Living in the Cloud

I already wrote about my Christmas gift from Google.  I've been using it for a few weeks now, almost exclusively, and I am very happy. It isn't perfect. It's a closed beta right now. (Version 0.9.128.12 at the time of writing) What I can say is that it's fast. Lightning fast.  I do notice some lag with Adobe Flash, but that should improve with finalized hardware.

The last post I did was completely written (photos and all) on the CR-48.  It's instant resume, starts in 14 seconds, and I may have shut it down three times since I've had it.  Occasionally, Chrome starts leaking memory and I have to log out and back in. Also, SD and USB storage access is largely nonexistent.  I had to work through Picnik to upload images.  This should be improved as one of the experimental options is "Advanced File System".

Mostly, it's dead simple. Unless it can't connect to a network, in which case, you must enter Incognito Mode to set up the wireless.  I have yet to activate the Verizon 3G, so I won't comment on that.  It syncs all my settings, extensions, apps, bookmarks, etc.

What I like the most about this laptop.

1. It consistently gets 8 hours of battery life
2. Instant resume lets me close it up to save battery without worrying about waiting to resume when I open it back up
3. I have reset it, without losing anything

8 hours of battery life means that I can be at sub ten percent battery life and have over a half hour of life remaining.  That's invaluable if you're on the go and need to finish something quick.

Bugs: 

The keyboard shortcuts menu (ctrl+alt+/) only shows qwerty layout (I am in the minority that uses Dvorak)

Can't change profile picture without resetting the device

No real show stoppers. This seems very close to launch.

So, I got a CR-48

On Thursday, I had a package at my door.  I had no idea what it was, but I knew that it was addressed to me, so I opened it.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a diagram on a box, and a guinea pig so dear.  At this point, I knew what it was. I had seen this post a week or so before.  Like any good blogger, I raced for a camera to photograph the unboxing, while simultaneously yelling that I had a Chrome OS notebook.  I'll save the review for later, but some initial impressions now.

Social Obligation

Facebook and Twitter are different.  And there's a reason that we like one over the other.  Facebook has a built in social obligation.  Relationships are immediately reciprocated.  There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach.  The advantages are that it becomes much more personal, and truly makes sense for those real world relationships.  Disadvantages are that it often becomes noisy and your news stream isn't always interesting to you.  Sure, you can individually hide people, but that is a nuisance and time consuming.

Twitter has an alternative method.  It has received criticism for being an anti-social network as opposed to a social one.  This allows you to pick the people that are interesting to you and not be bogged down by noise.  There is no pressure to follow everyone who follows you, but results in many people having relatively few follower counts.

It all depends what you want.  I'll sacrifice some social for some relevance.

Traveling Part 2 - Minnesota Missions

So, we've already talked about my college visits, now I want to share about a missions trip I took earlier this year to Minnesota.

Saturday July 3rd, I left with a group of fourteen other people from my church to go to Red Lake Minnesota.  As we were making the trek, by car, from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, it took us approximately 23 hours of driving both ways for the trip.  Fortunately, we were able to stop at a hotel in Chicago both ways as well.  But once we got up there, the trip was well worth it!  We were working on an Indian reservation, and it was quite a change from the comfortable Pennsylvania atmosphere I'm used to.

One of the kids from the reservation and me

As we worked with the kids through a VBS program, it broke my heart to see that many of the kids came from broken homes, or didn't even know whose house they were going home to on a given night.  It was important to show them God's love for them through us.  A lot of them grew close to my heart, and I was privileged to find that three of them dedicated their lives to Christ the next week!  Within a day, they were hanging all over us and really loved us.  We shared the story of salvation, a story some of them already knew.  Of course, not everything went smoothly.  Due to threatening weather, we weren't able to go to the lake on our third day of VBS, which disappointed many of the kids.

We also were able to help out by painting a house while we were there.  Just a simple coat of paint does an amazing job of lifting a person's spirits and is a great way to show that we care for them.  Best of all, we all enjoyed doing it!  We had a great time over the course of the week, just being able to help them and work with them.  It was a great opportunity to grow in my personal faith over the course of the week.

I also met some people that will hold a special place in my heart from now on.  Carmen and Caitlin are two girls that are really walking with Christ and on fire for him!  I will be continuing to pray for them and encourage them in their walk.  I am so thankful that I got to meet them, they really inspired me to be a better Christian myself.  I see the hardships they walk through and it is a motivator for me to go out and face my hardships with the strength of God at my side!

I learned a lot in Minnesota, and I'm glad to be able to share the experience!

Any questions, get my email address at: http://scr.im/aqy

Traveling Part 1 - Colleges

Hey everyone!


I've been having a great time the last few weeks, and am just now getting a chance to blog about it.
About two weeks ago, I was able to get out to Pittsburgh and visit Carnegie Mellon University and Grove City College!  Both college visits were fantastic, and I feel this now would be a good time for some "show and tell."

(Above) This photo was taken in the library at Carnegie Mellon.
It's a "pod" for power napping. Very comfortable!

My first trip was in the morning to Carnegie Mellon.  The campus, though in the City of Pittsburgh, feels really set off from the city.  Everything is close together, but it isn't crowded.  It's also nice to be in the city and be able to go somewhere off the college if I wish.  Still, the primary reason for choosing Carnegie Mellon is clearly it's reputation for computer science.  I interviewed with the college, and it was very relaxed and comfortable.  This is definitely a top choice for me right now!


Next, we traveled to Grove City.  This Christian campus was very friendly and welcoming.  I really like the feel of the campus, although it is more suburban to rural in feel.  As a Christian college, they have three standards that they want students to adhere to:

1. Live in single sex dorms. A separate guys building and a separate girls building.
2. No alcohol. (Pretty simple)
3. Attend sixteen sessions in the chapel per semester.

Overall, I think these are very reasonable expectations, and I know I will have no issue sticking to them.  I also got a chance to meet the head of the computer science department. He did his undergrad and graduate work to get his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon!  These two colleges are definitely neck-and-neck right now!

Facebook and Privacy

Today, I sent a "Suggestion" to Facebook. It read as follows:

Suggestion: Implement an "Opt-In" policy instead of "Opt-Out"

Dear Facebook,

This is a dangerous (And dare I say, "Evil") road for Facebook to walk. There is no easy way to BLOCK *ALL* sites that want to see my information. I have individually block each application as they pop up. This may drive people from Facebook and has huge privacy implications. I would like to be able to OWN *MY* information and not have it given away by Facebook. Facebook is taking away my control and freely giving my information to anyone it deems responsible. This is invasion of privacy and *CANNOT* be taken lightly. Change, Facebook. Don't be evil.

Signed,

A Concerned User

To find out what Facebook is sharing about you, visit: www.zesty.ca/facebook. To view Facebook's Privacy settings, visit: 
http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&ref=mb
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/help/?page=1068 

New Layout!

Hey all,
I'd just like to say, I'm very happy with the layout of my website.  I've done a little bit of tweaking, and you can see the fruit of my effort! Rounded boxes, semi transparency and what not.  I'll be learning some CSS along the way, so as I make changes, I'll be sure to post some code, and feel free to view the style sheet any time you want!
Here is the code to style the Blog Archive on the right.  Note the "!important" parts to override other styles.

.BlogArchive {
	width: 200px !important;
	padding: 9px 15px !important;
	background: rgba(50,50,50,0.77) !important;
	border: 0 !important;
	color: #FFFFFF !important;
	-moz-border-radius: 10px !important;
	-webkit-border-radius: 10px !important;

What Should a Mobile OS Do?

Let's face it: A mobile Operating System (OS) should do everything a real OS does.  The only difference should be the screen size.  I'm not saying that every phone should be running PhotoShop (Yet), but a mobile OS shouldn't be limited by an app store either.  The only limitations should be the battery life and the processor.  This brings me to my point: What is Apple gaining by running a closed app store?  Shouldn't the apps be treated the same as in a real OS?  Why would you block apps that people WANT on their phone?  If I can put any app I want onto my phone, then it is truly my phone.  Microsoft may have failed when it came to the mobile interface (a scaled down Windows doesn't work),  but they don't force you to use their app store to get an app onto the phone.  What Apple does with their app store is the equivalent of only selling Mac software in the Apple Store and approving only what they want.  That's right, no Microsoft Office for you!  Perhaps the only thing holding Apple back from this is third party plugins like Flash.  Oh, wait.  Maybe not.

My Favorite Google Chrome Extensions (And a Theme)

Hey everyone, I have found some really great stuff out there! Chrome is my go-to browser, so I wanted to recommend a few extensions and a theme that I really like.  First, there is this beautiful Android Inspired Theme for Chrome.  This is easy on the eyes, the Green isn't too obnoxious and the circuitry is beautiful.  Plus, who doesn't dig a little green robot?

Next, I have some great extensions.
The first one is great for everyone.  Xmarks is a Cross browser bookmark synchronization extension for Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.  The Chrome version isn't as robust and doesn't support password sync as of right now.

Finally, I have two to round out notification extensions.  The first one is called One Number.  This one is great if you use Gmail, Reader, Voice, and ahem, Wave anyone?  This will put all of your notifications in one slick extension, you can customize the colors and it will give you a breakdown by service when you hit the browser action.

My final suggestion, Google Mail Checker Plus , is only for Dev Channel users right now.  (I don't know about Beta)  While technically it WILL work with any, the real power is in the Dev Channel.  The Dev Channel is currently the only channel that I know that supports pop up notifications.  It gives a pop up with a preview of the message and the subject with a link to open it.  It also appears whether Chrome is visible or not. (Still must be open.) Also provides a notification sound!  Sound off in the comments with your favorites!