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.

One of the things I like about OS X is the astounding number of quality applications that perform one task but perform that task in an sleek, easy to configure and easy to learn way. Some of my favorites are MailPlane, Things and 1Password. In my line of work 1Password had become indespensible.

For those of you not familiar with the app, 1Password manages all of your passwords and sensitive data for your online accounts, can keep track of all of your software serial numbers and lets you store  post-it style secure notes.  The interface is very slick and the data is kept in a virtual vault that you open  with a master password.  Once you have unlocked your vault, all of your usernames and passwords are automatically filled when you go to web pages that require login.  Because username and password fields are auto-filled you can generate very long and complex passwords for your online accounts that you never have to remember.  For example, I use a randomly generated, 16-character password for my Facebook account that consists of numbers, letters (upper and lower-case) and special characters yet I have no idea what it is.  A password of that strength and complexity is going to be next to impossible to crack.  There are only two downsides to the application — the fact that it is Mac ONLY and that comes with a $39.95 price tag. For a mixed OS user like me the Mac-only compatibility is a frustrating issue (but I’m happy to pay for a good product).

Over the past few months, buzz has been growing around a new password management application call LastPass so I thought I would check it out.  The things that drew me to LastPass initially were the multiple-OS support and compatibility with Chrome, Firefox, Safari as well as Internet Explorer.  The next attention getter was that it was completely free.  I spent a little over an hour yesterday setting up and reading all of the details about LastPass and I think 1Password is going to have to take a graceful bow and exit stage right.  This is why…

LastPass is free.  LastPass does everything 1Password does.  LastPass can be intergrated with every major browser.  LastPass works on Windows, OS X and Linux. Your passwords are stored on their servers and locally in an encrypted “vault” and only your master password can be used to open the vault.  Even if someone somehow stole your vault files from LastPass.com’s servers or took your laptop your data would be safe.  Lastpass.com cannot read your vault file stored on their server. I repeat, Lastpass.com cannot read the passwords or usernames in your vault file.  As more and more of our data is stored at 3rd party locations it is vital that the our personal privacy is respected and that even if their servers were breached our data would remain safe.

The average person selects passwords that are easy for them to remember and therefore are generally too short, easy to guess and insecure.  By using an application like LastPass (or even 1Password if you prefer) you can increase your online security and privacy by an exponential amount.  You just have to remember one password, it’s easy to install, it syncs across computers and all major browsers.  What else could you want?  Just do download it and start using it.  You won’t regret it.

1. My son loves to play Guitar Hero III (I know, I know, “Frets on Fire”, but he’s particular)

2. I can watch HDTV with my TV tuner in Vista (and this won’t be a problem with Kernel 2.26)

Today I decided to boot into Vista so I could watch some TV.  That was over an hour ago.  First, Vista wanted to update.  I had rearranged my hard drive layout a couple weeks ago so it decided to re-detect all my hard drives as well.  Once the update process –that took 30 minutes — finished, I had to reboot, install pre-shutdown updates then I had to wait for post-boot “update configuration” to finish.  Once I got to the desktop it decided that my sound should only come out of my USB headphones which was fine, but annoying.

I have become a full-fledged Windows hater.  It’s bloated, can’t detect the simplest of hardware without a driver disk and the constant reboots for software/driver updates is stuck in the 1990′s.  If it wouldn’t devastate my son to lose Windows I would format the spare HD and use it to hold something useful — like maybe a oepnSUSE partition?

I am a Linux crusader trying to convert the masses.  If you somehow stumbled across this and you are thinking about switching to Linux but the command line scares you, start off with some of the more user friendly distros like Ubuntu, Fedora Core, or openSUSE.  Use it for one month.  I promise you can do EVERYTHING in Linux that you can do in Windows (and you can usually do it 10x faster not to mention you don’t have to spend a penny on software)

Get one of the distro’s here:

Ubuntu

Fedora Core

openSUSE

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.

http://myphoneblaster.com/

What is it?  In short, you call people and when they answer they hear an MP3 you have uploaded through the site.  You select the number to call, set the caller ID (which is the best part, he he…) and upload a MP3 from your computer or select from a few “default” tracks.

Although I’m first reminded of the days of ‘ole (before everyeone had caller ID) when you could prank call people without being immediately called back or reported to the authorities, I’m sure you can use this site for things other than getting into trouble.

For example:

• Send your significant other a sweet song
• Express your anger through music instead of screaming
• Bug your co-workers (as I have already found this effective)
• Brighten up someone’s day
• Fill-in-the-blank

Give http://myphoneblaster.com/ a try.  I think you will quickly find it fun a addicting.

At home I use Linux and Windows, at work I use a Mac.  I enjoy aspects of all three OS’s but for a while Mac’s have had a killer app that was not available on any other OS.  This applications biggest asset was what it didn’t do — Get in the way!

The app is called Growl and it provides useful notifications only from applications you want to monitor.  For example if you are chatting with someone and reading an intriguing article from Wired but your browser is taking up the entire screen.  With Growl there is no need to flip back and forth between the browser and the IM client, instead Growl pops up a small, non-obtrusive “bubble” with the message from your friend which “floats” there for a few seconds, then goes away.  Growl works with a grocery list of applications to display useful information you may want to be aware of like completed downloads, new IM’s, new e-mails and so many other things.  If you want tend to the notification you can click on the bubble and the appropriate application will be made active, if not, it will just fade away after a few seconds.

For you Linux users out there an application with the same idea in mind is available called Mumbles.  It works with the Gnome desktop and can be installed via a source or a .deb package.  The range of supported applications is not as vast but the ones that matter to me work out of the box — Pidgin, Firefox and Thunderbird.  More support is coming and what is available is already a must-have.

Finally, for you Windows users an app called Snarl is available.  The current issue with Snarl is application support.  I believe it’s on its way to being a great app — just give it a few months.  It does have a developers guide available for anyone who wants to add Snarl functionality into their existing application.

While all three apps serve the same purpose Growl is by far the pack leader.  It has been around the longest and provide support for tons of applications. (Both of the others are admitted attempts to bring “Growl” functionality to the respective OS.) If you are on the computer even half as much as I am I can assure you that once you use these apps you will wonder why someone didn’t think of this a long time ago.  Don’t just take my word for it, download the apps and give them a test run!

Growl – http://growl.info/

Mumble – http://www.mumbles-project.org/

Snarl -  http://www.fullphat.net

I landed a job at a web-hosting company.  It wasn’t just any job — it turned out to be one of the best things in my life thus far.  I work with a small group of extremely talented people whose combined knowledge could overload a supercomputer.  I have superiors but they do not make me feel inferior.  I not only get to come up with ideas but implement them.  I spend most of my time dealing with server related issues but my input in many areas of the company is respected.

I have the joy of getting paid to “play” with computers, help customers avoid certain web disaster, become a Linux guru and, with the help of my co-workers, learn the skills it takes to be a damn fine system engineer.

I hope anyone who reads this has the opportunity, at least once in their life, to truly enjoy their career.  There is nothing better in life than enjoying what you do for a living.

Let me start by saying that there are default replies for a reason.  Certain information, as trivial as it may seem, is often very necessary to help solve your problem.  For example, here are a few common “issues” I see at work that elicit a default response:

• “My e-mail isn’t working.”
• “I can’t login.”
• “My site isn’t showing up.”
• “My site is broken.”
• “FTP won’t work.”

That’s it.  A customer submits a ticket and that is all the information I get.   It makes my head boil.  I reply with what we call a “pre-def” (predefined response) asking for more information which includes a list of specific questions related to the issue.  If the customer did actually provide some information, like what mail or FTP client they are using, their domain name, or – god forbid – a way to replicate the issue, I kindly remove those parts of the pre-def to not make them repeat the same thing (unless I’m in a bad mood).

If you want to avoid these “pre-def” responses I suggest the following for any type of tech support ticket (web hosting or not):

Provide as much information as possible, including but not limited to:

• Operating system and version you are using
• Browser type and version, if applicable
• Mail client and version, if applicable (Outlooks comes in so many flavors)
• A ULR to replicate the issue, if applicable
• Any error messages that you encountered – copy them exactly, including the error codes
• A way to create or replicate the error
• A time-frame, ex. it always happens, sometimes happens, etc.
• Your IP address (http://ipfinder.us works great)
• Any username(s) or password(s) needed to replicate (change to a temporary one if it makes you feel more comfortable)
• Location, if applicable (connecting from an office or workplace can cause all sorts of problems)

Basically, the more information you provide, the more time tech support can spend fixing your problem and not having to wait for more information from you.  Most tech support people are more than happy to help you but you have to throw them a bone first!