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My 97 year old grandpa has a MacBook Pro and a few years back he was constantly on the phone with my mom trying to fix issues. We installed a Remote Desktop ser

My 97 year old grandpa has a MacBook Pro and a few years back he was constantly on the phone with my mom trying to fix issues. We installed a Remote Desktop server so my mom could fix things quickly. After a visit we diagnosed the problem. Because of his poor motorskills, he was clicking and clicking-and-dragging things by accident. To mitigate this, we installed some software that locked the applications in the dock and got him a mouse with a ball you move with your thumb. The problems disappeared overnight.

Synaesthesia 8y ago
You should get him an iPad or consider it. My grandpa who’s 94 won’t use anything else. That said he’s probably used to the setup now.
- turings_ego 8y ago
  My family recently got my mother's parents (100 and 98 who live independently) a grandpad. It's a closed network social media, meaning people have to be invited to it. It is designed for old people. They figured out how to navigate it themselves in ten minutes. It can call, video call, and leave mass voicemails. From the children/grandchildren perspective, nothing has changed as it has Facebook and instagram integration, so we dont have to post on it directly.
- sgt 8y ago
  My grandmother (100) just phoned me using FaceTime on her iPad. I find this insanely cool. She was born during World War 1, experienced World War 2 and is now able to enjoy modern technology to get in touch with her family. The only issue she has is accidentally touching the screen.
  - martimarkov 8y ago
    There is a setting for that in iOS. It’s somewhere in accessibility
  - bigbugbag 8y ago
    Wow! what a waste of money. Buying expensive hardware and relying on closed software that can only communicate with other expensive devices of the same brand when you can do it from the browser is a really sad reality.
- ghaff 8y ago
  My dad never was comfortable with PCs and I’m quite sure that Mac, Linux, whatever wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. He just never got comfortable with the whole mental model. Gave him an iPad. Problem solved.
FPGAhacker 8y ago
That’s pretty interesting. Definitely something that should be addressed by accessibility. On the iPhone they have some UI accommodations that might help with this sort of thing. I needed them for when I would try to do something with Waze while my wife is driving. There is nothing to brace your arm with i her Jeep from the passenger side and it’s quite a stretch, so my hand is bobbing all over the place. Those are times I wish Siri could do more UI interaction, like “press ok.” I haven’t looked for that kind of equivalent mouse interaction motor control accommodation on macOS.
Angostura 8y ago
FYI, if you set him up with a managed account, you can Lock the Dock without 3rd party software
flukus 8y ago
I had the same experience with my father on KDE. I tried locking it but he would somehow screw it up and toolbars would be all over the place. Gnome with it's lack of configuration has been fine. I think leaving the configuration in config files or a separate app (like tweak tool) is much better for novices and power users.
lostapathy 8y ago
That “mouse” is what we called a trackball in the olden days. I still kinda miss running one, but I ran out of spares for the model I loved and nothing else makes me want to switch lately. Maybe it’s time to try again.

Synaesthesia 8y ago

You should get him an iPad or consider it. My grandpa who’s 94 won’t use anything else. That said he’s probably used to the setup now.

turings_ego 8y ago
My family recently got my mother's parents (100 and 98 who live independently) a grandpad. It's a closed network social media, meaning people have to be invited to it. It is designed for old people. They figured out how to navigate it themselves in ten minutes. It can call, video call, and leave mass voicemails. From the children/grandchildren perspective, nothing has changed as it has Facebook and instagram integration, so we dont have to post on it directly.
sgt 8y ago
My grandmother (100) just phoned me using FaceTime on her iPad. I find this insanely cool. She was born during World War 1, experienced World War 2 and is now able to enjoy modern technology to get in touch with her family. The only issue she has is accidentally touching the screen.
- martimarkov 8y ago
  There is a setting for that in iOS. It’s somewhere in accessibility
- bigbugbag 8y ago
  Wow! what a waste of money. Buying expensive hardware and relying on closed software that can only communicate with other expensive devices of the same brand when you can do it from the browser is a really sad reality.
ghaff 8y ago
My dad never was comfortable with PCs and I’m quite sure that Mac, Linux, whatever wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. He just never got comfortable with the whole mental model. Gave him an iPad. Problem solved.

FPGAhacker 8y ago

That’s pretty interesting. Definitely something that should be addressed by accessibility. On the iPhone they have some UI accommodations that might help with this sort of thing. I needed them for when I would try to do something with Waze while my wife is driving. There is nothing to brace your arm with i her Jeep from the passenger side and it’s quite a stretch, so my hand is bobbing all over the place. Those are times I wish Siri could do more UI interaction, like “press ok.” I haven’t looked for that kind of equivalent mouse interaction motor control accommodation on macOS.

Angostura 8y ago

FYI, if you set him up with a managed account, you can Lock the Dock without 3rd party software

flukus 8y ago

I had the same experience with my father on KDE. I tried locking it but he would somehow screw it up and toolbars would be all over the place. Gnome with it's lack of configuration has been fine. I think leaving the configuration in config files or a separate app (like tweak tool) is much better for novices and power users.

lostapathy 8y ago

That “mouse” is what we called a trackball in the olden days. I still kinda miss running one, but I ran out of spares for the model I loved and nothing else makes me want to switch lately. Maybe it’s time to try again.