A Full-Time 2-Way Video Link To Grandparents? 240
uid7306m writes "We have elderly parents who live a long way off. However, my technological radar tells me that it's possible to set up a 24/7 video link between our kitchen and theirs. It'd be good for our kids and good for the parents, and we can now get pretty cheap nearly unlimited broadband connections at this end (UK). What's the best way to do it? Has anyone tried it? On the far end, it ought to have, in Dilbert's(TM) immortal words 'One big button on it, and we push it for you in the factory.'"
Skype... (Score:5, Insightful)
... but that might be too complicated.
I could see some advantages of streaming both ways to large flat panels. I think it would be a bit intrusive, though, because as much as I love my parents I'm very glad there is a 10 hour distance between us.
If all else fails you could just do a webcast. While interestingly linked, I just can't get into the concept too much for fear that one day I might see my mother in law staring back at us ;)
Re:Bandwidth caps? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Unlimited Broadband" (Score:5, Insightful)
Umm haven't you heard? You only get that if you dont use it.
Start doing 24/7 video and you will find your connection throttled, or gone.
I have a suggestion... (Score:1, Insightful)
Why not just rename "Ask Slashdot" to "Someone Fucking Think For Me"?
Seriously. Whatever happened to the days of "Hey, I wanted to do 'x', and so, here's how I did it - because I'm a nerd"?
Whatever happened to the days when questions were prefaced with "I wanted to accomplish , and HERE is what I've done so far to do so - and here's the results of that - does anyone have any other ideas"?
NOW DAYS, all the questions come in the form of "What's the best way to do it?" - which translates, basically, to: "Tell me how to do it".
WTF?
This is NOT "News for Nerd, Stuff That Matters".
It's a sad commentary on the "state of the art" of supposed Nerds here, too true.
And the editors.
Re:Skype... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually if they already have large flat panel monitors, use a small computer like a mac mini, or one of the mini itx boards. Mount the video camera either above ore below the display and conceal it slightly if needed.
that way they could simply push a couple of buttons on a remote and activate it. you get the big veiw, comfy chairs, of the living room while you chat.
As long as you can turn it off occasionally it isn't bad.
Re:Apple iChat (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not Skype
Just because you ask: I think some of us don't like a 12MB encrypted binary executable file running on our system that nobody [blackhat.com] except the creators know what it does.
Re:Bandwidth caps? (Score:1, Insightful)
Are you with a decent ISP? (If there is such a thing)
If you are with Virgin Media then you will easily exceed their bandwidth limits which you can find at the bottom of this page [virginmedia.com].
... Most of the time you would simply be streaming video of 2 empty kitchens to each other wouldn't you?
Well, yes. Empty kitchens are the most common state. It depends a lot on the compression algorithm, I suppose. In principle, an empty kitchen takes very little bandwidth to transmit.
So, if one had compression software that was optimized for the 24/7 kitchen case, it would be
doing perhaps 256kbit/sec when someone was walking around, but only 5kbit/second when nothing was moving.
24/7 x 96kbit/sec = 28 Gbyte/month. That actually fits within a small business ADSL plan for GBP 24/month. If it spent 80% of the day transmitting nearly nothing, you'd be down to about 6 gigabytes/month, which you can get from lots of ISPs for less than 20 pounds per month.
Re:I have a suggestion... (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't you have 100 tacos to buy and a Doctor Who marathon to watch?
Yes, but because I took the time to fucking think about it, the PVR in my PC is working just fine so I'll timeshift the Dr Who marathon a bit and take the time to reply to you. Anyway, the Tacos are on their way and it takes a while to stuff 100 of them into the delivery guy's car (so i hear).
I agree with the parent's sentiment - what has happened to the nerd way of doing something because it needed to be done? Very few people want to think about their problems anymore.
The powerful scientific pocket calculator was the start of all this hoo haa. Kids were dumbed down and started forgetting to do basic arithmetic (yes, there are many who can't work out how much change I get when the till is down and I've just ordered a hundred tacos).
The Intarwebs has been the other downfall. People are only too happy to put "i want to do X" into Google and click pages. If no useful results come up they bitch and moan that there is no way to do X (maybe X is just something so menially boring that nobody documented it, or it's just dumb, or nobody ever thought of it yet) but these people don't care.
What you're seeing people is the well-established decline in intelligence and determination which comes with the "google-it" culture.
I hate to sound cynical, but: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bandwidth caps? (Score:1, Insightful)
It's funny how much people like to unnecessary complicate easy things. Reminds me of that "Big Bang Theory" chapter were the guys try assempling an IKEA furniture and end up "refactoring it".
Use Skype, iChat or whatever chat app with video capabilities you like most. I'm using Skype with my parents and inlaws on a daily basis and works fine.
Or, at least, get a life ;)
Re:Apple iChat (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know, but this sub thread was about iChat, which depends on about 3 gigs of encrypted code, the majority of which only the dark Apple overlords knows what goes on inside of.
Telephone networks, network switches at your ISP, cell phones, gmail, name servers, and non-local web servers all have code invisible to the end user.
So, we might as well get paranoid enough to shun all modern communications technology if we are going to get our panties in a wad over a single closed source program.
Re:Apple iChat (Score:3, Insightful)
I've got a baby, a mac, and several distant relatives, some with macs and some with PCs. iChat is noticably better than skype. As a bonus 10.5 has screen sharing built in too, just as easy to use.
For extra ease if use, Google for the terminal command to make iChat auto-accept incoming requests.
Re:Apple iChat (Score:3, Insightful)