I just wanted to drop a quick line about Fiabee. If you haven't messed around with storing files in the cloud yet, check these guys out.
Files On All Devices
They support Android devices (which I haven't tried yet, but will) and [obviously] Chrome (perhaps other browsers too, but they're in the Chrome Web Store). I previously found out I can upload videos in Google Docs, so that is wonderful, but Fiabee gave me 15gb of space (early adopters only; apparently it's only 1gb of space now) and that is a wonderful amount for me to play with.
Online Streaming
I uploaded a couple of MP3s to test around and awesome, I can stream them online! I can't seem to build a playlist, so that's kind of lame, but this site has a lot of potential.
There is a 7mb upload limit which is horribly low. So, I'm searching for a small video to test.
Buggy
When I first installed this on my CR48, I had some odd layout issues after installing it, but I ended up installing it on my other computers and it is working fine.
Like I said, I uploaded MP3s; I only see one listed under "Music". Though, I do see all of my files in "My Files". Odd.
Anyhow, not bad for cloud storage. By the way, the AJAX on that site is phenomenal! Cheers!
I logged in to Google Docs yesterday and a nice little pop-up had notified me that I can now upload and watch videos in the cloud!
Now this is all good and fine, but with such a limited amount of space on Google Docs, is Google going to give me an increase of space? How does copyright permissions affect this? I wouldn't mind putting up some DVR videos so I could watch it wherever I would like instead of wherever the file is.
This is definitely a helpful thing on my CR-48. It is also something that can possibly support my [lack of] DLNA issue. Maybe I'll try and upload a movie or tv show that I have to see if Google Docs supports it (and/or if I'll get in trouble for doing so).
I would hate for this post to become a rant (even though it kind of is), so I will just call this a "quick tip".
A Security Issue, But A New Headache For Screen Users
So, we implemented this new policy in our network where we cannot store our ssh keys on any server, they must be stored on your local computer only. Okay, that's fine, except for the fact that I like to take my laptop home and occasionally I need to run scripts that take a really long time to finish.
I used to be able to use this one server as a "gateway" to all of the other servers in our network. Luckily, screen is installed and I can just have a screen session open, run a process or two on any server, and then detach from the session, shutdown my laptop, go home, and check on it later.
But now with my laptop being the "gateway" I would either need to stay and wait for these processes to finish or risk aborting them when I log out.
nohup To the Rescue
Just a reminder, if you can't screen, there is always nohup and sending that process to the background!
Example: nohup some_process_or_script.sh &
I won't get into details, but here are some related/helpful commands to use along with this: jobs, bg, fg
Check out their man pages and I'm sure you'll be happy that you can still be able to run processes before leaving the office and then check back on them later!
Update: If you check out the comment thread below, you can see how to get rid of this "Scanning Device..." message.
Content Browser Bug
I plugged in a digital video recorder device the other day to upload some files. The Content Browser acknowledged the device immediately and all went well. However, I now get this "Scanning Device.." message with an opened Content Browser every time I wake up the notebook or log in. It just sits there and all I do is close it. It keeps popping up now though. No, the device is not connected any longer.
Weird eh? Anyone else having this issue? --yes, I sent in a bug report to Google.
Multitouch w00t!
I just played with AudioTool (pretty cool so far!) and while playing around noticed the multi-touch support for the trackpad! Apparently, you can zoom in and out [in that app] just as you would in Android or an iphone.
So technically, I was trying to scroll in that app with two fingers on the trackpad like it said to do in the "Get Started" walkthrough. But hey, nice find for me!
Holidays are done and gone; it's time to start beta-testing this CR-48 again. This post's rants and raves are brought to you by the Cloud...
In The Cloud
Is everyone ready for everything to be Cloud-based? Do people really store that much data on servers that they do not own that they would be okay with a basic OS? I suppose, if you look passed the privacy and security issues anyone would surely be okay with this idea right?
Well, as my wife told me yesterday that she "loves" this netbook, I asked her to explain a little bit on why. It basically came down to this, it's great for just sitting down and surfing the net; and that's it right there! She really just loved the ability to be on anything web-based. There was no work-related things being done, no photo uploading, just reading the news on the web and assisting with recipes in the kitchen.
You really need to be committed to using Cloud-based apps if you want to appreciate the Chromium OS.
Okay, as a technologist (and an ex-helpdesk support technician), I know that majority of people still store precious data on their hard drives; and with that model comes the "hard drive died, how can I get my data back?" scenario. Okay, so in the Cloud I can save documents and such but what about my media files? (I still haven't found an easy way to upload images to Picassa via CR-48!)
Okay, I know we all want to be like that guy in the Google CR-48 commercial, but some of us want more than just writing documents. My rants from this CR-48 have mainly stemmed off of not being able to access local files whether it is me trying to upload photos or play videos that I have locally.
Updates
I recently wrote about the CR-48 being a nice little HTPC. Well, since I had my friend from out-of-town staying with us during the holidays and we needed some entertainment, Clicker.TV came in handy as we searched each other's names and saw what came up, but ultimately watching dog-related videos to see if it could please my dog. Perhaps we should've searched "Kevin Bacon".
As an update to my finding of Aviary's Audio Editor, well, I decided to give it try and lay down some tracks. There seems to be a short recording time (2 minutes) per recording, so you either need to have a short song or record at 2-minute or less intervals. My friends and I set up an impromptu jam session and recorded a song, but was irritated that the end was cut off!
Also, there isn't a way to listen to your tracks while recording. Ouch!
