Replies on ChromeOSLounge.....
According to jbills the notorious trackpad issues may be due to the device driver.....
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
ProQuest acquires ebrary
I am now working for ProQuest.
ebrary has just been acquired by ProQuest and is now a ProQuest division. http://www.ebrary.com/corp/newspdf/ebrary_ProQuest_Acquisition.pdf
ebrary has just been acquired by ProQuest and is now a ProQuest division. http://www.ebrary.com/corp/newspdf/ebrary_ProQuest_Acquisition.pdf
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
CR-48 Mad Scientist Experiment
Now that I have jailbroken the CR-48, I downloaded Firefox for Linux, copied the .bz file to a new mozilla folder I created off my home directory, unpackaged it using tar, and attempted to run it.
The firefox launch script requires the Bourne shell, but I haven't been successful in getting it to launch yet, even after chown, chmod and sudo su. I suspect that there are missing libraries, but I have been too lazy to investigate yet.
I know I don't need Firefox. Chrome is my favorite browser. However I think it would be neat if I can get this to work. As a developer, you might need a tool only available in some other browser.
Anyway, I was also able to learn about my home directory, the file structure of the special chromeos user, where the downloads go, etc.
The firefox launch script requires the Bourne shell, but I haven't been successful in getting it to launch yet, even after chown, chmod and sudo su. I suspect that there are missing libraries, but I have been too lazy to investigate yet.
I know I don't need Firefox. Chrome is my favorite browser. However I think it would be neat if I can get this to work. As a developer, you might need a tool only available in some other browser.
Anyway, I was also able to learn about my home directory, the file structure of the special chromeos user, where the downloads go, etc.
How To Root Or Jailbreak Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebook? [Developer Mode]
"Rooting or jailbreaking lets you get full access of your device. Rooting most of the devices is not easy and takes quite an effort before you can get root access. However rooting or jailbreaking the GoogleChrome Notebook is as easy as pushing a button! "
This is a very clear article describing what it takes to jailbreak a CR-48. Locating the black tape is the most difficult part, so the photos are a big help. (The comments folks leave on these jailbreaking articles are a crack up. Lots of people swear the switch is not there--it's under black tape on a black laptop!)
A couple of things of note. This process will wipe your local data. So if you haven't shaved, are hung over, or have your hair in curlers, etc. note you will lose your original attractive photo--it will ask you for a new photo and you have to set up starting over again. (My photo is now with bed hair and in a bathrobe.) Second, the switch takes 15 minutes, so don't try it if you have no battery time left without plugging it in.
(Remember, the whole concept is to get away from the idea of local data.)
Once you are in jailbreak mode, other then the nag screen that you have to hit Ctrl-D to bypass, your Chrome browser will work as before.
The limited ChromeOS shell, can be accessed using Ctrl-Alt-T as before. You can alternate between the shell and the Chrome browser as before by using Alt-Tab. (If you have multiple shells open this will also work. I've loaded over 20 or thirty shells at the same time.)
However, now you can go to a bash shell within the ChromeOS shell by typing "shell" (Ctrl-D or "exit" once takes you back). You can also get to a Bourne shell by typing "sh" within the bash shell.
Yes. This is an official feature. See the related article at chromestory:
Friday, December 31, 2010
The End of an Era – 1935 to 2010 « Steve McCurry's Blog
The End of an Era – 1935 to 2010 « Steve McCurry's Blog
Yesterday Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last lab on the planet to process Kodachrome, stops developing the iconic film forever. When Kodak stopped producing the film last year, they gave him the last roll. When he finished shooting the final frames, he hand-delivered it to Parsons. Here are a few of those last 36 frames.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Looking at Windows CE Sylvania Netbook
Oddly enough, I was just contacted to evaluate this puppy. By my daughter. If it doesn't cut the mustard she can take it back.
Sort of a coincidence in that it is contending for a somewhat similar space to the CR-48. (see last post )
Her boyfriend got it for her to use in her college classes. I have to admit it's kind of cute, it weighs about the same as an iPad. Clearly it was attractive in that it was very lightweight, very inexpensive (about $99), and looked like it might have minimum functionality, which I took to be accessing the web, editing documents, and hopefully, printing them out. Her finger tips are thinner than mine so the keyboard would work for her. (I my finger tips are about 1 1/2X the width of the virtual keyboard on an iPod Touch or iPhone, so little keys don't work for me very well.)
So I evaluated it by getting it set up to access our wireless, connecting to the internet, doing Google searches, playing a couple of flash videos, attempting to run two applications at the same time (like open a document while running a web browser) cutting and pasting text. Also checking for stability, and upgradability. "Dad, the Internet Explorer on this looks awful old." Hmm.
OK it was fairly painful to set up the home wireless connection. When I did get connected, and it locked up for any reason, and I had to reboot, often the wireless connection would fail, I'd press connect, and it would say connected but IE wouldn't get the message, so I'd have to reboot again. Since it locked up three or four or so times in the hour or two I spent with it (about the total for the last two weeks of pretty heavy use of the CR-48--which isn't even a released product) losing your internet connection was always a possibility.
I could edit a document and save it off in an older Office .doc format using the CE version of Wordpad. I did not try to test if I could directly connect a USB printer. You should close your browser; running two applications at the same time almost invariably pulls up a you are almost out of memory what now? dialog. I am not sure what value the task bar has if you don't have enough memory to run two applications at the same time.
By the way the documentation suggests that you not even attempt to use a printer, and instead e-mail your documents to another computer.
As an alternative, I thought it might be really cool to use Google Docs instead, Unfortunately, Google Docs nearly locked up, and informed me that my browser was inadequate to the task.
However, WinCE is not really designed to update, so you are stuck with a cell phone style version of IE 6.0. (Interestingly going to the Windows Update site locks up the little critter.) So there is no way to use Google docs. (A Chrome OS laptop, with Google web print and Google docs would probably actually meet her requirements).
I was able to run one out of two flash animations. I'd also have to admit that the CE user interface looks like it was designed by somebody who designs North Korean worker apartments, compared to a Mac, and iPad, or even Windows 7.
Well, I told her she could decide, so I gave her a report card for it and she could check for herself.
Weight A
Boot speed A
Stability F
Multitasking F
Write Document B-
Wireless D
Web C-
Upgradable/Up to Date F
She's going to return it.
Sort of a coincidence in that it is contending for a somewhat similar space to the CR-48. (see last post )
Her boyfriend got it for her to use in her college classes. I have to admit it's kind of cute, it weighs about the same as an iPad. Clearly it was attractive in that it was very lightweight, very inexpensive (about $99), and looked like it might have minimum functionality, which I took to be accessing the web, editing documents, and hopefully, printing them out. Her finger tips are thinner than mine so the keyboard would work for her. (I my finger tips are about 1 1/2X the width of the virtual keyboard on an iPod Touch or iPhone, so little keys don't work for me very well.)
So I evaluated it by getting it set up to access our wireless, connecting to the internet, doing Google searches, playing a couple of flash videos, attempting to run two applications at the same time (like open a document while running a web browser) cutting and pasting text. Also checking for stability, and upgradability. "Dad, the Internet Explorer on this looks awful old." Hmm.
OK it was fairly painful to set up the home wireless connection. When I did get connected, and it locked up for any reason, and I had to reboot, often the wireless connection would fail, I'd press connect, and it would say connected but IE wouldn't get the message, so I'd have to reboot again. Since it locked up three or four or so times in the hour or two I spent with it (about the total for the last two weeks of pretty heavy use of the CR-48--which isn't even a released product) losing your internet connection was always a possibility.
I could edit a document and save it off in an older Office .doc format using the CE version of Wordpad. I did not try to test if I could directly connect a USB printer. You should close your browser; running two applications at the same time almost invariably pulls up a you are almost out of memory what now? dialog. I am not sure what value the task bar has if you don't have enough memory to run two applications at the same time.
By the way the documentation suggests that you not even attempt to use a printer, and instead e-mail your documents to another computer.
As an alternative, I thought it might be really cool to use Google Docs instead, Unfortunately, Google Docs nearly locked up, and informed me that my browser was inadequate to the task.
However, WinCE is not really designed to update, so you are stuck with a cell phone style version of IE 6.0. (Interestingly going to the Windows Update site locks up the little critter.) So there is no way to use Google docs. (A Chrome OS laptop, with Google web print and Google docs would probably actually meet her requirements).
I was able to run one out of two flash animations. I'd also have to admit that the CE user interface looks like it was designed by somebody who designs North Korean worker apartments, compared to a Mac, and iPad, or even Windows 7.
Well, I told her she could decide, so I gave her a report card for it and she could check for herself.
Weight A
Boot speed A
Stability F
Multitasking F
Write Document B-
Wireless D
Web C-
Upgradable/Up to Date F
She's going to return it.
Monday, December 13, 2010
CR-48
Went to:
HTML5 Tech Talk
Monday, December 13, at 6:00pm PST.
Doors to be opened at 5:30pm and you needed to reserve a place.
It was curious, but after I registered, I kept getting requests to make sure I was really attending.
Google's Crittenden Campus, Olympus Mons Tech Talk
1400 Crittenden Lane
Mountain View, CA, 94043
Anyway, I got there, I was curious about HTML5, Mike West did a tech talk on IndexedDB a web based NOSQL, here are the slides. They did a quick update on Chrome, and then came the Oprah moment:
Google Chrome OS Notebook Cr-48s for everybody!
So I got into the invitation only beta!
And yes, I have posted this using the little guy, and moved some of my posts from my old blog to here. Only thing that was really painful was highlighting text with the track pad, really painful, I started using arrow keys to do it instead.
HTML5 Tech Talk
Monday, December 13, at 6:00pm PST.
Doors to be opened at 5:30pm and you needed to reserve a place.
It was curious, but after I registered, I kept getting requests to make sure I was really attending.
Google's Crittenden Campus, Olympus Mons Tech Talk
1400 Crittenden Lane
Mountain View, CA, 94043
Anyway, I got there, I was curious about HTML5, Mike West did a tech talk on IndexedDB a web based NOSQL, here are the slides. They did a quick update on Chrome, and then came the Oprah moment:
Google Chrome OS Notebook Cr-48s for everybody!
So I got into the invitation only beta!
And yes, I have posted this using the little guy, and moved some of my posts from my old blog to here. Only thing that was really painful was highlighting text with the track pad, really painful, I started using arrow keys to do it instead.
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