I am nerd. I am sure that you already know this and I probably have admitted that on this blog before; but, I needed to qualify this post. Being a nerd, I love technology and try to make sure that I don't become the kind of man that can't figure out how to program the clock on the "God Damn VCR". That doesn't mean that I need to have the newest widget. In fact, this weekend I bought a new computer but my old computer was an old 466mhz G4 tower. If you aren't a nerd, that probably doesn't mean much to you, but for those of you that are, you know that this is an almost ancient computer. I bought it in 2001 and with lots of loving massages, I have kept in almost perfect working order. I didn't "need" a new computer, my old G4 worked great, but I got a shiny new iMac anyway.
The point of this post isn't about me being a nerd or my new computer though. The point of this post is about my daughter Sophie and her grandparents that live 1000 miles away.
While I love technology, I am a little bit of a Luddite in that I don't believe that technology automatically makes life better. However, when I saw Sophie trying to mimic her grandma bix's crazy mouth contortions, I knew in my heart that technology had made her life, her grandparents lives and by extension, my life, a little bit better. Short of being able to teleport (come on quantum mechanics) I don't know of anything that is going to be able to allow Sophie to interact with her grandparents in the way that this technology does.
Technology has infringed upon our privacy, made the 24 hour news cycle unbearable, destroyed age old skills and committed countless other atrocities, but on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, it allowed my daughter to kiss her grandmother from 1000 miles away. And for this I am thankful.
p.s. For any poor souls surfing the web that are trying to make the video conference function of iChat work, I gave up. I was given the suggestion on the Apple support forum to give up on iChat and just download Skype. I did not have to open any ports on my router. I didn't have to worry about NAT (Network Address Translation) and most importantly it worked just as advertised within five minutes of downloading the application. I hope this helps.
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5 comments:
I think it is so awesome that Sophie and gparents will be able to see each other more frequently now because of your fancy technology. :)
Great to hear Miss Sophie will get to spend some e-time with her grandparents. They will be able to spoil her from 1000 miles away.
I can't believe the mac version for video conferencing didn't work and you actually posted that you used something else. I almost had to drive over and take your Volkswagon away.
Oh, Roy, you have no idea what else this old grandma will be able to teach her from 1000 miles away. The mouth contortions are only the beginning.......
Oh god... Sweetie, I don't think we thought about mom TEACHING Sophie things. Perhaps we should rethink this video chat thing.
Yep, regular football season is over. Javers plays for a semi-pro indoor league (I think it might the AIFL?). Indoor football is a little hard to get used to at first because I think the field is half the size. But it makes for more touchdowns, which is exciting.
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