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Ask Slashdot: Skype Setup For Toddler's Room?
New submitter mmmmdave writes "My parents love to Skype with my kid. My kid loves to mash laptop buttons and drool on the screen. And because we don't want to spend forty minutes every night holding the laptop outside of baby arms' length, we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy. I'm sure there's a much cheaper option than sticking an iPad on the wall; what's more, non-touchscreen is probably better, so my daughter can't hang up the calls. Any ideas?"
Did you name your kid Winston, by any chance?
Bad idea, dude, bad idea.
Can't you protect the laptop/baby with plexiglass?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Sounds like you're seriously underestimating a toddler's resourcefulness, frankly...
Caveat Utilitor
You can try LCD/LED TVs which have Skype app integrated into TVs
Ex Panasonic, Samsung
That's funny, because it's my parents, not my kids, who like to mash on laptop buttons and drool on the keyboard.
Build a simple, flat wooden box with an opening at the back that you can slide the laptop keyboard into. Add vent holes if necessary. Affix a cheap keyboard to the top if your kid tries to take off the box to get at the laptop keyboard.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Any laptop.with an internal.webcam or a $10 usb webcam should be fine. However a simpler solution is a $200 Samsung Galaxy Tab or other cheapo Android tablet.
40 minutes of your parents talking to your baby daughter every night? I can't imagine that. Is your last name Focker?
Why do you want to torture your kids with 40 minutes of grandparent gooing on the screen?
this must be the lamest ask /. I've ever seen.
If only you could buy a box, that when plugged into a computer and peripherals, was just like a laptop, except it didn't use batteries and wasn't portable and was cheap. Why, I bet you could place a technological marvel like that on a desk, instead of on a lap like a laptop. I'm sure marketing can come up with a good name like the ideskbook or the desk-ster or the e-mini-desk or the deskr or maybe the socialdesk or something like that. Hmm like a laptop but instead of sitting on a lap it sits on a desk... what could that be called... Naw I got nothin' Sorry. Good luck dude!
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
...Wouldn't a a USB stick work if you didn't want to use Wireless? otherwise you could run Ethernet cable through your attic and put drops in your source and destination rooms.
It is nice that the grandparents want to be involved, but let me say technology and kids do not mix. I'm living proof of that
PB&J sandwich in the VCR at the top of an 8' book case. I'm not saying how I did it.
Plexiglass case + tablet is your best bet.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
whatever you do, don't install E*TRADE on said laptop
My first thought was to set up an iPad perhaps with some speakers. I have done Skype on iPad and it works really well. If you have an HDMI TV, the iPad could be hooked to the TV, with iPad set up for outgoing video, and all the interaction could be on the TV. That way the baby can drool on the screen as much as it wants.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
There are a number of TV's and Blue-Ray players that have Skype clients.
The Tely-HD is a stand alone solution that does the same thing.
It's easy to find wall mount units for a TV, I suggest using Monoprice.
Setting the grand parents up with one of these units so they can sit in their living room and use the TV, along with some sort of unit in the kids room is the way to go. The TV can always be easily repurposed later. If you already have a TV adding a Blue-Ray with the capability is a nice way to get Skype now and be able to play Disney movies for the kid later.
Get a TV Then go here.
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-tv/
Look it's 2012!
wall-mounted monitor + webcam
Mount a LCD monitor on the wall or put it out of arms reach of the kid on a dresser with a webcam and some cheap PC speakers. Put the computer farther away using a 10ft VGA/HDMI cable.
Why make it so complex, does your toddler really need to touch the screen?
Also, nothing like exposing your kids to the benefits of watching TV when they're still in the crib. Instead of TV being the "new babysitter", it'll be skype.
we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy
So, um, grab a monitor and a webcam, and mount them to the wall...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Toddlers grow fast, better mount it on the ceiling.
Why didn't my ask slashdot submission get accepted? I'm looking for a good way to copy my files from the computer in my living room to the computer in my bedroom without using wireless internet. Any ideas?
Noobs. Us old timers know everything. Use the unix "split" command to make a bunch of little 2 kilobyte files, turn each into 40-L QR code each of which holds about 2900 bytes, print those bastards, hand carry or armed courier or military gunship escorted transport chopper, whatever is needed in your situation to approach the bedroom, then feed the QR codes thru ye olde sheet feeder scanner and use unix "cat" command to merge the binaries together. If you're really leet you'd use PAR files but I can be arsed to figure out the options to split down to 2 K. Bonus, it uses linux. This is also a pretty good backup scheme. The bad news is I assume you're transferring blueray dvd pr0n rips downloaded from u****t so thats gonna be about seven million pages at one QR per page. Well, if you wanna be 'leet you gotta pay the price.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
get a program to disable the keyboard.
For example:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/11570/disable-the-keyboard-with-a-keyboard-shortcut-in-windows/
It won't solve problem of her hitting the power button - but depending on the model, you may be able to disable the functionality of the power button in a separate program.
So as long as she is just mashing keys, not popping keys off the keyboard, that should solve your problem.
If you really want a separate machine, so you can read a recipe for dinner on your laptop (or whatever) while she interacts with grandma/grandpa, there have been other suggestions that look like good options.
I can think of no better example of a first world problem than this!!
Poor kid.
just wallpaper the room in oled screens. then grandpa can dress up as a scary clown and come out of the walls at night.
http://e-gadgetsinfo.blogspot.com/2012/04/future-is-almost-here-oled-wallpaper.html
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Put the box in an area out of reach, in another room etc, and run the monitor, sound, and web cam cables to the desk. Use a wireless mouse and keyboard that has an off switch. Let the baby chew on the powered off keyboard while skyping. Now on to solving world peace.
You must not be a parent. The parents *are* there. The OP mentions holding the laptop. You try holding a laptop in front of a child and see what happens. I bet they spend more time hitting buttons than interacting with the people on the screen. Because this is what my kid does too. This is the problem the OP is trying to solve. A parent saying "don't touch that" and restraining hands isn't much fun for the kid. A setup that has the hardware transparent to the kid will be fun.
I'd go with a TV displaying from the laptop and webcam mounted on top of the TV. I have been meaning to set this up for my kid, but have stalled (it's the in-laws that skype, not my family :P) Maybe get an older HD CRT that is safer for the kid to touch. (Our kid manhandles our CRT TV all the time, and it's fine.) I don't know if you'll want a 20' display cable (HDMI or VGA), or something wireless. I'd try VGA because I have that option and it's cheaper. The cable itself won't be too interesting across the floor, so I imagine you don't need to route it all fancy. At least, that is what I have been planning to do.
He might not be anti-apple just pro-cheap. In that case I suggest an hptouchpad from ebay, a cheap android tablet with a front facing camer, an ipad2 or a used laptop.
It sounds like you don't have children. Ever spent 40 minutes trying to keep a toddler from mashing buttons? Not exactly what I'd call quality time if all you're doing is saying no/ restraining the kid.
Also, I would not assume that the kind of parent willing to set up a whole skype system for their toddler isn't "doing their job" and spending time with their kid during the other 1400 minutes in a day. It's perfectly fine to set up activities for your toddler to entertain themselves with for a while (with you very close by, ready to attend to their needs). They need you available for interaction, but they really do not need you hovering over them every second.
In fact when I am on the laptop and he's in the room he's usually begging me to see "Nana and Pop-pop".
Do you put on Ice Climber on an emulator?
Son. Of. A. Bitch. This is the second time in two days I've clicked on a slashdot link to read the comments, hoping desperately that it wouldn't be full of the usual dreck, only to be disappointed. I was hoping that somebody would have something useful to suggest, since we also have a toddler that would love Skyping with his grandparents but that we can't use a laptop with because he'll button-mash all the settings into something unusable. The plexiglass could be a good possibility, perhaps a setup to protect the keyboard so he can see the screen easily but can't actually *get* to the trouble-causing buttons.
But for the rest, we get jokes about putting the baby in a box, combined with complaints about how the OP is a horrible parent for wanting to let their kid talk to the grandparents every night. OMG! Parents actually want to help extended family to be involved with their child! Call the cops immediately!
This happens every time I click on a slashdot comments link, it seems. Why aren't all of you people over on reddit or 4chan or something; I thought it was generally accepted there that having absolutely NOTHING to contribute on a topic but doing so anyway was considered a badge of high honor?
as in, second hand/older ipad really aint that expensive, and you'll be hard pressed to find anything that'll beat it for price... cheap chinese android tablet is really the only other option... you might get a laptop (netbook style one) for cheap, but probably not much cheaper... its a pretty low price point to start with imho.
The other problem is that you may find trying to protect anything is going to be the hard part (or perhaps expensive/tedious) rather then the device itself.
By that I mean saying that you could "get a cheap tablet and stick some plexiglass in front of it" sounds easy in practice, but not if you dont have the right tools. Personally i'd consider one of the older 10" android tablets and just put it out of reach - of course out of reach (For those with kids) often means "challenge" for child and can result in some truely god like resourcefulness on the part of the child.
Its quite possible, however, that theres an app on the android market that'll lockout an android tablets control surfaces (im pretty sure i've seen something like this).. im not sure if the same exists on the ipad, but maybe thats the way to go?
Buy a monitor with a built in web cam (ASUS VK246H 24-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black with Webcam -- $200 on Amazon) and a VESA mountable or "gum pack" computer to mount to it and put it in Windows kiosk mode with only Skype running. I do something similar with Google Talk for the same purpose. Works great and costs about $400.
There are a lot of 1984/Truman Show/No Real Parent posts on this thread. Folks, understand that for some families, grandma and grandpa are a time zone away at best, and a grandkid is lucky to see her grandparents in person once a year, if that. Skype/videophone is a fantastic way to help bridge that gap. My parents can read our daughter stories. My wife's parents can sing songs with our daughter. They can see each other and interact in ways that you just can't do over the phone or with text.
Our kid is lucky--she gets to see each set of grandparents in person about twice a year. For the stretches between those times, though, she can still visit with them over Skype. It's far from perfect, but it's a huge leap ahead of a phone call, and helps all sides of the family feel closer.
You wouldn't mock people for calling their parents to let their kid talk to grandma and grandpa over the phone. Why the special hate for the extra level of closeness?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I don't know which is worse - your method for transferring files, or the fact that it sounds like fun and I really, really want to try it myself now...
You bast-ed.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Yes on the cheap Android tablet, no on the iPad 1 (no camera).
Is this what passes for Ask Slashdot submissions these days?
Buy a cheapo TFT new or second hand and mount it on the wall if you want. Buy a $10 webcam, do likewise. If you can't manage that, what the hell are you even doing here?
As scary as this might be for a slashdot user to have in their home, what about an old CRT monitor with a wireless keyboard? I am sure you can find a CRT monitor for free on Craigslist, at work, or a thrift store. Put a webcam on top, hook it up to an old computer or laptop (Close the lid, must set it to stay on). Put the wirless keyboard and mouse across the room on a dresser or something and you should be good to go. The toddler can poke the CRT all they want with their fingers with no trouble, although I would still try and teach them not to since they might try the same with LCDs and we all know what would happen then.
You get what you pay for. Costs $88, connects via a wireless USB dongle to a PC. PC sends it to the internet if you want.
Google it or similar 'wireless baby monitor internet'.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
A tablet is easier to make baby drool proof. a tablet can be slit behind a piece of plexiglass and the kid can drool all they want or even rub snot on it. 20 minutes with plexi, pieces of wood and some glue and you can easily make a holder for in the crib.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Then maybe, I dunno, explain to your parents that there's no a lot of value in sitting there while your child bashes at the laptop for 40 minutes a night. I mean, Jesus, seriously? NOTHING a two year old does is that interesting.
no chatroulette jokes? no rickroll jokes? /. going downhill.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Just buy a dropcam; WiFi, 2 way audio, powered via supplied microUSB cable and wall wart, and even lets you use it as a security camera and such the rest of the time. I don't work for them, etc but I own a couple and they work.
Whatever solution you end up with, make sure the screen can withstand a direct hit from the child's heaviest toy.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap as you would any other time.
But from the summary, thats not what the parent wants - he wants to stop several very easily prevented actions, such as touching, ending the call accidentally, drooling on the devices etc. All of those things would not happen if they were there supervising the child during the conversation.
Again, spoken like a non-parent. I have yet to see a child that wants to be held on a lap. Children naturally move about and interact. Supervising (parenting) involves watching the child, not preventing them from interacting. You actually *want* your child to move and interact, just like a real person. But, you want to steer them away from interacting with the parts that'll spoil the interaction.
In practice it's a challenge to prevent actions without treating the child like an object. You can either try telling them 40 times "don't touch that, look at grandma", or you can move "that' out of the way so the only interesting interaction for the child is the appropriate one. I still agree the OP has a good question, though the solutions are probably simple trial-and-error hardware approaches.
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap
Something tells me you've never actually tried this with a live toddler. That, or you were using a different model of toddler to the ones I've encountered...
Need to type accents and special characters in Windows? Use FrKeys
I had an old HTC Touch Pro 2 that I wasn't using anymore, but it had a good camera on it. So I installed a webcam software that allowed me to broadcast over the web or to an iPad/Android tablet. I just used a basic car mount and placed on the dresser, worked like a charm. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pas.webcam&hl=en
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
So, you WANT your daughter to have a webcam in her room that callers control? A lot of parents seem to be going in the other direction ...
If you are anti apple, ...
Then he needs to get a grip. The same to the anti Microsoft people and everyone else who's "anti" whatever. It's just so ... adolescent.
Yeah, people with any sort of idealism should just give it up and go with the flow. Idealism is for adolescents. You have a philosophical problem with Apple? Just get a grip, Apple is not going to go away. You're against religion in schools? Just get a grip, religion in schools is here and is not going away. You think there's not enough religion in schools? Just get a grip, there's never going to be religion in schools and that's not going to change. If you're not satisfied with the status-quo, well, just get a grip because it's never going to change.
Imagine how much better things would be if no one had adolescent idealism and just accepted things as they are even if it goes against their personal beliefs, especially if their idealism is different than my own.
There's a fireproof safe bolted to the floor with my GPG keyring on it using something extremely close to this method.
My lazy ass solution was uuencode and uudecode because thats very easy to split at line breaks and I used somewhat smaller QR blocks since each line is short. Its no great achievement to put a GPG key on a couple sheets of paper... after all I can put darn near 4800 bytes of english text characters on each sheet so... if I was less lazy about packing the QR codes in...
A previous version involved simply PAR files with extremely high redundancy and uuencode the works and print it out and hope OCR doesn't fail me.
"Somebody" out there should make a dedicated android / iphone backup and restore app to print and scan tiny, yet important, data files like this. Assuming it's not already been done. I suppose I'm missing out on becoming the next facebook IPO by posting this instead of monetizing this.
"sheet of paper filesystem" or "sheet of paper enclosure format" or whatever.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Wife's parents are in Japan. MacBooks on both ends. We ended up just using an end-table and placed the laptop on the top. When they can't move... it is easy to just point the screen at the baby. Those early years are more for the grandparents anyways. As they start to move, we kept the same setup and just used it as a lesson for the kid. "We don't push the buttons, we talk to grandma". It has been a challenge, but he quickly learned that that laptop doesn't yield anything useful.
Bonus: The laptop is agile so you can move it around the room, house as the kid moves. This interactive experience for the other side definitely makes it awesome.
You bashed your head on your keyboard and wrote all those "Twilight" Novels and manuscripts.
greg, REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
NOTHING a two year old does is that interesting.
To you, maybe. I'm guessing you're not a grandmother.
Hmm.. My two year old daughter has her own iPad (in an Otterbox) and FaceTime chats with my in laws without trouble. I told her don't press the red button or it will hang up. She gets that, or does after testing what Daddy told her and realizing that touching the button indeed makes Grandma go away ;) With used iPads being relatively cheap (certainly in comparison to a PC + camera + other incidentals), I still think that's the best/easiest route especially considering all the other things she can use it for. Not to mention, it all works very reliably and simply without having to constantly tinker with it. Sometimes the obvious solution actually IS the right solution.
Really, its not that hard to hold a toddler a fraction of your weight and ability in your lap - especially if the intention is to keep him occupied by something on the tv or on a screen. Just keep the items in question out of their reach - a laptop two metres away is not going to get touched, drooled on or pushed off the work surface. Its called supervision - something modern parents seem to be lacking in the ability to carry out it would seem.
Oh, and thankyou for engaging in this discussion without resorting to posting as an Anonymous Coward.
I've got a PC with a $12 webcam connected to the TV in my living room. A Mac mini works well for this, if you are so inclined. If the child is use to watching cartoons on the TV, they'll be more likely to see talking to the grands as a 'passive' pastime, instead of trying to play with the keyboard. A wireless/Bluetooth keyboard/mouse could of course be turned off and stashed away once the Skype connection is established. With the kid in the living room, it's more likely to be a 'family' event as well.
I can mend the break of day, heal a broken heart, and provide temporary relief to nymphomaniacs.
...and a laptop can't because...?
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap as you would any other time.
But from the summary, thats not what the parent wants - he wants to stop several very easily prevented actions, such as touching, ending the call accidentally, drooling on the devices etc. All of those things would not happen if they were there supervising the child during the conversation.
iF i hads athgsd toddler on 2 yasdr lap aright noas the s is aatht you'sda he reading.
No, seriously. And it's not like my kid is especially wiggly, either.
I am not a crackpot.
Take the good suggestions and put them to use.
Skype is marvelous for my 3yr old to talk to not just her grandparents, but to mom and dad as well. She enjoys the face to face interaction more than the phone calls.
Skype is not a substitute for parenting and I don't believe you are hoping that it will be. Personally, ay always on camera in my house is a no-go.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
They make cases for various tablets that are already pretty drool proof. Laptops don't have such a benefit. I guess you could put a keyboard cover on the laptop but a kid is likely to just take it off (and try eating it.) I bought a gumdrop case for my Asus Transformer. It doubles the weight of the device but if you are just going to mount it to an arm or something, I don't really see how it matters how much the tablet weighs.
Atlassian set up something that is both awesome and functional. Seriously, you could just do this. http://www.zdnet.com.au/atlassian-builds-portal-for-video-chat-339327884.htm
They ARE doing their jobs, maintaining an enhanced familial / social network and more personal stimulation for the child.
OP does not include information about whether this is also assisting parents who find it difficult to travel (to visit in person which would be preferred) and/or expect limited time to interact with the child.
If/when you have a child, you can do it your way. When my son was born, my wife's parents lived in the next town (still do); my father was already dead and my mother lived far away (and has since died). Maybe with modern tech the relationship could have been closer. I certainly wouldn't begrudge OP the attempt.
I got my 2-year-6-month-old a 8" cheap-o Coby Android tablet and a leather-like A-frame case. I tell her to leave it on the table. Sure she touches it too much, but we clean off the fingerprints. If she closes what she wanted, she learns quickly not to do it again (no punishment needed). She's used it for 8 months now and it's just as good as (a useless $80 android tablet) can be.
The Tango video-chat app is your friend in this place, and is easier to administer from afar to grandparents since it's just a smartphone app (or a desktop app if you want the torture). Add some edu-tainment videos & moboPlayer (mobo-team) for even better results. All free apps. Then use Seal ($3) if you accidentily added purchase-capable app-stores (or just don't add those stores).
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
Three-year-olds shouldn't be using Skype at all, and most certainly not unattended. If you're tired of holding the laptop for her, then don't use Skype. It is okay to say "no." Help her get an actual social life. She'll benefit far more than by talking to the moving pictures on the laptop. In fact, I'd guess she may not even know the difference between the stimulus provided by the laptop and the television.
I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but you're really talking out of your ass, here.
Did you even read this submission? Also, I'd think anyone using Slashdot would know what Skype was, but it doesn't seem like you do. It's sort of a videophone thing. Like a phone, but with video. People use it to talk to each other, except they can also make faces and show off new toys and clothes.
And finally, do you actually have any first-hand experience raising children? Particularly with grandparents living out of town?
I am not a crackpot.
I expect they are even cheaper now (under $100?), but I found a cheap netbook a couple of years ago in the $150 range that I put Ubuntu and Skype on for traveling. It's pretty sturdy and has good battery life, and it has been since used by many people as a Skype appliance, including some who don't yet have much coordination. If I lost it traveling or it took a hard fall to the floor from kid use, it wouldn't break my heart and I didn't spend much time sorting it out.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Shut Up seriously. What do you know about OP's life ? How do you know they dont have e social life ? I moved to US with my Daughter and wife when my daughter was 8 months old. we regularly had skype calls with my parents and my wife's parents. Last year when we visited India, my daughter recognized everyone and gave them hugs without shying away or worse running an hiding behind her mom. They loved it. They were so happy that their grand daughter did not consider them as a bunch of strangers, also the skype calls helped her in talking to them in a language they understand, they dont speak a word of english. There is no need to tear the OP to bits just because he/she wants his/her family to be included in his/her joy of life. You must be so lonely.
-- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
I wont even let my 9yr old daughter have webcam access unsupervised, and I'd never leave the webcam in the room unattended. With the vast proliferation of malware, trojans, and ever other botnet tool out there, you'd have to be pretty naive to think there aren't ones that activate webcams in the hope of spying on children/adults undressing. I would do what other members have suggested and run your cam in the living/family room off your Xbox/PS3 so that at least there's less chance you one day discover your kid's voyeur pics were on some perv's hard drive when he finally got arrested.
Hell, my daughter's computer runs Ubuntu LTS, it stays off when she isnt using it, and she isnt allowed to be on the computer with her bedroom door closed (preconditioning expectations so when she turns 14 I dont have to worry about all the new chatroom/webcam issues that can come about)
My kid sees a keyboard and immediately goes for it. He doesn't pull it but he likes to type. 3 year olds can't spell well...
The bad news is I assume you're transferring blueray dvd pr0n rips downloaded from u****t so thats gonna be about seven million pages at one QR per page.
It looks like you can fit about 20 such QR codes comfortably on an 8x11. That's 40kb per page.
What would really be interesting is to figure out a reasonable target resolution that's supported by widely available printers and scanners, and then design a protocol for printing 8x11 (or A1) pages with as much info as possible. You'd probably want to add header info (to support out-of-order scanning and other such niceties) and spread out the error-correction bits. A color mode would probably be uneconomical for home users, but very helpful for business or nation-states looking to archive or smuggle data via paper.
It seems that you could fit 648K (B&W) or 5191K (3-bit color) on an 8x11 paper with 1/4" margins, 300x300 DPI resolution, and 33% overhead for error correction, fixed patterns, etc. But that's making a lot of assumptions.
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
Why do you assume the grandparents are intrusive? Perhaps the parents like the fact that the grandparents are taking an regular and active role in their child's life.
Even better, use WiDi with an enabled TV on the wall. A USB or WiFi webcam on a WiDi laptop can be placed in the next room out of sight. or out on a shelf out of reach.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357919,00.asp
The truth shall set you free!
Very timely question. We've got an 11-month-old and Skype with relatives a couple of times a week. We were just commenting yesterday that the most useful addition to our laptop would be a "deactivate the keyboard" switch on the side, so that she could tap keys and poke at the trackpad without causing any disruption. It's really amazing how one wild open-palm slap can so often hit the right combination to disconnect or disrupt the call.
While inevitably said switch would cause more problems than it solves by getting turned off accidentally all of the time, I'd still like one. On the plus side, it'd probably be useful for some cat owners, too.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
This devolves into a mathematical tiling problem using different size qr codes. 8 one inch qr codes across vs 11 down, etc.
The error correction level people tolerate is going to impact things..
Its very much like networking in many ways. So are you doing your error detection and correction on the wire, at the packet level, at the tcp/udp level, at a level above? with QRs you can do some error detection and correction inside the codes, and the next level up maybe as PAR2 files, then the next level up its storing a zip file, it can all get kinda wasteful.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Get a projector and screw it to the celing. Seriously, well pointed, you can get a pretty large and good quality image, and there's no way he can screw with it. The worst thing that can happen is the wall getting drooled. Positioning the webcam can be a bit harder though.
"its not that hard to hold a toddler a fraction of your weight and ability in your lap" As a martial artist with over 1000 hours mat time in grappling arts and who is at three to four times the weight of my oldest, I'd like to say YMMV. Our youngest is quite easy to hold still even if he doesn't like it. To put our oldest still in a place he doesn't want to be is one of the hardest grappling feats I have ever undertaken.
What about ink degradation?
Do you print out new sheets on a regular basis?
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Idealism is for adolescents.
Well, you have to admit that reality is a harsh teacher. I'm a little leery of idealistic middle-aged adults, never quite sure if they are crazy or somehow have been sheltered from real life. By our late 30s, most of us have switched to using ideology as a sort of guiding principle to strive for more than a blueprint to live life by.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
For the "direct" flight (one flight number the whole way, but there's actually a land/go through immigration/reboard step in the middle) my parents would take to visit the grand kid the time difference between the scheduled departure and arrival times is 23 hours. I'm an hour or two (traffic and which airport makes a large difference) from the airport, they are 2.5 hours from the airport. Tickets are $2000 each or so.
Visiting in person isn't really an option they can take too often.
Of course I didn't mount a webcam and screen in the kids room since that's just insane.
TV != Computers, or even a skype phone call with the grandparents. What is this recent trend in equating TV problems with computers. My kids have grown up with computers and their television consumption has always been limited. Contrary to the computer where they've learned some programing, played educational games, learned to play chess, compose music, write stories and create little pieces of digital art. As opposed to the television where some sitcom blabs on for thirty minute intervals and you hope you can finish cooking dinner before the child loses interest.
You're against religion in schools? Just get a grip, religion in schools is here and is not going away. You think there's not enough religion in schools? Just get a grip, there's never going to be religion in schools and that's not going to change.
Interestingly, I think you made at least half of the other guy's point - if not all of it. Often it is about the perspective that one chooses to bring into a situation that makes a significant impact. Some believe religion should be banned and therefore see it EVERYWHERE like it's a virus that just won't quit encroaching. Some people believe that religion is important and therefore they see NONE of it where it is needed most. In either case, these types of people (that are on the extreme edges) likely do need to simply get a grip, take a chill pill, whatever, and realize that it's not always as "simple" as it they try to make it.
That's right, sometimes evil Apple spends it's billions on charitable donations or creating quality hardware / software. Sometimes good Apple does "bad" things like suing for no "good" reason. Microsoft does the same. Google does the same. Hell, I bet you do the same... I know I do. If you want to be "anti-foobar" there's a good chance you do need to get a grip and figure out which thing about foobar you are actually against.
My present is the activity I am currently engaged in with the purpose of turning the future into a better past.
Teach her not to mash the buttons and drool on it, to sit back on her own rather than you holding it out of reach. The way to do that is tell her, and if she disobeys, end the call. If she hangs up, you don't let them immediately continue the call. You will only have to end the call a few times, and they can call back, say, an hour later if they are really upset by it.
My 2 year old actually has his own computer in his room (as do my older kids), and I bought my daughter her own tablet at 3, so I'm not going to say don't put one in your kid's room; but teach her how to not fuck it up first, and be sure she wont, and make it clear you will not replace it if she does - then you can just put it in there without doing anything special.
Laptop keyboards are in no way toddler proof, look away for a minute and you will find keys have been pulled off. I get a surprising number of laptops that need keys refitting. Figuring out how that mechanism goes together is beyond the ability of a lot of parents. Usually it is easiest to remove one working key carefully to examine how it fits together and then fix the missing keys.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Duct tape, cheap webcam and cheap digital picture frame with video input.
It looks like she may need to have gymnastics/ballet lessons later (with matching wardrobe). bonus points if you get her going on a "magic wand" (to be replaced by a soldering wand later) and other Hacking Things.
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http://shop.skype.com/webcams/tvwebcams/tely-hd/ + http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sceptre-32-X322BV-HD/15739136
I honestly wouldn't bother with a complicated setup, just buy a cheap or second-tablet tablet (double-check it supports Skype though), and wall-mount it. Lots of secondary uses, too.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
How about something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Lorex-LW2031-connect-Wireless-Monitor/dp/B005GTNZU2
Neither can my one-year-old. But he's learned that anything in matte black or silver with buttons or a screen is a wonderful thing. We gave him a spare remote control and spare keyboard so we could use ours unhindered without just having to shut him down every time he wanted to be like us and use the cool toys. He still knows there's a difference between his and ours, but he's more accepting, and that means I can introduce him to tech while maintaining my desired limits.
It's not about idealism, it's about the negative attitude clouding your judgement. As an idealist, I spend my energy demonstrating the strengths of my ideals, not the weaknesses of everyone else's, because this is the only way I can actually contribute with something with the world while respecting people's freedom (which includes the freedom to disagree with me).
If you think you can do better than Apple, by all means go out there and do it! If you have a problem with others using Apple, then I encourage you to introspect about your stance on freedom.
None of which is relevant if you simply open the laptop flat and put it behind a sheet of plexiglass as the GGP suggested doing with a tablet. They're not talking about letting the child interact with the device, just use Skype over it, which in no way requires that they be able to touch it at all.
And frankly unless your toddler is far less prone to banging things together than most I've seen, I would hesitate to let them out of arms reach with a tablet or anything else with a big fragile screen.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_violence_research#Criticisms_of_media_violence_research
A nice reductio ad absurdum argument against the validity of these studies is the lack of widespread comedy in the streets, since generally there are equal amounts of sitcoms and violent shows in prime time television programming in the U.S.. This observation tends to invalidate the whole "children are parrots" argument.
I spent a large chunk of time glued to a black and white television watching the Apollo missions, Skylab missions, and any launch for any of the Pioneer, Voyager, Viking, etc. missions (later on we had color TV) including staying home from school to watch them when there was a conflict between school and televised NASA missions.
I would argue that the state of science education in the U.S. would be a heck of a lot better than it is today if we had that kind of television programs for kids to watch to the exclusion of all else, as I did, and that it would be unlikely to rot their brains out of their heads.
By the way, my Honors Faculty advisor for humanities at the University of Utah created a little thing called "Sesame Street": I'm going to guess that doesn't rot kids brains out either, unless their favorite character is Mr. Snuffleupagus.
-- Terry
In all seriousness, you could probably put together a slimline system and wall-mounting hardware, LCD screen with wall-mount and simple web cam to do what you want. However, I suspect you're going to pay more than $399 for the hardware and $5 for the mount.
It seems like the most cost effective version is the iPad2 (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/select_ipad2) with a 3M Jumbo hook (http://www.amazon.com/Command-17004-Plastic-Adhesive-Strips/dp/B00006IBLN) to solve your problem. Plus, the added benefit that you'll use the iPad later or in other places when not being used in the evening, while a wall-mounted unit will not be as likely to be moved and used elsewhere.
Just my $0.02. Good luck!
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
Buy an LCD TV (or repurpose the one you probably already own). Buy or build a wall mount.
Buy a Raspberry Pi for less than 30 bucks.
Plug in a keyboard.
Spend half an hour setting up and testing a startup script to start a Skype instance on boot.
Unplug the keyboard.
Done.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
It must be lonely in your world.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
Real old timers remember back before QR codes and are more likely to suggest something like IPoAC: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149
the above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of the little voices in my head
Its one thing to speak sarcastically against religion being taught in public schools. Its another thing when you use sarcasm to defend people rallying against consumer products on an internet forum.
In theory, sure its very simple to hold a 30 lb child still. Now lets make the very accurate assumption that children don't sit still. Within minutes that child will want to get up and walk around. Now again, in theory you could restrain the child, forcing them to sit still in front of the computer. Hmm and you spoke of supervision, I suppose your idea of supervising is restraining the child so you can go about your day. So lets skip that and assume we are now restraining a child that doesn't want to be. Anyone who has children or has been with children know that this will result in crying and screaming. So now you're having a skype call with your parents, whom you can't hear because your child is thrashing around screaming and I'm sure they enjoy seeing their little grandchild being physically restrained and screaming. Yaaaay fun video chat with Grams and Gramps! Or maybe I'll just go on an internet forum and judge parents for being lazy because I have no experience with children at all. This is anonymous because I really don't care enough to log in, but had to point out the judgmental nature of your character.
new Ipad is perfect for Skype, Facetime, webex, etc. Ipad2's camera was not sufficient but new Ipad works great.
Laptops with their small removable parts, power cords, outlet voltage, and excessive heat are not the safest device for a toddler.
At about two years of age, toddlers start asserting themselves by throwing temper tantrums - do not leave one unattended, even
with an Ipad; glass display can break if device is thrown or smashed with another toy.
Benefit of getting an Ipad is there are a lot of games for 1 to 3 year olds. Peekaboo Farm, Elmo Calls, etc seem to entertain
them for 10 - 15 minutes. Learning curve for iOS is about ten minutes. (more for adults who keep trying to "click" on stuff)
there are anti-foobar people? thats a great music player
nobody's perfect
Actually my choice is get the kid a 32" HDTV with skype built in. a lot easier except for the banging on the screen part.. LCD's are not as durable as plasmas.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Pick up a five-year-old used desktop for cheap. Unplug the keyboard and mouse during the call. Even cheap LCDs often have the ability to be wall-mounted, and you can probably get one used because somebody's replacing it with a better model. Sorted.
But you should limit the baby's total screen time (including television as well as Skype and anything else) to ideally an hour a week or so, *certainly* not more than half an hour a da. The child needs *real* human contact, with living breathing people in the same room, making eye contact and reaching out with fingers and all that good stuff babies like to do. If grandma and grandpa don't like that, tell them to get over it. The baby is a person, not an entertainment device for their personal pleasure.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
As far as I know, official Skype client won't run on armel. So until somebody ports android or writes an unofficial Skype client, this is not the way.
Or, iPod touch + Skype + Wifi, in a plastic casing, and you could wall-mount it fairly easily.
Seriously, you've already stated that you are tired of holding the laptop next to the crib for 40 minutes. Did you know they recently invented this REALLY cool and very easy to use device for holding laptops for indeterminate amounts of time? They call it a fucking TABLE. Just stick one a couple feet outside the crib and put the blooding thing on top of it! The only problem is trying to make sure the kid doesn't climb out of the crib and destroy it, if only there were some kind of audio/visual monitoring device built into the laptop.....
To all the people suggesting plexi-glass windowed super-duty wooden boxes made of Ikea tables, here's a hint. Just use one of the freaking tables!
I have an Asus netbook that works pretty well for this situation. Cheap enough that I don't give a damn about it, really, and it's held up reasonably well to my 2 year old daughter. Install Toddler Keys http://tk.ms11.net/ so that she can bang away on the keys without it doing much of anything, and disable the "close lid = standby or hibernate" feature because that'll cause some hangups. After that, you're pretty much golden, and at least in my case my kid is more interested in the Skype session because she can move the whole computer whereever she wants and sit down to talk to Mommy.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
You're against religion in schools? Just get a grip, religion in schools is here and is not going away.
At least for that point, you can get schools without religion by relocating (France forbids religion in public schools for instance). It is much harder to escape from Apple.
There is another issue with laptops that of cooling, and sealing a laptop in a box isn't going to be great for that either. An x86 processor will tend to run warmer and use active cooling, where a tablet with an arm processor will run cooler. Opening a laptop flat also isn't possible with a lot of netbooks or laptops either.
There are some nice tablets available for upwards of 150 euro that might be suitable for skype. Not every tablet has suitable hardware, Skype isn't written for every processor, much like flash.
Since Microsoft now owns Skype there is less of an interest in cross platform compatibility. Maybe that might change with Microsoft wanting to support Windows on ARM processors. However that's a long way from support for non-microsoft platforms.
It's a shame really since Skype was good as a defacto standard for cross platform messaging. Skype for facebook is something that is becoming popular but it will not run even with wine.
Rather sadly your laptop idea wins on the software side, probably best used with a separate monitor and webcam though allowing the main unit adequate ventilation.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Sadly, that's probably cheaper than an iPad.
I'm much more worried about fire or lightning or theft than about long term archival storage. Probably by the time the ink fades a kids year 2200 quantum cpu based ipod would be able to factor and crack the gpg key anyway. I have other offsite backup strategies too, this is just one way to backup a couple thousand bits. Guess whats printed and in my bank safe deposit box, for example. I'm not using thermal receipt paper, just toner on letter sized paper.
Also few people know you can mcrypt a gpg secret keyring. I mcrypt it before printing out, as if even 1 in 1e7 people would know what to do with my GPG keyring if they got it from me, anyway.
I would like to see the look on the face of a meth head who spends hours sledge hammering open my safe only to find pages of barcodes...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Why not use a $35 Raspberry Pi hooked up to a flat screen TV mounted onto the wall? You can get internet connection that way, can have a cam setup and can also control it virtually from your home office. Best of all, toddler gets to see and be seen.
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