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November is starting off with plenty of excitement, now working from home and/or attending school vir-
as we vote for our president and vice-president,
members of Congress, state and local political can-
didates, and an Illinois constitutional amendment
dealing with our state income tax. At this writing,
we still do not know the winner of the presidential
election, but the winners of most other races have
been decided (along with the Fair Tax proposal).
Two and a half months of lame duck sessions are
to follow, and then on to new beginnings at the vari-
ous governmental levels. As always, it will be inter- (As you browse through the listings on the Amazon
esting to watch and challenging for all concerned.
Later in November, we have Veterans Day on the
th
th
11 and Thanksgiving on the 26 . While many
Veterans Day ceremonies are typically held out-
doors (and may be less risky from a COVID-19 per-
spective), the same cannot be said for Thanksgiv-
ing. Given the increasing COVID-19 infection rate,
hospitalizations and deaths, a lot of families will be
re-considering the traditional family get-together for
Thanksgiving dinner this year – and the travel asso-
ciated with this holiday as out-of-state family mem-
bers fly or drive to the family gathering.
I suspect that many families will turn to Zoom and/
or other video-calling apps on Thanksgiving for a
virtual get-together with other family members
spread out across the country (or world). But for
someone not already versed in video-calling or who
does not have a webcam and microphone, this can
be difficult. Fortunately, more and more people are
being exposed to Zoom through work and/or
through clubs, volunteer work, or outreach to
friends and family members. As Zoom has spiked
in popularity during the current pandemic, there are
now many tutorials offered by individuals, compa-
nies, and tech experts to help users embrace this
technology. The Zoom website offers lots of infor-
mation and training, and J.J. has sent us quite a
few links to presentations and seminars devoted to
Zoom. If you feel a need to beef up your Zoom
skills, please look up some of J.J.’s past emails on
this subject and/or go directly to https://
support.zoom.us/hc/en-us for Zoom tutorials and
training.
Speaking of Zoom, there is good news for those
who do not have a webcam and/or microphone and
have thus been unable to participate in Zoom calls.
For a long time, webcams seemed to be out of
stock everywhere because so many people are
November 2020 3
tually. I just checked Amazon, Walmart, and Best
Buy; all of them have a range of webcams in stock,
ready for immediate purchase and pick-up or ship-
ment. So if you have been avoiding Zoom or other
video-calling because you do not have a webcam or
microphone, here is your chance to pick up the need-
ed gear and get set-up for future Zoom calls with
friends, family and fellow LCACE members.
and Walmart websites, be aware that while both
companies select and purchase merchandise that
they will eventually sell on their websites directly to
the customer, they also act as a sales platform for
similar merchandise that is owned by third-party
manufacturers or retailers. For these items, they act
as an order-entry and/or order-fulfillment contractor.
This means that any issues or complaints about
these third-party products must be addressed directly
with those third parties.)
As an illustration, look at these snips from two differ-
ent webcam listings on Amazon.com:
In the first example, the webcam is being sold to you
by XPCAM. If you are unhappy or have an issue
with the product, you will have to deal with XPCAM
to resolve it. In the second example, the webcam is
being sold to you by Amazon, and you can deal di-
rectly with them for resolution.
The same is true for Walmart, which has been build-
ing up its online shopping and shipping capabilities
to better compete with Amazon. Looking at
webcams on their website, I found listings for 30
webcams actually sold by Walmart, along with
1,000+ listings of webcams and related gear sold by
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