Can a Mac make me a hero to my in-laws?
After a less-than-stellar first attempt to get his in-laws online for the first time from the off-the-grid, 4,000-feet elevation house they've lived in for more than 30 years, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman and his wife are returning to the mountain this week with a new Mac to help make the process better. And what could be better than a great view to go with your Internet?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)Could a Mac be what it takes to get my in-laws to love the Internet?
Last week, I had the very rare opportunity to help get my in-laws, who live off-the-grid at 4,000 feet in the middle of a national forest, online for the first time and, my wife and I hoped, to instantly end more than 30 years of their being cut off from media innovations.
As I wrote afterward though, their initial experience was quite a bit less than stellar, mainly due to the vagaries of navigating what seem like fairly restrictive download threshold policies implemented by their satellite Internet vendor, HughesNet: After hitting the download limit of 200 megabytes in one day--which I'm certain we actually didn't hit--the connection slowed to less than 2Kbps.
But there were other problems, too, that had to do with what it takes to make a 2-year-old Windows machine that's never been online safe for play dates with the Internet. And for my in-laws, who had no experience whatsoever with downloading security updates, and XP Service Packs, and virus protection, I can only imagine how daunting it must have seemed. Even for me, a longtime computer user--albeit a Mac loyalist--it was confusing.
While my wife and I were on hand the day Hughes came to install the satellite, we had only that one day up on the mountain to help get things set up properly. But given that we ended up wasting hours trying, and failing, to download those security patches and virus protection packages, we weren't able to get much done before we had to leave. We couldn't even get their new Gmail account working.
But we have a plan. And it involves a computer that simply doesn't require security download after service pack download to be safe online.
Monday, a new (well, refurbished) MacBook arrived at my house, and over the next couple of days, my wife and I are going to load that computer up with as much necessary and fun software (starting with OpenOffice) as we can find, and then cart it back up to her parents' with us later this week. In addition, we're going to bring them an Airport Extreme so that they can use that new computer wirelessly all around their mountaintop property.
After all, while they may not understand the sense of freedom that a wireless Internet connection provides, we hope they will soon realize that sitting on their deck, looking down over the treetops at their stellar view, is a much better place to be online than stuffed into the tiny windowless office where they have their PC.
As for Hughes, after I contacted them last week to comment for the story I was writing, I was told by someone in their public relations department that the company would do what it can to help my in-laws. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but sure enough, the in-laws did get a phone call from someone in tech support, offering to work through any residual issues.
Originally, that call was supposed to happen Monday, but I suggested that they postpone it until Thursday when my wife and I will be back up on the mountain, so that we can help diagnose the problem and describe it to the technician.
That's important since, as I wrote previously, my in-laws don't have anything to compare their online experience to, and therefore would likely have trouble describing exactly what the problem is. But I can: Even before being booted to under-2Kbps speeds for supposedly going over the 200MB download threshold their account allows, the top speed they were getting on their 1.0 Mbps account was about 13 Kbps. Hardly high speed. So, we'll have to see if Hughes can do something about that.
Still, on Sunday, as my wife and I were hanging out, spending a little time online, an e-mail popped into her in-box. It was from the in-laws. And for us, having spent the last nine years working hard to get them to embrace the Internet as a way to stay in touch with us--and the rest of her family--it was a rather big moment.
If you have suggestions of important software that we should put on their new Mac--especially if it's free--please send them to me by Tuesday evening.
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South and North Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
I'm a Mac user and I think a Mac is probably a better choice for people who use computers casually but you arguments are pretty weak.
my complaint when I used XP was each week something super important would pop up to need downloading "right now!" and after the update, I really wouldn't notice anything anywhere. I'm sure something under the hood was fixed or tweaked, but as the user, I really wouldn't notice any new features to anything. Since switching to Mac, I have been surprised at how many of their updates are actually updates that add features to the apps I use. Quicktime, iTunes, iLife, the dvd player, etc. most of the time when one of those are updated, I actually see the difference (new features/options). Instead of constant tweaking under the hood, Apple seems to want to add features to their apps.
I would rather reformat and start six Macs from scratch rather than just one XP machine. Funny thing is, my Macs have never needed to be reformatted and rebuilt while my XP machine/s seemed to need it at least once a year.
The 200MB a day download limit makes any computer unupdatable though, Windows or MAC. If you wait and only do Mac updates occasionally, downloading the "combo updater" instead of the incremental ones, that is almost always over 200MB...
Hughesnet doesn't tell you in the commercials how useless their service is in the modern internet world...
If you knew how to do proper maintaining you would realize that you don't need to do anything maybe a defrag or cleaning temps out once in a while.
Quite a few of the mac updates are security related. Just go back through the patches and you'll see quite a few of them deal, in some way, with security vulnerabilities. Now, to be fair, many of them stem from the associated applications distributed with OS X but are not necessarily a core part of the OS (apache, php, etc). However, they're still part of the distribution.
Also, you are right, a service pack tends to me more than just a mere update. Its much more like going from 10.3 to 10.4. However, anyone saying that OS X doesn't need to have updates applied is just spouting nonsense. Otherwise I wouldn't be running 10.5.6.
Lastly, I agree, I would rather reload OS X multiple times than even deal with XP. Thats why I use Vista at home and OS X at work. I only use XP when absolutely forced into it.
By contrast, a Mac requires pretty much zilch for maintenance (especially anything beyond the reach of the ordinary computer user), and more often than not, will never require a re-install of the OS.
@rapier1: I can tell you for certain that there is a vast difference between a multi-hundred-megabyte round of service packs (XP) and the relatively light load of a typical OSX security patch.
I also wouldn't recommend Vista, either... and Windows 7 ain't out yet.
As for "an entire new set of applications", I'm sure the author is smart enough to have installed Parallels if it were that important to use any particular Windows app (though from the sound of it, I doubt there's anything the in-laws need that desperately requires any sort of re-learning when going from Windows to OSX).
... if your in laws have a application solutions that works for them already in place then asking them to learn an entire new set of applications may not help worm your way into their heart.
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Curious comment, considering his technophobe in-laws have had exactly one week of experience suffering winblows. Somehow I doubt they're very attached to it.
Can a Mac make me a hero to my in-laws?
No, but it can make you look like an idiot to the rest of the world.
I didn't believe in OSX until I was so sick of MS that I bought one, just to see what else existed. Within months, that underpowered Mac laptop outplaced my Windows desktop due to how the OS stayed out of my hair and allowed me to do multimedia stuff that I could only dream of with XP. iLife has helped me so much, I'm amazed that Apple ships it free with Macs and only charges $80 for updates (which you don't need each update). If Apple treated iLife like MS treats Office, iLife wouldn't come free with new Macs and Apple would charge $300 for it and each of its updates.
Please enlighten us, how are you very susceptible to online fraud and other malicious activity if you are a Safari user? I am all ears.
What is that link supposed to mean?
In the 2009 Pwn2Own contest Firefox, Explorer 8 and Safari were all hacked. Does that mean Safari is less secure?
And at Infoworld they tested Safari for Windows. Here we are talking about Safari OSX.
Nice try though.
Anyone capable of arguing the security of IE ... ugh ... why are street walking prostitutes allowed here again?
Well, aside from my hate/hate relationship with Safari (bloated pig that it is) if you look at the security features as they touch on phishing and the like you'll see that Safari is actually behind the curve. All of the major browsers have anti-phishing technology built into them. However, UI cues for handling EV SSL and other issues are more prominent and advanced in other browsers. For a neophyte concerned about phishing I'd discourage the use of Safari.
So windows is confusing with security upgrades but you compare it to a brand new macbook with all recent updates pre-installed (which WILL have to go through the same type of confusing updates eventually), just wow.
"...my wife and I are going to load that computer up with as much necessary and fun software (starting with OpenOffice) as we can find, and then cart it back up to her parents' with us later this week."
Also, I think that is you load up the fun software on windows that you want to put on the macbook AND get the "confusing" FREE Avast Antivirus RIGHT HERE ON CNET.COM I think the windows pc will be good enough.
Biased story from the start.... you should also take up a windows machine and see how wells it connect also..
Your comment is biased from the start. They have a winblows machine there now, how many winblows turds should they have to compare against the one Mac they're bringing?
I would definitely put as many useful sites as possible in the bookmark bar, they won't care about screen real estate and it will speed things up a lot
I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. OK, maybe to my *worst* enemy ... ;-)
And for Virus software...oh wait, you don't need that! ;^)
I was also in the same situation.... both parents and in-laws got computers.... I recommended Mac to both... but one bought a PC and other a Mac. I'll let you guess which has been having the better experience. (Neither have previous computer experience). There is a VERY clear difference, aside from the tech specs, when people actually start using Macs and PCs.
seriously-- just because you think that a mac is -CUTE- doesn't mean it's the right choice for everyone!
/rant
At my friend's Michigan house in the middle of no where, the internet would seemingly randomly go to 2kb/s. The provider: HughesNet.
It seems that now that they have a monopoly for country environments, they're completely fine with screwing with people.
/endrant
So the answer is an absolute maybe!:-D
and missed out on the awesomeness of Linux/Windows dual boot
I would have to agree that a cellular connection shared via a wireless router would probably be more trouble free if you can get a signal. But, if not, then I think you may have to talk your inlaws into leaving the computer on all the time and just plugging it in when they are done using it to restore the battery. Then set up the automatic update to download between 3am and 7am. That would probably save your inlaws some pain later and as long as they aren't downloading pirated copies of iWork -09 the won't have to worry about being part of a botnet. Cheers and kudos for your generosity. The macbook etc is not a small purchase.
Updates are updates. Both OSes have them - and they can be sizable in both cases. Application updates just add to the frustration.
I guess I have to question the motivation and goal of the project. The way they were left, with a terrible Internet connection, seems like you only won in principle. You've left them with a nearly useless solution, regardless of the computer platform. Yes you got them on the Internet. But what difference does it make if takes five minutes for a page to load? I don't mean to be critical, but why are you proud of this accomplishment?
My recommendation would be to try to get them an EVDO account and a suitable antenna setup to get a decent signal. You mentioned that you used an EVDO card and were able to download software. Then why in the world would you leave them with the more expensive, slower, and less power-efficient satellite connection?
And the best feature of OSX???? No registry!!! What was MS thinking with those nasa type strings of random-type looking numbers?
The registry was an idiotic idea that needs to be taken behind the woodshed and shot to death. Only M$ apologists begging for bribes from their masters try to deny the abomination that the winblows registry really is.
Centralizing a database, either be it for settings, or anything else, always has benefits as well as negatives. I am sure you know the negatives, but the main benefit is that there is more control over what goes in and out, and its a lot easier to maintain if it becomes corrupted. Additionally, it makes it easier for applications to talk to each other, since they have a common place to put communication details, and do not need to make assumptions as to where each application has placed its config files. Unfortunately, microsoft should have been a bit more restricting, as to what and how many entries an application can put in the registry. They should have also provided a means for keeping track of which entry belongs to which app, so that they can later remove that enty if the app is uninstalled. But I guess, thats where cccleaner comes in.
Mac OS X doesn't have a registry database. If you're implying it does, you are truly ignorant.
Go to a shell and type 'man defaults' or, even better, 'deafults read | less'
But back to what Mr. Terdiman was asking...
I just browsed my apps. I've added iWorks and Popcorn and yeah, several other apps to my Mac (like Jiggler - a quickie stop screensaver app) but as far as "free" apps, no, I don't really have any solid suggestions. Just be sure to educate them on how to use the free office software you installed, make sure they understand how to bookmark web pages... your in laws should be set with the macbook and wireless setup. Perhaps see if they need the time machine backup airport deal (I doubt it). But a Mac right out of the box is so sweet, really little need of adding apps unless they have a particular need. I enjoy the options VLC gives, but not everyone needs what VLC offers. Plus between quicktime, iTunes, and dvd player - VLC is mostly redundant. But in my uses, I have found VLC to be a great addition.
With MS OS, I seemed to be downloading and installing apps all the time to fill holes. I just don't seem to have such holes with OSX. Perhaps that is why my XP registry was always getting corrupted. Give them a link to the OSX downloads RSS and teach them how to install any apps they might find themselves (while beautiful, DMG files were a strange concept when I switched). If they have a camera, show them the basics of iPhoto and iMovie slideshows, but with OSX they should be good to go. They should have pretty much what they need, right out of the box.
- by sargess25 April 27, 2009 10:56 PM PDT
- "Can a Mac make me a hero to my in-laws?" - dunno, maybe
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (70 Comments)However, inflicting on them a Windows PC can make you a pariah in the family. Cor, one is supposed to love and care for their parents and not make their lives miserable inflicting on them virus friendly, crash prone, unwieldy UI experience, expensive M$ OSs