A couple of things that I noticed as I used the notebook over my Christmas vacation. I've gotten a lot more used to the keyboard, and (except for no home/end) I like it a lot. It feels good to type on. The trackpad is still annoying, but again, much less so. I've gotten better at scrolling with it, although I still have a lot of trouble. No scrolling through an article as you're reading it, it's either down arrow or spacebar. But on the plus side I've learned some new keyboard shortcuts for Google Reader :)

The battery life is very impressive. I'd estimate it at 7-8 hours -- I ran from Tuesday through Sunday with normal usage without having to plug it in. It's very convenient to leave lying around on a coffee table for whenever you need to use it, and with customized cloud-based storage for all your settings, having multiple users isn't an issue at all. Sarah has used it for blog reading, although I think she hates the trackpad even more than I do.

We had free WiFi on the flight home, and I took advantage of it this time (although only to send a "I'm on a plane" message :P). It seemed pretty decent. Fast downloads, although maybe higher latency. Hard to tell for web browsing. I didn't try it, but it would have been interesting to see a streaming video through Hulu or something.

Still haven't gotten the included 3G to work. My Verizon activation hiccuped halfway through and now I think I need to get on the phone with them and straighten it out... I've seen reports of similar things in the forums, but it doesn't sound too hard to get fixed.

So evidently our flight had free wireless?! On the way home I'll have the chromebook out of my bag and ready to give it a try. Not a lot more news, this thing is exceptionally convenient for browsing and email. Light and easy to pull out, quick startup and into the action, crazy battery life (I'm in hour 3 since charging, and we're at 70%. It's got an estimate, but it isn't updating right currently. I'll try to do another post about it tomorrow). It's definitely a nice go-to machine, but there's no way it'll fully replace my other laptop -- besides the gaming, there's just not enough power. I've seen a little bit of slowdown when trying to do a bunch of things at once (8+ tabs all opening and loading at the same time). But tab-handling is a complaint I have about Chrome in general -- the same thing happens to me on a real computer, although it might be at 20+ tabs instead. I wonder what sort of processor is in here, I should look at the specs sometime.

Short post tonight because I've haven't had a lot of time to play with it today. Important website support test:

• Netflix: Not supported. It's in as an issue though, and Google says they're working on it. I wasn't expecting this to work since I think Netflix uses Silverlight for playback.
• Hulu: Works. It looked a little choppy, but I don't know if that was network or cpu, I'll have to do some more testing to be sure.
• Minecraft: No dice. It looks like there's no Java support at all (got a missing plugin error).

So it's Christmastime, and we've been getting a fair number of packages at the house. Usually I know (or suspect) what's in them -- even if I didn't order them, my family does most of our gift shopping via Amazon Wishlists, so I have a good idea of what's coming in. But I got a box in the mail that I wasn't expecting at all (no Amazon packaging), so I opened it up. And found this:

This box looked amazing! And still, I had no idea what it could be. No details or labels on the outside of the box, except one that said it had a Lithium Ion battery inside. Nothing that I had ordered or added to my wishlist used batteries... but I couldn't open it until we did out gift-giving. We're going to be out of town for Christmas, so we opened the gifts that had come to the house tonight -- and it wasn't anything I could have anticipated.

It's a Cr48! A week or two ago I ran across a link to the Chrome Notebook pilot program. I can't even remember where I saw it but I said "why not?" and applied. I never thought that I would actually get in! Plus, they never sent me any notice that I'd been accepted, or an email that they'd shipped me something, or any kind of warning whatsoever. So I'm writing this on a tiny little Chrome OS-powered notebook.

First thoughts: very little documentation. This isn't a bad thing really, but I was hoping for a letter that said "Yes, you've been accepted to the pilot program. No, this isn't a cruel mistake." The documentation that was included is great though: simple, to the point, and humourous.

1. Grab the included battery, insert it, and plug in to start the flow of electrons.
2. Press the power button. Delicately.

Second thought: This thing is light. I'm terrible at estimating, but I want to say on the order of 3 pounds (w/battery). Maybe I'll weigh it tomorrow at work.

So far I've used it for: Pandora, Gmail, paying bills, Google Reader, and writing this blog post. All of the web stuff is done through the Chrome browser, so if you're used to that you know 90% of how things work. I poked around in the Chrome Web Store a little, but I haven't tried any "apps" that weren't just links to the corresponding website (like gmail and pandora are). Everything works great, except there were a couple of rendering issues with Pandora when it was starting up. It seems like an excellent interface for dealing with the web.

The Chrome sync stuff they added a bit ago works great here -- all my bookmarks, settings and extensions were automatically populated. And they're pushing it to the next logical step, basically the entire OS runs out of your Google account. In theory if your notebook is destroyed, you can just log into a new one with your account and pick up where you left off. If I knew anyone else with one I'd be interested to see that in action. It also makes me wonder if/how it works offline. But included with the notebook is a Verizon 3G 100MB/month plan. I'd assume this is just part of the Pilot, but they have options built in to purchase additional data or different plans, so something like it will be part of the final product.

What I don't like:

• The trackpad. Historically I've hated trackpads, and this one is only slightly better. There must be something about the way I type where I'm constantly hitting the pad with my palms -- I'll be typing along (like this post), and suddenly the cursor will be a half dozen lines up, typing into the middle of a word. Clicking with the trackpad is very natural, and they have right click support that isn't intuitive but would be simple to re-train my brain for. The scrolling is a little wonky -- it's two-finger scroll, which I had trouble with on the few mac's I've used, and it seems like there needs to be a decent sized gap between your fingers for it to register. Maybe it's time for me to move into the future though (I loved my old Thinkpad nubbin (inappropriate link)). It's a little awkward, but the best way I've found to scroll is to put my lef index finger on the pad, and then drag up and down with my right index finger.
• The keyboard is okay, but just different enough to confuse my fingers. I think it's the extra spacing between the keys or something, but my right hand regularly lands offset horizontally by one (; instead of ', , instead of ., that kind of thing). I also find myself missing home/end and delete a fair bit. The caps lock key has been replaced by a open-new-tab-and-google-search button, which is pretty awesome. No one likes caps lock anyway. The function keys have all been replaced by special purpose keys, most web-related (back, forward, reload, full screen, next window), and the normal laptop keys you'd expect (brightness, volume).
  

Even after griping a bit about the keyboard, I was easily able to write this entire post. The track pad is probably better than most laptop's, but I just really dislike them in general. The keyboard is responsive and comfortable to use, and I think I'll be fine with it after I learn the new spacing.

I'm taking it with me on vacation and I'll use it as my primary computer (except for gaming :P) and try to keep a "regular" blogging schedule about it.

Oh yeah, hardware. It's... a computer. Integrated webcam, VGA, USB, and headphone ports. Looks like a SD-type card slot. The link up at the top about the model probably has more information :P.

I like finding those intelligence tests they have available online, and this is probably the most challenging one I've done. The results were too complicated to put this in a simple Google Reader share. All-in-all I don't think I did that well, maybe that Mensa top 2% is way off :P. Except for Visuospatial Processing, I rock at that.

Article is here, and the test is here. I'll show my score for each section, the mean, and then what percentage of the population did that well.

1/12 -- Visuospatial Working Memory Strategy

10.0/7.5 (Top 5.6%). This was remembering what number was in the boxes, and clicking them in order.

2/12 -- Verbal Reasoning

17.0/14.0 (Top 31.6%). True or False statements about circles and squares.

3/12 -- Focused Attention

47.0/25.0 (Top 8.0%). Stroop Effect: recognizing the word vs. the ink color.

4/12 -- Deductive Reasoning

11.0/9.9 (Top 40.2%). Find odd-one-out based on abstract rules.

5/12 -- Working Memory

7.0/5.7 (Top 16.9%). Remember the order that squares light up (Simon-style)

6/12 -- Mental Rotation

120.0/85.0 (Top 20.0%). Recognize patterns rotated.

7/12 -- Visual Attention

142.0/122.0 (Top 29.2%). Compare complex displays for matching/mismatching.

8/12 -- Verbal Working Memory

10.0/6.9 (Top 5.7%). Remember a sequence of numbers

9/12 -- Planning

31.0/22.0 (Top 23.7%). Re-order the balls on sticks (similar to Towers of Hanoi)

10/12 -- Paired Associates

5.0/5.0 (Top 50%). Remember what pictures were in which boxes (man I was terrible at this!)

11/12 -- Visuospatial Processing

108.0/47.0 (Top 1.2%). Compare a shape to a set of overlapping shapes.

12/12 -- Spatial Working Memory

9.0/6.7 (Top 22.8%). Find the yellow circles hidden in boxes.

There's a great quote down at the bottom of today's Penny Arcade post:

D&D in my opinion is not a game about rules, it’s a game about decisions.

This is something I'm coming to realize more and more, especially at this year's GenCon. The games that I enjoyed most (Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, Spirit of the Century) have been very different from those that were less interesting or seemed to drag (Shadowrun, Alpha Omega, to a lesser extent CthulhuTech. Godlike is a bit of an outlier, a game that was fairly crunchy, but still was a ton of fun. I attribute it to the GM's (Allan Goodall I think) detailed knowledge of the era and his ability to combine interesting, actual events with a gritty super-hero theme.) I do love RPG systems, and seeing how the various mechanics facilitate or hinder different aspects of the game (combat, social interaction, skills, etc.), but there's something to be said for boiling it down to the simplest aspects possible.

As far as I can tell, looking through some of the books I've purchased, the former games were run with a much lighter set of rules than is actually published. The core ideas of each system were pulled out, usually into one or two mechanics, and the rest of the focus was on playing your character, interaction with the other PCs, and story building. This (and last year's GenCon) is a much different gaming experience than I was used to, and it's amazing when it works out. I think GenCon attendees are not the usual gamers -- simply by being there they've show more commitment, and maybe a little less sanity :P -- so I don't know how well it would translate to any specific group, but if you have a group of people who are willing to buy in to the story and the characters, and aren't necessarily in love with detailed rules and positioning and movement, it's a big reward.

Anyway, going back to the Penny Arcade quote, the focus should always be the characters and their decisions, not the systems that should really only be in the background to help you.

Last weekend I did the best run ever: The Warrior Dash. It was 2.5 miles of mud, obstacles, crazy people in costumes, and fun! Everyone should do it next year :). A bunch of pictures that Sarah took are up on my picasa site. Most of these pictures are by Sarah, but there are a couple by Brightroom Photography.

Final results: I ran the 2.5 miles in 30:16.90 (about 12:21/mi.), and came in 2911st out of the 5455 people that ran on Saturday (651st in my age group). Overall, I think I came in 5837th out of 10773 people. Not terrible!

It was more like a music festival or something than a race, with some (terrible) live bands, food (turkey legs), beer, and tons of people. They were running waves of hundreds of people every half-hour from 11:00am to 5:30pm. And the first day sold out quickly, so they did it all again on Sunday too. All in all, almost 11000 people ran the course. You can look at the web page for the south east race to get an idea of what was involved, but the map isn't very accurate. It was advertised as 3.22 miles, but didn't feel anywhere near that long (analysis of the pacing calculations from the race results is how I came up with ~2.5 miles).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Kittens of the Apocalypse"] [/caption]

We started off crammed into the starting area with a bunch of other people. If there is one complaint about this race, it would be how crowded things were. There was a section that was freshly broken trails through the woods for a while, and it was completely single file -- not enough room to pass anyone because of the trees, and there were a few times where you were just walking, stuck behind the person in front of you. The race started how all good things should: with fire.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Off to a fiery start"] [/caption]

We ran back to the highway, and along the road for a bit, and then circled back around near the start to a big pond.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Across the pond"] [/caption]

You can see in the distance the people are standing up -- they're running on top of planks tied to floating tires. After that, you can see the people are deep in the water -- the floor of the pond was extra muddy, and so uneven that you'd step into a hole and suddenly be up to your neck. By the end I had given up and just finished by swimming.

Next we had to run though a field of tires, which I surprisingly managed to get through without falling down.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Still on my feet!"] [/caption]

Immediately after the tires were a bunch of short walls to hurdle. Paul and I are already past them, but you can get an idea for what they looked like.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Past the walls"] [/caption]

That was it for what Sarah could see from the beginning spectator area. I don't remember the order of things anymore, but some more of the obstacles included: climbing cargo netting up to a platform and then back down the other side, a steep hill to climb with the aid of a rope, the aforementioned trail through the woods, crawling through a drainage pipe, and jumping over vehicles in a small junkyard. I'm sure that there are more that I'm forgetting.

[caption id="attachment_267" align="aligncenter" width="198" caption="Junkyard"] [/caption]

Coming in to the final stretch, we ran up to the top of a big, muddy hill with some guys spraying it down with a hose. You had to sit on your butt and slide all the way down... I got going really fast and almost destroyed Paul, who had to stop for some guy in front of him. At the bottom of the hill you splashed into a thick mud pit. They had rigged up barbed wire across the top so you had to crawl on your stomach through the mud. Everyone came out of it completely filthy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Covered in mud"]

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The next obstacle after the mud was another pond. This one was knee-thigh deep, and had huge logs floating in it. The idea being that you had to climb over the logs in the water to get past them.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Here come the logs"] [/caption]

I was way too tired to climb over the logs, and it seemed like just diving over them would be much, much easier. As an added bonus, this washed off a lot of the mud :P.

Now that we were all wet and muddy, it was time for the final obstacle. On the web site, the fire jump looked like it was just a pvc pipe on the ground with holes in it and fire shooting out. What it actually was was a pile of firewood about two feet high that they kept throwing those starter logs onto.

[caption id="attachment_270" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Fire Leap"] [/caption]

And then the finish! This was definitely my favorite race so far. We're talking about doing some other obstacle-focused runs next year, and I can't wait. So much more fun than real running :P

[caption id="attachment_272" align="aligncenter" width="198" caption="Big Finish!"] [/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="We survived!"] [/caption]

All that was left was to enjoy our free beer and a giant turkey leg!

We just got back from my work cruise to the Bahamas this weekend, and it was awesome. I'd forgotten how much I love cruises! We got out of the cold (somewhat), there was room service with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (24 hr/day, on demand, PB&J!!), and no responsibilities. Plus, there was lots of karaoke -- there are a surprising number of really talented people working for AGT.

We didn't take many pictures, but I'll try to get some of them up later. Here's one that my boss took right when we got on the boat (Sarah has a blinking problem in pictures :P).

[caption id="attachment_256" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chris and Sarah, first day on the cruise"]

[/caption]

I have a lot of books. And I read a lot of books. I figured that since I have trouble coming up with things to update this blog with, maybe some of you would be interested in what I'm reading. As I finish books, I'll try to put up a little blurb on what I thought of them.

I just finished reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. I won this book in some kind of contest, which is surprising because I never win things :). I can't even remember when or where I entered (possibly on Tor.com since October is Steampunk month), but a mysterious envelope from Subterranean Press showed up a couple of days ago with no note or message or anything. Steampunk is a genre that I'm not especially familiar with. I think I've read a handful of books that would be considered steampunk, but the only one that springs to mind is Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, which has the dubious honor of being probably the strangest books I've ever read. But (as far as I know) all the stereotypical elements are accounted for in Boneshaker: goggles, gas masks, airships, strange clockwork or steam-powered mechanical devices. Plus pirates, zombies, and more! It was an interesting story, and well written, but it seemed to go by too quickly -- I wish that she had gone a little more in-depth at times. All in all a good book though, if you're interested in the genre. It made me want to broaden my steampunk exposure.

A couple of weeks ago Sarah and I went up to... somewhere... for the Frogtown Trail Challenge. It's a 4.3 or 10.3 mile trail challenge on some guy's property near Cumming, GA. He opened it up the night before for camping, smores, and a free concert, so we pitched our tent and camped out with our friend Holland Friday night, and got up bright and early to run in the morning. This is easily the most fun I've ever had running, the course was fantastic. Beautiful trails through the woods, running through creeks (my shoes were soaked), and a short cliff that we had to climb over with ropes. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone next year.

Also, it was hard. I only did the 4 mile course, and my legs were hurting at the end. There was one big hill that I had to walk up, but other than that I kept moving for most of the run. My final time for 4.3 miles was 62:33, which might come out to about a 14:30 pace? A bit slower than I would have liked (was shooting for an hour), but I had a great time regardless. I haven't gotten any of the pictures that Sarah took yet, but I grabbed the ones of me from the race website and put them in my flicker set here.