Yes, it’s taken me a long time to get on the skype bandwagon, but I had a good reason! iChatAV doesn’t work, apparently, unless you have an Airport router, which previously cost around 250, which was way too goddamn rich for my apple-loving blood. The AV part of iChat never worked with Netgear (and won’t essentially, I’ve tried EVERYTHING) and whatever, I don’t have a webcam either.

So, when I was that the Airport (not the new one, but the dome one) was selling for about 99 bucks, refurbished, at apple.com, I snapped it up, because long before Ingrid arrived, i wanted to get video chat set up. I also didn’t want to get hosed like I did with iSight — "Oh," I thought, "I’ll just wait to buy an iSight, because when everyone gets one in their new computers, used ones will be a steal!" Um. No. I am kicking my own ass, over and over, for not just grabbing an iSight for 129 (student discount) because now they are selling for AT LEAST 200 bucks on ebay, but up to 3 or 400. So, yeah, that plan didn’t work out.

ANYWAY, I ordered the airport, and started looking around for iSight alternatives, blah blah blah, and decided I’d download Skype, because, what the hell, with the new magic router coming, why not try everything. Long story short, holy fuck! Skype works with the Netgear router! My friend Amity, the only perosn I know that uses Skype with video, let me test my own setup, first with just audio, and later, running through our video camera, and I was positively giddy.

I emailed my sister, then called her, and walked her through installation and setup, and within MINUTES, she was watching Ingrid clap and dance and play peekaboo. She was also totally losing her mind — remember, this is my SISTER, who called Dave very recently to learn how to copy and paste (only she still doesn’t know that’s the term) because she "wanted an address in an email, that you can click on." Her mind was totally, totally blown. And really, so was mine.

I’ve long wanted to get video chat working for my sister, and since she got a computer for christmas, it’s been more of a possibility. Really, I was just waiting to upgrade the router to do it. With a MacBook Pro in my future (from work, but I’ve no idea when I’ll actually get it, academic budgeting, etc) I figured I’d just upgrade the router now and wait a bit to do the rest… maybe use some audio chat. But no! VIDEO! I ordered a webcam for my sister, and had it shipped to her, so hopefully in a week or so we can have a two-way chat.

Until then, I’m hoping my mom will check it out from Utah (they are on vacation, and she’s been terribly ill, according to a doctor there, she has pneumonia, so she’s been lying very low while my dad and their friends ski, so an Ingrid sighting would lift her spirits), and that my sister doesn’t have any problems installing the actual webcam when it arrives. And also? If you have an iSight kicking around, now is the time to triple your money on eBay. Seriously.