Virtual Drinking Skeptically

Our surprise guest from last week’s video chat.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:23:28 -0500

Our surprise guest from last week’s video chat.

What're YOU doing this Friday!? - Feb 3rd, 10pm EST

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:11:09 -0500

Friday evening. This Friday evening. Yeah, the 3rd of February. Well, It’ll be evening on the east coast of the United States. Well, actually most of the US will technically be “evening” at this time. Anyway, We’re having a super-cool-awesome-hangout-thing. And if you’d like to join us, it will be, fun. (Is “hangout” owned by Google now?)

Anyway, there’s a video chat this Friday. Nothing special, just a bunch of us hanging around, talking about skeptic stuff, and perhaps drinking. You know.

By the way, please note the time change. This week won’t start until 10pm, Sorry, I have kids and stuff.

See you there:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/socialgroup20120203/

Social Group - 2012 Doom Edition

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:55:00 -0500

Welcome to your last year on the planet. Yup, apparently we’re all going out in a great big explosion of Mayan doom sometime late this year. I’m sorry, I don’t know the details. It’s just what I hear, and I always believe what I hear.

Anyway, since I feel it is my job to make sure your final year starts off as good as possible, I’ve decided to have ~~yet another~~ a very special video chat just for you. So make sure you come, because there will be many other doomed souls there to share in the reckless abandon that will be your last year, ever.

Here’s the link, see you there [9pm ET, Friday, 1/6/2012]:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/socialgroup20120106/

SkeptiCamp Virtual Post Mortem 2011

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:42:23 -0500

This Friday, Dec 16th, at 9pm ET, we will be hosting our 2nd Annual SkeptiCamp Virtual Post Mortem! What is that you say? Well, let’s copy&paste in the words of SkeptiCamp’s creator, Reed Esau (from the SkeptiCamp wiki site):

On December 16th, a panel of SkeptiCamp organizers will meet in an online video conference to discuss lessons learned from the past year of events. This is an open event where anyone is welcome to attend. This is the SECOND such event. Our first one was in November 2010 mp3 audio.

SkeptiCamp focuses (in part) on producing substantive events within the reach of informal groups of skeptics anywhere around the world. These events most often are put together by inexperienced organizers who must build upon the experience of others who have successfully hosted events of their own. To develop those practices we must collaborate; we must share our experiences of organizing events so that others can benefit.

All the lessons learned that we discuss at the Virtual Post Mortem should find their way into this wiki.

We’d like to recruit one organizer from every city to serve on the panel, where we ask each to offer two notable items from their event that went well, and two things that went wrong.

For those things that went wrong, we’ll discuss the ways we might avoid them in the future.

See the What Went Right and What Went Wrong pages for past examples. Duplication is okay, as it indicates recurring problems.

So, If you’ve organized or helped organize a SkeptiCamp, anywhere in the world, during this year (2011), or if you just want to learn from those who have, join us!

Here’s the chat link:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/skepticamp20111216/

Social Group Tonight

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:18:08 -0500

Yup, there’s a chat tonight. There’s no guest though, just all of you fabulous people, which I find just as interesting.

Forgive me if I’m not feeling too creative with this week’s post, and forgive me for not posting it sooner. To make it up to you all, here’s a cool nerdy picture of Simon Pegg for your amusement. Well, he amuses me.

Here’s the video chat link

Special Guest Tonight! 9pm ET

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:02:03 -0500

That’s right, there IS a video chat tonight, at the usual time, 9pm ET, and yes there is going to be a very special guest. I just can’t tell you who it is. Well, I could, especially now because he’s confirmed that he will be able to make it, but I’d rather just tease you. I’m mean like that. I’d tell you to trust me, and that if you join the chat with us, it will be fun, but you won’t, because I’m mean, and you can’t trust a big meanie.

Anyway, try to figure out who’s going to be there and bring some questions, or if you’re really motivated, send me some suggestions for “science or fiction”.

Here’s the link, see you then!
http://connectpro30341441.adobecon nect.com/mysteryguest20111117/

Living Vicariously - Video Chat Tomorrow

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:05:38 -0400

Yes, there is a video chat tomorrow, Friday, Nov 4th! I know you’re excited, I’m excited too! There’s nothing that validates my reclusive anti-social life more than virtually pretending I’m doing something social when I’m really alone, with my cats and my computer. Well, anyway.

As you know, one of my favorite things about VDS is the story telling. I can’t get out to all of the mega-skeptic-nerdy-social events around the country, so I do my best to get people who do attend these things to come on video chat and share their crazy stories, while we all make fun of them. (We’re really crying on the inside because wished we were there)

Apparently there was a mega-skeptical event last weekend, on Halloween, in New Orleans, and from what I hear IT WAS CRAZY! So, I know at least ONE of you out there must have some great stories to tell (I’m looking at you Bob, Brian, and um … others). So get your ass on video chat tomorrow so we can all be envious of your good times. (Or I may make you suffer by subjecting you to more cute cat pictures)

Here’s the link for tomorrow’s chat:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/socialgroup20111104/

Mayhem Time

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:37:51 -0400

With all of the Halloween festivities going on this weekend, you are correct in assuming that I didn’t schedule a video chat this Friday. I will most likely be dressed in some elaborate craziness, and sipping on some sort of pumpkin themed adult beverage at a gathering of zombies and other creepy things.

But, If you happen to be in front of a computer, in costume or not, this Friday evening, make sure you jump onto Google+ at least long enough to join Mayhem Time. That’s right, the wonderfully talented, and brilliant Sara Mayhew is hosting a Google+ hangout this Friday evening to celebrate the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) awarding her a $10,000 grant for her series, Legend of the Ztarr. Make sure to congratulate her fully!

Here’s the facebook event notice, or if you can’t pull it up, here’s the google+ link.

I don’t know what I love more about this picture, the fact...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:03:01 -0400

I don’t know what I love more about this picture, the fact that Jen has two q-tips stuck up her nose, or Melissa’s reaction. Needless to say, last night’s social group video chat was a ton of fun, despite my horrible card tricks. Thank to all for coming.

Don’t forget next Friday, special guest Maki Naro.

Social Group this Friday!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:16:29 -0400

I know you’re all super excited about special guest Maki Naro next week, but don’t forget you can get your video chat fix this week as well. Our regular “Social Group” meets this Friday, October 7th, at the usual 9pm ET. See you there!

Here’s the chat link:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/socialgroup20111007/

Guest Added: Maki Naro

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:10:00 -0400

Next Friday, October 14th, Maki Naro, from the spectacular blogs Sci-ənce and Mad Art Lab, will be joining us on video chat. Apparently, he “is an artist, incurable geek, and lover of cooking, public radio, small animals, and Blade Runner”. Also, “He can hit a man from a hundred yards while riding at full gallop”. Whoa! Now we’re talking! Well, all I know is that he sports one of the best beards in skepticism (ahem, not *the* best, obviously).

Anyway, come hang out with him, myself, and a bunch of other people, next Friday. It’ll be fun!

Here’s the link for this chat:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/makinaro20111014/

SGU Live Tonight!

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:16:24 -0400

Well it’s Friday again, so you know what that means … or well, it doesn’t. Yup, there’s no chat tonight. Yes, this is one of those regular Fridays that I have to spend time with those tiny little skeptics that live with me, and eat my food, and are always expecting me to do things for them (and I love it).

Anyway, since you’re not going to be hanging out with skeptics on the video chat, make sure to go listen to some of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe’s 24 hour show. I don’t know if I’ll be able to listen to the whole thing, but I’m going to make sure to listen tomorrow evening, right about the time when they start become delirious (I suspect it’ll be quite silly).

Don’t forget! Next Friday we’re having on Sara Mayhew! See you then.

Special Guests Added: Sara Mayhew - Sept 30th

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:37:00 -0400

If you’ve been on the chat recently, you’ve probably met Sara Mayhew, resident of the remote outpost that is Kirkland Lake, Ontario. If you haven’t met her, you should, she’s brilliant, talented, AND CANADIAN! She’s also a TED fellow, gave fascinating talks at TAM and Dragon*con, does this cool skeptical manga called “Legend of the Ztarr”, and I believe she is currently working on a script for a sci-fi action movie based upon a dream she recently had (well, that one I might’ve exaggerated a bit). Unlike her usual appearances, we’re actually going to give her plenty of opportunity to talk, Friday, September 30th, at 9pm ET. Join us!

Here’s the link to the chat (will open ~30 minutes prior to the start time)
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/saramayhew20110930/

MacOS Lion is a Bear

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:22:44 -0400

I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that Adobe Connect was just updated (well, a few weeks back) to a brand spanking shiny new version (8.1.2) and this is supposed to fix all of our current problems. Amazingly enough, judging from this past Friday’s performance, it seem to be working very well. There were few serious audio problems, and only intermittent video problems - although it seemed like the video “freezing” is most likely the new software’s method of dealing with bandwidth limitations. Anyway, 3 hours of chat went very smoothly, well mostly, well… better than usual. (Yes, I recognize that some of these problems are still around, causing some people to have to leave the chat and come back, repeatedly. But it IS getting better…slowly).

The bad news is that if you’re one of the sad frustrated people who’ve upgraded to MacOS 10.7 “Lion” then you’re pretty much screwed. There’s an issue with Flash that mostly prevents your microphone to work, leaving you staring and listening, but mostly frustrated that you can’t participate. On top of this, here’s all that Adobe has to say on the matter, “Uh…we’re working on it”. Great, thanks for nothing.

Anyway, If this effects you, stay tuned, because I’m staying on top of it and will let you know when we can go back to just having the old, expected problems, and not all these new ones, eh?

Also, watch the schedule. I’m working on adding new and exciting special guests.

In case you missed this past Friday’s chat, here’s...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 23:36:31 -0400

In case you missed this past Friday’s chat, here’s an interesting screen capture. Thank you to Brian Thompson for spending 3 silly hours talking to us about the wonderful upcoming JREF stuff, live from the set of The Red Green Show, and for giving us a complete and thorough description of what David Duchovny looks like in his underwear.*

* This statement probably contains some inaccuracies (or lies).

Upcoming events... and stuff.

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:46:00 -0400

Yup, you heard it right, Brian Thompson, the Field Coordinator for the James Randi Education Foundation, will be on the video chat, September 9th, at the usual time (9pm ET) to talk about all of the upcoming JREF kick-ass-ed-ness, and if we’re lucky, he’ll be funny too. Don’t believe that such a stuffy and serious do-gooder can be funny? Check out his podcasts-a-plenty: Amateur Scientist, The Death Panel, and Ask a Canadian.

Trust me, he’s been on the chat before, it was fun, so you’ll definitely not want to miss it. JUST BE THERE.

Also, don’t forget the wickedly smart Fraser Cain [not Frasier Crane] will be on next week.

Fraser Cain Rescheduled for Aug 26th

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:07:00 -0400

Since Aug 19th is Fraser’s 40th birthday, and I remember when I was that young (ahem, 2010), I decided to cut him some slack and not force him to hang out with us nerds that day. (Well, actually I stupidly scheduled it for that day) Therefore, there will be no chat this week, but come back next week, Aug 26th, for what will sure be an interesting event.

Here’s a little teaser:

In addition to co-hosting Astronomy Cast, Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today, one of the most popular space and astronomy websites on the Internet. Fraser has been working in the software/Internet industry for the last 12 years, and was a partner in two software companies that are now traded publicly. He studied engineering at the University of British Columbia, and is currently completing his computer science degree. Fraser has written 3 books of his own and published a popular astronomy guide called What’s Up 2006. He lives on Vancouver Island, off the West Coast of Canada.

Here’s the link for Fraser’s chat:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/frasercain20110826/

Social Group this Friday, August 5th, 9pm ET

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:17:04 -0400

Yeah, you already knew, but I thought I’d remind you, you know, just in case. I’ll be here, ready to share TAM stories (if anyone is interested) and we’ll be discussing skeptical topics, you know, light, easy discussions like the take-over of Skepticism by those troublesome atheists, and such…

By the way, the 2 year anniversary of VDS is coming up in September, so bring your ideas for virtual panel discussions!

Here’s the link, see you Friday:
http://connectpro30341441.adobeconnect.com/socialgroup20110805/

No chat tonight. Boo!

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:22:58 -0400

Yup, there’s no video chat tonight, sorry. To be honest I’m still recovering from TAM. Don’t worry though, we’ll be back for a no rules social group chat next week, where we’ll be able to share stories of craziness and learning from Las Vegas!

In the mean time here’s a few reminders:

There’s no rush, but I’m still looking for donations to help finish out the year.
If you’ve ever had problems trying to the get the chat to work, I’m aggressively collecting technical information in order to help Adobe address these issues.
In addition to next week’s Social Group chat, Fraser Cain, from Astronomy Cast will be special guest on Friday 8/19!
Hey, what’d ya think of mah globey thing?
Yams yes, Raisins no. That’s right, I said it.

TECH SUPPORT!

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:54:00 -0400

One of the really great things about using a paid, big-name service like Adobe Connect, is that you get access to the amazing, professional, courteous, quick, and efficient support staff. Hey, don’t laugh, really, it’s great… well, prejudice aside, I have great hopes that I’ll be able to get them to deal with our problems when they arise, really… *ahem*

Honestly though, the service has worked well enough so far, minus a few glitches that seem to keep cropping up:

Audio level problems - Unfortunately, each individual in the chat has exclusive control over their own microphone volume. This is a problem because they are the one person in the chat least qualified to tell if their mic volume is good. The result is individuals who don’t know they are blasting everyone out of the conversation, or others who are frustrated because no one is paying attention to what they saying, not knowing that they can’t be heard. There is an automatic audio leveling feature, but unfortunately it isn’t smart enough to deal with that one microphone with constant background noise. It would be nice, as a user, if I could boost or quiet individuals as needed for my own listening enjoyment.
Audio Latency - The internet is a busy place and a video chat is only as good as the slowest link in the chain. Since everyone’s video and audio signals have to be shipped to a server somewhere and then back out to each machine, of course there will be a certain amount of delay. Also, this delay should vary depending upon network traffic and network quality. That said, my expectation based upon using other video chat solutions (tokbox, skype, google hang-outs, and many others) is that we have more latency than should be expected, primarily, it doesn’t seem to be proportional to the number of people participating (frequent latency even with a low number of video/audio streams).
Missing Links - This one isn’t as common as the two above, but when it happens it is particularly nasty. Sometimes, usually after the video chat has been going for an hour or so, some people will no longer hear others. It’s as confusing to describe as it is to experience. Imagine listening to people react to something you can’t hear, or speaking and being interrupted by someone very rudely, not realizing they can’t tell that you’re speaking.
It just plain doesn’t work - This one is the absolute worst and showed itself to one of our highly anticipated guests a few weeks ago. Certain people, with modern machines, up to date operating systems, modern browsers, good flash versions, high speed internet connections, adobe plugin installed, and who have passed the connect test - once they join the video chat, they just fail. Either there is so much latency that everyone hears them respond a minute later while their video has been frozen that whole time, or they just lock up completely, never to return (well, they usually try to connect again with the same results).

I know this sounds like a terrible service, but honestly this is best we’ve ever had it. Generally when we have a video chat, we manage to spend at least some time in meaningful conversation, and have a very enjoyable time, which is what it’s all about!

So, what’s the point of this long post? Yeah, I’m getting to it…

If you are one of the people in the past that has experienced any of the above problems, or if you ever experience a problem like the above (or any other for that matter), this is what I ask of you: Send me your information! WE WANT INFORMATION! *ahem*

What I mean is that in order to get the best possible service from Adobe, I need to do whatever I can to provide them with as much information as possible about problems we encounter. My difficulty is that much of this information is related to problems I don’t have, I don’t have access to, or I don’t even know about. So, if you have a problem, and think of it (I’ll try and remind everyone repeatedly on the chat), send me the following:

Please state the nature of the ~~medical emergency~~, um problem? When did it happen, for how long?
What are the specifications of the machine you’re using? (Hardware specs, operating system, browser type and version, flash plugin version, and anything about your setup that you think might possibly be relevant)
Are you on wifi? If so, what type and what is the quality of your connection?
What type of internet connection do you have? Who is your internet service provider?
Have you run the connect test? What were the results?
If you are a clever hacker like me, do a trace route to one of the adobe servers (use the root domain of the video chat link) and send me the results. (If you don’t know what this is, don’t worry about it)
If you can think of ANYTHING remotely relevant (like: I just spilled my gin and tonic on my router and it began to smoke).

Send it all to briandavidgregory-at-gmail.com - got it!? Sweet! Thanks!