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Setting Up Mac OS X for a Teenage Coffeehouse?
WCityMike writes "I plan to donate a grape iMac to a local church-run non-profit coffeehouse for teenagers, and would like to give it to them appropriately set up for the atmosphere it'll be in. I'm seeking advice on a number of fronts - what freeware or shareware applications would be good for such an environment? Should visitors be allowed to have their own accounts (presumably created by the administrator), or should I just set up one 'student' account and one 'administrator' account? If the latter, is there a way to prevent students from saving things on the hard drive (thus forcing them to use a diskette and/or the CD drive?), and/or a 'Simple Finder' interface extant for OS X? Is there existing software that makes this easier or more configurable, or is it all inside the OS? I'm fairly familiar with Mac OS X, but have never needed to run anything outside a single-user environment."
A new way for priests to lure in young boys... Computers and stimulants.
Although maybe your iMac will be emasculating enough to deter them from entering.
You could be doing a lot more good in the long run than you originally planned.
If it was running windows i would just say give up and leave it on default install. It would be full of porn and downloaded crap within a week. Because its a mac you might have a bit of a head start (might take them abit longer to get MSN working) and the browser (as long as its not IE for mac, stay away from IE for mac it is the devils work) might not get infested with porn pop-ups. Dont bother with accounts, no-one is going to need their own space and if you dont want anyone saving things on the hard-drive then accounts are definately not needed. Just stick a student account on, leave it logged in, and put a decent browser on, word processor (if there isnt already) and a multi-protocal chat client would be nice (gaim or something).
Oh and be sure to stick a folder in there somewhere called "lesbians" and stick the goats.cx pic in there (or script it to take a pic from the web cam and set it as the background with the caption "i was trying to get the lesbian porn".
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That is my exact opinion on church people. but I wasn't trying to flame, I was pointing out that the average teenager wants porn, sex and coffee. They want to click on IE type in URL and look at whatever it is they wish to look at. Not have to learn 2-3 different OS set ups and how each operates and runs.
Remember the average user will type with 1 finger and suck at using mice. The "average teenager" can adapt, but the average teenager doesn't want to spend time doing such things.
--- [Insert intresting Sig here]
... is there a way to prevent students from saving things on the hard drive (thus forcing them to use a diskette and/or the CD drive?), and/or a 'Simple Finder' interface extant for OS X? Is there existing software that makes this easier or more configurable, or is it all inside the OS?...
With due respect, from the questions you are asking, you've not spent much or any time using OS X in anything but basic "newbie" user mode and certainly spend about zero time configuring it in any way.
You should donate the computer to whomever you like and leave administration to them, or find someone knowledgeable in OS X and let them donate the time to configure and administer the computer.
Your sanity and the usefulness of the computer will be greatly benefited.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
whatever browser you put on it, make sure you set the home page to www.landoverbaptist.com