Set up IceComm on a web site that only you and your kids can access, and give them the Chrome browser with a bookmark to go there at scheduled times .. https://icecomm.io/

Very easy to set up server less video conferencing. Add a bit of TogetherJS to the mix and you've got realtime chat as well - without needing to install anything on any local computers besides the Chrome browser.

I use IceComm on my main server as the 'front door' to my business - I have a browser sitting on my front door all day, and whenever clients visit I'm ready for them. Its just like having a virtual front door to the business .. very handy and very care-free for the customers.

I agree: Lua is absolutely one of the best things to be teaching high school students. You can either sit entirely in the Lua language itself, or you can learn to extend the capabilities of the VM and interface with outside libraries and frameworks.

I think the big elephant in the room is more to be found further upstream, in the area of manufacturing. Worrying about software hacks is one thing - not having the faintest absolute clue exactly *what* is inside the chip package is something else entirely. Think its an accumulator bank? Oh sorry, maybe we forgot to mention the harmonic bundles associated with wave guidance within the interstitial distances of the rapidly blinking transistors .. yeah, those can be read from space. With a satellite (or 12).

The game is over folks, or rather .. the game is on, depending on how you look at it. Until you are capable of investigating and participating, directly, in the sub-assemblies, you will always have a weak back door. Either we, ultimately, become able to assemble our own chips on the desktop, or there will always be a power class: those who can build such devices, and those who can only be ruled by them.

We need to evolve to adapt to this new threat to the species, and instead of seriously *resisting* its effects on our being, we - the true power - direct the feature to our favour. If, out of the NSA catastrophe, we gain a "New Internet" wherein *everything, everywhere* for 15 years, was available to everyone, then we'd have indeed a new era in the human species. A truly evolutionary step, made by mistake - perhaps.

The OEMs should be profiting from their own app stores .. profits being driven from their customers. That they don't get this yet is hugely disappointing .. appstores - and naturally, software updates - are of huge interest to "next-gen" cell users .. but the carriers just don't want to get into it.

I suppose its because of the draconian US laws about content delivery over telephone networks, in the end, though ..

I love Robotron, play it regularly, Defender too .. In fact this is a list of games on my WIZ console, which is running pretty much MAME exclusively these days:

Robotron
Defender
Scramble
Moon Buggy
Crazy Climber
Crazy Climber 2
Juno First
Pleiades
Pisces
Exerion

Currently, I just can't stop playing Juno First .. love it so much, I'm considering doing a 'tribute/remake' for iPhone ..

I wouldn't be so quick to jump on the SmartQ7 .. the OS pretty much blows, and there are power-management issues .. the device is rather prone to suddenly shutting down if you don't play with the right buttons for a while (15 minutes), and really .. the OS is pretty bad. It'll be much more ready for prime-time when a full Android or Mer port is completed .. in the meantime, if you get one, be prepared to put up with a very weird, Chinese, Ubuntu hack ..

-- Hey, he can keep his blackberry, but only use it in the Oval office.

-- He keeps his blackberry, takes it with him, but it is open and public and well-maintained, and he shares it a lot with whoever he's with .. while also having his Sectera along for the ride, too.

Hey, come to think of it, he's the President now. Why doesn't he just get someone to **make** him the perfect wirehead rig, eh ..

.. this will be my *last* MacBook.

I wish someone else from the 90's would make laptops as cool as Apple though ..