Toilet paper, pasta and canned soup are not the only quarantine shortage items. You know what else is? Webcams.

I decided to buy a web camera yesterday. The cheapest model of any brand will do, I don’t care about the image quality, I just want something that shows a picture of my face.

And there were none to be had anywhere in northern or central Stockholm. I searched the web sites of all electronics chains I could think of, or find on Google Maps, and they were all completely sold out of web cameras. Elgiganten, MediaMarkt, Teknikmagasinet, Webbhallen, Kjell & Co, Clas Ohlson, NetOnNet… All sold out in their central warehouses as well as all their physical shops. Expected back in stock: 10 days from now at best.

In the end I found one model in one NetOnNet shop in Veddesta. About twice as fancy and expensive as I had intended to buy but this was not a time to be picky. I reserved it and cycled there immediately to get it before someone else buys it. It may not have been quite the last one but it was close – when I checked again this morning the stock level was down to zero.

My desk is packed so full of computer equipment now.

I tried making do with the laptop keyboard but it just wasn’t working out for me for coding, so I had to add a full-sized keyboard.

The conference microphone quickly became a must as well. The Dell laptop’s built-in microphone sucks. At first I kept the microphone in a drawer and just took it out when I needed it, but now it’s permanently there.

The camera at least takes no space, perched on top of the monitor as it is. All it adds is another cable.