From: Mom
Subject: Guess what?

Always interesting when something like that comes through your inbox. I opened it up and was greeted with this line:

“Guess what I bought today? A new laptop computer!!!”

Hmmm. Spidey sense was tingling on this one a little bit. Mom has never been a computer person, in fact she has never been a huge technology person of any kind. But hey, trying new things is cool, good for her. And if this means we can bump the resolution up from 1024×768 on my Dad’s workstation that he does CAD/modeling work on more the better. More from the email:

“When I saw this computer on sale, I knew it was time to jump in.”

At this point I’m starting to get a little concerned. Does Packard Bell still exist? Do they make laptops? Is this a floor model from 2002 running Windows ME? All questions going through my head.

“Dad hasn’t even seen it yet.”

Uh-oh.

Now I’m officially worried. Dad is kind of my tech support safety net in that he is there to solve all the crazy Windows/printers/virus scanners/misc problems. My first reaction is that he doesn’t even know she bought this thing. My second is that there is the potential for big time trouble since he is on a fishing trip in the middle of nowhere Michigan for a week.

That’s right, all I need now is a headset and I’m ready to be first tier tech support.

Not good times.

So I call mom to try to get some more details and a funny thing happens, actually it is a funny series of things.

1. She’s got the machine up and running and on Dad’s wifi network.
2. It is a brand new Compaq Presario running the *just* released Windows 7.
3. She’s got Skype installed and wants to try out the built-in webcam.

Err, huh? Really? No way.

I fire up Skype do a search for mom, find her no problem, click the call button, Skype does its funny little Skype noise and tada:

Holy cow. Talking to Mom on Skype on a notebook computer she set up completely by herself with Dad standing in the middle of a freezing river somewhere. If you had asked to me bet money on this situation working out well, and on the first try, I would have lost everything I own.

So, even though I’m Mac guy, and I’ve only spent about 30 minutes total with Windows 7, it must be pretty easy and straightforward to use. In fact, I would say it fits the old adage of being easy enough for your grandmother to use.

(Well, my son’s grandmother technically but close enough.)

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*Scratches head*

*Again looks for words*

I’ve got nothing. Watch this:

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