Out of the Mystery BoxI signed up for the Cr-48 pilot program on the 8th of December. I knew about the Chrome OS event being the day before, but I was out of town, traveling for work. So as soon as I could catch up on the previous day's event, I found my way to the web form, and filled in all my credentials, including where I went for music, movies, pictures, etc. Anyone who knows me well enough could tell you where to find all that.
In the following days, I kept an eye out for people's comments on the program. Some surprised "pilots" received their box in a short couple of days. One person supposedly scanned the QR code from the event with his phone to get an early start. I was excited to think that I might be a part of it, too. I had a similar feeling when the Nexus One was announced (which I procured 3 weeks later, and I still love it).
Then began the deluge of sites showing where and when the first units had been shipped. After checking two of them, my heart sank, as only two were shipped to my city - neither to my zip code. Accepting defeat, I decided to eagerly read about the others who were lucky (and fast) enough to snag one.
Last Wednesday, the 15th of December, I came home to my wife cooking dinner and exclaiming that I got a box in the mail. Not expecting anything, I assumed it might be a gift from a relative, or maybe even something she got me for Christmas. It was pretty unassuming, and from some guy named Bryan Jeffries in Louisville, KY. (Thanks Bryan!)
However, as soon as I opened the box, things changed. A recently familiar view emerged:
At this point, my elation was uncontainable - not to mention confusing to my wife and our dog. I asked her (as if she'd know) "Do you know what this is?"
"No." Still confused.
"It's a computer. A free computer."
Now, to put this in context, over the past couple of months, the subject "new computer" has come up in multiple discussions in our household. My wife, the owner of a six-and-a-half-year-old iBook, legitimately has an interest in an upgrade. I mean, seriously...it can't even run Chrome. My soon-to-be-former laptop is a five-year-old Dell Inspiron that - until this past summer - had Windows XP on it. I've since been trying a few flavors of Linux, and settled on Mint 10. The point is, we've got some old, slow boxes in need of upgrading.
In contrast with my wife, I've been moving a lot of my media to the web over the last couple of years. Having spent most of 2010 using Android has helped facilitate that, as sharing pictures and videos from the phone has become incredibly simple. Earlier in the year, I managed to put most of my music on the web, thanks to Lala (R.I.P.), but when Apple decided to shut the service down in May, there went my iTunes in the cloud. I have yet to find a truly suitable replacement, although there are a few promising contenders.
Our main beef with our computers is speed. Everything is slow. Call me spoiled, but I work on a brand new i7-based laptop with a 1GB video card at work, and it flies. Makes doing CAD a breeze, other than the technical aspects. Said another way, working on that computer makes the hardware feel irrelevant. Working on stuff at home makes it a chore.
So, having said that, the words "free computer" caught my wife's attention. I reminded her of the Chrome OS project (I've been tinkering with various builds from
Hexxeh over the past year, so she's seen me using it and talking about it), and told here about the event on the 7th. I then tell her about how I applied for the pilot.
It was then that a rare moment occurred.
She said, "OK honey, ask me this question: 'Aren't you glad I spend so much time playing on the Internet?'"
I re-postured myself. "Aren't you glad I spend so much time playing on the Internet?"
Bracing myself, she replied, "Yes. Thank you. OK, now ask me again to make sure you heard me right."
<3
Anyway, you get the idea. We are excited to have a new computer that we can both use, and I am grateful that Google spends the money it does to provide services for us to use for "free." In future posts, I'll be laying out just how well we are able to use Chrome OS to live our digital lives on the web, starting with pictures!
= Note: Here Is Link To Download the File Game =
To combine 9 parts files above into 1 file just use WINRAR, then extract the files into ZIP format.
If any problem with the file, maybe because the file have corrupted during the download process, you can try to re-download the file.
Title : Hello Cr-48!
Description : Out of the Mystery Box I signed up for the Cr-48 pilot program on the 8th of December. I knew about the Chrome OS event being the day before...
