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Gadgets For Grandma
Gizmodo had an essay contest on what tech gadget would you give to your grandma. Here is my entry.
So what kind of gadget would I get my grandma? Well my grandmother is 91 years old and she lives in a retirement home in my home town. She was born in 1914 back when the Tsar ruled Russia. Her town did not get electricity until the 1920's. She knows how to write short hand, has a list of all her phone contacts penned on the back of the phone book and has never written a email. Modern GUI design still has a long way to go before my grandma could figure it out without me there to provide tech support and guidance.
So rather than an iPod or PDA I got my grandma an Apex DVD player and a folder full of DVD+Rs of old black and white movies from the 30's, 40's and 50's. My girlfriend has a rather unhealthy obsession with movies made before JFK took a trip to Dallas. I used my iBook with MacTheRipper and Roxio Popcorn to copy a selection of movies for grandma. They hooked her DVD player up to the big TV in the common room and they have movie night with Jimmy Stewart every couple days.
My girlfriend's old movie collection has movies that were not released on DVD that she taped off cable and I converted from VHS to DVD with my DVD Recorder.
Now this movie night at the senior center was actually created with some minor copyright law infringement and exaggeration of fare use rights. I doubt that the MPAA will be interested in busting down the door and serving my grandma a legal nastygram for showing DVD+R Jimmy Stewart movies to her fellow widows at the retirement home. I believe that how we should have lenient media licenses that does not limit the rights of the consumer. I believe in respecting copyright but I don't see how it would be unethical for me to copy some rare, out of print or never in DVD print movies and let grandma enjoy them with a bag of microwave popcorn. These are movies that they could not afford or could not find and I doubt that any major media conglomerate is going to go broke over it. It is not like they are passing around the medical marijuana. I have a hard time trying to feel bad for the MPAA when they try to bribe congress to pass the Broadcast flag legislation that would make this impossible and I don't see how this is going to put any hardworking Hollywood talent out of business.
I also use iCal on my iPod to remind me to call her on a regular basis.
So my gizmo for grandma is a easy to use DVD player with a folder of DVD+R Black and White movies. Jack Valenti can cool it.
Jake at July 26, 2005 
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Comments
I have a similar need. Did you find a particular Apex model to be easy to use? I generally find the chinese brands to be overly complicate with poor menus?
Posted by: travis at December 16, 2006 10:48 AM
