1.  It’s beta.

2. It’s beta.

3.  Ok, really, it’s beta!  Then entire purpose of this machine is to find out what sucks, report it to Google, get updates, report more bugs, ad infinitum.

For those of you that haven’t read another review and want the specs on this machine, go here (them come back!).  To me they don’t matter much and this is why…

This computer is about the OS, not the damn hardware. Branded hardware will be better.  It just will, I promise.

I opened the case and I was greeted with a Chrome logo before I could get the screen fully opened.  As instructed, I “gently” pressed the power button, went through 4 quick steps (including a self-portrait) and was logged in using my Gmail credentials.   Without any annoying prompts or fuss all of my Chrome options automatically synced with the computer.  I was at an immediate advantage since I use Chrome as my primary browser — all of my plugins, bookmarks, options and history were included.  No annyoing login prompts for Gmail, Google Docs or any other Google services.  One of the coolest features of this is that I could go login to any other computer running ChromeOS with my Gmail credentials and it would do the same thing.  ANY ChromeOS is YOUR OS.  Some people may be put off by this ubiqutious mesh of all your data from any location but what you should keep in mind is that (best estimate) 95% of the data you access is “in the cloud” and not stored on the actual laptop anyway.  This thing only has a 16GB SSD inside.  Sure, lots of room for plenty of personal information, but from everything I’ve seen, it’s purpose is simply to keep only what is needed to run the OS on the laptop.  Your security really goes as far as how secure your password is and how much you trust Google with your data.

ChromeOS is a different experience.  You’ll actually feel right at home if you have already used the Chrome browser, but if not, you might be in for a rude awakening.  There is no Start button akin to Windows nor a comforting Apple logo in the top left corner.  The browser is the OS and the OS is the browser.  Everything is accessed from a single interface – no desktop, no icons, no wallpaper.    You start with one tab open.  With the unibar you can type in a web address, search term or you can use it to access a myriad of other features using special keywords that let to get into guts of the OS and tweak features.  So far, the available apps are lackluster but if Android Market has been any mark of  future success these will improve  in quality and in number quickly as well.  Do I have to remind you this is all still in beta?!

So far, I’ve had a lot of fun using the unit.  My son spent a large amount of time watching episodes of the Simpsons in Flash and he found it perfectly acceptable.  I can keep the unit on the coffe table as a general purpose machine.  It awakes from sleep faster than you can get the screen open so anytime you feel like reading a book or checking the weather, it’s right there.  The battery lasts around 10 hours and I have found I can use it for almost any task.  I can even get an ssh connection on a different screen and use a predefined key on the keyboard to switch between the shell and the OS.  Outside of video/picture editing and gaming — the latter I don’t do on a computer anyway — I really can see a slighly more powerful version of this computer with a release version OS as something I would use as a primary computer.  Becuase of my job, I’ll likely need a full desktop OS for some time but when I’m not working  I can chat, surf, word process, do spreadsheets, listen to music, watch streaming movies/tv/videos and 99% of the other tasks I do on a computer these days, all on a laptop expected to cost under $400.  Hardware is overrated and specs mean shit for almost all computer users.  My grandma doesn’t care how fast her CPU is or if her video card drivers are up-to-date, she just wants to look at pictures of her grandkids or videos on YouTube with as little hassle as possible.  Most people do I think.

I see a bright future for this new type of ubiquitous computing.  Imagine it: one login, any computer, anywhere and you have instant access to all of your everything.  That last sentence screams SECURITY ISSUES but I also have (a probably misguded) trust in the security systems that will be in place by the time this type of scenario actually is a reality.  Whatever the real future, from my perspective, it’s off to an exciting start.

CERN is firing up the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tomorrow for its first run.  Although I doubt the world will implode it does mark the beginning of one of the most important physics experiments to ever be performed.

If we are all still here tomorrow I promise to make a concerted effort to start updating this page more frequently!

You can view the live webcast here http://webcast.cern.ch/

also see Wired’s blog for more info.

His results got me thinking about how people learn. While I usually learn best with a combination of written, verbal and visual cue’s, any method seems to suit me. This is not true with my son. He is very occupied with facts and concrete things. He likes to be told how to do a task one way, and chaces are he will never deviate from that pattern again. He is great with anything he can memorize. The problem comes when he has to apply the concrete facts in abstract ways. On his test he didn’t do so hot when he had to answer an essay question that required him describe the effect of Lake Michigan on the climate of Michigan. His answer:

“If you feel how cold or warm it is and thats how you know how the Lake Michigan affects the climate of Michgan.”

While technically correct, the answer didn’t quite have the substance needed for full credit. I talked to him about his answer and because, after years of practice I have learned to word questions to suit his learning style, I found out he indeed know how Lake Michigan affects our climate. Problem is, the world can’t constantly suit his learning style. We have to teach him to adapt and that will take years longer than most students.

How do you learn? How does your learning style affect you? Does it dictate the type of work you do? Does it help or hinder you in life? Take a test and find out your learning style (while at the same time helping a research study). Click here to take the test from NC State Univerisity. Report the results in the comments.

vs.

One of the most popular bloggers on the internet, John Chow, has a copy-cat…err, copy cow.

JohnCow.com is an inventive parody of JohnChow.com that is making quite a name for itself! I have been keeping up with the JohnCow.com since its inception and have on more than one occasion found myself laughing out loud (and at the same time wishing I had thought of the idea first.) The site blends parody posts and serious posts seamlessly.

John Chow himself has endorsed the effort and has even helped them a bit along the way.

I recommend you give the site a read. It has been up for just over a month and is averaging 4000+ page views per day. (With a little help from 2, count ‘em, 2 Digg.com front page articles).

Moo knows… I might even try and write for them.

The way information has been stored, processed and presented over the centuries has changed dramatically. Each step in the development of how information is shared has made information available to exponentially more people. If I am so inclined, in this day and age, I can easily access current weather and late-breaking news for most anywhere in the world. Even 20 years ago the average citizen would have gone to great lengths to gather this information. Imagine how hard it was 50, 100 or 500 years ago.

We are now entering a new phase in the way news is gathered and presented. It goes by many names: citizen journalism; participatory journalism; people journalism. My favorite incarnation of this new type of news is known by the term “hyperlocal”. As a blogger this term is particularly pertinent. Hyperlocal, as I define it, is news that takes place at a local level under the radar of most media sources (tv, newspapers). The web, and more specifically, the blogsphere is bringing this new type of journalism to the forefront.

Cell phones, coupled with their built-in cameras and the ability to post to a blog or website from anywhere, have made it so “citizen journalists” beat the major media outlets in breaking a story by several minutes and in some cases, several hours. Who better to report on an event that someone who actually saw it happen?

Print newspapers will cease to serve a purpose. Print magazines might survive. News is changing and so are the people who bring it to you.

This article, in the current issue of Wired, gives a glimpse into the hyperlocal future.

It was released July 21st, just 3 days ago. I sat, a grown man, waiting for a (so called) children’s book. It arrived early Saturday morning, around 8:30 a.m. via UPS. The box was striped with bold lettering, “Do Not Open before July 21st!” I ripped the box apart and saw the off-yellow cover of the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It felt weird holding a book I had been waiting nearly 10 years to read. I knew that inside an adventure that began in 1998 (US Release) with the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was finally coming to a close. I had read each previous installment feverishly, at a pace that usually involved nothing else being done for about 10 hours. I read then again when I was bored. The books brought me back to a place I used to visit frequently in childhood with books like The Castle in the Attic or The Indiana in the Cupboard. In this place I became lost. My mind entered the book and the world around seemed to disappear. I could see the characters faces like they were in front of me. I feet their triumphs, failures, hope and loss. The Harry Potter series took me back to this place and sometimes I didn’t want to leave.

The final book Harry Potter book was hard to read. I knew that once I started I wouldn’t stop until I was done. I knew that if I started it would be the last time I read a new adventure of Harry Potter. I spread out my reading over two days. I spent a majority of Sunday reading and finished it off last night. I feared that if I did not read it quickly some bastard on the news or elsewhere would irresponsibly share details of the book that might spoil the ending.

It may sound odd to most but I found myself, at times, tearing up as I read the book. The emotions I felt as I turned each page are hard to put into words. I didn’t want to reach the end but I had to know what happen to the boy wizard I had been following for so long. My daughter, wife, mom and sister have all read the books and have eagerly awaited each new addition but I get the feeling that they don’t quite feel the same way I do about them.

Here I sit, a grown man with kids of my own, mourning the end of of a series of children’s books. Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for your books. They mean more to me than I can put into words.