A few days ago I received a pretty new Google Chrome Notebook model CR-48.  I was, completely caught off guard by a very nicely packaged device sitting the table when I got home.  I still had no idea what I was because I forgot that I signed up for this program.  Ecstatic doesn’t quite cut how happy I was when I discovered what it was.  I was actually selected as a Google Chrome Notebook pilot user.  I doubt this is a rare thing, however I almost never get selected to test stuff that I think is cool.

So far the experience has been pretty good.  When I first booted the system, I had a bit of a hard time connecting to my wireless.  I have a WRT-160N running DD-WRT with WPA2 AES/TKIP enabled.  I reconfigured it to just TKIP and it seemed to work after that and then I was able to login and get the notebook updated.  Pretty neat that EVERYTHING is handled under Chrome.

My wife said it’s the perfect computer for her.  It’s small and light enough to take around the house and we pretty much use Google Docs exclusively for document creation and sharing. We both use Hulu for video’s, Picasa for photos and I use WordPress for blogging.  I have not found a telnet/ssh client for the browser yet so I may take a stab at creating one or finding someone who can.  Since I’m a network engineer, this is an essential function for me.  I’m happy to see the Cisco ASA Clientless SSL VPN now supports Chrome as a browser since that will be my primary view into my work network.

I’ll put up some more posts as time goes on about the use of the Google Chrome Notebook CR-48.

Well, it has been over a year since I have last posted something worthwhile and I feel a little bad about that.  Even if nobody is reading this, I use it to help me remember things that I know I’ll need later.  So if I haven’t posted in a while then I’ll probably forget everything I’ve learned over the last year .  Hopefully not.

OK, so a few new things have happened.   My daughter, Kacy was born 8/24/2009 and is now the fire in my life…literally she makes me burn inside with love, anger, cheer, fear, and laughs.  She’s pretty awesome.  My wife who stays at home with her has been very patient and we are now making good progress towards potty training.

I am now employed at KeyOn Communications, Inc as the Sr. Network Engineer.  I updated my about me section so you can check some details there, but in short, I’ll be posting some things up here about what I’m doing at work.  This change is bigger than it sounds.  I used to work in SMB/SME systems where I was the “go to” person for everything under the sun.  Servers, Exchange, Outlook, Quickbooks, etc…you name it, I had to support it.  Now, I get to focus on something and move away from the “Jack of All Trades, Master of None” mentality to finally becoming an expert on something…and I feel GREAT…  Working for a smaller ISP that is growing pretty rapidly, I think, is the perfect place for me.

I now have my CCNA.  This took me 6 years too long to get.  I should have taken it while I was in the Marine Corps but didn’t, then I feel into two jobs that didn’t care one way or another…therefor I took the path of least resistance…not anymore.  Now I am working towards my CCNP and then off to CCIP and CCIE in time.

</update>  Until next time…