Tag: life

Adventures in Chrome OS

samsung chromebook
Samsung Chromebook

My old Toshiba laptop had been slowly dying for a while.  Historically I would simply just go to CostCo and pick up one of their mid-range Windows machines for $500 which would last me 3 years.1

After looking over my various options, I figured I’d give a Chromebook a shot this time.  If it’s good enough for Chris Anderson, it’s got to be good enough for me.2

After working with a Samsung Chromebook 2  for a few weeks now, I find that it excels at 70-80% of what I need a laptop to do.  Email, blogging, office style software tasks, and ridiculous battery life at a price that almost doesn’t make any damn sense.  It’s the last 20-30% uses that have been more challenging.  So far, uses items include:

  • Heavy email wrangling.  I’ve got probably a dozen email addresses, all of which are routed to a single Thunderbird install.  Dozens of filters keep it all under control.  Since I don’t want to be bothered by emails from all the accounts all the time, but do want access to them when I need it, I leave my machine on all the time and access it remotely when necessary.
  • Serious Office Tasks.  Google Sheets and Google Docs seem adequate, but I haven’t found them up to the task of gnarly office documents that require significant formatting.3 I inherited a set of MicroSoft Office Excel spreadsheets from someone with literally millions of cells.  I wouldn’t look forward to trying to edit that document in what amounts to a browser window.
  • Dropbox Integration.  I can access Dropbox files using a ChromeOS extension, but I can’t place documents into Dropbox – unless I upload them into the website manually.  Admittedly, if I just switched to Google Drive, this problem would disappear entirely.
  • Arduino Projects.  I don’t know of a way to use an Arduino IDE on a Chromebook.
  • FTP Client.  Again, I don’t know of a way to use an FTP client on a Chromebook.
  • OpenSCAD.  There are a number of web based CAD programs, but even the OpenSCAD web clones don’t work quite as well as a local install.
  • MakerWare.  My MakerBot Replicator 1 Dual is still in excellent working order.  I use MakerWare to slice models, drop them onto an SD card, and then run them on the Replicator from the SD card.

For these items I’ll go and use the old laptop or, more frequently, connect to that machine remotely from my Chromebook.  The thing is, I’d like to eliminate my crappy laptop from the equation entirely.  I think there’s two ways to go from here:

  1. As a friend suggested, I could use Crouton to install Linux on the Chromebook.  Doing so would basically take care of each of my last remaining 20-30% use cases.
  2. Ditch the old laptop and replace it with a small PC designed to be “always on” such as a Raspberry Pi or a mini PC without a monitor.  When I needed to use the device, I would simply use remote access to gain control, do what I needed to do, and move on with my life.
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  1. Two years of decent function followed by a crappy year of service [↩]
  2. In fact, it was this particular tweet from Chris that inspired me to give it a shot.  I’ve never had a malware infection – something about that tweet just resonated with me.  It’s almost like someone whispered to me, “Switch to a Chromebook and all worries will drift away…” [↩]
  3. It’s a job thing [↩]

I don’t think I’m THIS enthusastic about anything

Which means, depending on how you look at things, this is either a commentary on how nutty some people can be or how empty my life is. 1  Here’s a comment from a woman who purchased an iPad:2

“Have you touched one?” she said after being asked why she showed up at 7:30 a.m. at the Apple store. “It’s going to change everything about how you live. You are going to be connected to everything. You are 30 seconds away from anything you need to know. It’s really amazing.”

This quote makes it sound as if by purchasing an iPad the sky will open up and the Dali Lama will start IM’ing you for advice about life, the universe, and everything.  I like Apple, I like Apple products, and I love how they’ve raised the bar as to what we expect from computers3 , portable music devices, and mobile phones.  That said, they did not invent the internet when they launched the iPad. 4  I’ve been 30 seconds away from anything I needed to know the day I got my first web-enabled phone.5

  1. And, I don’t think I lead an empty life.  I’ve got a MakerBot, you know. [↩]
  2. Thanks to Tony Buser for the link [↩]
  3. Especially personal computers [↩]
  4. ‘Cause, you know, that was Al Gore. [↩]
  5. Well, actually, the day I started down the road to my internet addiction – but that’s not the point. [↩]

Christmas, Birthday, etc

It’s not that I’m not materialistic or a complete stoic.  It’s just that my interests are so simple, narrow, and specific there just isn’t a whole lot I require out of life.  But for other happy and fortunate life complications1 I’d live in a studio apartment almost completely devoid of furniture except for a futon, small table, one (perhaps two) and book shelf.  Give me a library card and a laptop and I’ll show you a content man.  For example – one of my hobbies is origami.  Which boils down to basically a lot of paper. 2

While this means I’m easily content, it means those family and friends are frustrated at the thought of having to find me a gift. 3  So, for basically the first time ever I’ve put together a wish list with stuff I would love to get (in rough order):

  1. aka family [↩]
  2. A hobby which, hundreds of years ago could only be practiced by those precious few who had access to a luxury such as paper, can now be practiced by anyone in reach of a paper recycling bin. [↩]
  3. 500 sheets of A4 bright white multipurpose paper???  Score! [↩]
  4. Since I have none of the equipment or skills to perform SMT soldering [↩]
  5. Someone mentioned the modular thermistor set ups don’t detect temperatures properly – about 10 degrees too low?! Update:  Rick of MakerGear clarifies this was the result of a ring terminal mounted thermistor.  His modular thermistor kit pictured at the bottom of the this page shows that this kit allows you to make the entire thermistor attachment far more modular by covering it’s terminals in PTFE sleeves and then adding a connector.  This only makes me want this kit more.  Thanks Rick! [↩]
  6. Preferably one with George Plimpton’s face [↩]
  7. That’s a Simpson’s reference, FYI [↩]