Eee + AMD = laptop or mere Netbook?

     
    With all it's AMD E-350 APU power, 12" screen and Win 7 Home premium 64 bit, this stretches the definition of netbook. Connectivity is superior too with HDMI and USB 3.0 connections. With the latter ultra high speed load to and from the latest peripherals is possible. This is my pick for best buy of the month.

Chromebook = little linux + The "Cloud"

    This is my second post on this subject in a few days. Yeah, it's safe to say I'm very intrigued. The part of this that scares me and, I think, most older "techies" like me is the absence of control over your own computing "stuff", the product of all of your computer "work" or play. With these machines it's all out there in "the cloud".  They claim it's more secure than it could ever be on any local PC or Mac though.
    I suppose I'm a bit better prepared to accept this though having experienced "virtual machine" use fairly extensively in my last few years of work as a Biomedical Engineering Technician for Hines VA Medical Center. For a number of years leading up to my retirement in late Nov. 2009, a growing amount of my computer use at work was with "virtual machines" or at least virtual hard drive storage of my work product from software on the local PC I was working with at the time.
    So what is a "Chromebook"? The little research I've done all points to a moderately powerful machine running a TINY version of Linux entirely designed for pure "Cloud computing" booting directly to Google Chrome web browser.  So what is "cloud computing"? As I understand it, it means total "Virtual machine computing" with your web browser as the interface to the "cloud", the host of virtual machines accessible on the web via your login site or "Portal", Google in this case. Since the basic principle of the Chromebook is this total virtualization, with these machines there is no need for loading all of that "stuff" all Windows or Mac machines have to load to operate as fully independent computers. If all of the tasks you need to perform via computer can be done on those virtual machines in "the cloud" all you REALLY need to load on the perfect machine for same is a web browser. Everything else you need can be accessed via whichever web portal site you have access to. With Chromebooks in their right out of the box state, that is Google. If you have a Google login, you're ready to start using any Chrome book. You are supposed to be able to do the same from Chrome browser on any PC or MAC as well. I have a G mail account which I use only for Blog spot but haven't tried using Chrome to access any Google Apps yet. 
    Be sure to click on each of the highlighted text links in this post to see the YouTube videos on the subjects that relate to each one.

THE FAT FOX on THE EMPTY HEN-HOUSE

And the Republicans in Congress and those of that party elsewhere in the country who are running to be President are trying to make political gain out of Democratic Presidents' handling of the National Debt? Just how stupid do they think we are? Actually, though I haven't watched him for quite a while, Jay Leno supposedly keeps coming up with "Jay Walking" participants that seem to dis-prove my respect for the minds of Americans. I probably need say no more except that the PERFECTLY applicable cliches just keep flowing in my mind. Like "people in glass houses...." or "the fattened fox shouldn't complain about the empty hen-house". I'm not sure the latter isn't an original.

Chromebook...what's that?

 

(Click on above image to view the demo video)

It's finally here, the long awaited Google Chrome Operating System. It appears not to pre-load anything other than the Chrome Web Browser. These machines appear to be basically enhanced netbook hardware running Google Chrome OS instead of Windows OS. The argument for them is that many users do nothing but web interface with their computers anyway. Given that market, the < 10 second boot to web time should be a HUGE draw. I wonder if it will include an Icon to get users to a desktop with apps, maybe even Android apps same as the Android tablets? Time will tell.

It's About Time Mr Obama

    I'm shocked it took Mr Obama so long to come to terms with an unequivocal fact of Presidency at least for the last few decades. Almost no proposal of a sitting President after mid term elections with the opposite party in majority in The House can offer ANY hope of compromise. Job #1 of any mid-term Congress is removal of the President of the opposition no matter what theirs or their constituents' opinion might be on almost any issue. Absent overwhelming public opinion otherwise and absolute National urgency, there is no exception! Since nobody really knows how to solve the current situation to even 50% of the people's satisfaction, his only option is to fight for what he sees as right or do nothing and leave office in January 2013.