[macndave]

Originally posted by blb8t:
Well, it's not one of those fancy new Powerbooks, but the following is a computer I put together using a child's play desk, Lego's, and salvaged parts from various PB 5xx. The processor (167 mHz NewerTech upgrade), hard drive, floppy, etc are built into the blue desktop. The keyboard is flush mounted. The screen (PB 540c) is held within a framework of lego's. There is a QuickCam camera on the top of the display (see 2nd pic). Also have flush mounted speakers on either side of the display, with subwoofer under desktop (along with external 9gb disk). Have it networked to the rest of my computers, with access to the internet (only pbskids.org and bigideafun.com). Kids have enjoyed this for 2 years. Still going strong.

That is one of the coolest "desktops" I have ever seen. Your kids must really enjoy using it.

How do you restrict internet access to those two websites?

[blb8t]

Originally posted by macndave:


That is one of the coolest "desktops" I have ever seen. Your kids must really enjoy using it.

How do you restrict internet access to those two websites?

The restriction is very simple (the 2 older kids are 6 and 4). On IE, I just turn off the Address Bar, Navigation Bar, Explorer Bar and just keep the Favorites Bar, with the 2 sites as favorites. So far, neither of them cares to go exploring beyond those 2 sites. When they do, then I may get more technical in my restriction. But since both sites offer so much for the little ones to do, and since they don't know that they are 'online' (it's just more games to them), I don't really have to worry too much.
The latest thing I've been working on is allowing them to share my Epson attached to my PM 8600 (g3 400) using Epsonshare. Haven't had a lot of luck yet.
I took the electronics portion of the Touch pad, removed everything but the Sleep Switch, turned it over, and pushed the 'Sleep Switch' thru the bottom of the desktop, allowing us to just reach under the desktop and put the computer to sleep.
Did you notice the 'Powerbook 540c' Lego at the top of the screen? One of my favorite touches.

Information added below on 9/12/02:
I have the PB's built-in microphone 2 or 3 lego-rows below the screen.
Kids have ~20-25 different Games/Edu-Software running on this computer. They almost all require a CD to run (which I do not have connected). I use a combination of Disk Copies (of all the CD's), AppleScripts and DragThing to make this work. You can see DragThing on the desktop in the picture. Each icon represents an Applescript to launch that application:
1)Applescript unmounts any disk which is not a hard disk (keeps the disk copies from cluttering the desktop)...
2)... then mounts the appropriate disk copy...
3)... then launches the application.

[bosolevu]

Here's mine: