Switching Mom to Mac

my grandmother (age 87) loves her MacBook. all the time she calls me and tells me something new she figured out how to do. we even video chat sometimes. she regularly uses Mail, Safari, iChat, and Dashboard, and I'm going to get her started on Journler.

the bit about his mother unexpectedly switching to her neighbor's wifi decided me to write...

There is a very nice how-to, on MacOSXHints.com, whose sole purpose is to recuperate control, with very tight specifications such as it has to be purely remote, with nothing specially prepared on the remote mac, and secure.

The resulting procedure for "Buttons" is as simple as "open the mail I just sent you, open the attachment, and double-click on the script inside".

I encourage you to check:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070302234400232&query=cotvnc

Indeed, it was the first time for me I *efficiently* used VNC and the rest, in a real environment (ie, the real person I really helped really had no special setup to do and it "just worked").

Hope this helps...

My top tip if she is easy distance to an Apple store is sign her up for ProCare. My mum likes her weekly trip for an hour with a nice young boy or girl (not entirely sure the Mac Genii feel the same way, but they're generally very willing and kind). Saves me a lot of pain - I think most Mums take tuition better from a pro than offspring and I have the rather uncomfortable feeling that she'll be teaching me things shortly.

I gave my mum a mini for her birthday and she *LOVES* it. A recent present was an iSight camera (before they stopped selling them thank goodness). It just works like a treat. She runs on a restricted account that only allows her to use iPhoto (pictures of the grandchild), Safari (which she hasn't started using yet), Mail (which she thinks is just great - and is the conduit for the grandchild photos) and lastly iChat.

I really didn't think it would work as well as it has. Just the occasional remote login to do Software updates or helping her out - it's perfect.

Well done, Apple.

(I should have said my mum has no computer experience whatsoever!).

Kevin wrote:
"If my Dad's IP changes - so far it's been steady for 4+ months - and he's not at the computer I send him an email with ARD in the subject. His machine has a rule that replies if it's from me and has that subj line.

Once I get the reply I can look in the extended headers for his IP. Much easier than trying to talk him through going into system prefs.

Or if he's at the machine, he can send me a blank email and get the same effect"


That is clever and yet so simple. I'm wondering how I've never heard of that before.

Implementing similar setup now.....

This guy's article(s) both about his own switching experience and getting a relative to switch is almost parallel with mine, minus the VNC ssh tunnel and substitute "Mom" with "brother in law" plus wife.

Two years ago I was a Linux/Windows user knowing peripherally that Mac OS X was UNIX based, but not having the funds to get a Mac. The Mini comes out so I shell out the $$$'s to get one to see what using one is all about. Six months later it's my primary home computer, and I shell out the $$$'s to get my wife a Mac Mini. I don't need the VNC to administer her Mac, but I don't need to administer her Mac. A year and some months later the Intel switch happens, and I get a Macbook. A week later my wife has a black Macbook. Now we're video iChatting when I'm at the office and she's at home.

We go visit the brother in law and show him our Macbooks. Three days later his new Macbook arrives, and within 24 hours he's referring to his old HP Windows XP desktop as "that piece of junk." It might have been that his PC froze while trying to get to lottery numbers on some website so we used his sister's Macbook (on a neighbor's open wireless, at that) to get them, I'm not sure, but he's pretty impressed. A few days later one of his co-workers sees his Macbook and next thing Apple makes another sale.

Now we're all multi-way video iChatting, my wife is happily enjoying her Macbook wherever she might want to be, her brother is thrilled with all of the cool things he can now do (he's a hobbiest musician) with multi-media. I'm living the good life with all of that and still can do the corporate thing with Parallels Desktop to run all those pesky employer Windows apps. Brother-in-law bought Parallels Desktop to do some Windows things he thought he might need, but hasn't gotten around to installing/configuring it and might sell his copy of Parallels to his co-worker.

My old PPC Mac Mini was shipped to my parents pre-configured by me with accounts for them, and Mom is finding that a Mac is a damned good machine with a very intuitive OS. When visiting us we showed them our Macbooks, and now they are seriously considering upgrading after seeing first hand what they can do. An iPod I got as a gift prior to my Mac Mini purchase is somewhere at the beginning of the story somewhere, but really it's the UNIX aspect that got me into Macs; it's the usability factor that got everyone else into them. Especially in the Mac Laptop form.

Yes, switching can be a bit daunting, but if one opens the mind to possibilities they start multiplying like rabbits.

Nice graphic! :-)

If my Dad's IP changes - so far it's been steady for 4+ months - and he's not at the computer I send him an email with ARD in the subject. His machine has a rule that replies if it's from me and has that subj line.

Once I get the reply I can look in the extended headers for his IP. Much easier than trying to talk him through going into system prefs.

Or if he's at the machine, he can send me a blank email and get the same effect

three months back I got my parents to "switch".

their old PC was at deaths door and I kept telling them that if the bought anything other than a Mac then they were just fools.

Dad tried to resist, "everyone has windows, so obviously thats what I need"

long story short, I got them to get a Mac.

After only a week or two on the OS X side of the fence, they have seen the light.

like my mother confessed to me only last Tuesday, "You were right, i'ts true. once you go Mac, You never go back"

I have this planned for my parents but I'm waiting for Leoaprd to come out so I can use the iChat's built in option to take temporary control of the computer.