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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?"
Sounds like you're seriously underestimating a toddler's resourcefulness, frankly...
Caveat Utilitor
That's funny, because it's my parents, not my kids, who like to mash on laptop buttons and drool on the keyboard.
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
We tried protecting a baby with plexiglass once, but it was a disaster. We were thinking of getting Baby 2.0 to see if the problem has been fixed, but the delivery time is outrageous!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
whatever you do, don't install E*TRADE on said laptop
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
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
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.
We were thinking of getting Baby 2.0 to see if the problem has been fixed, but the delivery time is outrageous!
Instead of having one employee work on it, just assign nine, and guaranteed it'll be done nine times faster; maybe even faster with synergy. Don't they teach anything at MBA school anymore?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
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
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
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.
I recommend you have your parents come over to play with your kid, and give it toys/animals/people to play and interact with. Unfortunately, people are lazy and prefer to have the TV/screen babysitter.
Or they have parents who live on the other side of the planet, and who can't afford to fly half way around the globe for routine visits.
That would be our situation -- my parents are a five hour flight away. My wife's parents can't get any sort of direct flight to where we live, as they're on the opposite side of the globe; with all of the connections required I've had the trip take over 24 hours. The absolute shortest we could possibly get it down to is roughly 18 hours. If you factor in that my wife's parents a) aren't wealthy, and b) aren't particularly in good health, the opportunities for them to visit in person are on the order of once every few years at best.
Skype running on an iPad (on our end) or old PC (on their end) however means they've been able to see their only grandchild on a weekly basis. My 19mo daughter has had the benefit of hearing their voices, hearing their native language, and seeing their faces. Thanks to technology, she knows who her family is, and both sides have some connection to the other through more than an abstract concept of extended family my daughter is too young to understand otherwise. Similar with my parents (except we use Facetime instead of Skype), who have the benefit of seeing us somewhat more frequently, but still only twice a year at best.
So congratulation to you for not venturing too far from your parents home. Maybe for you seeing your parents just means crawling out of the basement, but for some of us the only way the grandparents get to participate in their grandchildren's lives is through technology.
But hey -- if you think you're up to it, why not take the condescending tone to my parents-in-law, and you can tell them how they shouldn't have been allowed to talk to their only grandchild after she took her first steps completely unassisted the other week. I'll enjoy hearing how they tear you a new one over the suggestion.
Yaz
Yeah, when my parents were raising me, there was no internet
When my grandparents were raising them, there were no baby monitors
When my great-grandparents were raising them, there was no electricity
It's called progress. No, it's not necessary. Yes, it's nice to have. No, the fact that it's not necessary doesn't mean the OP shouldn't try to have it.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face