Back over Christmas, I tried to set up my aunt and uncle’s new Windows laptop so that I could log onto it and troubleshoot, should the need arise. XP has a system that is supposed to make this easy, but I still found it a little bit overblown. Either way, I haven’t had a chance to use it yet.
And perhaps, with the release of Fog Creek Copilot 2.0, I’ll never have to. From the mind of Joel Spolsky (of Joel on Software), Copilot is a system that’s supposed to make it easy for you to help someone else with their computer: no configuration, no need to punch holes in your firewall, and no installation required. Best of all, version 2.0 adds support for the Mac, and drops the price: it’s now just $5 for a 24-hour unlimited use pass.
They’ve also added a spiffy direct connect functionality, and the ability to do file transfers. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but next time I run into a tech support request from the family—which ought to be any minute now—I’ll definitely head there first. Unfortunately, I’m guessing it probably won’t help the kernel panics my mom’s iMac has been having. But that’s a story for a different day.
[hat tip: John Siracusa via Twitter]
