About a month ago I noticed that my wife and I were not spending as much time as I would have liked with my eldest son on the computer.  Now I know that in a few years we will have the opposite issue, but as someone that works on a daily basis with computers and computer people, I thought he should have more exposure to and time with them (computers, not computer people :) ). 

One of the main reasons for his lack of time with the computer was that we had put it in the family room where we spend very little time in the summer.  With precious little time throughout the weekdays, we really needed something that he could use that was on the main floor.  The challenge with the current computer is that it’s a PC with multiple devices, cables and a large CPU.  After some thought and research, I decided to buy a new iMac and move it into the dining room.  This accomplished 2 things immediately…first it placed the computer within 10 paces of the kitchen and living room (perfect).  As well, the Mac was so much cleaner and simpler in terms of form factor.  No longer were we trying to find a suitable place for a bunch of cables and a large and ugly CPU.  We simply had that sexy LCD, a power cable and wireless keyboard and mouse.  Secondly, and more importantly, the Mac OS (Leopard) is much more intuitive than the PC.  While the Mac faithful will no doubt offer me up a collective “Duh!” I must say that I was incredibly surprised and pleased.  I guess I get it now.  The coolest part for me was that my son seemed to grasp it more easily than the PC as well.  He finds it so easy to open Safari and navigate to the Treehousewebsite or iChat with his grandparents.

I am now in the process of trying to find a deal for my mother so that the kids can iChat with her as well.  I am hoping that the iMac will reduce my technical support time with her and increase our actual conversations and updates.