US Advances Olympics and CONCACAF Final
34-0. That’s how many times the US has scored on their opponents while trying to qualify for the Olympics in just 4 games. It’s also the number of times they have been scored on in those four games. To say that the US has fared well so far would be a massive understatement. The US has played top notch soccer.
Now the US will play either Mexico (again) or Canada in the CONCACAF final depending on who comes out of their game with the win. Really this final is nothing more then a glorified international friendly because both the US and the other team will have already qualified as the two teams from CONCACAF for the London Olympics.
The level of play of these women has been top notch, and frankly at times has exceeded top notch. Just take the game against Mexico for example. Hope Solo was in obvious pain from her hamstring, but it didn’t much matter because the defense simply was not allowing any meaningful shots to get withing range of the goal. So what was the biggest trouble Hope Solo had during the game? Sending balls deep when her teammates passed the ball to her. While I’m sure that despite the pain Solo would have dived as normal she simply did not need to do so.
I can’t wait until this summer when I will be able to see Alex Morgan play in Rochester right in front of me, but even more so I can’t wait until later in the summer when I will get to watch her, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Tobin Heath, and the rest of the US team play in London on my TV.
Tim Tebow
So Mr. Tebow is on a losing streak of sorts.
And it’s exactly as I told it. Once one team figures out Tebow everyone else will take the recipe and win also.
Here is the problem. Tebow is one dimensional. At certain positions you can get around that. You have a RB that only plows through defenders but is dead slow? That could actually work. But a QB that can’t throw anything beyond a (really) short pass? Ya right.
Sure Tebow can get off some long throws…. But so could I if I could somehow convince the defense I was going to run on every single play, which is exactly what Tebow does, and not because it is a strategy – Because he DOES run on every single play.
Here is my bold prediction. Tim Tebow will NEVER win another game as a starting QB. Not Sunday, and not in the playoffs (if Oakland loses allowing the Broncos into the playoffs).
The caveat to my perdition is as a starter. And it isn’t a easy way out for me. The problem is Tebow is fundamentally different then any other QB (that’s not a good thing). As such if a team isn’t prepared to play against Tebow he could sneak out a win. However if Tebow becomes a backup, and gets to start so long as there is 5 days notice he will not win.
Tebow is a joke, and anyone that didn’t know that by week 10 had the wool pulled over their eyes. A lot of people still do.
President Obama is going to destroy this country
We need change
Do you know why I’m mad? Because as seems to always be the case he wants to point the finger at everyone else, and say “This is how we are going to do things”. Well apparently he was never taught that there are 3 branches in the US government, and that they need to come to a majority to make a decision. It isn’t his way or the highway. It’s OUR way or the highway.
Which brings me to another problem – This President is so bad for our country that he is going to force the Republican party to take over the White House when they are not prepared to do so. A Republican President? That would be a good thing, but the problem is this theoretically puts a Republican that is qualified for the job 8 years back at the very least. Either one of these Republican fools keep the office for 8 years, or a Democrat slips in for 4 years after the Republican President. It’s a disaster on all fronts, and the blame squarely falls on Obama.
Here is the thing. My family is poor. We at times struggle month to month. Do you know what I would like to happen? I would like someone to be taxed to save our country from collapse. If that means the poor need to be more heavily taxed then so be it. I’d rather struggle more then lose my country because our President refuses to compromise with Republicans. And lets not fool ourselves. Republicans will provide a tax break the moment the economy allows for it – But that’s the problem. Obama doesn’t want to create a “tax increase for the working poor” only for Republicans to “cut the Obama tax”.
Well Obama. Here is your choice. Take a ego hit and save our country, or stand tall and help to destroy it.
This issue notwithstanding Obama is a good President… Probably a lame duck, but a good President. However if he doesn’t deal with this one issue he stands a incredible chance of going down in history as the worst President of all time. And he will set equal rights in Washington DC back another 20-50 years, because the “first African-American President” not only couldn’t get it done, but made things significantly worse.
Please prove me wrong President Obama – Please do not destroy my country.
Police Video Taping
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Recently Emily Good of Rochester New York was arrested for video taping a police Rochester Police officer. She was taping a traffic stop from her front lawn. The police officer numerous times asked her to stop recording asserting that he did not feel safe with her presence. After refusing to go inside the police officer arrested her with “obstructing governmental administration”.
Okay. There are a lot of issues going on in what could easily be perceived as a small incident. First of all the person involved in the traffic stop was in handcuffs making him a extremely small safety risk. Second of all there are 3 police offers in sight on he video making Emily and her friend outnumbered. Next there is nothing illegal about standing on your own property, just like there is nothing illegal about walking past a traffic stop on the sidewalk (which would put the imaginary person closer to the “action”). Additionally there is nothing illegal about ignoring a order from a police officer he does not have the authority to issue. Last but not least none of the other officers at the scene (other then the arresting officer) seemed at all concerned with Emily’s presence. It’s hard to say they ever had a concern even after the arresting officer forced Emily onto the ground and arrested her (I know if I was a police officer, and my partner was arresting someone I would at the very least face the direction of the arrest, and probably go over to assist if I felt the person was a threat to either of our safety).
On Monday the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against Emily Good saying that Emily’s actions did not meet the needed elements of the crime.
But there is a major problem. This should be the entire story. However it is not. Recently after the incident a bunch of people were meeting to talk about Emily Good, and apparently to show support. All of a sudden however 4 squad cars showed up, and started to ticket vehicles for being more then the legal 12 inches from the curb (One vehicle in a video posted to YouTube seemed to be no more then 13 inches max from the curb). So the fact is that it is illegal to park more then 12 inches from the curb. But as soon as the police retaliate against free speech in any way there are some very serious questions that need to be asked, and answered.
First of all assuming that the police randomly did come to the area what brought them there? Second of all why does it take 4 squad cars (and between 4 and 8 officers) to issue parking tickets?
So a few things are happening now. First as I have said the charges have been dropped. Now the RPD is going to start two internal investigations. One into the actual arrest of Emily Good, and one into the curious ticketing of not so random cars. In addition Emily Good says that she is going to file a civil suit against the police department.
Now things like this happen all over the country – People being arrested for recording a police officer. Police officers need to realize that they are public servants. They are here to protect, and help the public. They are *not* afforded the same rights as a private citizen when they are in uniform.
The bottom line is very simple – A police officer doing their job correctly should encourage people to record them while they do their jobs. Being paranoid does not afford someone the right to restrict the rights of a US citizen.
If the officer was really that concerned with Emily Good he should have kept his eye on her while the other two officers continued doing whatever needed to be done. Securing the scene makes sense. Taking away the rights of a person in their PJs with a iPod camera does not.
Oh… But there is more. So lets jump back to something I didn’t actually cover. Why the recording? Well it doesn’t much matter, except in this case it does. Emily was afraid that the police were racial profiling.
The police chief said the reason for the traffic stop was “”involved individuals that are known to us, that have been involved in violent behavior in this neighborhood,”. He went on to say that there was a suspected gun in the car. Okay… So why then was the person not arrested if he was so violent (he was handcuffed, but never arrested), and why didn’t they find a gun in the car? Two things come straight to mind when I see this. First was this violent person ever arrested for violence? Second of all where did this mysterious suspicion of a gun come from, because it clearly was incorrect. I would think that if the police are going to stop of a car on suspicion of something it needs to be a pretty concrete suspicion otherwise it should face some serious scrutiny.
This entire matter becomes more and more troubling the more I find out. The final outcome isn’t anything majorly bad, but I believe that people need to be punished for these actions. If I had my way the arresting officer would be suspended for a week without pay, and the cars involved in the curious ticketing would have the tickets dropped completely with no further action against the police department.
A final thing to take away. A while ago the Greece New York police department’s police chief was arrested due to destruction of evidence. Then another police officer in the Irondequoit was arrested for fatally striking a pedestrian with a police cruiser. As such the Monroe County police are not exactly a shining example of American police departments.
Stop Giving Obama Undue Credit
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Can we stop giving Obama undue credit for the capture of Osama Bin Laden?
First of all a reality check. This wasn’t a Obama thing. This was a Presidential thing. A Presidential thing that goes back to Bush. Bush was the one that first told the people involved “to do everything” to capture Osama. If Obama continue that stance doesn’t really matter, as the stance had already been established.
Beyond that the intelligence goes back years, and directly relates to the capture and intelligence provided by 3 or 4 individuals. This isn’t something that happened over night, or even in the last year. The fact is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured more then 8 years ago, and was the first piece of the puzzle that led to other intelligence.
Another thing I want to cover is the supposed “balls” Obama had to call on the Navy SEALs to pull this off. Okay. Reality check. The President doesn’t decide when Navy SEALs are used. The Navy decides when the SEALs get deployed. Do you know why? Because SEALs don’t go into situations unless the chances of success are 100%. Do you know how many failed SEAL missions there are? Only 1 since 1962. Also the President just doesn’t go “Lets deploy the SEALs”. His national security team brings it up long before it even pops into his head – Because if it pops into the President’s head before the people that plan this type of thing can bring it up the answer always is “That wouldn’t be a good idea”. So no. It didn’t take balls to deploy the Navy SEALs.
Donald Trump For President?
Donald Trump for President?
Somehow I doubt it. First of all do you really think that Donald Trump has time for being President? While I’m sure he has a lot of confidence in his son, daughter, and his board I doubt he has complete confidence to leave his company in their hands for 4-8 years when he is in the prime of his business career.
So what is really going on here? Well I have an idea, and quite frankly I think it’s a great idea. Who is the break down.
So how much money can a single person donate to a person running for President? Not much. A total of #2,500 to any one person, and a grand total of $108,200 if you donate to multiple people, and parties and PACs (what ever those are).
So how do you get even more money thrown in for your cause? You run for President, and get as many donations as possible. At this point you argue your point – Which just so happens to be identical to another member in your party.
Then you do one of two things. Either you run in the primaries, and who has more support gets to move on…. Or better yet just before the primaries you bow out, and put your full support behind that candidate whose values just so happen to be the exact same as your own. At this point a large percentage of your supporters vote for the other guy.
And at the end of the day you have raised millions of dollars for your cause that otherwise would not have been donated - Because legally it couldn’t be with just one candidate.
I think it’s a great concept. And to a lesser extent it happens in every election cycle. The difference is that the other candidates don’t have it planned, but when you have two or more people trying to run under the same party almost every single time the person who loses throws his/her support behind the person moving on. No not all the money donated in these cases is going towards the same values, but if you are running for the same party most of your values are going to be the same.
AT&T / T-Mobile Merger Attempt
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Oh my god does this AT&T / T-Mobile merger attempt have me POed. First of all it just doesn’t make sense… It just stinks of anti competition.
But you know what really got me going? My brother’s. One of them works for AT&T, and he thinks this is a already done deal. His understanding of mergers leaves so much to be desired. Then you have my other brother, who pretty much is in the same boat. The difference is he is pretty much just the passenger. My first brother is driving car.
So. This pretty much is one of those things where I get this brilliant idea/concept/etc and have a clear cut path to success, and then I go and research it a bit. And with that research learn realize that my ideas are not original, but more importantly not far fetched. In fact they are the way things get done.
Let’s start off with government agency’s that are either not going to like this, or by default stand in the way.
The first one, and I think most important one is the FCC. Most people might say the DOJ (I’ll get to them), the the FCC controls the spectrum, and spectrum is like gold in this merger. I won’t go out on a limb because who knows what really goes on in any other person’s head, much less any companies head… But I would say that the spectrum is MUCH more important to AT&T then the added subscribers. Lets face it. You can lose subscribers. You really have to mess up to lose spectrum – In fact I’m pretty sure it doesn’t happen without desire from the company.
Anyways… I digress… Here is the bottom line. The FCC Chairman – Julius Genachowski – Is not going to like this. This is cut and dry. He is a very clear cut when it comes to spectrum – He wants it as open as possible. This stance is entirely entrenched in his desire to serve the customers, and not the companies. He is a huge supporter of Net Neutrality, which although quite separate from spectrum is another clear issue that will come up in this merger attempt, and it isn’t going to look good for – Well any cellular merger. Now I’m not saying that Net Neutrality will be a sticking point in this merger, but I am saying that AT&T will have to make some major promises in this area – If only to continue in their current direction.
- I’ve been told that Julius Genachowski can’t sway the rest of the FCC in his direction. To this I say he is the FCC Chairman, which happens to be one of the most powerful regulator position in all of US government. Beyond that Genachowski is a very outgoing Chairman. More so then most (any previous?). Throw in major decisions by the FCC, and you can see that as Genachowski votes so does majority of the FCC commissioners. I assure you he can, and in fact does “sway” the direction of the FCC.
- Beyond that…
An anonymous FCC official told The Wall Street Journal this week that there was “no way the [FCC] chairman’s office rubber-stamps this transaction. It will be a steep climb to say the least.”
The FCC has already stated their concerned about wireless broadband with the current market. How do you think they would feel with one less body in the fight?
Then you of course have the DOJ. Now honestly I don’t really know much about how the DOJ deals with mergers, because quite frankly the DOJ doesn’t really involve things that I’m directly interested in day to day. Lets face it. The DOJ covers a lot more then just mergers. Pretty much it is the equivalent to a state Attorney General’s office. That’s a lot of ground to cover.
- So this is going to fall under “United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division”. Again. I don’t really know much about this. Really all I know about is their case against Microsoft. Of course I know of other cases, but I don’t know the details. Then of course there was the AT&T breakup, which especially now I wish I knew more about, but it all started 10 years before I was born, and the case ended 2 years before I was born so I don’t have any “real time” experience with it, which is how I learn the best. But this leads to one major question. The DOJ already broke up AT&T once. Do you really think the DOJ is going to be interested in approving a merger that basically recreates the old AT&T? The difference of course would be AT&T would dominate cellular service instead of land line service, and frankly arguments can be made that in this day and age cellular service is much more important then land line service ever was.
The next one is the FTC. Where the DOJ is around to protect the law of the land, the FCC is around to protect communication, the FTC is around to protect the consumer. Do all of these overlap? You bet. But this allows each area to focus on certain aspects while still being able to deal with tiny details that may be over looked by the other agencies.
- The key here I think is the placement of vertical restraints. Basically this involves not allowing AT&T (and Verizon for that matter) to prevent sweetheart deals when they buy services from other companies. Backhaul is the major concern here. So much that Sprint has voiced their official displeasure to the deal.
Then of course you have the displeasure of Sprint. Some people may try to write this off has a competitor losing out on the deal. You know what? That would be a PERFECT way to describe Sprint’s displeasure. What is bad for the competition is bad for the consumer.
I want to show you something. My brother (who works for AT&T) in previous conversations has tried to tell me that AT&T has to deal with more data then T-Mobile or Sprint and that’s why their prices are so much higher. Well this simply isn’t true. As BillShrink points out not only does Sprint charge the least – They have the highest amount of data going through their network. Now how does that work?
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/5052/mobile-phone-plan-costs/
Another issue? Bills in the US for cellular service are out of control. The average country pays a little bit more then $25 a month. Meanwhile the US pays more then double that. Now you might argue that the US has a much larger population to serve, which would be a fair point. The problem is (after doing random ratio checks of various countries) the ratios don’t fit. The only country that comes close is Japan, and anyone that keeps a eye on this type of thing knows that Japan is way ahead of the curve when it comes to cell phone service. Both the service and the hardware. Want to hear another problem? US minutes used (stress) is only higher then Japan, Turkey, and Mexico. This just isn’t logical.
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/5159/mobile-phone-costs-service/
And lets not even get into data… This is where Japan is spending all the money they make. While the US pays on average $3.33 for a MB of data, Japan only pays $0.27. That alone would be concerning. However if you throw in the fact the US gets on average 4.8 mbps compared to Japan’s 61 mbps. Well it just speaks for its self. That’s more then 12 times faster then US speeds!
And prices would go up even higher for AT&T customers.
Here is another concern. AT&T with this merger, and Verizon would dominate the US cellular market. They would have 70% of the market. This between two companies that have some of the highest cell phone bills… Not in the US… But in the world!
So who else is against the merger? Well the Consumers Union (Consumer Reports Magazine) for one. The Economist magazine also is against this saying in short that not only should this deal be blocked, but that there needs to be major reform in such a way to make it easier for new competitors to enter the market.
So what else? Well lets look at the history of cellular service. Particularly the last 8 years. There have been 3 mergers in that time frame. The first one was AT&T buying Cingular. The second was Sprint buying Nextel. The third was Verizon buying Alltel. With the above in mind what do you think will happen if AT&T merges with T-Mobile? In the very least Sprint will be forced to merge with another company. In the worst case scenario Verizon buys Sprint (Verizon denies this, but that hardly makes me a believer). For the same reasons that the AT&T merger with T-Mobile wouldn’t be a good thing neither would a 2 merger between Sprint, and any other company in the next few years.
A great analogy pointed out by CNN is Coke, and Pepsi Vs RC Cola.
Time Warner SigantureHome
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Oh great. Here we go.
I just got a email from Time Warner telling me about their “SigantureHome” service. So what is it? Pretty much over priced features.
Get this. I can get cable TV Whole House DVR, broadband with a free wireless router, phone with google voice wannabe, and priority customer service.
So everything in bold is the extra stuff. Here is the problem. ”whole house DVR” is pretty much a huge gimmick. And one that every major TV provider seems to have anyways.
Then you get a free wireless router. Except it’s not free because you are paying through the nose for the service, but I will get to the price in a moment. The bottom line is a good router is dirt cheap, and in less then a year it would make more sense to buy a router then to rent one.
Then you get some thing that lets you access your voicemail through your computer. That’s great, except I can access my voicemail through my computer, and my smartphone for free.
Then you get priority customer service. Whatever that means. It seems they get out to your house faster (which I don’t know how is possible since they pretty much get to my house in 1 business day) and I guess pick up the phones faster, but again they typically pick up right away. You see this is what really set me off. I don’t want to pay extra for quality customer service, and I don’t want to get sub par service because I decided not to pay extra for that service. Top notch customer service is supposed to be built into the price of your entire customer base. Not a select few.
So what do you pay for all of these extras (everything in bold)? Only $100 more a month. You see you can get their phone/cable/broadband package for only $99 a month, but this “special” service costs $199 a month. It is outrageous.
Okay. Time Warner. I get you are in a dying medium. I switch to other places for everything but broadband a little while ago, because not only could I get it for less in other places, but the quality is better too!
Android Direction
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So I really don’t get the direction that Android is going. I guess I should preempt this entire entry by saying the obvious. Android is open source and OEMs can do pretty much whatever they want with it, including creating new directions.
Lets start with fragmentation. Lets get that nasty “F” word out of the way. Here is the reality. There is not any major fragmentation of Android devices. I have yet to year of one major program that has had issues because of all the screen sizes and versions of Android. I have however heard the creators TweetDeck say that this so called “fragmentation” is not a issue. In fact they didn’t just say “It’s not a issue”. They were pretty explicit when they said it wasn’t a issue. Now of course TweetDeck is just one single app, but it’s the only major developer that has took a solid position of the topic that I know of so that kind of makes it a big deal. So what is the reality? Well the reality is people like to throw that word around when they don’t like Android for whatever reason and don’t really have any good reason to not like it. Okay okay. Sure… Sometimes they throw in a bunch of valid arguments, but then they throw in this argument and really all they do is make people that know better either roll their eyes at that one part, or their entire argument.
So tablets. Clearly Android is going to be on tablets one way or the other. Google explicitly said that version 2.2 is not for tablets and that OEMs needed to ideally wait for 3.0 to come out. Well Samsung (who is a major partner) decided to ignore this and come out with the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Now as best as I can tell the Galaxy Tab is actually a very good tablet with a very good OS sitting on it. But it’s not a tablet optimized OS. Google is working on a version of Android for the tablet (3.0) and it looks very good. But do you really want a tablet with Android on it? I didn’t think I did… Until…
So I didn’t think that I wanted a tablet with Android on it. The fact of the matter is I didn’t want a tablet with any mobile OS on it (including iOS). I thought the best direction was going to be Windows 7 (or perhaps Windows 8). Why? I was worried quite frankly about productivity. But then I got the CR-48 from Google with Chrome OS on it. Let me tell you something. This computer completely changed my entire mobile device outlook. I have quickly realized that for a highly mobile device (think phones, tablets and netbooks) you don’t need the kind of productivity that I thought I needed. Actually that last sentence isn’t actually correct – What I realized is the cloud is even more awesome then I first realized (I have known it was awesome for a long time mind you). You can do just about anything with a half decent browser, and a half decent web application. And the web applications at the moment are not to shabby and they are only going to become better and better. All of a sudden Windows 7 (and every future version of Windows at the moment) fell off my radar. Why should I lug what typically is going to be a heavier, more power hungry device when I can lug around a iOS, or Android tablet? And since I’m no longer at all connected to the Apple ecosystem Android is the clear choice.
I’m still not sure what Android tablet I want to get. I’m not even sure if the tablet I want to get has been announced yet. The obvious front runners are the Vizio tablet, and the Motorola Xoom. However the Notion Ink is also compelling. The obvious issue is that at the moment only the Xoom will ship with Android 3.0. That of course could change. In fact it could change very quickly. Mobile World Congress is less then a month away, and who knows what is going to happen there.
Then you have the versions of Android as a issue. Now I don’t have a issue really with Android versions. The fact is if I want to get the current version of Android I’m going to get it one way or the other. Part of this is just keeping up with cell phones. Part of it is buying cell phones from companies that get a lot of after market consumer support. Part of it is the carriers/OEMs doing their part to keep the software up to date.
All that aside though most people are sitting at version 2.2 with a phone that is only 6ish months old, or newer. The newest version however for phones is 2.3 (Which the Samsung Nexus S has). Then you throw in the tablet centric version 3.0 (which has not been released yet). Right there you have 3 versions. Now like I said. Fragmentation is just a dirty word from people trying to scare others. So why would a person want version 2.3? Well that is simple – Speed increases. Every time a new version of Android comes out things become more snappy, which is a welcome change from Windows where you need to seemingly upgrade your hardware every time you get a new version of Windows (Microsoft to their credit seems to be getting better at this). Sure there are other new things in 2.3, but speed is the major point.
As far as version 3.0. At the moment this means nothing to me, but like I said above 2.2 and even 2.3 are not meant for tablets. Are they usable? Without question, but it isn’t the right course. So this throws a wrench in buying a new tablet because potentially only the Xoom will have 3.0 for a little bit after the Xoom has come out. So what you say? Well this is going to from my view slow down adoption of new tablets that are not the Xoom. I don’t think Google much cares though, and they shouldn’t. Why shouldn’t they care? Because eventually Google will get those holdouts on their OS. The question is just when.
Really the next 12 months will be exciting. Not only for Android, but for tablets in general. Honestly I’m sick and tired of waiting for a decent tablet to buy, but at the same time I have waited this long. I might as well wait until I find a tablet I think is ideal, and is going to meet my needs. Those needs mainly being long battery life, decent CPU, and something that will stay updated for at least the next 6-12 months after I purchase it. If I have to wait 12 more months (which wouldn’t be shocking to me) I will – It would stink but I would none the less.
CR-48
photo © 2010 Alex Harden | more info
(via: Wylio)
So I got a CR-48 in the mail yesterday. What a awesome piece of hardware it is. Especially for free. Let me make this simple. It is one thing to get something for free from a friend or family member that paid for the item. It is quite another to get something that no one you know had to spend a penny on. Even more so it is quite another to get something for free that has some big value attached to it.
So let me start off by saying from my research many people don’t know how to do something, and then they go on to complain about the lack of any ability to do that thing. I have been one of those people. But you know what I have learned? That just because a person doesn’t know how to use this brand new piece of software and/or hardware does not mean there isn’t a way to do it.
Let me start off with my example. I couldn’t find the “End” key among other keys. Now this seems pretty obvious. Either the key is there, or it isn’t right? So I went and pointed it out to a bunch of people (note I didn’t complain – This computer is free after all). However after doing basic research about the system I learned that simply pressing Ctrl+Alt+Down is the same as pressing “End”.
If fact if you press Ctrl+Alt+? then you will get a keyboard layout. If you then press Ctrl/Shift/Alt/Ctrl+Shift it will show you on the layout what the keys do when you press other keys on the keyboard together. It is quite useful.
Now Google says that they don’t want this computer reviewed, and I fully understand why. After all this isn’t a retail product. It is a piece of hardware to see how “real” people use the hardware and software so that they can make changes before they start charging for the product. The problem is I frankly don’t know where the line between talking about a item and reviewing it is.
With the above paragraph in mind let me point out the one major flaw of this system. The mouse trackpad. You see. Google tried to do a lot with the mouse, and while you can easily see where they were trying to go, you can easily see where they fell short. The bottom line is the mouse just doesn’t work the way I would want, but simply plugging in a external mouse fixes all the issues. Is it hard to deal with the mouse? Sure. Would it stop me from buying the computer? I don’t know, but I doubt it.
The battery life – It’s long. Google says it will stay alive for 8 days with a full charge and the screen closed. Think Amazon Kindle.
What about boot times and such? Google says 15 seconds. I’m pretty sure I have not seen a single video of the CR-48 taking 15 seconds to boot. In fact I think the longest is 13 seconds, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it boot in just 8 seconds…. Okay more like 10, but compared to the long boot times of Windows its very very very nice. At that speed you could easily store your Chrome OS computer off and just turn it on whenever you want – But why would you, after takes less then a second to come back from standby mode, and it can stay in that mode for days with any sort of a decent charge.
So what happens if something gets corrupted? Either by pure accident, or by something more… Evil such as a virus? Well next time the computer boots Chrome OS knows something is wrong and tries to fix the issue. What are those steps? Well like I said I have only had the computer for a little more then 24 hours so I have not got to that part of my research…. After all the likely hood of a virus getting onto the system is just not very likely.
I’ll tell you what. Google knows what they are doing. They make great products, and even better software. Look at Android. Look as the Nexus One. I have no doubt that in a couple of months when this product starts hitting the retail channels it will sell. Maybe not insane numbers, but I do think it will sell, and over time I see it getting a respectful share in the computer OS market. Something like 5-10% in the next 5 years. Of course that’s what some people thought Android would do, but now it dominates the smartphone market. Between the iPhone and Android people now more and more use smartphones, where only a few years ago you were either a business person, or a geek if you had a smartphone. Clearly this isn’t a issue with computer OSs (unless your running pure Linux), but I see Google having a major effect in the way future OSs are made and used.
So what is Chrome OS about? It’s about 3 things as I see it. Speed, Battery Life, and Longevity.
