WebEx is having a banner day



  • It's been a few years - good years - since I last used WebEx. There seems to be widespread opinion that WebEx gets worse with every new release, and after trying to use it today, I agree.

    Fidelity wants me to join a "Webinar" (minus ten points for idiotic unnecessary portmanteau) about investment options. (Options that I really don't care about, to be honest. My portfolio is already sufficiently diversified to have survived the liquidity crunch; if something worse than that happens between now and when I quit drawing a paycheck, I doubt anything Fidelity has to offer me will help.) They sent me a Word document (because that's what you need to send someone instructions by email) with links (can't just supply the URLs) to WebEx.

    One is for a list of WebEx system requirements. It returns a 404 with a simple "Not found" message. Good job, WebEx; I guess it'd be too much work to put in a redirection for that.

    One is for the WebEx test/setup page, where you go to get the applet. That crashed Firefox. Awesome work there, kids.

    So after returning to the WebEx Disaster Zone in IE (because if that crashes I don't care; I don't use it for anything that doesn't require it), I figured I'd see if the Firefox problem was a known issue. Click the "Technical Support" link ... and get a 404, this one with a handy quotation from RFC 2068 10.4.5. 2068 was obsoleted by 2616 in 1999. And, of course, the intersection of people who a) would find a quotation from the RFC useful and b) don't already know where to find it and c) don't already understand an HTTP 404 error is likely the empty set. So WebEx wins the "idiotic and thirteen years out of date" award for this one.

    One more try. Click "Contact Us" and then "Technical Support". Oh look - it's our friend Section 10.4.5 again!

    Cisco's a pretty big organization. I bet they employ some technical folks who could sort this stuff out.



  • How did they manage to mess up webex.  I used it 2 years ago and it worked without issue, did they really screw up their product that badly since then?  My personal favorite feature it had was that you could mute people's lines from the web client.



  • It sucked two years ago, too. You just have low standards.

    Try using it on a computer with two monitors, it's hilariously inept at that extremely common use-case.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Try using it on a computer with two monitors, it's hilariously inept at that extremely common use-case.

    What does it do? And what do you think it should do?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Try using it on a computer with two monitors, it's hilariously inept at that extremely common use-case.

    What does it do? And what do you think it should do?

    A quick trip to google says it shows others both monitors, smaller (to fit on your one) ... but that's a presenter issue. I don't know if blakey was speaking of a participant issue. My company uses GoToMeeting, which is more or less as useful as webex. I think there are limitations to number of participants, but we usually don't hit that. And Goto handles multiple monitors (2 at least) rather well, letting you show both, one, or the other monitor as a presenter.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Try using it on a computer with two monitors, it's hilariously inept at that extremely common use-case.
    What does it do? And what do you think it should do?

    It's share desktop thingy only shares one monitor.  I mean only sharing one can be useful for side conversations or what not on the other, but that should be an option rather than "nope can't do two".

    EDIT: at least that's all I've ever seen it do.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    What does it do?

    It picks one at random and will only share that one monitor. The one it picks at random will not necessarily be the one with the taskbar (that would be too easy) so you basically have to do a Verizon-style "can you see it now? Can you see it now?" thing before you figure out which monitor its actually decided to use.

    There's no option to pick which monitor to share, or to share both monitors, or ... actually the program doesn't acknowledge in any way that the concept of "two monitors on one computer" even fucking exists.

    I attribute most of this to its being Java.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I attribute most of this to its being Java.


    Java handles multiple monitors fine. I've written a Java app which relies on this to display one window maximised on one screen and another window on the other.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @pjt33 said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    I attribute most of this to its being Java.


    Java handles multiple monitors fine. I've written a Java app which relies on this to display one window maximised on one screen and another window on the other.

    Fuck, why do you people insist on correcting him with facts and reason? It always ends in tears.



  •  @blakeyrat said:

    @morbiuswilters said:
    What does it do?

    It picks one at random and will only share that one monitor. The one it picks at random will not necessarily be the one with the taskbar (that would be too easy) so you basically have to do a Verizon-style "can you see it now? Can you see it now?" thing before you figure out which monitor its actually decided to use.

    There's no option to pick which monitor to share, or to share both monitors, or ... actually the program doesn't acknowledge in any way that the concept of "two monitors on one computer" even fucking exists.

    I attribute most of this to its being Java.

    This is an outright lie. I use webex almost every day, and while I don't really like it, there is very clearly a dropdown arrow next to "share desktop" that lets you choose which monitor to share. The numbering is the same as in windows' Display Properties, and it even gives a green highlight around the monitor that will be shared as you mouseover the options, so you know for sure what your selection will do. And while you have the monitor shared, it continues to have the highlight so you don't forget which monitor is shared.

     


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