Life in the Cloud(s)

And we're back!

So I thought I would just take a few minutes to talk a little more conceptual before I do some more hardware/practical blogging on the Cr-48.  But first a Dilbert cartoon:

Love it.  So anyway, what's the big deal about the cloud?  Well, the Cr-48 makes the cloud a pretty big deal.........I mean, seriously, it's like, almost all there is.  Yes I'm sure you've read an article or two about the hardware specs, so yes, it only has a 16 gig SS hard drive.  But even stuff you store locally is hard to access.

Anyway, the point is, this is a shift in mindset for chromebook users.  No longer do we deal with "Windows Explorer" and C:/drives, and F:/ drives, and D:/ drives, organizing folders within folders within folders within.........nope, you do all that in Google docs!  (Or some other web-based storage site, I like dropbox) (btw, did you notice the redesign to Google docs made in the last day or two?  Looks pretty slick!  Check out my screenshot below:

Looks like they redid the icons for the file structure on the left, redid how the file tags look on the documents and added a handy thumbnail view of the document to the right.  They also added a handy toolbar at the top to search for certain types of files, pics, video, docs, etc.  Anyway, sorry for the longest parentheses break ever!)

Again, this is a shift in mindset, but so far for me, a welcome one!  So I've been using the Cr-48 as my primary computer for school this semester and I'll have to say I love it.  I'll be posting soon about some of the specific webapps I'm using as well as how I use Google docs/Dropbox, but I've enjoyed knowing that all my school docs are in the cloud.  This comes in handy when I need to use a heavy-duty stats program on the school computer and with no thumb drives or having to email myself the needed documents, it's already there and ready to access.

It also means that I haven't lost work on a single document yet this semester.  No word crashes, powerpoint crashes, nada, ning, zilch.  Google docs saves pretty much every character, so I think it would actually require some maneuvering to lose your work on there.

I'll also comment later about moving other things to the cloud such as music, photos, and video, so stay tuned to hear how I'm trying to defy gravity.

But to conclude, if the number of spammy tweeters tells us anything about what a bunch of so called SEO experts think is the future, it's the cloud.  Having the ability to access your information non-hardware specific; whether that be a desktop, laptop, netbook, tablet, or phone.  Bring it on.

Let me know if you have requests of things you want to hear about the Cr-48.  I'll be trying to post as often as possible and I have an idea list of a dozen or so posts, but I'm definitely open to requests.  Ok, more tomorrow.

-quinnj