Yensid - life in the cloud

Cr-48 ChromeOS screenshot slideshow viewer

2010-12-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

[the following was ganked from a reply of mine on the Chromium OS Discuss mailing list - hey, it's my content... ;-]

I was tempted to repeat this for the double mirror trick ;-]

I just found a neat trick... Screenshots get stored in File Shelf/Screenshots... If you navigate to that, [ctrl-o opens a file browser], double click File Shelf , then Screenshots, you can double click a screenshot. It opens a slideshow in a new tab you can scroll through using the left and right arrow keys.

20 hours in the cloud. Putting the Cr-48 to the test.

2010-12-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

My Cr-48 arrived Friday, December 17th... wow, has it only been 10 days? I went through the ritual of opening up something from Google, e.g. reading everything, every note, package insert, and even digging in the bottom of the box, which is where I found the big sticker... Why has no one else mentioned finding it? ;-]

I plugged it in, and left it to charge for an hour while I tended to work. Good thing the work involved being out of the office, as that was a tough hour to pretend to be working and not playing... Then, I had to apply the decal. I figured if Google went to the trouble to send these fancy 3M post-it style decals, then the least I could do would be to put them on...

I have done a lot of testing of ChromeOS, so the power-up login procedure was no surprise, just connect to your wifi, enter your Google Account user/pass, and then sit back while it goes through the first boot. [the first time for any first time ChromeOS boot can sometimes take over a minute]

I was pleasantly surprised that the Cr-48 auto-downloaded updates as soon as it booted. I saw the same behavior from the December 7th build. The start up time for me took a bit longer, because the browser needed to install the 38 extensions I have sync'd to my Google docs. As expected, the Chrome browser fills the entire screen, no borders at all [the screenshots are the raw images, no cropping performed].

I promised Google I would make the Cr-48 be my main desktop for the foreseeable future, so I set out to do just that. Only problem was that Friday night was the night I set aside to make a new business card. Oops. I can do this... The first thing I did was go shopping for apps. I grabbed Picnik, the Aviary suite, box.net, YouTube and of course, Gmail.

I fired up Aviary, and proceeded to try and do all this in the cloud. The first step was to import my new logo into Aviary from Picasa Web. I pulled up the logo, and grabbed the url to the image so I could paste it into Aviary. Once pasted in, I could start building an image that would fit the card.

Once the image was imported, I set out to set up a blank image, all black, and then place the various parts on different layers so I could place things where I wanted. Aviary did not seem to have the font I wanted, so once the image was centered, I saved my changes as a new image and sent it back to my Picasa Web Album.

I used the Picnik editor in Picasa to add the text to my card, as it has this killer font called Guild of Professional Actors which is available if you are a premium user. Picnik lays text on images as layer type objects, so once you place them, you can move the objects, and edit the size or the color. I like Flash, but I am itching to get that Try the html5 beta version... [hint, hint, Robin... ;-]

Once I was satisfied with the placement and size of the text, I saved the image back to Picasa Web as a new file and I now have a new face to my business cards, all ready to be sent off to the printers.

The Aviary suite also contains audio and sample/sequence creation programs. I have not done much music and audio work on PCs for a while, but the tools you now have for online editing of audio tracks are intuitive and simple.

I will not go into the details regarding the options and capabilities of the audio tools, mainly because I could not do them justice. The tools are there, they are free, and you really ought to take them for a spin. You might be pleasantly surprised at their performance.

Aviary Music Creator has tons of sampled instruments, and the sequencer is a breeze to use. I got totally hooked on reading in samples from Quantum Tracks, testing them out, and then mixing them up. I imagine some of the stress in the world right now lead me to play with the sample family called fallouja_fallout. I swear, I played that a lot while uploading screenshots and checking Buzz...

All in all, I throughly enjoyed my marathon session that first night. The device is a dream to work on, and is my constant companion. It is my main desktop, and I only fire up a netbook if there is an application I just cannot do yet on ChromeOS. So far, the only thing still stumping me is streaming Shoutcast type http streams in html5 players... No such animal yet... Looks like it is time to learn how to write and extension or a web app...

Of course, as soon as I get close, the built in media player for ChromeOS will magically start working...
Update 12222010: Yeah, the media player now works... I probably had not tried to play any local media. Oops.

;-]

Update: I hit the road on Tuesday at 10 am and spent the entire day using the Cr-48. I figure it was active 50% of the time. When I got home at 7 pm, the battery was at 50%.

Sounds like the 8 hour battery life might be just about right...
I'm just sayin'... ;-]
--egrep

What a long strange trip it's been... Official Google Blog: Cloud computing: the latest chapter in an epic journey

2010-12-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: Cloud computing: the latest chapter in an epic journey

I started exploring ChromeOS in January, saw the launch of Hexxeh's Flow in mid February, and have been sitting at the bottom of the Google dev waterfall ever since. I blogged back in February about my experiences and how I knew that the Cloud was just a short walk down the road... Well, Google and the ChromiumOS team certainly have created something special with ChromeOS.

I have not played with one of the beta CR-48 notebooks being sent to select developers and others, but I have taken the daily snapshot from Dec 7th for a test drive and it looks beta ready to me [hat/tip to Doug Anson of Dell for building the image!]. The UI/browser is Chrome, but all system functions you would normally control using the Windows GUI, are setting within your Chrome preferences. I will test downloading and uploading files later, but one thing I wanted to confirm... The netbook that is running it comes out of a full sleep/suspend in 2 seconds, e.g. fast ;-]

There is support for multiple users, guest access and the Chrome Web store is ready to go for all your web app needs.

I do not know if I will end up with a CR-48 or not, but seeing the number of machines the December 7th development snapshot runs on here at the house, I might not need one ;-]

Way to rock Googlers! Thank you for such a wonderful trip, however long and strange it ends up being... 2010 has been a blast... Seriously.

--egrep

ChromeOS beta release Tuesday December 7th?

2010-12-03T23:09:00.000-08:00

I got word from the Chromium team that Google has a small announcement taking place Tuesday December 7th at Dogpatch Labs in San Fransisco... Here is the ChromeOSsite blog posting...
An invitation from the Chrome team

I hear they might also announce a ChromeOS tablet they have been working on with HTC...

I think dropping a bombshell like ChromeOS on Decemeber 7th is a very apropos thing to do...
;-]

cloud date 10.10.10 - Feasibility Studios

2010-10-12T02:38:00.000-07:00

yensid log 20101011

I started messing with electronic music back around 1991 just when a home pc could talk midi and the first dos 3.1 sequencers came out... By 1995, I had an 8 foot rack of gear and was doing 4 track recording with smtp sync to track one.

I missed the whole digital transformation from 8 track Alesis ADAT to direct to disk... I listen to what is out there now and I want to find what equipment I have and start building another one... I miss making music...

Today's adventures...

I installed the Comcast cable drop and wireless router at Mark's apartment this afternoon. Purpose one was to get a kid with promise and as many who are in range free internet. Purpose two was to find a location for the first public cloud node for bremernet.

I told Mark that if he knew any of the kids they hang with would like to talk tech, then to have them stop by. I counted up to 10 at one point. Chaos... ;-]

I really had a blast! I finally left his place around 7 pm with the following accomplished...

I hooked up with 3 kids ages 17 to 20.8 who would love to trade help getting the school fixed up for a chance to learn pc and music recording tech.

I mentioned I wanted to build a free to use recording studio, and they were like do we have to pay you to help learn? We do our own recording with audacity now! Dee then mentioned he had a full remix studio setup, but was waiting until his uncle on Bainbridge Island could make room at his place for some of it... I said, get me in touch with your uncle... [can I really have gotten this lucky?]

What transpired next was one of the more magical I have experienced lately...

Steve: "Get me your contact info and where you live so I can help with transport to my place tomorrow..."

Dee and Enrique reply, "Hey man... We're all homeless..."

apprentices...

;-]

I met three hungry for knowledge individuals today who know the tech, and have the gear, but, they have no home... Well, I have a home that will soon be a school, and was more than happy to tell them "let's get started..." They stop by Tuesday [today?] morning for orientation... Looks like I need to go bunk bed shopping this week... ;-]

I would like to introduce the re-opening of Feasibility Studios. An open source recoding studio now located in Bremerton WA. Free to all those who want to come in and make music.

Updates to follow...

--egrep