Quick Tip: Stalled Wi-Fi

Seems every time I update every thing starts fine but with in seconds Wi-Fi stalls.  This has happened at other times but I see it most right after a restart.  Every thing indicates that you are connected but 0 bandwidth.

To fix it select the connection icon in the upper right corner, disable Wi-Fi, and the re-enable Wi-Fi.  This seems to kick start every thing and you are good to go.

Chrome OS Linux

Chrome OS seems to have a bit of Apple in it.  Chrome OS isn't  readily available to download and run on an Intel/AMD computer.  Right now you can’t just make your own CR-48 as Chrome OS is customized to run on a particular hardware.   You can get Chromium OS the open source operating system project.  Before you run of and try this you don’t get an image that can be loaded on a thumb drive, you get a bunch of code that can be added to a board for testing in four easy steps.

There is an alternative.  There is a Linux distribution that looks more like the Chrome OS.  Chrome OS Linux looks nice.


It also has a nice list of default programs:

• GNOME 2.30 desktop environment
• Google Chrome 10.0.648 web browser
• Google Picasa 3.0 photo manager
• LibreOffice 3.3 office suite
• GIMP 2.6 image editor
• Wine Windows emulator 1.2
• Pidgin 2.6 instant messenger
• Dashboard with social toolbar
• Control Center

I haven’t had a chance, nor do I have any hardware available, to try this but it has caught my attention.  I don’t think it would boot as fast as Chrome OS because it is a larger operating system.  On the other hand it would be more than a net book.

Buddha  would be unhappy with me now, I get the CR-48 and all I do is desire new computers and diferent operating systems.

I start to notice my surroundings

You never notice something then when you become aware of it you start seeing it every where.  Only after talking about privacy and concerns about  what information Google was mining and how it would be used did I notice this bit of open source programing.  All the advantages of the chrome browser but with the sections of code that report usage removed.  Chrome is open source so the code is freely available and can be modified as desired.

I tried this at lunch today, it can be run along side of chrome.  Iron is nearly identical to chrome with the only difference being that Chrome has an app store and Iron has a blog of vetted apps.  Everything else seems to work the same.  If you want you can run apps from the chrome app store but having apps that can access your info and might report it defeats the purpose of a non-reporting browser.

Next up thinking about the lottery and hoping to stumble across the winning numbers.

We're Number 4

Clap your feet, stamp your hands we're number 4.  Those Google spyders has finally found this blog.

Now I just have to sit back and wait for AOL to buy me out.

What else is there

Don't have a CR-48 yet, not a fan of the cloud, worried about being tracked by a big corporation well hordes of programmers feel your pain.  The open source movement has many programs, everything from operating systems  to free version of popular programs or games.

If you want to try something other than windows there's a multitude of Unix flavors such as GNU Operating System.  Now if you want some real variety there is Linux.  I played with Ubuntu a few years ago a fairly mainstream version of Linux.  I'm not sure but the more esoteric and harder to use a Linux dstro is the more geek cred you get so Ubuntu will let you look down on windows users.  You can dual boot if your not ready to completely make a change.

Not ready to change your operating system then how about using an alternative to Microsoft Office.  Try Open Office or the Oracle free branch LibreOffice.  The real advantage of these two is that the next time you by a computer you don't have to shell out for MS-Office.

Want to compress files try 7-zip.

Do you think the government, your spouse, the Illuminati or some guy named Tim are spying on you then try True Crypt.  I tried True Crypt a few times but I don't have anything that needs encrypting. Pro Tip: don't download True Crypt instead get a copy of the source code, vet each line and compile it yourself, this is the only way to be sure there are no back doors.

Too cheap to pay for Photoshop try GIMP instead.  I've used this for several years at work for doing clean up of technical illustrations.  It has tutorials and a ton of functions what I've used is just the basics.

Games and everything else.

If you do try something let me know.

Behind the Curtain

There have been some decent open source operating systems¹ so why is Google going to all the cost of doing their own.  I think the answer is eyeballs.  A browser based operating system that runs on inexpensive hardware will bring more people to the web.  More people who will use Google's tools and look at Google ads.

For about $180- the same as a retail copy of windows 7 home premium- that new flat screen can be converted to a internet device which can play Google TV.  For the cost of a screen, a key board and a small computer a library, school or business can do most of what people do with a computer.  Instead of paying for a traditional PC and software you can save a lot of money and view Google ads.

When I was a freshman one of the guys has an IBM PC XT.  This would have cost about $6500 in todays dollars.


1 if you have some old hardware kicking around this is an easy and fun way of getting some more life out of it.

Cool things to do with you chrome browser

1. WebGL is now enabled by default in Google Chrome and you can try the 3D web apps from Google's gallery. Don't miss Body Browser, a Google Earth for the human body, and the WebGL Aquarium. (more)

None of these things really works very well on the CR-48 net book.  Just not enough power to make them run smoothly.  Those of you on more powerful computers might have fun.


If you're looking to dig into the inner workings of your browser the same blog has a list of Chrome's about: pages.