For the past six months I’ve used the Cr-48 I got in December on a daily basis.  As you may recall, the Cr-48 is a test computer Google created and sent to chosen applicants to field test their new Chrome OS.  I received one, and I’ve used it all the time.  Since Google just announced that Chromebooks will start being sold commercially on June 15, I thought it was time I talked about my experience using it.

Hardware – The Cr-48 Itself

I want to get this taken care of right up front.  I’m only going to spend a few sentences on this since the Cr-48 itself will never be sold, and was only developed for testing.  I really like the device, though it’s sometimes a bit on the slow side.  If you’re using a really rich web application like Seesmic Web it can lag a bit, and YouTube videos can get choppy if you play them above 360p.  None of this is really a deal-breaker, and 98% of things I do on it never have any speed or performance issues.  When it was first shipped a lot of people griped about issues with the touchpad, but those have pretty much all been resolved with software updates.  I still really like the matte black soft touch finish on the case, though it’s started to wear off in a few spots, like some of the corners.  Battery life is still fantastic.  All in all, I’m still very much a fan of the Cr-48, and bring it with me almost every time I leave the house.

User Interface

Let’s go ahead and jump into the important part: the software.  Chrome OS, from a user interface standpoint, is really no different from the Chrome browser you can install on any computer now.  The entire interface is just the Chrome browser, so there’s really nothing new to learn here.  Really, the only place the user interface differs is logging into the computer, which is simply a box with your username and (if you want) a picture to go with it, and a prompt for your password.  Once you log in, you’re looking at Chrome.

Settings & Preferences

Since it’s Chrome, all settings are the same as the normal Chrome browser.  Plus, since Google has built full profile synchronization right into Chrome any bookmarks, extensions, web apps, etc. that you sync on your current computer will automatically show up on your Chromebook, and vice versa.  There’s really not much to discuss here, since you already know 95% of it if you use Chrome.

Networking

This is a crucial part of any Chromebook, since the entire platform is Internet-dependent.  The Cr-48 is equipped with 802.11 a/b/g WiFi, as well as a Verizon 3G chip.  The 3G works fine, though I use it rarely.  WiFi works great, but there are some issues that are software-related.  First off, it doesn’t support more advanced authentication methods.  Many colleges and large companies use a method of connecting to the wireless network that requires entering a username and password during the connection being established.  Chrome OS thus far on the Cr-48 doesn’t support that, though I have to believe they’ll be adding support in time for the June 15 launch.  There are also occasional issues with WiFi not reconnecting properly when coming out of standby.  That has improved over time, but it’s still a problem.  Google also recently enabled support for ad hoc networks, such as those created by a phone when doing hotspot tethering.

File Management

This is an area that still needs work, though it has improved markedly since I first got my Chromebook.  Given that Chrome OS does everything on the web and not compute locally, it seems somewhat logical that they would put less emphasis on managing local storage.  There are times though when you really need to download a file, or upload one from a flash drive or SD card.  I often need to do that for this site, in fact.  When I first got the computer, there was barely even a menu entry for accessing files.  By now they’ve added a more complete file manager, and support for external media.  However, a lot of basic tasks are still unavailable, such as copying or moving files, or viewing properties.  I really would like to see them enhance this part of the OS.

Security

This is one of the components of Chrome OS that I think really makes it stand out.  I’ve gone to every site I can think of that’s a known malware propagator, and haven’t had a single issue.  It’s locked down tight.  I tried sideloading a different version of Chrome OS from USB, and it wouldn’t take.  I’m pretty impressed with how security-minded Google was when designing this platform, and I think it’s a great solution for a lot of users, especially in corporate and educational environments where many users may not know best practices for avoiding infection.

Chrome OS Has Lots of Promise

I’ve heard a lot of naysayers discounting the idea of an operating system that only does the web. They claim that there’s no point, when you can already access the full web on a normal computer, and do a whole bunch of other stuff too.  Honestly though, let’s think about the average user: most people I know spend the majority of their time on a computer on the Internet.  When they’re not surfing the web, they’re using an office suite, listening to music, or looking at pictures.  Very few people I know are doing any sort of actual photo editing, music creation, or video rendering at all, let alone on a regular basis.  Even for the developers I know, most of them are doing web development – which you can do very well with some great web apps.  The point is, almost every task the average person performs on a daily basis either already is, or can be very easily and comfortably, done online.  Plus, most people don’t know everything that’s required to keep a computer safe and running well, so why give themselves the headache?  Chrome OS has the makings of a fantastic platform for most users, and with a few enhancements will be a really solid competitor.  I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes, and I’m going to continue using my Cr-48 all the time.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I’m kind of a security geek.  I’m fascinated by encryption, data protection, strong passwords, and generally locking things down just because I can.  For a long time there was a challenge with some of my friends to see if any of them could get into my computer, or at the very least figure out one of the 4 passwords required to boot it up to a desktop.  So when I found out about Lastpass & started using it, I was pretty excited.  A service that fully encrypts all my passwords, allow me to generate strong, unique passwords for every site I use, and syncing to the cloud (my other tech passion) – what could be better?  Well imagine my excitement when I found out that there was a device that could make not only Lastpass exponentially more secure & at the same time easier to use, but anything I did requiring a password!  Enter the Yubikey.

“Christiaan, we’re not all geeks like you.  Why would I ever want this thing?”

Great question, and I’ll tell you why.  If you’re like a lot of people these days, a large majority of your life is stored electronically.  Some of it is online with Google, Facebook, Flickr, etc. and some of it is on your own computer.  It makes life very convenient, and in many ways a lot of fun.  However, without some good strong passwords to protect all that information, you’re leaving yourself very vulnerable to people who may be ill-intentioned.

If you’re someone who keeps a little book, cheat sheet or a bunch of Post-Its with your passwords written down (or you use the same password for your bank as you do for Facebook) you’re also leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable & you should definitely take a look at my review of Lastpass.

Now we’ve all heard it before: “make sure you use passwords with random letters, numbers & symbols and never use a word somebody could guess!”  That’s all well & good, but let’s be honest: passwords are hard enough to remember as it is without having to add in gibberish.  This is where the Yubikey comes in.  It generates very long (mine is set to 54 characters), randomly generated passwords that you can use in conjunction with something you can actually remember.  When combined, you finally have that password the security people tell you to have.  The best part: all you have to do is push a button!  It also features One Time Password technology (the primary feature of the device, actually) which I’ll explain later.

So the bottom line on why you should keep reading this post, and why I think you ought to have one: it’s as simple to use as it is incredibly secure.

The Device Itself

First off, let’s look at the actual hardware.  This thing is small.  I mean, it’s noticeably smaller & lighter than your average flash drive.  I keep it on my keychain (which is notoriously sparse) and don’t notice it at all.

As you can see, quite small and also quite thin.

Don’t think that it’s fragile though.  It’s made from strong plastic, and is sealed to be water resistant.  Notice how the USB tab doesn’t look like the one on your flash drive, with the normal rectangular metal plug?  That’s because those are breakable, and leave the drive open to water damage.  On the Yubikey the USB contact strips, as well as the touch-sensitive activation button, are integrated right into the plastic body.  Mine has been through the laundry a couple of times, had drinks spilled on it, and even been dropped in a puddle – none of which even began to phase it.  As you can see in the pictures mine has managed to accumulate a few scratches & dents along the way, but they don’t affect it one iota.  This thing is tough.

“So if I plug it into my computer that means drivers and a headache, right?”

More good news!  When you plug in the Yubikey, your computer will recognize it as a USB keyboard.  This is awesome, because I’m not exaggerating when I say that USB keyboards are probably the most universally supported computer accessory in the world.  Everything supports them, with no software or outside drivers needed.  Just plug this thing in & go.  Like I said earlier, it’s simple.

The other cool thing about this is, when you press the button to use it, the Yubikey “types” the entry into the password field, and you’ll see a whole bunch of dots suddenly fly across the screen.  It’s like watching the world’s fastest typist or something.

Setting It Up

Some of this continues down the path of K.I.S.S. and some of it is not quite so straightforward – but before you get dismayed, don’t worry!  I’ve written a post that explains step by step & in-depth exactly how to configure your Yubikey for optimum security & simplicity.  Now, if you’re only planning to use it with Lastpass or other One Time Password compliant services, then it’ll be ready to go the second you take it out of the box, no device configuration required.  However, if you want to maximize your use of it & really secure your passwords all around, that’s what I’ll be explaining.  Check back for that post, I’ll put a link right here once it’s up.

What I will say at this juncture is the more complicated aspect is a one-time process.  You do it as soon as you get your Yubikey, and you NEVER have to do it again (unless, of course, you decide you want to for whatever reason).  In any other place where you’d be setting up the Yubikey for use with various services (such as Lastpass), that service will walk you through exactly what to do, which usually only consists of pushing the button.  Simple.

Using It

Let’s all say it together: Siiiiiiiiiiimmmmple.  Just stick it into the USB port on your computer, and when a service you’ve set it up with prompts you for your Yubikey you just hold your finger on the button for one second, release, and you’re done.

You’ll know when you’ve got it inserted the right way & that it’s ready to be used when the LED in the center of the button lights up green, like this:

Only one end of it fits in the computer, and if it doesn’t light up the first time flip it over.  It really is no more difficult than that.

The way I have mine set up is with a static password (one that never changes), which I use in combination with a password I remember & type in to form a very secure Windows password.  I also have it set up to do One Time Password for logging into Lastpass, which I mentioned at the beginning.

One Time Password (OTP) is pretty much what it sounds like: each password is only used one time, ever.  Basically, when you push the button on the Yubikey, it generates an instance of OTP.  The first 12 characters are always the same, as a way for it to identify itself.  The rest of the password (very long & ugly) is totally random, and never repeated – ever.  Once it generates the OTP, it sends it to whatever service requested it, such as Lastpass.  That service then checks that password against its own records, to see if it makes sense for that device.  If it does, it then sends it along to a central authentication server, which also checks to make sure that password makes sense for your device, as well as verifying that the sending service (i.e. Lastpass) is authorized to authenticate with this device.  If all this stuff checks out, you’re logged in.  If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is, and it’s actually far more complex than I just explained.  However, you don’t need to worry about ANY of that in order to use it, I just wanted to demonstrate how secure One Time Password is.

In addition to all the verification procedures & checks that One Time Password offers, there’s another major benefit.  If you’re using a computer on which some unscrupulous person has set up a keylogger to gather people’s usernames & passwords, OTP foils their attempts.  Since they’ll log a password that can never be repeated, it makes their data totally useless & keeps you 100% protected.  Take that, criminals!

Plus, don’t forget: all of this happens when you just push one button, and let it do the rest.

Final Thoughts

At this point I’ve had my Yubikey for about 6 months, and I can’t imagine living without it.  It’s made me so much more confident in & comfortable with my personal cyber security, and at the same time made being secure easier than it ever was before.  I honestly can’t think of a single thing I’d change about it (OK, maybe the initial configuration – though that’s truly not hard) and recommend it to everyone, period.  I have my 85 year-old grandfather set up with one to simplify his computer using experience & keep him safe on the computer, and I couldn’t have kept him this secure & still allow him to go about his business any other way.

I give the Yubikey a 9 out 10.  If you want to get one, you can order it at the Yubikey web site.

Order a Yubikey Configure Your Yubikey

Full disclosure: the link contains my affiliate code, which gives me a few cents of any Yubikey purchased from it.  It’s not much & the price is the same whether you use that link or go directly to the store, but it helps offset the cost of running this site a little bit.  I’d appreciate it if you use the link above, but most importantly I just really think it’s a great product & think everyone should get one.

Yubikey Photo Gallery

This is just an unboxing video; the demo & review video will follow shortly after.  Take a look at the video after the jump.

I JUST GOT MY CR-48!!!!!!!!!! (I had to hold Shift to type that since there’s no Caps Lock) #cr48

— Christiaan Conover (@cconover) December 18, 2010

Before we go any further, I just want to mention that this particular post is focusing only on the Cr-48, and not on Chrome OS.  I’ll be doing a Chrome OS write-up later.  Bear in mind, the Cr-48 will not be sold commercially, so the only way to get one is by applying to the Chrome OS Pilot Program & Google selecting your application.  This is kind of a review, but given the circumstances of getting one it’s mostly academic.

Opening The Box

In case you haven’t seen it yet, the box is very cool.  There’s some awesome engineer-like diagram artwork on the front, and the box itself is just pure cardboard with no paint or finish.  The contents are pretty basic: some paperwork & information, the power adapter, a pretty large battery, and of course the Cr-48 itself.  There was one little touch in the unboxing process which I found pretty funny & indicative of Google’s understanding that not all Cr-48s will remain fully assembled & unhacked:

Starting It Up

Having removed everything & popping in the battery, I fired it up.  Actually, all I did was open the lid & it started up automatically.  A blue flowing background with the Chrome OS logo popped onto the screen, but only for a moment until I was brought to a login box.  I’ve timed the cold start a number of times, and every time it’s about 15 seconds.  From no power to login, a quarter of a minute.  It takes my normal laptop that long just to get through BIOS post & firing up the OS boot process.  Now part of that has to do with Chrome OS itself, but it’s also due to the lack of a hard drive in the Cr-48 since, after all, the OS doesn’t support saving files on the local machine.

Since this was the first time I’d logged into my Google account on this computer (thank you to Google, by the way, for enabling Google Apps accounts to behave like normal Gmail accounts so I can use my GApps account on the Cr-48), I had to go through a couple of steps.  First, I typed in my email address & password on my Google account.  Next, I was asked to take a picture of myself to show at the login screen on this computer to visually identify my account.  The camera is decent, but nothing amazing.  A very usable, acceptable picture.  Mine happened to include a grease stain on my chin, as I’d just gotten home from doing some suspension work on my car.  I figured that was acutally a pretty accurate picture of me given how often I end up looking like that

Having taken the picture, I was done with setup.  Since I use Chrome as my browser on my normal computer & keep my account synced, all of my settings, bookmarks, extensions, apps, etc. were all automatically populated onto the Cr-48.  I had absolutely nothing else to do in terms of making changes to settings.  The only thing needed was to set my local time zone on the machine, and I was done.

Using It

The laptop feels very nice to type on.  The keyboard feels similar to modern Mac keyboards, with pleasant plastic key feel and good button push.  Even the shape of the keys is similar to a Mac.  The size of the keyboard is actually much better than on most other notebooks I’ve used, even on the larger end of the spectrum where this one falls.  It’s a standard QWERTY keyboard layout, but that’s where the similarities end.

They’ve removed the normal “Windows” key in the bottom left of most keyboards (Mac people would know it as the Command key) and widened the Ctrl and Alt keys to make them as large as the Shift key.

They’ve also done away with Caps Lock, though the key is still there, instead functioning as a Search button.  Press it, and a new tab opens in Chrome, with the cursor in the Omnibox ready for a search.

Remember Function (“F”) keys? Not on this thing.  The entire row of Function keys has been replaced with buttons dedicated to web browsing.  In order from left to right: Back, Forward, Refresh, Full Screen, Next Window, Decrease Brightness, Increase Brightness, Mute Volume, Decrease Volume, Increase Volume.

It took a little getting used to, but I’m already such a fan of that setup that using my normal computer seems a little cumbersome for browsing.  It’s really pretty intuitive.  There are a few things about the keyboard that I find lacking from my normal laptop.  For one, there aren’t any Home or End keys, which I use all the time when editing documents or blog posts.  Also, I use F6 all the time to put the cursor focus in the address bar to search or browse in the current tab.  Still, minor differences I’m already getting comfortable not using.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, “matte” is the name of the game with the Cr-48.  The screen has a matte finish (so glad!), the keys are matte black plastic, and the entire body of the notebook – literally all of it – is finished with matte black soft touch rubberized plastic.  There are no logos, branding or any marks to indicate what it is.  It’s about as simple as you can possibly get in terms of styling, and in this case simpler really is better, as I personally think its utilitarian & sparse design is actually quite striking.  Plus, the soft touch finish on the body feels awesome while resting your palms for typing, or just carrying the notebook around like a folder (which I’ve been doing pretty much non-stop since I got it, and plan to continue doing for the foreseeable future).

Since Chrome OS is literally just the Chrome browser & some user management software, the internal hardware doesn’t need to be much.  Because the OS is based around the idea that everything is stored on the cloud, and nothing is stored locally, it has no hard drive.  There’s flash memory to store the OS & any extensions or downloads you have, but there’s no file manager to allow you to put anything on the computer itself.  So no hard drive means no drive noise or heat.  There’s also no optical drive, meaning – again – no drive noise or heat.  I’m not even sure if there’s a fan in this computer, since I haven’t heard or felt one turn on yet even running many apps with Flash video playing.  As a result, the Cr-48 is usually cool to the touch, and completely silent.  So silent that unless you’re looking at the screen, you won’t know it’s on.  Even for people used to quiet computers, this is quieter.  I’ve literally never encountered a computer that makes as little noise as this one.  Sitting in a quiet room with this, keystrokes (which are also very quiet) can start to sound like you’re hammering out the letters.

Despite a lack of traditional computer hardware, there are still some vital features that remain: there’s a USB port, headphone jack, and SD card slot.  There are very few device drivers for Chrome OS at this point, but basic USB devices such as mice & keyboards are supported.  If you happen to be a Yubikey user like I am, that’s also supported as it identifies itself as a USB keyboard, so no worries there.  The SD card slot works, despite some references or speculation to the contrary from various online sources.  In fact, all of the pictures in this post were uploaded using the SD card slot on the Cr-48 directly from my Canon camera, so I can fully vouch for the fact that it’s usable.  The headphone jack also works just as you’d expect.

The lack of drives or other extra hardware typically found on other notebooks means less weight as well, and it is very light – though to be honest, not as light as I might have expected for its size & specs.  The reason it’s a little heavier than expected is due to the very large battery though, and given how much time you can run wire-free I have no complaints about a few extra ounces of battery weight.

While we’re talking about the battery, let’s discuss battery life: it’s fantastic.  Google says you can expect over 8 hours of computing time on a full charge, and so far I’ve found that figure to be fairly accurate.  As with any battery-powered device, use time is entirely dependent on what you’re doing.  If you have 30 tabs open with Flash running in multiple tabs, watching video, cranking the volume & putting the screen brightness al the way up, you’re not going to be able to get 8 hours out of it (though in all honesty, you’d probably still get at least 5 based on my short attempts to torture test it).  If you’ve just got some email, text editing, blog pages, etc. with moderate screen brightness and perhaps even some music on in the background, it’s entirely possible you’ll get that 8 hours.

In using it intermittently from a 90% charge, I was able to get a total of about 9, maybe 10, hours of use before it hit 10% and I plugged it back in (though the computer even then didn’t give me a low battery warning).  I’ll continue to test & monitor the battery life of the Cr-48 in various conditions and report back.

When it is time to charge the computer, just plug in the cord as usual.  There’s an LED right next to the power port that can indicate at a quick glance whether the battery is charging by glowing orange:

Or is fully charged by glowing the same blue-white as the power button LED:

It’s a nice feature, especially if you aren’t using it all the time or have it set aside to charge & need to see quickly whether it’s full without turning it on.

A Few Complaints
Despite all the awesome aspects of the Cr-48, there are a few things that bug me.

First off, the touchpad can be finicky.  There are no dedicated mouse buttons.  Instead, you click the whole touchpad surface like you do on a Macbook.  I’ll be honest, I don’t really ever click the touchpad but instead just tap to select, which works fine.  It also uses some of the multi-finger gestures you may be used to on a Macbook such as two fingers to scroll, and by clicking with two fingers you can right-click.  For the most part the touchpad works fine, but it can jump around a little if you’re trying to click and drag, and if you accidentally rest a finger on it while trying to use it with the other, the cursor might jump or just stop moving.  By no means a deal breaker, just something to get used to.  So far I haven’t been really annoyed by it at all.

The lack of Home and End keys that I mentioned earlier is probably the hardest thing for me to adjust to.  I use that all the time when editing documents, especially when I’m preparing show notes.  Having to select a line of text or jump to a position using the mouse or arrow keys is more cumbersome than simply hitting a dedicated button.  On production Chrome OS notebooks I think that’d be a great addition to the keyboard.  Perhaps they could shrink the enormous left Ctrl and Alt keys & squeeze in Home & End.

Update: Voice & video chat can also be frustrating on the Cr-48.  I don’t know whether the issues are hardware or software-related (it’s probably a combination), but after only a couple of minutes into a call the audio starts to be choppy & broken, almost like a really bad cell connection.  Mind you, this is while being on Wifi about 6 feet from the hotspot connected to a FiOS line.  The video is jerky & slow all the time, clocking about 10-15 frames per second at best, and as low as probably 2-3 at worst.  Not very smooth at all.  I suspect it’s due primarily to an underpowered processor for video & audio, but also could be related to the voice & video chat plugin that may not be optimized yet for the lower power hardware that will be coming in Chrome OS notebooks.

Bottom Line: I Love It
I’ll be the first to admit, this computer may not be for everyone.  However, the shortcomings it may have are almost exclusively part of the software stack, and in simply looking at the hardware, I’m thrilled.  I’d personally really like to see this computer be sold commercially at some point.  Ok, not this exact model (hey, I was lucky enough to get an invite-only, pre-production device, what’s wrong with wanting to keep it a little exclusive?) but one very similar, or nearly identical.  I really think that for people for whom Chrome OS is a viable, and even appealing, option for being productive the Cr-48 is fantastic.  It feels nice to use, it looks great, the battery lasts longer in the day than a lot of people I know, and it’s simple.  I absolutely love mine, and so far really don’t miss the baggage of a full-blown OS & computer for day-to-day stuff.

As you’ll notice below, any links that were included in the tweet are working, and it pulls in the design of the user’s Twitter background.  It’s like having a screenshot, but much easier & more useful.  Expect to see a lot more of these on here in the future.  Mainly because I can.

Just installed the Blackbird Pie plugin for WordPress http://cnvr.cc/b8emVN on my site.Writing a test post to try it out.

— Christiaan Conover (@cconover) November 6, 2010

Update 03JAN12: I’ve switched to Twitter Embed, since Blackbird Pie was causing issues with my current site theme and Twitter Embed is even simpler to use.

Accessible Anywhere
For me, the most important aspect of LastPass is that it’s based on the cloud.  All the other features of Lastpass are excellent & very important to any good password manager, but what good are they if I can’t access them wherever I am?  I’m frequently away from my computer, instead using my phone or other computers where my computer can’t come.  Being able to always have access to the most up-to-date login data for the sites I use at any Internet-connected device I might encounter ensures that I’ll be willing to take full advantage of the rest of LastPass’ capabilities.  Plus, I know that my data is always backed up & secure, no matter what happens to my own computers.

Secure
Security is an integral part of how LastPass works.  When you create a new entry, the data is encrypted on your local client.  This encrypted data is then sent over a SSL connection to the LastPass servers, where it’s securely stored.  The only way to decrypt the data is using your own password; there’s no backend or method for LastPass or anyone else to view your data without your credentials.  Plus, they support additional methods of authentication, such as Yubikey, to make your account even more secure.

It Just Works
These are great features, but they mean nothing if the service doesn’t make it easy to use.  The LastPass plugin is really good at detecting new sites & prompting you to save them, recognizing existing sites even if the URL doesn’t exactly match what you have saved, and detecting when you’ve changed the password in an existing site.  It also includes a feature to generate a secure password, and saves it in the database until you’ve added it to a site entry.

Ok, this stuff sounds great, but how is it to live with?
For years I’ve been skeptical of password managers because I thought they’d be annoying & a hassle.  I was also worried about losing the data.  I figured there would be cumbersome steps to go through, I’d spend twice as much time logging in as if I’d just done it myself, and I’d end up being frustrated.  It also concerned me to put all my passwords in a list.  To be honest I never would have tried LastPass in the first place unless I’d heard Steve Gibson explain the benefits of it & give it his seal of approval.  Since setting it up & building out my list of sites, not only has it cut down significantly on the time it takes me to log in to all my various services, but it’s made my own habits (and passwords) much more secure.

For a long time I’d been using a few different passwords across all the different sites I visited.  They were all randomly generated “strong” passwords, but they were used in a lot of places so it left me vulnerable.  If somebody had compromised one of those passwords they would have had access to a large percentage of the sites I use.  There’s a good chance that this is resonating with you, as many people have this same practice, which makes them equally vulnerable.  Now, every single site I use has a different strong password that’s been generated and is stored by LastPass.  My standard password scheme is: 32 characters long and consisting of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters – and every password is completely different.  Now, all I have to remember is one really strong password for my LastPass account, and all these other randomly generated passwords are taken care of for me.

Now, there is one major inconvenience to this system, which is having to log in to LastPass each time I open my browser.  If I set it up to keep me logged in between sessions, it would leave a hole in the security that LastPass offers, so I have it set to require me to enter my password each time I log in.  It can get annoying, but it only takes a moment.  However, I’ve found a solution for that too: Yubikey.  I mentioned this a few paragraphs up, and I’ll explain in a later post fully how this works, but I’ll give a brief synopsis now.  Basically, it adds another layer of authentication using a little USB key.  When I open my browser, LastPass prompts me for my Yubikey instead of my password.  Rather than typing in a long string, I simply insert the Yubikey & press the button, and LastPass authenticates me & logs me in.  It also makes the authentication process more secure than just a username & password, so my web experience is both simpler and safer.

Since using LastPass my impression of password managers has changed completely.  I now rely completely on LastPass & am very happy with its performance.  I’d highly recommend using it to anybody, and have even set up my grandfather to use it for his sites, complete with a Yubikey.  No more need for little notebooks of passwords, or only having 2 or 3 passwords for everything.  Set it up & let it do the rest.

Take a look at my review of the Yubikey, and how it integrates with Lastpass.

Here’s the first video I’ve done using the camera.  The entire thing was recorded at a 24p frame rate (like you see in films) at 1080p high definition, and then was downcoded to 720p high definition when I exported the final copy.  It’s a pretty basic video, but it does a good job of demonstrating this camera’s capabilities & gives me good practice.  Enjoy!

It’s called OhLife, and it’s incredibly simple.  Its primary component is email, so there’s pretty much nothing new to learn.  Every night at 8PM it sends you an email asking you how your day was, and includes a random entry you’ve made previously.  All you have to do is reply to the email with your entry for the day, and OhLife takes care of filing & formatting it.

The web site is equally simple.  Once you log in, there are only a few options: view the most recent entry, view a page of past entries, change settings (of which there are very few), and view individual entries or a random entry.  The interface is designed to look like you’re reading from a page in a real, physical journal.  It’s enjoyable to read entries, even if you’ve just written them & know what they say.

They make a point of telling you that the service is built around privacy.  They don’t have any way to connect to social networks, or publicly share your entries.  The only way to see what you’ve written is to log in to your account, and the only way to contribute or communicate with OhLife is through the email address you register with them.

So there’s not much to the service, which is actually appealing.  There are a few flaws to it though.  The most noticeable problem is that there’s no way to export your entries if you decide you no longer want to use OhLife.  Hopefully that feature is in development, but for a service that’s intended entirely for personal information it seems like something that should have been available at launch.  Also, it would be nice to have the ability to share data as an opt-in feature.  It’s not likely that I’d want to share my entries, but having the choice would be nice.

I’ve only made 3 entries so far, but I’m enjoying using OhLife.  I also discovered that it’s designed to properly file your entries by date regardless of when you send them.  Each daily reminder email that OhLife sends you comes from a unique, identifiable email address so that when you reply, it knows what date the entry is for.  I didn’t submit my second entry until the next day, so I was happy to learn this.

It’s a pretty neat idea, and is the first solution I’ve found to keep me diligent about documenting my activities.  It’s easy to use, and enjoyable.  A few missing features, but by no means a deal breaker.  Definitely worth giving a try!

Update (7/29/2010): OhLife added the export feature the day after this post was originally published.  You can find it on the “Past” page, and it creates a simple text file that you can download with all of your entries.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the official demo video that YouTube put out with the release of the new site:

There are some important things to note in this video. First off, the native app feel of the interface: the web site & the videos themselves look & feel like they were part of an app written specifically for & installed on each device being shown.  The video seamlessly transitions when the phone is changed from portrait to landscape orientation.  The site is smooth & behaves like a native app.  Everything about it is very polished, and the best part: it looks & behaves exactly the same across multiple devices.  Android, iPhone – it doesn’t matter what you’re using, you can have the same experience as everyone else.

There’s an even deeper & more important element: access to YouTube’s content can’t be controlled by a platform developer.  YouTube is the biggest video sharing site on the planet – 20 hours of video are uploaded every minute – and is an integral part of the modern media & content consumption experience.  Why allow various device manufacturers, OS developers, etc. to decide on a whim they no longer support YouTube by banning its app from their platform?  By making an awesome mobile web app, control is put back in the hands of YouTube, and most importantly the users.

As I mentioned above, there’s an element of cool to any web geek out there who’s excited by the prospect of full-featured mobile web apps.  This is one of the first major examples of a web interface being as good as, or better than, native software on a mobile device.  This is true proof of concept in a significant way, not only in its reach of user base, but in the fact that it’s tackling something that can be very tricky: cross-platform video compatibility.  YouTube and Google has made a strong move in the progress toward HTML5 and rich web apps, in some ways technically but even more importantly – symbolically.

I’ll get down off my soapbox & back to the facts: YouTube has done an excellent job with the new mobile web site.  It’s so good that I’ve replaced the YouTube shortcut on my phone’s home screen from the one for the native app to a bookmark directly to YouTube mobile.

I can’t wait to see what they do next.

First Impressions
The first thing you’ll notice about the SPOT is the box it comes in.  That may sound a little obvious and stupid, but take a look at it and you’ll see what I mean:

The box is heavy on bright orange and photographs of dangerous situations.  The company’s slogan, “Live to tell about it” is emblazoned all over the box.  It’s certainly eye-catching, and immediately gives the consumer the impression that the company wants: this device is crucial to saving your life.

Once you open the box, it’s more of the same: flashy catch phrases and bright colors, all pointing to the same concept.  This was my favorite phrase on the box:

It’s not my favorite because of the unpleasant image it conveys, or because it’s sort of cleverly worded, but because of its bluntness: use the SPOT, and you probably won’t die.  I actually find it a little funny.

Once you finally get inside the box, you find the SPOT.  It’s about the size of a regular point-and-shoot digital camera, and about twice as thick.  When you take it out of the box, the first thing you notice is the rugged case.  This this is obviously meant to take a beating.  It’s made out of hard plastic, with a big rubber surround and grip.

As you can see from the pictures, my unit has already gotten a few bumps and scratches.  I’ve dropped it on concrete, left it out in the rain, and it doesn’t even seem to notice.  It is definitely a solidly built product, capable of going where it’s intended.

The unit sits well in your hand as well (not that it spends much time there, since there isn’t a screen).  The rubber grips on the sides do a good job of making sure it won’t slip out of your hand.  If it does slip and fall overboard however, you don’t need to worry too much since it floats:

Unfortunately, it seems that it doesn’t like to stay upright for very long.  So, if you happen to be sending a distress call and it falls in the water, it may not be able to keep sending that signal until you recover it and aim it back toward the sky.

Once I got it assembled and activated it on the SPOT web site, it was time to test it out.

Using SPOT
The unit is incredibly simple to use.  To turn it on, just press the “On/Off” button so that the LED blinks.  You have to let it sit for a few seconds after you turn it on before you can use other functions.  Once it’s ready, just press a function button (there are only 3) based on what you want it to do.  The manual explains the specifics on how to do it, so I don’t feel like I need to go into them here.

Put it in a place where it will have a clear view of the sky, and then just let it go to work.  I usually use it in tracking mode.  When this feature is on, it sends a GPS position to the SPOT system via satellite every 10 minutes.  You can then go back and look at your “breadcrumb trail” later in your account control panel, or if you have Shared pages, other people can see it in real time.  I have this feature enabled for mine.  You can find my public page by going to spot.cconover.com, or by clicking on the SPOT logo on the right sidebar on my blog.

The GPS appears to be very accurate, often pinpointing you down to the parking space or dock slip you’re in. Sometimes the data is a few meters off, which you really only notice when you have it tracking while you’re in one spot for an extended period of time as you’ll have a number of points in a cluster around the spot where you actually are.  That said, for the most part it’s right on target.

The SPOT satellite network is very reliable as well.  When in tracking mode, the unit will transmit your position every 10 minutes.  Even when traveling in urban areas it manages to successfully send the data almost every time.  This is particularly handy for me, since I have an 8 hour drive between school and my house, traveling through many urban areas.  It’s very nice for my parents to be able to hop online and see where I am at any point during my trip instead of having to call me.

The worldwide coverage of the SPOT network is very good as well.  This will be especially nice for Sea Term this year so that friends and family will be able to track us throughout the trip and see exactly where we are.  For individual use it’s good for the recreational boater who may not have an EPIRB, or can’t get a cell phone or VHF signal.

Battery life on the SPOT is very good as well.  The manual says that it can send up to 1900 messages on a set of batteries, which if you ran the tracking feature continuously 24/7 would give you about 2 weeks of tracking.  The device does require Lithium batteries, and they make sure you know that by writing it everywhere they can find on the back of the device.  Lithium batteries are non-rechargeable (unlike their lithium-ion counterparts in cell phones and digital cameras), and are more expensive than regular alkaline batteries.   However, they’re not that much more expensive, and last significantly longer, as well as being more resistant to damage from harsh climates.  I’ve used mine almost every time I drive anywhere and it’s still running strong on the original set of batteries.

So far I’ve been impressed with the SPOT’s performance.  I’m eager to see how it does out at sea in a couple of months, and until then I’m going to keep using it in various conditions to see how it does.

Have you used a SPOT, and if so what’s been your experience?  If not, would you consider getting one?

Google Analytics: This plugin is crucial to me, perhaps above any of the others I use. I love Google Analytics – it’s so easy to use, and it gives you so much information. However, I sometimes get a little frustrated with it in conjunction with WordPress. When I decide I want to switch themes, I have to go through and manually paste the tracking code into each appropriate theme file, which can be frustrating, especially when I realize days later that I missed one. Also, since I’m a frequent visitor to my own blog to make a new post or whatever other reason, that can skew the accuracy of the data being presented. I’ve used the filter feature in Analytics before, but I’m not always at the same location when I access my blog, so for me it’s not that effective. The Google Analytics plugin solves both these problems. It automatically inserts the tracking code you provide into all the pages, making sure that no page view is overlooked – except, of course, for the ones you tell it to ignore. It allows you to choose what user levels not to gather tracking data from, so you won’t see all the visits you (or other authors/admins) make to the site, resulting in a more accurate reflection of the visitors to your blog. This is a must-have for any serious WordPress user.

WordPress.com Stats: This one complements the Google Analytics plugins, and between the two you get a wicked good picture of who’s coming to your blog and what’s bringing them there. WordPress.com Stats tracks information specific to bloggers, and displays the stats in real time. That way you can start seeing immediately once you’ve made a post how long it takes for people to discover it, as well as how they’re discovering it. It tracks the number of visitors, search queries that led them there, most popular posts, as well as other information. Another must-have for any real blogger.

Advanced TinyMCE Editor: Let’s face it, the editor that comes with WordPress is a little sparse. beyond very basic text decorations and inserting links and pictures, there’s not a whole lot you can do with it. That’s a little frustrating for software designed for a type of web site that’s all about creating content. Advanced TinyMCE Editor is the answer to every dissatisfied WordPress blogger’s prayers. It provides you with a full-featured editor like you’d expect to find in an office suite or a word processing web application. More advanced text decoration tools, table modification tools, spellcheck, and a lot more that you’ll have to try.

CForms II: A contact form is a great way to let readers feel more connected to you, and to get direct feedback about your blog beyond the comments left on individual posts. I’ve tried a number of different form plugins, but none of them have come close to cforms II. Unlike any others I’ve found, this one lets you create your own forms using a graphical system, and even allows you to use Captcha image verification, auto-clearing and requiring fields, all with the click of a mouse – no code knowledge needed! You can have multiple forms if you’d like to allow readers to contact different people, or want different information depending on the page they visit. The features and options available with this plugin are immense. When you insert the form into a page, it does include a small credit link at the bottom of a form. With most of the plugins I’ve found, that turned me off of them. However, this one’s so flexible and powerful that I was willing (even happy) to help the creator out. There’s no other contact form plugin worth having, so definitely check this out.

Lightbox with Add Lightbox: Lightbox is an awesome plugin that displays images linked on your blog in a cool flash viewer on top of the page.  Add Lightbox automatically inserts the rel attribute into the image link so you won’t have to manually set up using Lightbox on every image.  When combined, it allows your readers to look at pictures on your blog much more easily and quickly, while still making it easy for you to take advantage of this.

These plugins are a great start to making blogging easier and better in 2008.  Slap these in, stir up some content, and you’re good to go!  Happy blogging in 2008!

• 500 GB disk space
• 5 TB bandwidth
• $5.95/month

I looked a little deeper, and found all the standard stuff that the other big guys offer – unlimited email address, unlimited hosted domains, etc. – along with some other features I didn’t see anywhere else like automatically increasing disk space & bandwidth limits, and streaming & chat server support. I found out that the $5.95/month price only applies if you sign up for 10 years of hosting at once, but the 1 year price isn’t too bad, and if you use a promo code you can get a discount off the first billing cycle. I’ve made a promo code for my readers to get $50 off, which is the maximum amount Dreamhost now allows; the code is cconover50.

There are a few things about Dreamhost as a company that makes me happy to give them my business as well. First off, they are a small business, owned by the employees. Having been self-employed with a small business of my own, I like to support other small businesses when I can. Also, they are a green company which means that they are carbon-neutral. I am a big propoent of alternative energy and environmentally friendly practices, so I’m glad to support a company that believes in it too.

I know this sounds like a paid advertisement for Dreamhost, but I am just a really satisfied customer who thought he’d share his experience with other webmasters/bloggers looking for good hosting.

Who do you host with, and what do you think of them?

Skribit was officially launched this morning, and as stated in the FAQ section of their site, it’s still in “closed beta” so it’s unavailable to the general public. However, you can create an account in preparation for its public release, or simply request to be contacted once it’s available. I’m definitely planning on trying it out and most likely keeping it, so I’ve created an account.

What makes this widget even more appealing beyond its purpose, is the way that it’s implemented: it has a management environment to back it up. Suggestions made to you, as well as suggestions you make, are all organized on the Skribit web site, making it easy to go back and see what’s been suggested in both directions.

It also provides another way for bloggers to discover and connect with each other. Think of it as pre-commenting: rather than readers/bloggers waiting to see what a particular blogger has written and then commenting on that if they have thoughts about it, readers actually get to take a front seat role and help guide the blogger on what his or her readers really want to know about. Plus, the blogger can then discover other blogs they might like themselves, through the people who read their blog and suggest topics.

I’m personally really glad to see such a thing developed. I’ve thought this would be useful for a long time, but haven’t had the resources to implement it, especially not to the scale that Skribit will (hopefully) reach. It looks like it will be a great product, and has the potential to become as much a part of blogging as commenting itself.

The plugin is called Flexible Upload, and its name says it all. It will resize the image to whatever size you specify, and allows you to choose which dimension you want to base it off of. It also creates the thumbnail image to whatever size you want. This makes it very convenient for putting images inside posts, since you can have a thumbnail image that’s larger than the one WordPress creates by default, but still small enough that it’ll load quickly.

My favorite feature of this plugin is the watermark feature. This allows you to insert your logo or some other identifying image in the image you are uploading, and allows you to choose where in the image to insert it. I have it set up to insert my logo in the bottom right corner of all pictures I upload. That way, all the images on my site will be visually identified with me, whether or not they’re viewed on my site or elsewhere.

There are a number of other features for modifying the appearance and placement of images in posts, to streamline that process as well. It covers things like alignment, link target (especially useful if you use something like Lightbox), etc.

This plugin is a much needed addition to WordPress. I’ve always thought that the upload system is a little sparse, especially when it comes to images. This fills in the gaps and more. This is a must-have plugin for anybody who uploads pictures to their blog on a regular basis.

SimpleTwitter: Of the plugins I tried, I liked this one’s design the best for my needs. It has an admin panel to specify your Twitter username, and a cache timeout so you can specify how long it cached the latest tweet before looking for a new one. Plus, there’s only one line of code you have to put in your template for it to display the tweet. It only displays one tweet (the latest one), without the username or time posted, so it gives you a lot of flexibility in how you use this plugin in your theme. Sounds great, right? I found only one problem with it: it wouldn’t update. When I first activated the plugin, it loaded the latest tweet, and displayed it perfectly on my site. However, I then posted a new tweet, and even after 3 hours it hadn’t loaded the new one. Now, I had expected that maybe there would be a delay on loading the latest tweet, but no more than an hour. In fact, an hour seemed a bit excessive, but I know that the RSS parser built in to WordPress can sometimes have a delay of that sort. Nevertheless, that sort of delay, let alone longer, when trying to use a real-time service like Twitter…well, it pretty much defeats the purpose.

TwitterRSS: This is the plugin that Paul Stamatiou says he uses to load his tweets on his site. That being the case, I thought I would give it a shot. This plugin isn’t as user-friendly as SimpleTwitter. There’s no admin panel, so configuring it means modifying the plugin’s actual code. That doesn’t bother me, as I for one enjoy getting “under the hood” of web applications and tinkering with the code. However, for somebody less experienced with things like PHP, this could be an immediate turnoff. Regardless, on the front end it’s pretty similar to SimpleTwitter. Just one line of code inserted in your theme is all it takes to display the tweet(s). Yes, I did say plural, because this plugin also allows you to display more than one of the most recent tweets, the number of which you choose when you configure it. I configured it for my Twitter account, went back to my site, and there was my latest tweet. Just like SimpleTwitter, though, it wouldn’t update either. I posted a new tweet, waited several hours, and still no change to what was displayed on my site. At this point, I was beginning to think that it was my server, or something wrong with my Twitter account. I decided to try another plugin instead.

Twitter Tools: This plugin has a lot more features than the other two, with a more complex admin panel. In addition to displaying your latest tweet(s) in a number of different ways, it allows you to post new tweets when you have written posts on your blog. It also includes a one line piece of code to display your latest tweet, which is what I decided to use. I personally don’t feel a need to make use of all the other features of this plugin, but if you want to have more interactivity between your blog and your Twitter account, you should definitely look into this plugin. I put the line of code in my theme, saved the plugin configuration, and there was my latest tweet. I then posted a new tweet, and this plugin not only updated the tweet shown on my site – but it did it almost instantly. Finally, a plugin that displays real-time information in almost real time. The one thing that I don’t like (and this is just me nit-picking) is that it displays how long ago the tweet was posted, but without any distinguishing formatting so it appears at first to be part of your tweet’s text. I’m sure there’s a way to hack that, I just haven’t investigated it yet. Another thing I noticed about this plugin was that it doesn’t seem to slow down the page loading at all, whereas the other ones seemed to add a few seconds to the load time on every page.

Once Twitter Tools worked properly, I assumed that meant that the problem had not been with my server, or Twitter account, or anything like that but rather with the plugins I’d chosen. Other people, like Paul, have had luck with them, which confuses me a little as to why I couldn’t get them to work.

Has anybody else gotten these plugins to work, or had similar issues?

Picking the right colors can be a little challenging, especially if you’re not very familiar with the color wheel and the different properties of color. This is especially true when it comes to web design. Not all colors are good choices for use with web sites, so it’s important not to use the ones that aren’t. One of the best ways to avoid color problems is to use a color scheme generator. This will allow you to pick out the base color you’d like to use, from a choice of predesignated “web-safe” colors, and create a color scheme for you from those. Some are more powerful and flexible than others, so I’ll give you a variety to choose from.

Color Scheme Generator 2: Simple color scheme generator, using a color wheel and some basic color combination techniques, such as complimentary and triad. This is very useful if you already have a color in mind.

Color Palette Generator: This allows you to create a color scheme from an image, such as a photograph. Simply provide the URL to the photo, and the software generates a color scheme based on the colors found in the image.

Color Schemer: Downloadable software to help you create color schemes. Similar to Color Scheme Generator 2, but a little more powerful. My favorite feature of this software is that in addition to picking out colors for you, it shows typical site layouts and how you could use the colors in the layouts.

ColorZilla: An extension for Firefox which helps you pick colors based on colors used on other sites. Includes a feature called Eyedropper, which will tell you the exact color code in RGB and Hex for any pixel on a page, even in an image, to help you determine exactly what color you’d like to use.

These tools can make color scheming much easier, and can help to improve the overall visual appeal of your site. Happy scheming!

To be honest, I really haven’t been impressed…at least not the way I should be after five years since the last version of the Windows operating system was released. I’m used to a release cycle of about six months, where even inside of that time frame improvements are still noticeable. So, after five years, a part of me (albeit, the part of me that doesn’t live in reality) was expecting the holy grail of operating systems. Needless to say, that wasn’t what was delivered.

For the average user, nice graphics and GUIs are all that’s needed to have the appearance of a revolutionary new operating system. Throw in a few new menu layouts, and you not only have the appearance of a new design, but maybe even new functionality. Unfortunately, surface is about all that was added…and some higher processing power requirements. In order to enjoy all the new “benefits” of Vista, you have to install the DVD-sized operating system on a computer that has at least a 1GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM (1GB for anything other than Home Basic), and 15GB available on the hard drive (a 20GB hard drive is required for Home Basic; 40GB for everything else). How much is the user benefitting if the minimum requirements for their computer are so ridiculously high, just to run the operating system? It makes you wonder what all’s running on the computer…especially when the actual operating system doesn’t differ all that much from XP.

Yet, there are a few neat features that, while they themselves don’t make the case for upgrading, are nice bonuses if you already have. Windows DVD Maker is very handy, as it allows you to create a DVD movie from any video file you have on your computer, in any format you have a codec for, complete with animated menus all with a few clicks of the mouse. That is a program I can get comfortable with, even if it is a 100% Microsoft product.

My new computer is also built to be much more multimedia-friendly, with media buttons right on the keyboard and even a remote control. So, naturally, the new version of Windows Media Center is a nice complement to these hardware features. It looks and feels a lot like a full-service media server you might find as part of a highly expensive home theater system. Granted, it really wouldn’t do much for me if I didn’t have the hardware add-ons to really make it convenient, but in its own right it does its job well.

For anybody who is a productivity user, and doesn’t really do anything multimedia-related on their computer, such as most of the business world, perhaps, there really isn’t much reason to spend the money to upgrade to Vista.  If anything, the hardware and software compatibility issues that have surfaced since Vista’s release make it more of an IT nightmare than a solution.  For the personal user, though, it may have a few things to offer.

Overall, I’ve been underwhelmed with Vista. However, a few things have made me more hesitant to “upgrade” to XP.  Hopefully by the time the next version of Windows comes out, they’ll have fixed the problems with Vista.  I’m not holding my breath, though.

One of the nicest aspects of WordPress is its ability to be used as a complete web site management tool, rather than just a blog. Its ease of use makes it a great solution for people unfamiliar with web site management, and daunted by the complexity of larger content management systems. However, there is something missing from the default WordPress installation: the ability to easily manage page menus. There are a number of plugins that let you do this, but I’ve found two that I think are the most valuable to have.

What makes these plugins important is a couple of things: ease of use, and functionality. Both of these plugins make it very simple to achieve the desired result, without giving you too many options to confuse you or get in your way. Sometimes, less really is more.

My Page Order is a great tool to help you manage, well, the order of pages in your menu. WordPress does natively support page ordering, but doing this is a little cumbersome. My Page Order eliminates the need to manually set the order value of each individual page, and instead gives you a clean, easy-to-use ordering tool in the WordPress admin area. simply move the pages up and down with the buttons, and click Order Pages when you’re done. It even supports ordering of subpages.

Fold Page List is another vital tool to anybody managing a site with more than a couple basic pages. If you have content categorized, and make use of subpages, this is a must-have. This plugin dynamically expands and collapses your subpage menus when you navigate to the parent page. That way, you don’t have to have a page menu that extends endlessly down the page displaying all your subpages. Simply replace the WordPress default page list function with the Fold Page List function, and you’re good to go. It supports all the WordPress parameters, and integrates seamlessly into your site. It also gives your site a much more professional feel.

These plugins will make site management much easier, as well as more user-friendly for visitors. Also, be sure to check back to the plugin pages for updates, as they add capability with newer versions of WordPress.