presentation as well.

    that is the reason i turn off all those things, even if i'm not presenting i don't want to know every mail that comes in, or who comes on/offline and that they are IM'ing me etc etc.

    works very well, except for... damn patch-reboot popups :|
    now those are annoying.

    for the people who are going to point out that you can schedule those things, i can not. the company policy is very strict and once patch-reboot is required a popup will show giving you 30 minutes to save/quit all your stuff, if you pass that limit your computer will reboot automatically immediatly.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  61. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not that difficult to understand this fuckup.

    I thought it was The New York Times", because it seems both papers decided to use an entirely unreadable font for their logo.

  62. My Most Embarrassing by bird · · Score: 1

    I was giving a presentation without realizing that one of my tabs was open on Slashdot. Coworkers lost respect for me that day.