Google presented a demo of  its unique operating system, dubbed Chrome OS on Friday.  The concept was introduced back in July of 2009.  They also released all the source code for the OS to the open source community.  How does this affect me you may ask.  Well, right now, not so much.  In a year, that may be a different story.

Operating systems are a necessary part of your computer experience.  It’s the king of all programs running on your system allowing you to access all the internal and external devices and programs you use daily.

The problem is, as our computers get more complex operating systems become more complex.  This complexity leads to a slow startup and multiple background programs running  and well, what many call “system rot”.  User frustration with their computers running slow, being infected with a virus, or a multitude of other issues is a growing problem.

Google attacked this problem in its unique out of the box way and presents us now with a revolutionary solution, the tenets of which include simplicity, security, and speed.   Sergey Brin (co-founder) says that all along, the driving force behind this effort has been to improve the user experience.  It should be noted that improved user experience means that users will be online more, see more online ads(a majority of which are managed by Google)  and purchase more of the advertisers’ goods and services.

To optimize this new OS, Google has defined a reference hardware specification.  Solid state drives (no moving parts) is a major component of the design, along with a full sized keyboard.   More details will be forthcoming in the months ahead as they work closely with PC hardware vendors.  Google hopes to be ready for a full roll-out in time for the 2010 holiday season.

The Chrome OS demo employed the use of an off the shelf netbook equipped with a solid-state drive.  Speed was impressively demonstrated with the push of the on button to the login screen taking only 7 seconds.   Repeated emphasis to the audience was that most people spend a majority of their time online; answering and sending email, browsing the web and using other online applications like YouTube to view video and listening to music with online application like Pandora.

Boot-time and security were also discussed as being compelling reasons to totally revamp what is essentially a piece of technology that’s getting a little long in the tooth.  Sure,  initially this will not replace your current desktop computer.  Not all applications that most need currently exist in the “cloud”.  Google hopes, however, that this will be the starting point and envisions this Chrome OS computer as complimentary  for now.

Enough of me trying to describe what Chrome OS is or its benefits to the user community.  Below are some videos that will do a much better job.

Let us know your thoughts, we’d love to hear your take.

Chrome OS Descritption

Chrome OS Demo

And a look at the Chrome OS UI which will evolve

Google Alerts is a great addition to Google’s plethora of free services – one that you shouldn’t overlook. This recently added powerful tool allows you to track conversations about any topic completely unattended. Just feed it the search term, refine the search type and let it go do its job.

In a timely fashion you’ll receive links with snippets of text related to your search terms. You choose to have results delivered via email or to your feed-reader. The icing on this cupcake is its ability to schedule the frequency of deliveries – “As it happens”, “once a day” or “once a week”.

Configuration of your Google Alerts is simple. At the Alerts site you complete 4 fields. Enter the “Search Terms” you’d like to track. The next two fields are drop-downs where you specify “Type” (where to search), and how often to deliver results. And lastly, where you’d like alerts delivered.

Types include News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups, and Comprehensive (all of the above). The “where” can be a feed to your reader, by default this is Google Reader. Or if you prefer, enter your email address. You’ll have to experiment with this a little. It alldepends on what your tracking. If you’re tracking something popular like “government health care” you may want to direct that to your reader so as not to overwhelm your inbox. Whereas, tracking the last sighting of your favorite celebrity may be something different.

Think of the possibilities. Tracking sports, news updates on a high profile event, or just keeping up to date on an emerging technology.

One should also mention that there is no limit to the number of alerts you can set up. One of my favorites right now is tracking “Black Friday”. I read the returns in my reader along with my other feeds. I also just bought a Roku, so I’m tracking its mention everywhere for the upcoming new channels to be announced soon. This I do daily to my email inbox

I highly recommend you give Google Alerts a whirl. It’ll just take you a few minutes to set up and then you go about your business. And before too long you’ll be the goto person on the latest advances in silicon doping – cool dude!

Try it and share your take.

Here’s a short video demo:

Where to start

There’s Bring your daughter/son to work day. Why not bring a friend or relative to the Internet Day. In this case though, the day can be any day of your choosing. As the person that “knows computers”, do them a favor, make it sooner rather than later – they’ll thank you (or curse you) for it later. Help them take the first steps on the net’s “yellow brick road”.

Yes, believe it or not, there are people, a surprising large number of people that don’t spend most or even part of their day on the computer. I know, crazy ain’t it? You must know someone like that. They’re intelligent, busy individuals that work outdoors or if they’re indoors they do other things.

Most of these folks have computers for offline purposes like game playing or to use their home finance software. The computer is usually turned off and they either plant themselves in front of of the TV, read a book, watch a move, play a sport, or meet people in real life.

Fortunately or unfortunately sometimes, lots of information is now presenting itself online without an offline equivalent. Sure, a lot of it is garbage but there is some valuable content available for the first-time that would have been impossible to appreciate otherwise.

For example, there are medical sites like WebMD. Here you can click on the model of a human body, enter your symptoms, and be presented with a wealth of medical literature about possible causes. Fine art sites like the Louvre online allow you to take tours of themany galleries

And a huge number of news outlets running 24 hrs a day with multi-media rich content.  Not to mention the enhanced coverage of any sport you can think of, local, national, or international.

These reasons alone are usually not what drives one to get online.

Inevitably, one gets interested in getting online after hearing someone talk about it. “Twitter, what the heck is Twitter? And why does Oprah use it now? Can the wife talk to her on it?”

This is when you become the computer help desk so you might as well be prepared. Here and in future posts, I take a stab at listing some things that will get anyone a great start. No, Solitaire is not one of them – even if there is an online version. (Actually, Solitaire is a great way to teach someone how to use the mouse which we assume one knows at this point).

So grease your scroll wheel, here we go, let’s answer some questions!

How do I log on to the Internet?

You don’t actually “log on” to the Internet, you navigate a connection. So first they’ll need to call their local cable provider and have them explain the particular Internet offerings available. Dial-up is pretty much non-existent these days except in some very rural areas. Once installed and configured at their computer either directly or via a wireless router they can now proceed to “browse” the web.

To navigate the Internet highways you’ll need a tool – that tool is called a browser, and there are a number of them. Above you can see the icons for four of them. Virtually all browsing is done using one of these browsers.

Google put together a video describing what a web browser is:

Internet Explorer comes with your PC running Microsoft Windows and Safari comes with your Mac running the latest version of its operating system, OSX (not really important). I should mention, however, that there’s a version of Safari available for your PC as well if you so choose.

Next to Internet Explorer(blue), Firefox(yellow) is the most used browser. Below is a graph of browser usage from Wikipedia. From a security standpoint, Internet Explorer(IE) has been the most vulnerable to attack since it’s the biggest target. This has improved greatly since the release of IE8 however. And Microsoft does release regular updates so if you choose to stick with the your preloaded IE you’ll most likely be OK; so long as you have a virus-protection program running just in case.

Firefox’s popularity is due in part to

1)It’s not IE: There exists a long history of security vulnerabilities that make some people still gun shy to use it.

2) Customizations and Add-ons : There are hundreds of third-party extensions that have been written to extend the capabilities of the Firefox browser. Some popular add-ons include

• Adblock Plus – like it says, block ads,
• Xmarks, synchronizes your bookmarks across multiple computers,
• WeatherBug – local weather conditions, radar and alerts

Plus hundreds more that you can find here: Add-ons for Firefox

3) Speed – websites load faster

Other web browsers:

Opera and the new browser from Google – Google Chrome are also fine choices. Google’s latest version is quite snappy. Links to each are here: Opera, Chrome

In our next posting to donstech – How do I send and receive email?

Next to browsing, reading and sending email is the most popular activity to perform while online. There are several applications available to manage your email. As with browsers, both the Mac and PC come equipped with their respective versions of an email client that run locally on your computer and connect remotely to a computer to download and send your email.

Or you could use one of the Internet hosted (in the “cloud”) clients like GMail,Windows Live or Yahoo Mail. The advantage to using the hosted email is that you’ll be able to see your email from wherever you are as long as you can get online since access is via the web browser.

First you’ll need an email address. Let’s start there in our next article.

Please let us know what you think. Register and comment.

Note that you can use your Facebook or Twitter login to comment as well.

Windows 7 Themes are winners

As I mentioned in a previous post, there’s lots to like about the new Windows 7 user interface (UI). I find that I’ve changed my behavior due to this particular enhancement.(See below)

I’m speaking about the rich collection of desktop background themes – yep, themes. No longer is there just a bunch of boring and outdated images to cover the desktop. These improved backgrounds now come in packages of multiple themed images, and they are stunning. ( You still have the option to go with single standard backgrounds if you’d like – Basic and Classic are still available).

In addition to the out-of-the-box collection that comes with the Windows 7 install, many more are available online – there’s a direct link to additional themes within the Personalization window (right-click anywhere on the desktop to bring it up), which brings you to the Microsoft Personalization Gallery. Here, you’ll find a wide array of Featured and International collections. Just click on the download link, double click it and Windows 7 changes your theme and it’s now part of your collection.

Oh, and my behavior change – I now keep my desktop clean and free of all icons and shortcuts – programs are easy enough to find with the search feature and the availability to “pin” your favorite programs to the taskbar mitigate the need for desktop shortcuts. In this way not only do I stay better organized but I now have a clear view of the beautiful images that grace my desktop.

Here’s a short video on working with Windows 7 desktop background themes

Let me know what you think and if you know of some other good theme collections