ChromeOS: Day 1

Checking in after my first full day of using ChromeOS. It has been, well, disappointing.

Edit: Take this all with a grain of salt. I figured out the workaround for my wifi issues just after posting. According to a Google support thread, ChromeOS (and/or the underlying *nix kernel) has issues with WPA+TKIP. I switched my router from WPA+TKIP to WPA+AES and watched as the Cr-48 changed instantly from a slow, laggy brick into a quick, snappy beast. This, I suppose, points out another problem: the lack of documentation. I read through the "known issues" page of the bug tracker and didn't see anything like this. It is likely that I may be blind and/or incompetent, though, so I'd be happy to be proved wrong here.

The biggest blow to my enthusiasm came from Google Talk which, after tempting me to try out video chat, proceeded to crash and refuse to connect. Actually, the notebook has been consistently slow with its network connection, leading nearly everything to have trouble. It's been taking upwards of five minutes to load simple webpages like reddit's front page, and more complex things like Gmail and Google Voice have been downright unusable because of the lag. It took more than 2 minutes to post a comment on a Facebook status. To make matters worse, the whole system seems to lock up when pages are loading, which means I can't even work with the things I have open. Even now, Blogger is having issues connecting to save this post. It's not constant, but there are enough issues to give me pause.

The fact that ChromeOS is struggling at doing tasks for which it was expressly designed, namely loading web pages and chatting, is both frustrating and a cause for great concern. The user experience crashes and burns quite often, with multitouch gestures simply not working and clicks being completely ignored. Seeming at random, two-finger scrolling with abruptly stop working. Clicks are apparently queued up, because clicking multiple times on a nonresponsive page yields a flurry of tabs opening once the page starts responding again.

I have been trying to load speedtest.net since I started typing this. It still has not finished. A page of comments on reddit required three refreshes before it loaded correctly. Google Talk still refuses to connect. Tweetdeck's Chrome app is incredibly slow and takes upwards of five minutes to load completely - that is, if it decides to load at all.

I've checked my network. Other wifi devices are just fine. My desktop, using a wired connection, load all of these pages just fine. It's not the connection. Maybe there is something screwy with the Cr-48's network stack or drivers. I find it hard to believe that I'm bumping into hardware limitations: a single-core Atom N455 with 2GB of RAM should not be choking on a few tabs of Chrome. I hope, however, that the performance troubles are all in software and that they can be fixed soon. ChromeOS is in no way marketable in its current form.

It isn't all bad, though. The hardware has continued to impress me, especially with battery life: this morning, upon unplugging the charger, I was showing a bit over 7:30 of battery life - an incredible figure for such a small battery, but after using the Cr-48 for the day (from noon to midnight) on and off, I was throughly impressed with its stamina. One of the most impressive things about ChromeOS is the speed with which it wakes from sleeping. It usually takes me longer to open the notebok and place my hands on the keyboard than it takes for the system to resume. Even rebooting takes less than 30 seconds from on-to-off-to-on again. It is most impressive.

In non-ChromeOS news, I finally broke down and picked up a PS3 Slim today after lusting after one for years now. I played GT5 and LittleBigPlanet for most of the day, marveling at the glorious graphics. Having a housemate, I thought it wise to pick up a second controller and also ended up getting the Blu-ray remote since I do so despise my noisy $20 DVD player. I'm never going to finish New Vegas at this rate.

Speedtest.net still hasn't loaded.

Chrome

I should have something profound to say about my first excursion back to my childhood home after 6 months of living in the so-called real world. I am sure I would have some deep, brooding thoughts brought on by delayed flights and sharing a single bathroom with four other people for nine days except that, upon my arrival home this... morning at 2am, there was a nondescript box sitting peacefully on my doorstep.

I had not ordered anything, you see, so I really had no idea what it was. Well, I did have an idea, but it was a long shot and I didn't want to get my hopes up. Google, however, decided to send my a glorious little Cr-48 to beta-test ChromeOS and its hardware. The excitement for this new toy sort-of blew away anything else I might have been feeling for the time being. New electronics! Some of the best industrial design I've ever had the pleasure of owning! New and exciting technologies that may-or-may-not prove to be important. I love living on the cutting edge.

Of course, with everything that's happened in the last 24 hours, I have to think I'm going to get run over by a bus. Neither flight was canceled though both were delayed, but even then the flight from Chicago wasn't delayed so far that I missed my connection in New York. All the checked bags made it through the trip unscathed, and the trip home was simple enough (albeit decidedly expensive). And, after a day of excellent travel-luck, I got this. I think I may hide away for fear of the inevitable bad that will soon enter my life,

This keyboard will take a bit of getting used to. My biggest gripe is the lack of an 'end' key, something I tend to use somewhat regularly when writing. The chicklet-style keys are strange to type on for now after years of conditioning to the long stroke of mechanical and membrane keys, and the comparatively long stroke of scissor keys. The spacing is lovely, it's just a matter of learning the little quirks.

I'm not a fan of the trackpad at the moment. It is gigantic and offset to the right side of the palmrest. As a result, I keep accidentally bumping it with my right hand while typing and causing the cursor to freak out. I also need to learn not to rest my hand on the trackpad while attempting to mouse, but that will come with time. The pad requires quite a bit of force to click, but tap-to-click is an option and I like it better that way. Multitouch seems nice and responsive, though I am mourning the loss of a middle-click - a vital action for my Chrome workflow.

I really should be sleeping as I have to wake up tomorrow and shop to prepare for a New Year's Eve party. I also have to return to the working world come Monday, and I fear that readjusting to that sleep schedule will be... painful to say the least.

I'm sure I'll continue to review the Cr-48. Hell, it's giving me a chance to live out my fantasy of being a technology journalist - of course I'm going to write about it.

Sponge

I am more convinced every day that my drive home is slowly eating my creativity. Not eating it, I suppose, just... absorbing it like a sponge with no intent to return it. Have you ever tried to wring ideas out of a car? Cars are decidedly difficult to twist, making it near impossible to wring them properly. Plus, I sort-of really like my car.

I keep thinking of snippets of songs in my mind. I'm trying to project this front of being somewhat stoic and independent, though, so their less-then-positive nature tends to make me shy away from them.

The worst part of winter is cold fingers. It makes it difficult to type with the speed and accuracy I normally enjoy. My lab at work (it is, in fact, only mine in my mind) is also cold despite being next to the other lab which is nice and toasty. I need magic gloves that don't affect my hands in any way other than to increase their temperature. Supposedly using infrared heating bulbs is an excellent way to keep hands warm in the winter. I have not tested this theory yet since I feel like I have been ordering far, far too many things lately. Work is going to start looking at me in a disapproving manner if I don't stop getting packages. In my defense, I really wanted a new computer.

I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum and went back through to find all the extras. I haven't played with the challenges much yet; the Xbox 360 controller lacks an internal heater to give me the necessary dexterity in the cold. I can say that Arkham Asylum is an incredible game, even now at a little over a year old. It is graphically impressive without being too intensive (my old machine ran it just fine at 1920x1200) and the fighting system is the best I've ever played. The story, both the main plot and the hidden extras, was engaging and compelling. I am throughly intrigued by Harley Quinn's character now, and I am excited for the sequel to launch so I can discover more. Truly an excellent game.

Speaking of games, Fallout: New Vegas finally runs at 1920x1200 with everything set on high. I haven't tried ultra yet, but I might be able to do it. I have had a hard time transitioning back into Fallout after my hiatus, finding it difficult to remember not to shoot everyone on sight. To its credit, New Vegas does allow you to kill just about anyone, putting you in a considerably more believable world, but using a bullet to the face as a greeting also means that I keep missing out on side quests. When I can manage to not murder people, I am enjoying the game. Getting rid of the occasional graphical stuttering has helped with immersion in a big way, allowing me to get back into Fallout mode in my mind. I still haven't gotten a house, which is proving to be a pain in the ass. I certainly had a home in Megaton/Tenpenny Towers by this point in Fallout 3. I need somewhere to store all of the stuff I've collected. I can't carry all these stolen pre-war books with me all the time.

So, new computer. I decided it was time. Actually, Newegg decided. I like to keep an up-to-date wishlist on Newegg even when I'm not in the market just so I can keep my computer-component-choosing-chops up. When Newegg's Black Friday newsletter showed up on my phone, though, I realized that every component except the processor was on sale, netting me somewhere in the area of $200 in savings (in 8-10 weeks to allow for rebates). I'm calling it a good deal.

In buying and building my new machine I had a realization. People always tell you to do what you love and follow that for work. Love before money or something like that. I'm abusing these phrases. The point is, I haven't changed what I am passionate about: I love gadgets. I don't care what type of gadget or what it does, if it is shiny and electronic, I love it. For now, I work making gadgets in a way. I'm still holding onto the dream that I will, one day be able to follow gadgets to a place where I can play with them and write about them. Maybe someday. Don't get me wrong - I like the engineering aspect. I'm learning about the guts of everything and how the corporate world works. The real-life gadget mill is a lot different from the way it existed in my mind. I just have no interest in management. Bah, who knows.

I keep thinking about cars. It needs to stop because I can't buy one for several years. Maybe by then Mazda will restyle the Miata into something less jellybean-like and more angular and edgy. Or maybe Ford will hear my pleas and turn the Miata platform into (a) a sportier reincarnation of the Probe or (b) a sportier reincarnation of the Mercury Capri. Or both, that's an option. Something to combat the Pontiac Solstice (even though we all know that the Saturn Sky was way hotter). Of course, in 5-7 years my life could be vastly different and I'll be looking at more family-friendly fare.