If you have a MacBook or Ibook or any other Apple product that has one of those little white remote control things, you should take a moment to electronically lock the two together.

The reason for doing this is to keep your presentations and Mac under your own control. I’ve heard (in theory of course!) some pranksters carry their own Apple white remote with them into presentations. A few clicks of their own remote will send your Mac’s presentation (or Itunes, or any other application for that matter) into a complete state of chaos.

To lock down your Mac so that it only obeys commands from your Apple remote…

Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES
then SECURITY
choose GENERAL

From here you do have the option to completely disable any remote control by checking the DISABLE REMOTE CONTROL INFRARED RECEIVER option. However, if you click the PAIR button, the Mac will ask you to hold your Apple white remote a few inches from the computer while pressing the remote’s MENU and NEXT buttons at the same time.

After holding the buttons for a few minutes, a white graphic of the remote will appear on your screen, with two chain links above it. This indicates the paring was successful!

Now only that one remote control will control your mac. Any other remote commands from other remotes will be completely ignored.

If you ever want to un-pair the assigned remote with the computer, just go back to the same preference pane and click on the UNPAIR button. Then the mac will go back to being accessible by any remote.