Existing users, 
 Mac Minder - 2.5.7parent & teacher tool to track & limit program usage |
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Feedback Summary:
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| Overall Rating: | Not rated (0.0) | Features: | Not rated (0.0) | Support: | Not rated (0.0) |
| Ease of Use: | Not rated (0.0) | Quality / Stability: | Not rated (0.0) | Price: | Not rated (0.0) |
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All Feedback: 1 - 10 of 10
Mac Minder still sold? - Version: 2.5.7, 1/16/2008 12:00AM PST
religon
Just wondering if this software is still being sold? Winter of 07-08, the site appears dead.
Works Great!! 
- Version: 2.5.3, 5/8/2006 08:54AM PST
(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)
Burbank
Mac Minder represents the end of a long search for a utility to help me regulate how long my kids use their computer. I have looked at many other programs and found this to work best. I have set up schedules for each child which indicates what periods of the day and for how long each child can use the Mac. For those special times when they ARE actually doing homework <g>, I can easily give the child more computer time without disrupting their work flow. It is stable, elegant, secure, and I have found support to be excellent.
Extremely useful for regulating program usage - Version: 1.4, 10/14/2003 01:17AM PST
(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)
chessplayer1
Mac Minder is extremely useful for controlling how much time is spent using different programs. I had been struggling for a long time to cut back on my time spent surfing the web, and Mac Minder was a huge help in forcing myself to cut back.
The countdown in the menubar is useful too, and the logs (which are optional) are interesting to look at occasionally. I highly recommend this program for monitoring and regulating program usage, for yourself or for your children. And it's already updated for Panther!
The countdown in the menubar is useful too, and the logs (which are optional) are interesting to look at occasionally. I highly recommend this program for monitoring and regulating program usage, for yourself or for your children. And it's already updated for Panther!
Oversights on usability 
- Version: 1.3, 9/27/2003 08:13PM PST
(3 of 11 users found this comment useful)
fishwhale
Tool does what it says, although I do not see it's purpose really. If it's mean to be used by parents, that's a ridicilous concept. If your kids are being parented by ratings and computer software, you got parental issues to work out. That aside, I can see it's purpose in showing me how much time I spend in applications, thus helping me look back and see where I am lacking focus and what I need to alter, to help catch time wasters. Like realizing I spend too many hours on iChat instead of ApplicationBuilder has really helped.
But there is a HUGE BUG in this software. I wanted to add all the software on my Mac at once, instead of going one by one. I left the time field blank, and the app correctly said "None" for time limit. This would imply no time limit correct? Now guess what happened? Since Mac Minder was in my applications folder, the software now limited it's own use. So it wouldn't let me run any application nor itself.
This software is easy to disable. Simply hold down the SHIFT key at boot up, and any user can by pass it. Ta-da!! :) So therefore, it's useless for controlling the # of hours a program is saved. What happens if for some reason a person is distracted and by the time they get back, Mac Minder has force quit the application without the last bit of changes saved? I've had this problem, too. Any app that gets a quit request without saving data will prompt you to save data - thanks to Mac Minder, this friendly reminder is now useless.
Garbage. But usefull for statistical purposes. I'd love to see a separate version of this software that ONLY tracks how long an application ran. Going to look for one now, but if there isn't, it would be good for Mac Minder ot be split into those two functionalities, as they aren't neccesarily related.
But there is a HUGE BUG in this software. I wanted to add all the software on my Mac at once, instead of going one by one. I left the time field blank, and the app correctly said "None" for time limit. This would imply no time limit correct? Now guess what happened? Since Mac Minder was in my applications folder, the software now limited it's own use. So it wouldn't let me run any application nor itself.
This software is easy to disable. Simply hold down the SHIFT key at boot up, and any user can by pass it. Ta-da!! :) So therefore, it's useless for controlling the # of hours a program is saved. What happens if for some reason a person is distracted and by the time they get back, Mac Minder has force quit the application without the last bit of changes saved? I've had this problem, too. Any app that gets a quit request without saving data will prompt you to save data - thanks to Mac Minder, this friendly reminder is now useless.
Garbage. But usefull for statistical purposes. I'd love to see a separate version of this software that ONLY tracks how long an application ran. Going to look for one now, but if there isn't, it would be good for Mac Minder ot be split into those two functionalities, as they aren't neccesarily related.
Most Recent Replies: View All 3 Replies
- Oversights on usability
Great product, minor issues - Version: 1.3, 7/8/2003 12:59PM PST
(3 of 3 users found this comment useful)
George Pytlik
I've been using this for some time, after noticing that my teenaged daughters were spending an inordinate amount of time online. It generally works as advertised, and has a clean, usable interface. Well designed and professional solution overall, especially considering the low cost.
However, I found a couple of things frustrating. Some of these are beyond the power of the developer to fix, but they do hinder its usefulness.
First, the warning messages do not work if the program operates in the background. My daughters quickly figured out that they could run iTunes as a background app and never worry about the time restrictions.
Second, one of my daughters quickly learned that once her times expired she could just log in as her sister, which led to a couple of battles until passwords were changed.
Third, be careful how you set up programs, because if you set up an individual app you can't convert it to a group later (same with simple vs. complex time charting).
Fourth, the time graphs appear to be completely bogus. After one of my daughters used her entire 8-hour allotment of web browser time, a check of her log file showed 20 minutes had been used. Very odd.
Fifth, the warning messages do not always display.
Sixth and most problematic, when the warning messages come up after your time has been exceeded (say if a program was in the background), you have no opportunity to save the data. I would like to see a preference option to automatically save before quitting any program.
But these are minor issues. Overall, I find this immensely useful. It has helped me stay out of my kids' hair, allowing the application to deal with their use of computer time.
However, I found a couple of things frustrating. Some of these are beyond the power of the developer to fix, but they do hinder its usefulness.
First, the warning messages do not work if the program operates in the background. My daughters quickly figured out that they could run iTunes as a background app and never worry about the time restrictions.
Second, one of my daughters quickly learned that once her times expired she could just log in as her sister, which led to a couple of battles until passwords were changed.
Third, be careful how you set up programs, because if you set up an individual app you can't convert it to a group later (same with simple vs. complex time charting).
Fourth, the time graphs appear to be completely bogus. After one of my daughters used her entire 8-hour allotment of web browser time, a check of her log file showed 20 minutes had been used. Very odd.
Fifth, the warning messages do not always display.
Sixth and most problematic, when the warning messages come up after your time has been exceeded (say if a program was in the background), you have no opportunity to save the data. I would like to see a preference option to automatically save before quitting any program.
But these are minor issues. Overall, I find this immensely useful. It has helped me stay out of my kids' hair, allowing the application to deal with their use of computer time.
Most Recent Replies: View All 3 Replies
- Great product, minor issues (1 replies)
This is exactly… - Version: 1.0.1, 9/25/2002 06:14PM PST
Jeff Sweeney
what I've been looking for to help me "mind" how much time my kids are spending on the computer. Thanks for making it so easy to use.
http://forums.macworld.com/thread/96736;jsessionid=1EE6E73C25E72FFED4953E3B664BCCF7?tstart=0
I suspect it is because it is difficult and time consuming software to design, integrate into the operating system and support. They cant charge enough for it.
Apple should get serious and create user levels that work and tell parents what they want to know.