Cr-48 And NEW NET

Tonight's NEW NET meeting (01 Feb 2011, NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology issues) had a few discussions related to my Cr-48 and to the Chrome OS and the concept of Chrome apps, Android apps and the whole app ecosystem.

A couple people at NEW NET had not yet seen the Chrome Notebook, so there was xxxx

Cr-48 Diary Study

Today is the start of a Google Cr-48 diary study in which I was invited to participate. Don't have the details yet, but the study is supposed to last seven days and will show how I'm using the Chrome Notebook.

The best part of the study will be the opportunity to make recommendations on how to improve the usability of Chrome OS laptops and, with a bit of luck and effort on my part, the opportunity to connect with people on the Google Chrome OS team and OS app developers.

The study will also be a worthwhile experience if it highlights Chrome OS tips and tricks which I don't already use. There are significant challenges to using the Cr-48 for everything without being quite a bit less efficient than when using my Acer Timeline Windows 7 laptop. A few of the problems are hardware related, like the frustrating touchpad operation and my apparently-dead battery in the Cr-48, but there are also software / app issues for which I have not yet figured out good solutions, such as the 'paste special' function which is used extensively in daily work with EAA AeroInnovations and NEW NET technology news item aggregation. There are likely either straightforward or workaround solutions to a few of these issues, but others would best be resolved by either the Google team making changes to Chrome OS or by app developers adding or revising features.

Google required people in the diary study to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), so I won't be able to share any confidential info regarding Chrome OS or the study. That seems quite reasonable, although it's probably a bit of overkill for this study. It's unlikely there will be too much in the way of interesting confidential information at this stage in the Chrome OS saga, although I'd happily keep quiet about any Chrome OS innovations in exchange for the chance to participate in that innovation process. :)

Looking forward to participating in the study -- laissez les bon temps roulez!

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Shallow Dive Into The Non-Tab Tech of Chrome OS

After a user clicks on a few Chrome Notebook app icons, types search keywords in the Google home page search field or hits the Search button on the keyboard a few times, they will have a pretty good idea of the basics of using the Chrome OS.

The basic user will still want to learn what apps are best for their needs, and will want to learn more about how to move files around, how to print and how to do a few of the other routine tasks they currently do with a Win, Mac or Linux OS. There will be future posts covering each of those topics. But for today, I want to briefly look behind the curtain to see what holds Chrome OS together and how the geekier Cr-48 users can poke at non-tab parts of Chrome. You don't need to be a geek to find value in some topics in today's post, but it's likely that basic users will be uninterested in much of what is talked about below.

First, and this isn't really geek-material, let's look at some of the keyboard shortcuts. The one key that rules them all is Ctrl + Alt + / -- you'll want to remember that one. That key combination will bring up a display showing all the keyboard shortcuts on the Cr-48. xxxxxxx

Next, the 'wrench' icon in the upper right corner of the Chrome Notebook screen. xxxxx

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First Day as the Midwest Chrome Community Evangelist

Today marks the first day on the job for the Chrome Community Evangelist in the Midwest USA region.

If you have not yet heard of the Chrome Community Evangelist for the Midwest USA, that may be because this position was established very recently and has not yet been extensively publicized or communicated to the tech community and general public in the Midwest. The short term goals for this position are to document Cr-48 and Chrome OS information and activities in one or several websites or online formats and, as a Chrome Community Evangelist, to connect with people both one-on-one and in groups to discuss and promote the Chrome OS and Chrome browser and to answer questions regarding Chrome. The long term goal of the Chrome Community Evangelist is to develop the value, reach and network of the Midwest CCE to the point where it makes sense for Google to convert the position to a full-time paid employee of Google.

The first person who got to test drive le Cahier Chromé (Chrome Notebook) today and to hear my passionate endorsement of the finer points of Chrome OS and the Cr-48 pilot program was my daughter, in the wee hours of the morning at Seth's Coffee. She went to college in northern California and, in many ways, became a true hippie, so she does not enjoy computers and the internet way of life nearly as much as do I. As a matter of fact, she would like to produce an indie film about what happens when all the 'computers' in the world stop working. After being shown the nice new Cr-48, she was sort of 'meh' and thought it was about as useful as a Mac. Her main reaction was that she was happy I was picked to participate in the Chrome Notebook pilot program and hoped I enjoyed using it and helping test / develop a new approach to technology and computers.

Erin, Scott, Jeff and Drew were the next people to catch my Cr-48 evangelism and marketing spiel, being a somewhat captive audience at the Friday Innovators gathering at Aspen Coffee & Tea in Menasha, Wisconsin, USA. Since the FI group is highly interested in innovation, they were all slightly envious of me having gotten a Chrome Notebook, and Drew asked for a URL to apply for the pilot program. Erin had applied to participate in the program as soon as he got the pilot program link from me on the day of the Cr-48 press conference. Overall they seemed to feel it was interesting and held lots of opportunities for innovation in general internet computing. Scott in particular, though, didn't feel Cr-48 had high value for him, or that the next few years would bring effective tools for him to do commercial-strength video editing and production through the cloud.

Whilst working with the Cr-48 at Aspen Coffee after the Friday Innovators meeting, I struck up a conversation about the Chrome Notebook with a sys admin from RR Donnelley. He didn't know much about the Chrome OS and wasn't familiar with the Cr-48 pilot program, but seemed interested when I explained it to him.

The random discussion (as a defacto Chrome Community Evangelist) with the sys admin from RR Donnelley caused me to think a bit about what might be a few effective ways to be a Chrome Community Evangelist in the Midwest. Along the lines of "people usually like their ideas better than yours," a community evangelist will most often have meaningful discussions with random strangers at a coffee shop, community wifi hotspot or other location when those random strangers initiate the conversation, or at least notice something about you that gives them a reason to talk with you. A community evangelist who is intentionally and actively interested in connecting with people in a public setting needs to develop creative and unique ways of putting themself in a remarkable situation, then follow up appropriately when their situation is remarked upon by the aforementioned random stranger. Most strangers in a public situation are unlikely to initiate a conversation with a community evangelist, so the evangelist will be most effective if they appear non-ordinary, or generate a visual or audio cue that causes the stranger to be willing to engage in a casual conversation. More about creating a "remarkable situation" and about generating effective "visual or audio cues" in a future post...

The final people exposed today to my Cr-48 enthusiasm were the dyed-in-the-wool tech enthusiasts and hacker / makers Luke, Erin, Paul, Bob, Mark at the DHMN monthly meeting at Hong Kong Buffet in Neenah, Wisconsin, USA. In midst of all the other DHMN conversations flying around the table whilst large quantities of rice, General Tso's Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, and other typical Chinese buffet treats were consumed, I gave an overview of my Chrome Notebook experience thus far and answered their questions. The primary comment from the group was, "How come you got one -- I want one, too!" However, there was also the predictable hard-core geek comment that the Chrome OS would be way too limiting for all the different things this group of people does on a regular basis. A few of them are also convinced they do not want to store all or most of their data and lives on Google's servers or any other location in the cloud, thank you very much. They prefer to have their data and programs reside locally on their laptops, smartphones, netbooks, and home or colo servers.

Overall, my first day as the Midwest Chrome Community Evangelist was a successful and enjoyable one. I look forward to many more days as the Midwest CCE and am working diligently toward building and maintaining a large, vibrant, well-connected Chrome community in the Midwest.

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Day 2 With A Cr-48

Day 2 with my new 'still-smells-like-plastic-packaging' Cr-48 Chrome Notebook was less fun than I'd hoped and resulted in less advancement along the Chrome OS learning curve than it should have.

This was due mostly to my schedule for the day, although my inclination to try and understand technology thoroughly also slowed down my adoption of a Chrome lifestyle. One advantage I have with the Chrome Notebook over many other internet users is that I'm familiar with the Chrome browser experience since it's been my main browser for over a year. If my main browser prior to receiving the Cr-48 had been Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, I'd probably be immersing myself in the Chrome Notebook pilot program even more slowly, just because I'd want to learn all about Chrome.

If someone is considering switching to a Chrome Notebook, they should immediately start using Chrome as their main browser if it's not already their main door to the internet. This applies to home computer users, business users, students, teachers and anyone else who might switch to a Chrome OS machine in 2011. Already being familiar with the Chrome browser will give you a good head start on making Chrome OS your home away from home.

Day 2 started out with a breakfast meeting that doesn't have wifi available and does not involve the use of laptop or desktop computers. An occasional smartphone shows itself at the meeting, but very infrequently. However, one of the meeting participants is quite tech savvy, so I took the Cr-48 for him to look at if he was interested in doing so. He was interested, and after the meeting we spent fifteen minutes talking about and looking at the notebook. I told him he could borrow it sometime if he wants to get a feel for the Chrome OS experience.

The next three hours were spent finishing a job that needed to be done as quickly as possible. Document formatting and work-to-date on the project dictated that the job be completed on my Acer Timeline laptop, so opportunities to use or learn more about the Cr-48 were quite limited in the morning of Day 2.

The Chrome Notebook was taken along to lunch at Antojitos Mexicanos in Appleton, Wisconsin, a restaurant that normally has wifi. Unfortunately their wifi was down, and I was unable to do too much on the notebook without internet access. I haven't activated cellular access yet -- with only 100 MB/month free activity available on the Verizon service, I want to get comfortable with all the features and apps whilst I'm on 'unlimited free' wifi internet. The cellular 'net access will likely be activated this weekend. Since there wasn't much else to do on the notebook without internet access, I poked at Chrome OS settings and system info that's easily reachable just below the surface of the browser interface. Stuff like the Command Line info in 'About Chrome OS / More Info.'

Spent a couple hours in the afternoon looking at the apps available in the Chrome Web Store and installing ones I plan to experiment with in the next few days. Need to do some poking and online searching to figure out if I can rearrange the app icon layout. If the layout is determined strictly by the order of installation, I can just figure out what layout I want, delete all the currently installed apps, then re-install in the right order to give the layout that will work best for me. The installed apps that currently show up on my New Tab (home page?) are:

1. Gmail
2. Picnik Photo
3. Google Docs
4. Blogger
5. Aviary Advanced Image Editor
6. Google Books
7. Grooveshark
8. Pandora
9. Weather Underground
10. Evernote Web
11. Fiabee
12. Weebly Website Builder
13. Quick Note
14. Sketchpad
15. Google Maps
16. Youtube
17. Scratchpad

The Chrome OS pilot program notebook came along to my ABC / TechAdvised evening meeting with Andy M, the founder of B.R.I.T., a provider of technology services to small businesses in Appleton and the Fox Valley of northeast Wisconsin. We meet weekly for a three hour one-on-one work/discussion session in which we explore a wide range of tech entrepreneurism topics that may have some relevance to us or which may provide new revenue stream opportunities for us. Andy agreed that for certain types of computer users, the Cr-48 would be an ideal portable computer. However, it wouldn't meet his needs for using LogMeIn, for doing large scale CAD drawings or for building websites. We discussed a number of development or innovation opportunities for me to focus on during my time in the Chrome OS pilot program. Those innovation opportunities will be the subject of future blog posts.

Day 2 is now over; Day 3 is looming. Three meetings in the morning and early afternoon, and a holiday dinner party, so it's looking like Day 4 will be the day for making major progress up the Chrome Notebook learning curve...

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Woo-hoo! Cr-48 Chrome Notebook Arrived!

Happy, stunned, amazed, excited and grateful!

That's pretty much how I feel right now, sitting here with a brand-new, just-delivered Google Cr-48 Chrome Notebook.

I was a tech nomad most of this morning and part of the afternoon at a local wifi hotspot, working on my Acer Timeline 14.1" Win7 laptop. When I arrived home at 2 PM there was a medium size box setting on the kitchen counter. My mind started to get excited, wondering if it was my Chrome Notebook but being very skeptical that it would actually be a Cr-48.

Looked at the box. It was addressed to me. It was about the right size for a small laptop computer. No Google address or other info on the outside that indicated it was from Google or from someone associated with Google. But when I started opening the box I saw the inner box "hamster-powered computer" graphics. Every Chrome Notebook admirer would instantly recognize that rodent from all the articles they've read about the Cr-48 since it was announced last week. Oh frabjous day, Callooh, Callay!

There was no prior notification from Google; they just shipped it to me unannounced. Guess that saved me from the anxiety of waiting and wondering where it was. Although online status trackers for shipping pretty much eliminate the need to wonder where an en-route package is.

It feels so cool to have this new tech toy to play with, to have a new computing paradigm to become immersed in and to have a chance to be a pilot program participant for what I hope will be a truly innovative new personal computing tool. Because I live in northeast Wisconsin, opportunities to be a beta tester for new tech services or products are relatively rare compared to the opportunities for someone living in SF/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Austin or Boston. Opportunities to be involved in a Google beta are even more rare, especially a Google hardware pilot program. I plan to make the most of this pilot program, giving Google as much useful feedback as I can and connecting directly with at least one person on the Chrome Notebook team if at all possible. One of the Googlers I plan to try and connect with is Sundar Pichai.

To the extent possible, I'll be using the Cr-48 as my main computer for at least the next few months. It will be interesting and challenging to figure out alternative ways of accomplishing on the Chrome Notebook those normal daily tasks which weren't heretofore done in a browser environment. What will be really cool is if I come up with suggestions for the Chrome Notebook team for new Chrome OS products or services which they or outside developers then create or modify based on my suggestions or requests.

I'm a chemical engineer by education, training and experience. Tend to be thorough, methodical, factual and objective. Because of this, my first review of the Cr-48 and Chrome OS will be after several days of intense use. However, here are a few initial reactions after using the notebook for a couple hours.

1. Love the keyboard. Feels comfortable, accurate and easy to use.
2. The "Instant-On" operation is fantastic. Will be hard to put up with Win7 boot-up times when I'm forced to use that.
3. The 12" screen will feel small for a while compared to my 14.1" Acer screen, but it feels tons better than a 10" or smaller netbook screen.
4. The touchpad is unquestionably challenging to use; it will likely cause me to do a combination of USB mouse and careful experimentation to figure out the most effective touchpad techniques.

Enough 'work' -- time to go back to playing with My New Google Chrome Notebook, having fun and learning as much as I can about it. My extreme gratitude is extended to the Cr-48 team for including me in the pilot program. You made me a very happy tech enthusiast. Thanks!

The only thing that would have made today better is if I'd also gotten a free Android phone from Google that could be used with the Virgin Mobile $25 unlimited data plan. In case anyone from Google is reading this blog...

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The Dark View of Chrome OS

This blog's focus thus far has primarily been looking for the good in Chrome OS, but two articles popped up today looking at the Dark Side of Google's latest major innovative push at the personal computing world.

In one article, from The Guardian, Richard Stallman talks about careless computing and losing control of one's data because it's no longer stored on our hard drive or other storage media in our physical or legal possession. The other article, closer to Google's home, has the San Francisco Chronicle's Matt Rosoff calling Chrome OS a "Waste Of Time."

Of the two articles, Richard Stallman's merits more thought and discussion. Stallman, the longtime champion of GNU, the Free Software Foundation, and all (most?) things that give you more control over your data and computing systems, is no fan of the 'cloud' or of relinquishing personal and immediate control of your data. He says,

"...In the US, you even lose legal rights if you store your data in a company's machines instead of your own. The police need to present you with a search warrant to get your data from you; but if they are stored in a company's server, the police can get it without showing you anything. They may not even have to give the company a search warrant...as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear..."

Although my initial reaction is to dismiss RMS as a fringe geek and as someone who has chosen not to participate in the path along which the internet and personal computing seem to be moving, this article is a worthwhile read, and Stallman does raise valid points. We are ceding control of most of our data when we use Chrome OS or cloud storage, more so, I think, than when we store our data locally on a hard drive or other storage media. It's questionable whether the data truly is more secure on a hard drive in our house (or on the flash memory in our smartphone) if we're connected to the web and pass much of our data through it. However, those who care to take reasonable, or maybe even a tad paranoid, precautions to safeguard their hard drive files still have a fighting chance to keep private data private. Once you store your data primarily in the cloud, especially if it's a free-to-the-consumer storage service such as Google or Facebook, you've pretty much given up any reasonable expectation of privacy.

Since most people will not do local backups, or even cloud-based backups of the files on their primary data host, such as Google, Facebook or Microsoft, they have given up not only their privacy, they've also given those hosts 90% of the title for ownership. Possession is nine-tenths... In some cases, they may have given 100%, depending on what the EULA says for which they clicked a box indicating they will do whatever the host wants in exchange for using the service the host provides.

In the SF Chronicle opinion piece, Mr. Rosoff says,

"Based on what Google is showing now, unless they give away Chrome notebooks for free, there's no reason to use one...But Chrome doesn't make any sense...that's because it's not really doing much...Google should scrap this product before it gets any further..."

Rosoff totally dismisses Chrome OS and sees no value in Cr-48 for anyone. That may be his opinion because he is a SF/Silicon Valley-type geek and has primarily SF/Silicon Valley friends who know what technology they like and feel that everyone needs the same standard tech world computing paradigm. I doubt Mr. Rosoff has to do computer support for older people who mainly use computers to write emails, browse the web and look at photos of their grandchildren. He probably doesn't interact too much with school district tech people who support computers for everyone from middle schoolers to teachers and administrators. It seems like there are plenty of computer users for whom the Chrome OS would work better than a full fledged Windows or Mac machine.

Read both these articles so you're aware of the Dark Side of Chrome OS. Or at least two people's opinions of the downsides for Chrome OS. Even if Chrome OS is ahead of its time, it seems to represent a significant enough paradigm shift that we won't fully escape the concept it represents.

What's your opinion? Is Chrome OS the first step toward the 'real' SkyNet, or a major fiasco and waste of money for Google?

I hope not on the first, and I think not on the second.

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