Kids' computer

I had a new purpose in mind for the kids' computer so I reinstalled Mac OS X on the eMac, setup separate accounts for each of the kids, and moved their documents, email, and Internet bookmarks to it. The kids are thrilled by it. Not only do they get their own private space on the computer, but they can control it via voice commands. A lot of the educational software CDs they have work on the Mac as well; I was able to download Mac versions of GoogleEarth, Celestia, and other programs; and I found some excellent replacements for their freeware programming and animation programs.


I've never had so much fun setting up a computer; this Mac is an absolute pleasure to use. It comes with iTunes which works with the MP3 player I handed down to Donnie Darko last summer, and it comes with iPhoto which lets him play with the photos on his hand-me-down digital camera. iPhoto also works with the Vtech kid-proof camera Calvin got for Christmas. The Mac also comes with iMovie that the kids can use to create and mix movies from their animations, the webcam, and our camcorder (though because it's an old analog camcorder they'll have to transfer video through the MythTV system). When they're all done, they can turn their movie into a standard DVD (with menus and everything) using iDVD. It's just amazing what you can do with a Mac straight out of the box.