Jeremiah and Sarah are watching Sesame Street’s Talk, Listen, Connect video for military kids with a deployed parent. Elmo’s daddy has to go away for a long time. But he gets to talk to Elmo via Webcam.
Jeremiah had no idea there was such an a thing as webcams. The tech guru that he is, somehow he never knew you could actually talk to see each other via the Internet. He thought it was just a pretend thing on Sesame Street. When I convinced him that such technology actually exists… and that we plan on using it… his eyes lit up. He jumped and spun and danced. Suddenly, life seemed so much better for my little man.
So. A little help here. What gear do I need to buy for Joel’s notebook and our PC? We don’t have a lot of money, but I want something good. Two webcams, skype phones… or a phone and a headset… Anybody have any advice? We’ve never used Skype before.
I personally have no advice on this, however my friends do.
I know that Hanna talks to her parents and sister, living in Thailand, via Skype and they love it! Finally she can have those hour long conversations with her sister without having to be a millionaire!
And Heather Barnes used something on the internet to talk to and have a webcam setup when Sid was still in India and she was here.
Email me and I will get you hooked up with their email addresses.
Comment by hillery — September 30, 2006 @ 8:02 am
Edit: It is now Heather Chatterjee, oops.
Comment by hillery — September 30, 2006 @ 8:03 am
Amy, I use Skype to talk to my brother in Canada and it is very good. The only thing you need to do is download the program from Skype.com. There is nothing to buy. When you come out to the house on your way to SC for training I will show you how it works.
As far as webcams go, I can’t help you there, don’t have one yet.
Thom
Comment by Thom — September 30, 2006 @ 9:30 am
Thanks Thom and Hillery.
Comment by Amy — September 30, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Oh wise one of the internet ways,
Alright, here is the short story version…I am awaiting commissioning papers to become an Army Chaplain on active duty and go to training in January 2007. So I troll for army chaplain sites. That’s how I am here.
I just bought two Logitech Quickcam pro5000 cameras to talk to my wife and kids while at training. They work very well. Spent about $70 each. I think you can find them for around $55 online. I just use them with MSN messenger. Never used skype.
My questions: I just started a blog a couple of weeks ago. pastorscott.wordpress.com How do I get my own domain name and can I do that for free? There is so much I need to learn in order to have a site that I am proud of. Any tips would be appreciated.
Blessings,
Scott
Comment by Scott Dennis — September 30, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
You will need to buy some kind of microphone. We’ve got headsets we use at work. I will find out what they are. And any old web cam should work. Your digial camera may even do the trick.
Comment by Judi — September 30, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
[obviously I am not techy at all but you already know that; thus my comment is about the Sesame Street portion]
I want to watch that video too! How did you come across it…sounds like the kind of thing the kids need right now.
Glad to hear it perked Jer up so much.
FYI side note: my mom STILL attributes any of my success in life to God’s grace and the hours upon hours of Sesame Street that I watched.
Comment by Tamara — October 1, 2006 @ 12:08 am
Amy, it just so happens that I have recent experience with this. Stan and I actually used Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and any other method we could think of to communicate. I bought a Logitech camera for notebooks that had a built in mic. It was nice, except that I had Stan on speaker most of the time. I recently acquired a Logitech headset/microphone at work to use with Skype for my boss while he is overseas. It seems to work pretty good. I like Skype. The connection is clear, and it is very user friendly. As for equipment, I definitely recommend Logitech. It is inexpensive, but reliable. My camera wasn’t that expensive and the headset we got for work wasn’t either.
Comment by nicole — October 1, 2006 @ 7:55 pm