I recently downloaded a VMware image of Google's latest "operating system", Google Chrome OS. Okay, so I took the easy route. But someone else did the hard work for me, but I read the original installation instructions. So here are some first impressions.

First off, it reminds me a lot of what Windows 95 was. Windows 95 was a spruced up Windows 3.1 relying on a MS-DOS background shell. Chrome OS seems to be just a Linux-core operating system, which automatically opens the Google Chrome browser and won't let you leave. Right now it feels like there's nothing extra to Google Chrome OS that you don't already have with Chrome for Windows, other than the speedy boot up. Well yeah, if you did the same for Windows, cut out everything, I'm sure it would be a speed demon.

So my thoughts are... this "operating system" is almost just like an old fashioned Dumb Terminals, you know, a computer screen with a keyboard that receives its instructions from another computer on what to do. Chrome OS is obviously not for anyone who wants to use a computer for what computers are good for doing, and that is having a multi-purpose. Yes, I supposed there's an audience out there that all they really want to do is access the Internet. But what about pictures? What about home videos? What about iPod's? All new computer users eventually get sophisticated enough that they really start doing more than just E-mail and the Internet. That audience still exists, but they're shrinking, not growing.

So, initial reaction.... Not too impressed. I will wait for those extra 20-30 seconds for my OS to boot if it means I can edit videos, or go through stuff I've downloaded and watch or listen to it without waiting for it to stream. And even streams, if my Internet connection goes down (and it does a lot, stupid cable modem) that means it interrupts whatever it is that I'm doing at the time.

Also, what happens when I bring my computer to an Airport, where they charge for internet access? I can't even bypass the login screen because you're going to try to verify my Google account, and theyre going to be too busy trying to force me to a splash page so they can sell me their internet services. What happens when I'm trying to work on a plane? Will Google Gears work well enough to remember enough features of Google Docs to let me work?

So, with all that being said, Chrome OS has a lot of work to do to convince computer hobbyists like myself to make the jump.

Random thought of the day...

Why don't the people who want to "protect the sanctity of marriage" by not allowing gays & lesbians from marrying not doing their darnedest to fight against the laws that NO ONE will disagree is a 100% threat to marriage, and those are the laws that allow divorce.

Look, I'm not gay, I have no plans to be gay, and frankly, I don't think allowing two consenting adults to make a commitment to each other would be bad. It DOESN'T open the door to bestiality because frankly, animals don't have the same will as humans to provide consent. And neither does it open to pedophilia, because children also have not matured far enough to know if the consent is right.

Frankly, if you want to protect the sanctity of marriage, go ahead and turn it back into a PERMANENT decision, because that is what its intent was. People wouldn't be getting married on a whim when the consequences are literally being stuck with that person forever.

And I'll leave you for this last thought of the day.

Adam & Eve had two kids, both boys. Who did *they* breed with? Their mom? How is THAT not objectionable?

This morning, I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the FCC to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food And Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Standards Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On my way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out by the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and the fire marshall's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all of its valuables thanks to the local police department.

Finally, I log on to the Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and the FOX News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything righ

All the right-leaning critics have been whining about Obama's policies about closing Gitmo and torture memos, etc. Finally they've convinced Obama that releasing this stuff will only drive the terrorist recruiting drives, and hell they're probably right. But it leads us to a damned if we do, damned if we don't situation.

First, if it was that bad, we shouldn't have been doing the shit in the first place. The U.S. is the first to expose other countries for atrocities they have committed against the world. If such atrocities have been committed, those people should be held accountable and responsible for those actions. Remember that if you follow an illegal order, it's the same as commiting the illegal act on your own will.

Secondly, they've convinced Obama that none of these prisoners at Gitmo.. oh wait, they're not prisoners, you hold charges against prisoners. These people who have been put into Gitmo without charges and without a trial, and Obama is now saying that it's possible that any evidence against them has been tainted. So, the sloppy work actually put the world more at risk by assuring that these people being held without charges when it comes time for them to get a trial, they'll be acquitted because of the lack of evidence against them, AND they'll be able to recruit or martyr more for their cause, giving a first hand account on what happened to them while under custody.

And their primary purpose of torture? It turns out they were pressing the prisoners for an Al Qaeda and Iraq goverment link. Wait, I thought we already KNEW that before we invaded Iraq.. so why were they doing that in 2006, three years after the war started?

It's a friggin no-win scenario. You criticize the people who want to bring fair justice to these people who have been held without charges for up to 7-8 years now (which is against INALIENABLE human rights.. specifically, the right to a fair and speedy trial) but you ruined or tainted all the evidence. You held them as long as you could, until your term was over, and then make sure that someone else gets the blame for it in the end. It's a pathetic, Epic Fail.

You know the sign of a bad presidency? When they still talk about your failures and your spin doctors are STILL trying to patch it up for you, four months after you've even left office.

2267 days until New Horizons reaches the former planet Pluto!

The new Star Trek movie is coming out next month. Part of my conclusion is based off of a minor (yet vague) spoiler so if you want to be completely surprised, move along.

Okay, now here's what I am predicting.. The minor plot device is time travel, it's supposed to be what tightens up the loose ends. Apparently Nero, the villain, is from the future and modifies the past in some way that effects everything in a new timeline, and yet leave everything alone in the original timeline.

My idea is this.. you can keep ALL the original characters as they are, but what about the established timeline in the 1960's Star Trek that never actually happened? They talked about the "eugenics" wars during the 1990's, it's from that war that brought us Khan.. well, what if Nero stopped the Eugenics War from starting, and distracted the Arabs to start the war of Terrorism against the United States? That would mean all these genetic manipulations from a few hundred years before Kirk would have never happened, and different genes would have mixed for the descendants. You could have the same characters with the same names and such, but having them look slightly different because the genetic code handed down is different..

It feels like a cool idea, only problem is why would you have to bring Nero back to the Original Series timeline after he stops the Eugenics War?

I dunno, but that was my original guess on why the alternate timeline happened.. Thanks for listening.

When we called the hospital yesterday morning at 6:30am, they said to hold off since they were very busy.. and that they would call us on standby.  My wife said that it really sounded like from their tone that they wouldn't call back until the next day, so that afternoon they went to go see a movie.

Wouldn't you know, they never got to finish that movie, the hospital called them before it ended and let them know to come in.  By 5:30pm we were checking in, and by 6:30pm they had the inducing stuff connected in and ready to go.. and by 9pm nothing really changed since we came in, so the doctor cut it off for the evening, and we slept in the hospital room.

This morning, they turned it on around 7:15am, and already signs of progress.. Katie's dilation increased, and the b-show presented.  They're doing the epidural right now.. so it looks like there's a very very good chance that baby Herff will be born today.

Phone calls will all be made first before an official public annoucement.. but stay tuned!

At an estimated 2 million, the crowd on the Mall for the inaugural was larger than the national populations of 51 of the 192 member states of the United Nations.

At noon, and after 8 long years, I can respect the man who is in the role once again.

Dubya, with a 22% approval rating, that's how you'll go down in history.. no matter how much you try to spin it in your library, that's hard fact.

No matter how much you try to spin it, the man who succeeded you beat the other guy because he said that the guy who lost was too much like you.

It's the legacy of the Bush family, go in, start a war to get really popular, and then blow it when the economy crumbles, and leave the office unpopular.

Bye bye, Dubya.

Poor music sales blamed on pirates and video games.  No, the global economy in the tank which is effecting just about EVERY industry has nothing to do with it.. Oh wait, yes they say it's a minor third reason.

Now digital sales were UP by 27%.. Why do they consider this slowing?  Well, it was 45% last year.. but when you have a new technology and it catches on quickly, you're going to have high spikes like that in the first few years it catches.. you can't expect that percentage to STAY that high forever, it's eventually going to plateau or go up by a slow steady rate.  I mean you're expecting it to jump by 45% AGAIN?  No technology has done that consistently for long periods of time.  Get real, music execs.