[comp.sys.mac] Protection against kids

rene@ascom.uucp (Rene Bach) (02/21/89)

I used a Hypercard interface to protect my Mac from my kids fooling aroung with
it.  The mac boots using hypercard as startup.  I replaced the home card with a
protected, scripted home that defines buttons to call up all the games and
programs my kids like.  In addition, my stack traps all character inputs.  There
is a password protected button to access the finder for Daddy.  Since the Mac
uses this as startup, I have not had to look for any hidden files/folders.  Yeh,
my daughter liked to move things around, but fortunately, the trash was too far
away.

I am very happy with this setup.  Beware:  make backup copies of your stack
before adding the password protection and key traps.  The price is a slightly
longer boot up time and entering of a password to access the finder.

Rene
Ascom Tech AG
Switzerland
rene@ascom.uucp

elliston@rob.UUCP ( Keith Elliston) (02/28/89)

In article <122@ascom.UUCP>, rene@ascom.uucp (Rene Bach) writes:
> it.  The mac boots using hypercard as startup.  I replaced the home card with a
> protected, scripted home that defines buttons to call up all the games and
> programs my kids like.  In addition, my stack traps all character inputs.  There

I have been looking high and low for someway to trap all the character inputs.
How do you do this??  I have found ways to trap all control/command keys, etc,
but no convenient way of trapping character inputs...

Let me know how this is done..... please????

Keith

uunet!rob!elliston

t-jacobs@wasatch.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) (02/28/89)

In addition to starting up into HyperCard, I've modified my home stack to keep
track of which programs the kids run and for how long. This allows me to chuck 
those things they don't use.

In the future I plan on adding features that encourage them to run educational 
applications and perhaps will require them to run a specified ratio of
education/game applications.


-- 
Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu

alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (03/02/89)

elliston@rob.UUCP ( Keith Elliston) asks how to trap and ignore
all keyboard input.

The answer is this very elegant algorithm, which I found in some dusty
textbook (perhaps Knuth?)  It's amazing how the most complicated things
can be so simple!

1) remove keyboard cable from computer
2) Goto closet
3) Put Keyboard on highest shelf
4) Close closet door
5) Smile with relief


:-) :-)

Alexis Rosen
alexis@ccnysci.uucp

p.s. This actually works. for those not needing top security, you might
just try unplugging the keyboard and not moving it elsewheres...