[ale] OT: WebTV type device?

[Robert L. Harris]

  Ok, my sister and I are going to try and do the impossible, get our
Grandfather online.  He's living about 2hours from us, our grandmother
died 3 years ago and he's getting to that point where he's very bored
and getting very lonely.  He won't move away from the house they built
45 years ago and we can't move there (no jobs, etc).

  As a result we're thinking of getting him a WebTV type setup.  Ideally
something that is 99% maintenance free, plugs into a TV (for big fonts,
etc), can be powered on/off easily due to power quality there, can use
either a modem or cablemodem and something amazingly easy to setup/use.
He's extremely smart but doesn't use computers or the net at all and
questions the value of learning them now.

  Any good suggestions?  A linux box that will require patching and
maintaining could make a good last ditch effort but would likely be a
pain up front to teach him and I'm not sure how well it'd survive the
power outages.

Robert




:wq!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert L. Harris                     | GPG Key ID: E344DA3B
                                         @ x-hkp://pgp.mit.edu
DISCLAIMER:
      These are MY OPINIONS ALONE.  I speak for no-one else.

Life is not a destination, it's a journey.
  Microsoft produces 15 car pileups on the highway.
    Don't stop traffic to stand and gawk at the tragedy.

 PGP signature