Photo by Michael Cote’

My mother has decided to replace her 8 year old HP Pavilion with something that doesn’t suddenly stop responding for minutes at a time and can play online videos without stuttering. Since we no longer live in the same city, I can’t go shopping for one with her but I told her that we could still get her set up with a new system.

I haven’t tried this before but I think there are two keys to making it work. We’ll have someone on my mom’s end with some technical skills, a woman named Alyx, who does computer consulting. She will be able to get everything unpacked, plugged in and running. Once that’s done, she will also set up a remote desktop connection, using LogMeIn. This service is set up on her current computer and it has been a huge help when I need to see her screen or make changes that are too hard to describe to her. The free version of this service does everything that we need.

Once I have control of the new machine (bwahahaha), my plan is to do a very minimal configuration using Firefox, Open Office and a few helper programs. She has used online mail for some time (and just recently switched from Yahoo! to Gmail), so there will be no need for an email program. There will be lots of space left on that 250GB hard drive!

The machine we’ve ordered is a Dell Vostro 200 Slim Tower. It came standard with more power than she’ll really need (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz, 2GB RAM) but it also came bundled with a 20″ LCD monitor at a very attractive price, including free shipping, so we were sold. A few tips for ordering a computer online for someone else:

• Set up a separate account. I already have an account with Dell but it was much cleaner to create a new one for my mother, using her address and credit card information. When doing this, make sure to opt out of any advertising “opportunities”. It’s not nice to spam your mother.
• The person you’re ordering for probably won’t understand the technical specs of the system being ordered (that’s what they have you for) but they do need to know about any accessories or software that will be included. Since we’re working long distance, I sent quite a few photos to my mom to show her things I that I had in mind, including one of the business end of a USB cable, so that she could check to see if she already had one.
• Keep the configuration simple. Opt out of as many add-on programs as you think you can get away with. Dell is now very good about not loading your system up with trial-ware but in most cases you have to make the choice during the ordering process. My mom’s computer will come with nothing installed except Windows XP Home (Vista - bleah!), Adobe Reader and an online backup program.
• After the order has been placed, make sure that the person has access to their account, so they can track its progress. Also, ask that they forward you any emails that come from their account until after the computer is delivered.

In our next exciting episode: delivery and setup!

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