Re: OT - elder parent-proofing a computer

On 27/05/12 1:00 AM, Jeff Lassman wrote:
>
> On Sunday, May 27, 2012 12:04:49 AM JC Dill wrote:
>
>
> > I have him using Firefox on the Mac. I can't find any way to lock
>
> > Firefox so that he can't add any new Toolbars. The solution needs to be
>
> > transparent to him - it can't mess with his regular computer use.
>
>
> <stuff snipped from middle>
>
>
> > Remember, the solution needs to work on a Mac.
>
>
> My heart goes out to you. In '94, not long before his 80th birthday, 
> my father disappeared for over a day and wouldn't or couldn't tell us 
> where he'd gone. He didn't seem sure. We had to take away his car.
>

He is still OK in that way.  And I can't take away his car - he lives 
1000 miles away from all of us.  (We are all in the SF Bay region, he 
lives near Sedona, AZ.)  With some luck it will be 5-10 years or more 
before we have to face a problem like that.
>
>
> But the solution to this problem may not be as life-changing. Since 
> the back end of the Mac is running BSD, if you can figure out which 
> file to 'lock' to keep him from adding anything in Firefox, you can 
> probably use the 'chattr' command to mark the file as immutable.
>

I'm having a hard time finding out what to lock.  I don't want to break 
ordinary functions in Firefox, just adding toolbars and changing the 
default search engine.

jc

-- 
Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
[email protected] is the human contact address.
[email protected] is the list posting address.
See below URL for subscribe/unsubscribe and list options:
http://inet-access.net/mailman/listinfo/list