My family used a service like this, called Streamline, for years in the 2000's before they went bust. Streamline installed a garage door keypad opener and even provided a refrigerator in your garage. This gave them access to whatever was in your garage, sure; we never had a single issue. When they went bust they even let us keep the full size refrigerator!

The android platform supports an alternative keyboard called 8pen. It redesigns the interface to optimize for mobile screens. After continual use, i can now type on my mobile screen without even showing letters. Makes it great for confusing any screen watchers in public as well.

I just wanted to thank all of you for your help. This was my first Ask Slashdot, and though I have been a reader for many years, I have never contributed. The trolling in the responses was very minimal (and only offensive in one post, which others didn't even reply to!), and for that I am appreciative, but better yet, there have been some excellent responses and points of discussion made. I tried to respond and help clarify my own position where appropriate, and I wish I could attach a screenshot of all the tabs I opened to pursue your suggestions. I am not sure which one I will settle on as of yet, and this may take a few months of trial and error before I get a sim that I am happy with (or end up hacking my own), but your support has been much valued, thank you! Also, as one last shameless plug, if you are interested in following up on my work in the lab, feel free to head over to my blog at http://jonmcleanpcv.wordpress.com/ where I blog about everything from life in Kenya, to Ubuntu problems in the lab, to some Kiswahili lessons. Thank you again everyone!

I do use a whiteboard, and will continue to do so even if I begin using a simulator. Part of the problem is that my students have NO experience with a computer as is, and so I really want to try and maximize the time they are simply interacting with one. There is too much, "sit and listen and look at the whiteboard," and it's getting to the point where they need to be clicking with the mouse (to practice their mouse skills), and learning at their own pace (to help combat issues we have with language differences). These are also primarily goals of getting software to aid my teaching, but the key is aid and augment, not replace :)

Thanks Paul. I do appreciate the all-angles approach CISCO takes to their products, and you guys do some fantastic work in the developing world, but sadly I am not at a level in the organization to make any type of recommendation this way. Also, to become a CISCO academy is a bit more than what my institution is aiming to do now, which is focus on getting people to type well and be able to troubleshoot and repair basic problems. Now, if there is a way to get the Packet Tracer app for free to use not as an academy, I would love to talk, haha. Cheers!

That is the tricky part about assumptions in the developing world, they don't always hold accurate. I have 24 gorgeous, brand new, Lenovo computers, courtesy of the Chinese government (trying to make trade inroads into Africa), but I have no network. I had a small network set up running a home router and a 24-port switch, purchased using the normal requisition process at my institution (Peace Corps volunteers are strongly encouraged not to use their own money, a point to which I strong adhere), but we lost the switch during a terribly grid-spike that surged through our, "surge protectors." As a result, no network at the moment, and thus the desire for a visual simulator.

Don't confused proprietary and industry-standardized. Yes, pens can inter-operate, but it is not because the inherent nature of a pen is, "open," in a business sense. In fact, some pen designs have patents on them, the essence of proprietary. What you are talking about are industry-standards, where manufacturers come together and agree upon the best way for them (or at least a specific subset of them) can compete and still make money while not focusing on brand lock-in. As a result you get specific standards, such as lead core sizes or inkwell tube lengths. In the software world, one might make the comparison to open data formats which force software vendors to sell based on product features and usability and support and not just because of data lock-in. Or finally, look at web standards. We have the open Gecko and WebKit engines, but then there is also the closed, proprietary, IE and Opera engines, which all are able to display web-based content in relatively standard and uniform ways. What you find is that when markets mature, the tools, the long-term products, remain proprietary, while the short term commodity consumables often become standardized.

You make a perfectly good point, and though I make decisions in my own computing life based on principles, I am not morally opposed to proprietary solutions either in my personal life or when making decisions for other computing situations. However, as another commenter pointed out when replying to your post, I am a volunteer working in Kenya. Individuals may take those words for however they like, and this post is not an argument on what we all think those words mean, but the long story short is that for all intents and purposes I cannot purchase software and legally abide by licensing restrictions. Based on that, I try my hardest, when possible, to not infringe on the US interpretation of software law, with notable exceptions including the use of legally-grey MP3 codecs and other media-related software. It is a fine line we walk between paying for what is best and standing by the principle of should we need to pay. Ultimately, the only ones who can answer that are coders, as it is their work being fought over, and much like musicians having split answers on downloading digital music and paying for it, so does the coding camp split. I guess the end argument would be, there are proprietary solutions available, and if cost becomes the hindering factor to using them, then the FOSS world should respond by replicating functionality on their own.

I am not using an RMS certified distro, sorry. I am using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Kenyan IT is plagued by pirated copies of software floating around everywhere, where the concept of getting any software is easy, as long as you know a guy. Thus, there are actually expectations that the lab will be fully Windows equipped, with Adobe products, Arc/AutoCAD, music-production suites, all because there is no concept of licensing and whatnot. I co-teach with individuals who group up in this IT environment, and though I am slowly migrating them over to a FOSS environment, there is still a need for a hybrid design so that other teachers can teach with the tools they are comfortable teaching (while taking the time to learn the new tools). As a result, I run a virtualized instance of Windows XP with just enough resources to run Microsoft Office I must also admit to the shame of using the GStreamer stack, making it possible to play non-free-codec encoded files, such as MP3. In this case, the tactic is to peak interest in computers using something that my Kenyan students are already very interested in: music. Sadly, all music here is distributed on MP3 CDs, so I must be able to accommodate those, or else nobody would come into the lab. It's a constant battle between practical and principal. Feel free to follow it on my blog: http://jonmcleanpcv.wordpress.com/ Cheers!