Music in the Clouds

As I've explained in last week's summation post, working on a three-year-old laptop is, in many ways, like using this CloudBook. Similar, but not the same. My old Vaio is bigger. It's heavier. It doesn't hold a charge. It's much, much slower. Oh yeah, and it has a hard drive.

Being a freelance writer - which means a microscopic budget - and owning such an old computer has meant some creative solutions to common computing problems. In fact, it is the road to cheap and practical solutions that has led me to the clouds. It has also meant that it has been a natural shift to this new CloudBook.

Cloud Computing and the CloudBook: the news of week one in review

Because of the "real" work that needed to get done this week, I didn't get a chance to document my first week of CloudBook evaluation as well as an amateur geek should have. With all the writing I was doing, I didn't get a chance to post any processing data, app evaluations, reviews, or opinions about whether Chrome should "be killed" or cries of alarm as information moves away from my computer. I left that for others to do. 

I do have one thing to report: as a professional writer and future cloud app consultant/admin the CloudBook works.

Week One in Review: The CloudBook

Technically, my Chrome OS laptop came a week ago yesterday. Yet I didn't actually start using my CloudBook until the day after I received it. As much as I wanted to pull that sucker out of the box and start putting it through its paces, in a rare act of self-control I followed the instructions to the letter and waited for the battery to fully charge before using it. I didn't want to take an opportunity like this for granted. Friday was the first full day of CloudBook usage, and by executive decree, I'm picking Friday as my CloudBook's anniversary day.

Like many of life's blessings, my CloudBook couldn't have arrived at a more inconvenient time.

Battery Torture Test

If your definition of  cloud includes wireless, then I went "pure" cloud Saturday morning in a very non-scientific test to see how long the Cr-48 CloudBook could go without charging. As you can see from the photos on my very first post, the battery is almost half the size of this tiny laptop and probably makes up about half its weight as well. So the curious lets-poke-it-with-a-stick kid in me decided to test its charge longevity.

After all, Google did insist that I "kick the tires."

Sharp as a Marble, That's Me

My ChromeOS laptop is smarter than me.

I just figured out, after about 12 hours of use, that it wasn't simply lack of oxygen; this laptop's screen brightens and dims depending on the amount of light the camera is picking up. Oh yeah. The little lens at the top of the screen is a light sensor when it's not taking pictures of my gorgeous self.

Too bad it doesn't have a lit keyboard that activates at the same time the screen dims. That would keep words like laptop from turning into ;a[tp[ (try typing in the dark - it happens!).

- Captain B.

Technical Writing at its Wryest

As promised: the text, in its entirety, from the user instructions that came with the Cr-48. If all technical writing could sound like this, I might have more of a writing career. I'd also read these things through. I can't remember the last time I read one from beginning to end. Well played, Google copy editor, well played.

Also note the obvious reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not subtle. But still funny.

Early Christmas Present from Google

Earlier this week I was doing what I always do in the morning: procrastinating. There was a live webcast from Salesforce's Dreamforce and I had that going, listening to Benioff drone on about how excited he is about...well...everything. Not that I don't like Benioff (you gotta respect a guy that has changed the face of enterprise computing as we know it), or Salesforce (I'm currently studying for my Admin certification), but the presentation was dragging. So, as the true cloud geek that I am, I switched over to the Chrome webcast to see what the Google geeks had in store for me.

Woah.

Chrome extension store. Cool. Chrome OS. Even cooler. Chrome OS on a laptop they call "Cr-48." Just about the coolest thing since Apple's iPad (and a much cooler name). And then the high-geeks of Google tell me that I can go apply to be a tester of this little black box. I figured I'd give it a shot. What do I have to lose, right? I fill out their survey, give my one paragraph reason why I deem myself worthy, and hit the submit button.

That was it...or so I thought.