So, my mom is looking for a new computer. My sister encouraged her to get a new Mac; I agreed with her.

Why? It's twofold. One, I won't have to give her any tech support anymore -- that job should fall to my sister, the sole Mac user in the family. If my mom asks me, I'll just tell my dad "It'd be like you working on some weird, positive ground European car instead of your 17-year-old Ford Tempo." He should be able to convey the jist of what I mean to my mom.

Secondly, I'll get her to stop complaining. I built her a computer about 18 months ago. It's nice, it's fast, but it crashes. And she blames me, of course. "Matthew, this computer is a bag of shit because Windows crashes!" Sorry for writing you a bad operating system...oh wait, I didn't! Microsoft did!

She somehow brings that up every time I come over. I try to explain to her that it's Windows, my sister tried to explain that it's Windows, but she won't listen.

So, hopefully I'll stop getting tech support calls and being razzed on every time I go over there. That's my sister's position now, and I reluctantly give her that title. Ha!

Macs: The best way to get parents off your back.