Google Chrome OS Netbook, Multi-Touch?

Okay, so I'm reading rumors about possible specs for a Google Chrome OS Netbook.  Not very much of it is particularly fascinating to me except one part:  The current rumors specify a multi-touch display.

Why do I feel this is significant?  If Google Chrome OS comes with built-in multi-touch support straight from the start, and is under $350 or so, it's a huge possible contender for the 1 to 1 computing movement in schools.  As I've been saying a lot recently, the potential for touch-screen oriented education just opens up a heck of a lot of possibilities.

So, for the sake of education, I hope the part of these rumors about multi-touch ends up being true.  I think that'd be a huge contribution to society (let's just hope Adobe has multi-touch support in it's first Flash Player for Chrome OS).

Thoughts on Blogs

I've been researching a bunch of topics over the past to weeks... I've been bookmarking topics until the Google search gives me the "all further results are similar" sort of error.

I'd say, probably, about 1 in 6 pages I hit was a blog. Initially, I didn't really like blog posts, but I grew to determine which type of blog posts I like.

The first one I like is the the blog post to a specific link, with personal commentary. I like when people add their thoughts, even if just a paragraph or two, to a specific link they enjoy.

The second is a resource-topic post... the author describes one topic and links to several links they enjoyed on that topic. I prefer 3 or more links, it gives a lot of direction to further the research on the topic.

The third type I like is the thoughtful, no link post by an author who is well at doing either of the first two types of posts. If they write a decent post, sometimes it's nice to have their general view on something random.

The one type of post I absolutely hate is the Copy-Paste post to one specific link. If a link is good, it's going to turn up in a search engine near the front, mindlessly copying the first paragraph and posting a link to it really doesn't benefit humanity.

I hope that some of you find this post to be in the class of the "third type" and that my other posts around this are useful to you in some way. :)

Free Online Courses, Books, and Textbooks

I'm a big fan of education, and I think low-cost (or free) education can be great if it's reliable. One of the problems with doing research online is you can spend nearly as much time guessing the validity of the information you're reading as you do actually doing research. We tend to trust courses from recognized institutions a little more than just random web sites, so I've collected some resources I personally believe useful to someone trying to educate themselves online.

First, I'd like to start with Project Gutenberg.

While Project Gutenberg isn't an educational site in itself, it's a collection of free books you can download legally. Have you seen books at the bookstore, perhaps some classics, that are just a few dollars? You might be able to find many of them through this project.

Next on my list is iTunes U, YouTube EDU, and OpenCourseWare.

iTunes U is a collection of free courses from major, recognized educational institutions. This is one of the largest collections I know of, and you could easily spend most of your free time educating yourself if that's one of your hobbies. YouTube EDU has plenty of education videos but I find the organization of iTunes must better and easier to access.

OpenCourseWare is a little different. You can usually get course materials along with the lectures and videos. One of the most popular OpenCourseWare sites is MIT OpenCourseWare, with 1900 courses at the time of this blog post.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium web site lists other institutions offering OpenCourseWare courses.

Three particular sites I found interesting in my searching into this topic were:

Purdue Online Writing Lab - Not just for students of Purdue, this sites has a collection of resources from middle school through adulthood. One of the areas particularly useful to me is the APA and MLA style guides for writing papers (a lot more fun than a printed handbook).

Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner - A collection of videos and podcasts for those interested in starting a business or enhancin their current business.

There's a great video on open-source learning I'd highly recommend you watch about Connexions, a site being developed for open-source, quality educational course content.

For those of you interested in the Wiki movements, you might find the Wikiversity and WikiEducator sites useful.

--

Some resources for free or low-cost textbooks:

• Flat World Knowledge
• CourseSmart

Videos That make you Think:

• TED - Ideas Worth Spreading
• FORA.tv - Videos on the People, Issues, and Ideas Changing the Planet

More interesting course links:

• Academic Earth - Online Courses - Academic Video Lectures
• Open Yale Courses
• Webcast berkeley - UC Berkeley Video and Podcasts
• CMU Open Learning Initiative

Further Reading:

• University of the People - The world's first tuition-free, online university
• In the Future, the Cost of Education Will Be Zero
• Technophilia: Get a free college education online
• Take Any College Class for Free: 236 Open Courseware Collections, Podcasts, and Videos
• 100 Best Websites for Free Adult Education
• Universities with the Best Free Online Courses
• How to: Find Free College Video Lectures Online
• Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
• LibrarySupportStaff - Online Learning Sites

ASUS T91MT Eee PC - Multi-Touch Netbook'ing

I've been doing a lot of research on multitouch technology (which is basically using two or more fingers on a screen or touch-sensitive device) and I came upon an announcement about ASUS's Eee PC T91MT. I read some reviews, which where slightly mixed but for the most part positive.

I ordered one, and I've been using it for about two days now. Honestly, my only bad experience was when I first turned it on... Windows 7 had to do some first-start customizations and I didn't realize the whole thing would probably go faster had I plugged in the AC adapter... (it took over 20 minutes to fully run set-up when I had it unplugged... so if you get one, plug it in until you are done with set up!)

The reason I bought this was really two-fold. This netbook has a hinged screen and converts into a tablet PC in a few seconds. And it's multi-touch (in this case up to two fingers) so it can use, among other things, most of the multitouch gestures I'm accustomed to on the iPhone. So the first reason I wanted it was to get a feel for what tablet computing might be like should Apple release a tablet.

The second reason was my main web stats application is Windows-only (sadly) but it has a really great visual-hyperlink system to help me understand my data. The application was great with a mouse, but it's completely terrific as a touch or stylus app.

As for how I feel about the T91MT in itself... as far as a touch tablet goes, it's a little thick and heavy... as far as a netbook goes, it's quite light and usable, although I'm not a fan of the smaller keyboard. I imagine if ASUS releases a larger model (this one is 8.9 inches) I would hope the keyboard is slightly larger. It's not that it's a bad keyboard, I just prefer having a little more room when I'm typing. If you're looking into this model, go test typing at a store on 8.9 inch netbooks and see if the keyboard suits your needs.

As far as technology goes, this device is pretty great. I hooked it to my 23-inch LCD (high-def 1920x1080) and it worked fine. I'm not planning to play 3D games in high-def so the ability to run high-def from this netbook for researching was more important to me than actual performance.

One of my favorite things about this device is battery. I keep putting it to sleep on the counter but it looks like I'll consistently get over 4.5 hours use with the proper power save setting.

Outside of the compressed physical keyboard, I'm very pleased with this netbook. I knew getting into it it'd be smaller so I won't say I'm disappointed. I will be using it pretty much every day from now on. You can check out some other reviews here at Amazon.com.

If Facebook shares were traded on the open stock market...

This is an article I came upon today while doing some other research:

Facebook Must Woo Investors Before Any IPO

An IPO is the first time a stock is offered on the stock market for trading. Before an IPO, the company is considered "private." You can't log on to E-Trade and just randomly trade a private company.

Is Facebook worth a lot of money? Yes, obviously, being the #2 site on the Internet (at writing).

Can Facebook pull a lot of profit like the #1 site, Google?... ehhhh....

Okay, let's be serious. Google helps people find stuff. If I walk into a store, and someone helps me find a TV, they might get a commission, and I end up with a great product.

Facebook doesn't help people find things. It helps keep people updated on things. You know what used to keep people updated on things? The newspaper in the bin outside the store at the shopping center.

Which is going to make more money, something that updates you or something that helps you find something you're going to spend money on?

Facebook -can- be profitable for investors, but I really think this is about changing the world, and not about profit. Honestly, I think that's the way Facebook should stay.

Just my 2 cents.

Running Windows on the Mac

So, there are three main options to running Windows on a Mac. Use Boot Camp from Apple to make your hard disk into two parts, one for Mac OS X and one for a Windows install (you have to buy a copy of Windows, btw.)

Then, you can use either Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion.

I used Parallels since it came out, up until version 4. Then I switched to VMWare Fusion 2, and upgraded to Fusion 3, but Fusion 3 had issues running my Windows 7 Install. Fusion also seemed to use too many resources.

So I downloaded the trial of Parallels Desktop 5, which claims to be a lot faster than 4, and it really is a lot faster. I've had a few issues so far, but I'm likely to purchase the full version.

I linked a review of the two for those who are considering the two applications.

A review of Parallels Desktop 5 vs VMWare Fusion 3.

Upgraded the Nettop

I was able to purchase a 1GB RAM upgrade chip for the Acer Revo Nettop I purchased. It makes things even more amazing. The system now has 2GB of total system memory, and I used the BIOS settings to adjust the video RAM to 256MB from 128MB. Really makes the graphic blaze.

I'd recommend anyone buying this Nettop to throw out the $40 for a 1GB upgrade chip to install.

I decided to shamelessly link The Acer Nettop here through my Amazon affiliate link, as well as the 1GB upgrade I successfully installed in it.

Virtual Desktop'ing for Windows

One of my favorite features in Apple's Mac OS X is Spaces, which allows me to work on separate virtual desktops (imagine 4 screens instead of 1, but still one physical screen).  It gives me more much more desk area to work.

I was looking for a way to simulate that sort of feature in Windows XP (for the Nettop) and I came across this well-reviewed virtual desktop app:  Dexpot

I encourage you to visit the site and check out the screenshots.  The application is free for personal use, for a low-fee of about US$23 for a commercial license (and free to check out).

Enjoy!

First Netbooks, Now Nettops

I saw an advertisement for a "Nettop" in BestBuy this Sunday, and I was very curious to learn more about it. So I ended up Google-ling these new devices, and I'm highly impressed with what I found.

This blog post talks specifically about a $199 Acer AspireRevo. Just as a warning, don't make assumptions that EVERY nettop will have the following true about it, but it's certainly likely as they increase in sales more options with more sophistication will be available.

Netbooks can be pretty awesome. But the problem I had with the ones that are out right now, most of them have a very weak graphics chip, and the resolution of the LCD screen is too small to effectively do web design (in my humble opinion).

Now, this Nettop from Acer doesn't have the Wi-Fi or Screen that comes with a netbook. But, it costs about $100 less than a typical netbook, and has a few extra features.

This Acer system uses a NVidia Ion LE chipset... which has several awesome onboard features... nice audio, a very capable video card (DirectX 9 compatible 9400GM with 128MB VRAM), 1GB RAM (same as most netbooks, although the video chip steals 128MB from the total 1GB). But, the system has HDMI output, so presumably could drive a typical plasma TV or LCD TV.

I was very enticed by the system, after reviewing the features. So I ended up purchasing it--I was very curious about the 3D capabilities and exactly how much I can do at once with a single-core Atom CPU @ 1.6ghz. And I'm definitely impressed. This system is very capable for every day tasks as well as some basic 3D gaming. The graphics chip is shared by many desktop systems, so very very impressive for a $199 system.

And this thing's tiny. It's smaller than my Mac Mini. 6 USB ports plus sATA on the front. I really wish it came with Wi-Fi, but the 10/100/1000 Ethernet port is very useful. I can add a Wi-Fi adapter for about $30 from Newegg, but that's an additional cost that should be taken into consideration.

I look forward to the new developments in the nettop market, but I'm very pleased so far and certainly plan to get a few years out of this inexpensive device.

( Note: I'm in no way associated with Acer, I just think this device is freaking awesome. )

Redbox: Vending Obligations?

I've had a lot of fun with various Redbox units around town. (For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's a vending machine typically outside of a store with high-traffic, like a Walmart or grocery store. You pay $1 to rent a DVD for a night, then a dollar every night until you return it.)

Okay, so typically my Redbox has 9-15 pages of 15 DVDs per page... so usually 100+ titles.

The Redbox unit doesn't know who I am when I walk up to it, so it can't make me a recommendation. It just shows the DVDs in whatever ordered it's instructed to show.

However, once I return a DVD, and if I press buttons right after, there's a pretty good chance that the person touching the screen (in this case me) is the one who rented the DVD.

Now, the box can't make assumptions whether I liked it or not. It'd be really awesome if it gave me a 5-star rating system when I returned the title. For example, when I am ready to return it, I press "return DVD" then it asks "How would you rank this rental?" then once the DVD is returned, it records it to my profile.

But, for the sake of what's happening now, it has my rentals "linked" in its system. So, it could, if it chooses, display DVDs it thinks I may like at the HEAD of the pages, and not randomly.

Now, this is my moral question. If the system could know which DVD I would like most, should it put it on page 1, 2, or 3? I typically look at the first 3-5 pages of listings (30-50 titles).

If it put a DVD up that I might like, but in no hurry to watch, it could make $2-$3 on the rental (taking 2-3 days to return) instead of the $1 it would make it I wanted to watch it ASAP (because I'd return it the next day).

Would the device be obligated to make the proper recommendation? And who judges proper?

Just some thoughts.

Missing from Windows 7?

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on a Boot Camp partition on my Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro.  Okay, it's painless to install, it seems very, very stable.  The built-in Internet Explorer seems relatively safe and fully functional.  The Backup function, while not as simple as Mac OS X's Time Capsule, seems sufficient.

Then, I try to add the Stocks Gadget to my desktop.

Wait, what Stocks Gadget?  Apparently this feature of the beta was removed for the final release.

Microsoft, please add the Stocks Gadget to your additional Gadgets option by the time you release Windows 7 later this month!

Yeah, I know, it's still delayed quotes.  But better than nothing.

Bing and Other Cashback Programs

I saw the cashback programs from Bing (which is the rebranded Microsoft search engine) and decided to look into it a bit.

The Bing cashback program is relatively easy to sign up for.  You can use a standard Live ID (for example, Hotmail) or sign up for a fresh Live ID.  Then, you agree to the terms and give Microsoft your mailing address for your check (minimum reward value: $5).

Then, you use the Shopping section of the Bing.com Search Engine to see potential cashback partners.

Now, you'd have to be reasonable.  If the cashback on a product is 3% on a $100 buy, at at Bing cashback site, and $95 at another site, obviously you should consider the other site.  So it can be helpful to cross reference at a site like Google Products (if you have the spare time).

In reality, you need to take in consideration for shipping costs between sites, because there can be a significant difference from site to site.  If the shipping cost is going to eat your cashback, take that into consideration, too.

If you're opposed to Microsoft, you might consider MyPoints, which has a cashback-like feature (points towards Gift Cards instead of cash) but can also boost your point bonus with reading e-mails and filling out surveys.

Just some ideas to "save" a little money.

A New Android Phone from Samsung / Sprint

I've done significant research on iPhone programming over the past year--I have a shelf of pretty much every book put out on the subject.  I love my iPhone, the apps are great, but eventually one comes to accept that not everything will be using an iPhone--especially in the United States with it (currently) stuck on the AT&T network.

For those who are looking for something else, there are a whole bunch of phones coming out based on technology created by Google ( http://www.android.com/ ) that will be available on multiple wireless carriers, not just stuck on one network.  So if you are content with your current wireless company, you might easily be able to grab one of these phones and keep your (hopefully) great service.

Why is this Android stuff significant?  Because the app store is rather compatible between phones.  iPhone developers have one outlet:  Apple's App Store.  As a mobile developer, it can be useful to have more choices.  For example, the Samsung Moment, a phone coming from Sprint around November 1, has a relatively fast processor, and spots a physical keyboard (leaving more room on the screen for apps, great if your app requires text entry.)  On an iPhone, if you enter text, pretty much half of your screen is eaten by the virtual keyboard.

The other thing that is potentially useful about Sprint's new phone is that the plan including text can start around $70 a month, and you look into $90-$100 a month for a text/data plan for the iPhone.

So, consider the iPhone with serious competition now (not just the Moment, but all Android-based phones in general).  iPhone developers--you might want to pick up the Android SDK for fun, brush up on your Java and have a little fun.

I'd enjoy playing some games on my iPhone against some Android users.

Moved to Blogger

Well, sorry to those of you who were following my blog with few updates.

I've moved to a Blogger site so updates should be much more frequent!