CR 48 update... long, rambling read, sorry!

Well.. I see that I'm keeping up really good with timely updates.... lol. By now, the 1 or 2 of you that visit are used to it. I'm trying to change that, but uhm... can't say that there will be any miracles any time soon.

So, the big thing I wanted to talk about today is how I am slowly falling in love with one Google product, and possible out of love with another. I guess it's easier to pitch the bad news first, so I'll just say it: Google, I don't like Blogger. Ok, I don't mean that I don't like blogging, my inability to post frequently has nothing to do with my capacity to LIKE it. This weekend, I started working on a project for a client, using Wordpress, and I've gotta say, WOW. That's some nice stuff! Yes, I was a tad confused by some things, but in my mind overall, I think Wordpress really has Blogger beat. But please don't delete my blog because I'm spreading such blasphemy! I was strictly working with Wordpress.com, not a Wordpress.org installation (which has even more features and power!). They have a really nice back end interface, there are some beautiful templates, I don't know, it's just a whole bunch of good. I must admit, I am a sucker for aesthetics, and while I may not be good at graphic design and clean user interfaces, I definitely appreciate it. This is really where I think Wordpress has Blogger beat. It's just plain gorgeous. Ok, I'm done here. I don't really mean to bash Blogger, I've used it for a while, and I will probably continue using it (at least every month or so, haha). I will, however, probably look into Wordpress a little more as I get more used to the interface and inner workings with my client project.

Ok, back to the good stuff. I L. O. V. E. my Google laptop. This CR-48 rocks! I have tried to take Google's request to heart, and I try to use this as much as possible as my primary machine. The battery life is ridiculous. I don't even monitor how long it is any more, I just count on it having enough life for me to do whatever I plan. I charge it when it needs it, but it's really funny when I look at the battery at 50ish percent and say, "eh, I've got 4 or so hours left". Using Verizon 3G internet is kind of surreal. I didn't set it up for the first week I had it because we don't have Verizon service in my area. While visiting family over Christmas, I went shopping for a skid steer (yes, I am a redneck geek) with my dad, and we were barreling down the road from one dealer to another, wondering what a third dealer had in stock down the road. Instead of using my dinky iPhone screen to search, I set up the Verizon 3G (which was painless and quick), and in no time, I was checking dealer websites and craigslist while my dad was cruising down the highway. Awesome. I've barely used it since, but last weekend I rode to Maryland with a friend to buy a truck, and brought it along for the same reasons. I can only hope the Verizon or ATT get a strong signal to my house some day (and still offer an unlimited package - I'm dreaming) so I can ditch our crappy Frontier DSL. Aside from that, this laptop just works. As I mentioned previously, I didn't have iTunes on my (now unused) primary laptop, so I lost nothing there, the CR-48 streams Pandora and Grooveshark just fine. Since I'm not in college anymore, I rarely actually have a need for Word, but I've familiarized myself with Google Docs just in case. Youtube seems to work fine, but I am not a Youtube addict, so I'm not on it all the time. Flash is still terrible, but I don't notice it too much because I rarely access anything really Flash heavy and normal Flash videos seem mostly ok.

I've learned some little tricks along the way to make my experience better, and I've subscribed to the dev channel to get updates sooner. The touchpad is my biggest complaint, but even that I'm getting used to. Actually, it has 2 finger scrolling, and I also just got a Macbook Pro at work (which features a totally amazing touchpad), and I am totally spoiled now by some of these 'multitouch' mouse features that none of my other laptops have. However, on the CR-48, the pad just kind of goes on the fritz. If I select things, it will sometimes not like to respond to my end click to finish my selection, then I end up sort of stuck with a cursor that is selecting everything. A few rapid mouse clicks fix that, but, its a bit of a pain. The dev channel pushes more unstable, beta-like builds to me instead of more tested builds to the other channels. I haven't really noticed a problem with this (I use it on my desktop Chrome browser too), as I've had very few crashes anyways. With each update Google seems to fix a thing or two, constantly improving the OS.

One thing I wish Google would eventually work on (though I know this is sort of counter-intuitive to the ideas of ChromeOS) would be accessing file storage devices. Currently, I don't even bother to try using Picnik to edit a photo, or downloading installer files for other computers because I must have an unsupported flash drive and it is unrecognized.

The LCD is nice, it seems like it's much better quality than almost any other netbook display that I've seen. Text is nice and crisp, and I don't feel limited by screen resolution like I have felt with smaller 10" screens. Oh yeah, it's also matte, which is sadly a rarity these days.

Close the screen, it goes to sleep. Open the screen, and it is on before you have it the whole way up. The only thing that makes me believe it actually goes to sleep is the fact that the battery would die much faster otherwise. The only delay is in the network adapter acquiring a signal, but I imagine that's a bit of a hardware limitation.

Well, if you've made it this far, I applaud you for putting up with my aimless ramblings. When I explained the idea of the Chrome OS to my coworkers (all at least twice my age) they basically thought it was a thin client, which in many ways they are right. But, as I explained more about the kind of theory behind it, security, ease of recovery, ect, they warmed up to the idea. I'd like to think that ChromeOS is going to take off, but I'm not really sure that it will. I wonder if Chrome is going to start competing with Android, and if it might make more sense to just make an Android 'Desktop' OS.

I'm done, no other mindless drivel. If you're nearly sleeping now, sorry, but tough.

CR-48

So, I've got a Google Chrome notebook, called the CR-48. It came in the mail yesterday, and I was quite thrilled. You see, this is a prototype notebook that Google is giving to developers and early adopters to try out, test, and give feedback on. Last week they made an announcement about it, and then opened up the Pilot Program (found here). I was travelling for work at the time and wanted to apply but got sidetracked and didn't remember to do it until Monday this week. At that point I thought my chances were probably somewhere between slim and none, as they only have 60,000 devices to give away. Imagine my surprise when I got home yesterday to an unexpected package! I was pretty excited, to say the least.

I really probably have nothing new to say that all the tech blogs have already hit upon, but I'll spew my initial impressions here anyways. First, the packaging: it arrived in a relatively bare box. There are only 3 pieces of paper included; a little business card sized one that says it has an Intel processor (a 1.66 Ghz Atom actually), a one page 'Getting Started' style guide, and a Safety Notice.



The Safety Notice is Hilarious! I loved it. You probably think I'm nuts, "the paper that's full of legal jargon, like don't blow this up or use it in unintended ways? really?", yes, it was funny. They filled it will little quips and funnies, such as the line below:

‎"This product contains small parts, which may present a choking hazard to small children, as well as men who have not emotionally matured. Keep the device and accessories away from small children, regardless of how much they want to bang on the keyboard."

The hardware itself is really quite nice. I like the minimalist look a lot. There isn't a single brand on the notebook at all, but overall it resembles a black Macbook. The finish is a matte black that has a slight rubberized texture. The screen is also matte, which is a rarity in notebook screens these days, although many still prefer it. It is a 12" screen, with a webcam and mic in the top center. There is a big, buttonless trackpad as well (the whole pad acts as a button and depresses if you click it). It has a whopping 5 ports: power, VGA out, USB, audio, and an SD card reader. The keyboard is very nice, but different, because they assigned functions (forward, back, refresh, ect) to the F-keys and replaced the Caps Lock button with a Search button instead. I waited about 2 hours for the partially charged battery to finish, holding my curiosity in until it was done.

Since Google already knows way too much about me, the setup process was simple. The laptop powers on just by simply opening the lid, it looked for and found my wireless connection, then proceeded to download an update (which only took a few minutes). Once that was done, I simply logged in with my existing Google account, took a webcam picture for my account and WHAM! I was done. All of my bookmarks were organized and laid out exactly as my desktop Chrome browser, as well as all of my plugins and extensions, pretty cool. The first page is a little guided tour of the OS (which is just a browser) which I went through to pick up any little nuggets of useful info. Lets get this straight, Chrome OS is really just a browser, lower your expectations... now.

This thing is literally completely built for the Internet. Without it, you can't accomplish much. You can 'install' applications in Chrome, but they are really mostly just glorified bookmarks. Chrome can use HTML5, which does allow for offline data storage, and when more developers utilize this I'm sure there will be more that you can do when not connected. I'm not trying to complain here, because when I compare this laptop to my primary laptop, there is only 1 application that I use on a regular basis that won't work on Chrome: Adobe Lightroom. That's not much of a big deal if I don't need to edit photos or whatnot. Even on Chrome, I could go to Picnik.com or SumoPaint to edit photos online if I wanted. I haven't really had any issues getting around since I am already acquainted with the Chrome browser, and any settings for the OS are found in an expanded version of the browser settings. The one weak area for Chrome OS is Adobe Flash. Adobe hasn't made the hardware acceleration tweaks to Flash for Linux (which is really what Chrome OS is on a basic level) that it has for Windows, which leads to really sluggish/instable performance. One of the first things I did since discovering this is to install a Flash-blocking extension that kills any Flash banners or other elements in websites and allows me to selectively choose what Flash elements to enable. Pandora.com, for instance, requires Flash, so I easily made an exception for it.

The only real complaint I have with the notebook hardware at the moment is the touchpad. I really want to like it, but it just doesn't cut it. I've read a few reviews before this thing came and they mentioned how horrible the touchpad was. Ok, so maybe I've always had crappy touchpads, its not THAT bad, but it is definitely the weakest link when comparing the hardware. General pointing is fine, but clicking is kind of difficult. Left clicks are sometimes intermittent, and right clicks are just downright frustrating. A right click on a buttonless pad involves clicking with 2 fingers, and on this notebook its more of a 'wishful' gesture than a reliable operation. The thing is, it's not a huge deal because you can almost completely navigate this notebook by keyboard, and the keyboard is really nice. Also, I can plug in an external mouse if it really bugs me - I just haven't yet.

Ok, I'll touch on two more impressions and then close this ridiculously long post. When you close the lid of this notebook, it goes to sleep, duh. The amazing thing happens when you open it: blink and it's on. There is NO wakeup time. None. Supposedly from a cold boot it finishes in 10-15 seconds, but I haven't really experience that yet. But really, opening the lid to browse is instant, it's that simple. The last thing I'd like to mention is about battery life. I've used this thing constantly since I finished charging it last night and it is currently at 47% and there is still 3.5 hours left. I didn't lower the screen brightness, the only battery-optimizing thing that I've done is turn off the 3G cellular modem, since there is no cell service at my house. This thing will easily get 8 hours on a charge if you are even moderately careful by adjusting screen brightness.

Alright, I'll shut up now. My first impression of Chrome OS is good, and I' trying not to be blinded by the excitement that I just got a free laptop. I'm going to try to use this thing as much as possible over the coming weeks and I'll be posting further impressions here. Leave a comment with any questions if you have any!

New blogging/FB post tools!

Well, my blogging frequency really hasn’t improved… that’s ok, uhm, I guess.  However, one thing that really bugs me is the whole paradigm of getting my posts onto Facebook.  To put it short and sweet: Facebook blog imports are terrible.  If I post something here, good luck reading about it in 2 DAYS on my Facebook page.  Seriously, it takes FOREVER to update with Facebook. 

In more recent news, I tried to help my wife import her blog to her profile.  No can do.  The stupid tool just errors out, so I tried googling the error, and found users all over the place having the same issue at different points in time.  So, I looked around for alternatives.  One application often mentioned was RSS Graffiti, so I checked it out.  It has lots of options, can post to your profile, any of your pages, and even events, simultaneously! It can also be set to check for updates MUCH more often (yeah, laugh it up, like it matters for my once-a-month posts).  I set it up for here, and hereby declare that I will be setting it up for myself as well! Hopefully if I configured it correctly, this post will be my first using RSS Graffiti.

Finally, since this is a photography blog and all… I’ll leave you with a kind of humorous picture. This groomsman was THRILLED when a bridesmaid asked him to hold her bouquet!  I think he kind of reflects my attitude towards Facebook and their inept blog post import system. Really Facebook, really!?

Slowly…

Well, 2 weeks is better than 2 months, haha. 

Here is an ever so SLIGHTLY (stressed, slightly) photo related story:

Last weekend we were ALMOST on our way to photograph a wedding.. running a bit late, hopped into the truck.. threw it into reverse, put the hammer down and then….

SLAM!!!!

I hit my wife’s car.  No.  I REALLY hit her car.  Wow, a fullsize truck can sure do damage. I destroyed a headlight, the hood, the grill, and punctured the radiator (please don’t fine me for leaking coolant!).  Then I looked at my truck.. oh yea, just a bent bumper and a little paint damage.  Not wanting to be any later, I hopped back into the truck and away we went to the wedding.   I was SO mad at myself.  It took me about 10-15 miles on our trip before I started thinking rationally and making plans on how we might deal with this issue.  I love Shawna.  All the while she remained calm, listened to me and tried not to rake the coals.

By the time we got to the wedding venue, we were pretty much ready to joke about it.  The bride and groom of this particular wedding were good friends, as well as many of the family and friends that attended the wedding, so we had a fun time relaying to story and joking about it with them. 

I called to file a claim, my first ever, on Monday, and my insurance company has been great about it.  We’re still working through the details, but right now it looks like I might have done so much damage to the car that it could be totaled.  Wow. 

So. Yeah. That’s what everyone will be making fun of me for, for the foreseeable future.  Enjoy.

How about a set of entirely unrelated pictures? Enjoy!

Long time, no talk

Well hello dear readers… uhm, all 1 of you. 

So, it hasn’t been too hard to see that blogging isn’t exactly my forte’.

No worries, I’m trying to get back on the bandwagon, and I’ve got loads of photos from the past, erm, year to show!  So, kick back, relax, and check back every once in a while for some new photos!

I love this photo, and I think it is probably the best from a camping trip I had with friends a few weeks ago at Ricketts Glen State Park.  I’ll post a few more later!

After a long siesta…

It’s Memorial Day weekend!  I’ve been a little negligent on the interwebs lately, but I’ll be getting back into it soon. 

This weekend my wife made baklava with one of her friends, and it sure was fantastic!

We also made some big waffles and dressed them up with some of the leftover walnuts, whipped cream, and strawberries.  Yum!

I also got a chance to refurbish an old door into a sort of dressing vanity for Shawna.  I’m pretty sure I could’ve bought a brand new door for the 5 or 6 trips I took to the hardware store, but it’s all but done now and I’ve gotta say, it looks pretty good!

Holy Summer!

Talk about one extreme to the next! I was literally driving in sleet and icy slush on TUESDAY and today Central PA was probably near or above 80 degrees! So today I have a picture of some crocuses and a little bee starting his spring pollination!

The world is coming back to life after the dead, cold winter. Rather fitting weather for the Easter weekend!

As always, thanks for stopping by!