Australia

I created another blog for my trip to Australia which can be found here: http://wiminaustralia.blogspot.com/

Google CR-48 Laptop

After waiting about a month and a half to receive a Google CR-48, I received a pleasant email from Package Express by the Sumas border saying they had a package waiting for me. Since I ordered nothing else recently, I thought that it must be the CR-48 from Google. So the next day after work, I went down and picked it up, and tried to bring it back into Canada. Since I paid nothing for it, and Google is not selling it, the border guards had a bit of an issue with it being free, so after heading inside and talking with them, they eventually returned my passport and let me continue.

I got home, opened it up, put in the battery and turned it on, and within 15 seconds it was prompting me to enter my Google account credentials. So I did that, let it take a picture of me, and voila, I was in and staring at a Chrome browser.

The CR-48 with the box that it came in

The CR-48 with the sticker that was included

Here is a quick review from me,
Hardware
The plastic case feels great, it has a nice soft rubbery feel to it, and the keyboard is also great. The screen is alright, and has a decent resolution of 1280x800 (vertically more than my other laptop with at 15.6" screen).
The hardware specs on it are alright (for the price especially :)), with an Intel Atom @ 1.66GHz, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD, 802.11N 2.4+5GHz wireless adapter, universal Gobi 2000 wireless card, bluetooth, SD card reader, and a single USB port. You can surf the web on it, and do other basic tasks, but it does struggle with things like youtube or any other video. The battery life is awesome though, you should be able to get 8 hours out of it!

Software
ChromeOS is just like what its name implies, Chrome as the OS pretty much. The first time you log in, that is pretty much all you see and will ever see. The whole idea behind this, is to have everything in the cloud, from documents to pictures, so everything you do is on the internet. Which makes the laptop pretty much useless without the internet. Hence Google + Verizon gives you 100MB per month to use wirelessly (Useless for me though, as I am in Canada). If you want to print, Google has their Google Cloud Printing , so if you have another computer connected to your printer with Chrome 9 or later, you can set it up so that from your CR-48 or even Android phone, you can print to that printer from anywhere. I set this laptop to use the development builds rather than the beta builds so that I am always running the most up-to-date version of ChromeOS.

In conclusion, the CR-48 is a decent basic machine. I usually use it on the couch or when I don't feel like using my main computer and just want to surf the web. My brother and sister also use it often to go on things like Youtube or Facebook.
I could see myself using it in University because it is pretty light and has great battery life, and with Google Docs I can still do notes and things.
Overall it makes a good second machine for browsing the web and doing basic tasks, but it could not replace my main Windows 7 machine because I need things like Skype, programming tools, video games, DVD's, and other tools. But who knows where we will be in 5-10 years, so I hope Google keeps up the great work.

New Years

2010 was a great year for me. I saw and did things that I would never have expected and enjoyed every moment of it. I went skiing for the first time at Whistler in early January, and then again in April and December. The Vancouver 2010 Olympic games were in Vancouver for two incredible weeks in February, which is something I will never forget. The amount of energy that we saw that the Victory Ceremony for Maelle Ricker was just amazing, and also during the final Canada vs USA hockey game.

A few months after that we had my Opa and Oma over with my Aunt for my sisters graduation. The rest of the family had a great trip to Banff and the surrounding area. 

2010 also marked the end of Stream and the start of my new job at Kinetics Drive Solutions as a Co-Op student in the IT department. I am still working there and will be till I leave for Australia in February. On that note, I was accepted for student exchange to an Australian Universtity (Charles Sturt) this year as well.

This last year we also did some hiking trips up Elk Mtn, Needle Peak, Lindeman Lake, Whistler, and some other areas. 

Personally I have learned to enjoy every moment we have and not take it for granted, I hope to continue that and enjoy every second of 2011. I also learned to never pass up an opportunity, to take every opportunity you can and enjoy where it takes you. And I learned that its really the people that make everything worth it, I'm trying to reduce TV, computer, etc and getting out more and doing things with the people I love.

This next year should bring some challenges as well at amazing opportunities. I will be going to Australia for 5 months in February, so that should be the highlight of the year. I also look forward to the amazing learning opportunities that this trip will bring both personally and academically, and look forward to bringing that back here to Canada when I get back. Other than that, I am not sure what 2011 will bring, but I will try to enjoy everything that I possibly can.

Skiing at Hemlock

The last day of 2010 was a beautiful sunny day, so we thought it may be nice to head up to Hemlock Valley Resort, which is only about an hour away to go skiing. The snow was great, not to powdery and not ice either, and the weather could not have been any better. Below are some pics from later in the day when the sun was starting to go down.