Category: Technology

Kenny Sahr

What is the best selling laptop on Amazon? What is the cheapest laptop on Amazon? 10 points if you answered “the Acer C720 Chromebook” to both of those questions!

When the first Chromebooks came out in 2011, like most of you, I ignored them. What’s next, Google spaghetti sauce?! The first Chromebooks were a work in progress, to put it nicely. Thomas Edison’s first lightbulb didn’t win any design awards either.

Acer Chromebook – Value For $199!

The Acer C720 costs $199 at Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon. It features an Intel Celeron 2955U 1.4 GHz, 2 GB of SDRAM, a 16 GB solid state hard drive, an 11.6 inch screen, two USB ports (USB 2.0 and 3.0), one HDMI port and 8.5 hours of battery life. The screen resolution is 1366 x 788 and its dimensions are 11.34 x 8.03 x .75 inches, or 28.8 x 20.40 x 1.9 cm. It weighs 2.8 pounds (1.27 kg). In simple English, this means we’re dealing with the size and weight of a thin notebook.

What the Acer C720 doesn’t feature is most interesting; it doesn’t come with Windows, it can’t run Office, there isn’t much you can do with it offline and you won’t be playing anything beyond casual games.

Upon first boot, it took me less than a minute to run the initial setup – choose the language, input language and connect to the family wifi. I logged in on my personal Google account and had access to Gmail, Google Drive and the Chrome web browser. Speaking of booting, the Acer C720 boots in an astounding 7 seconds!! There’s no need to turn it off as it comes out of “hibernation mode” in a split second. The 2 GB RAM version is running fine for me; I’m glad I didn’t spend the extra $50 for another 2 GB.

Acer also makes a touch model – the C720P costs $299 – but I skipped it. I don’t think touching a screen in front of me (as opposed to a tablet screen on my lap) is going to make for a delightful user experience. When I want touch, I’ll go with my tablet. One user interface is enough.

Acer Chromebook – No Way Home

I think the Chromebook is the coolest thing since the Big Mac, but there are a few downsides. I miss having the Home, End, Delete, Page Up, Page Down and other keys that a Windows keyboard has. There are 2-3 key combinations for each of these, but it’s sort of like learning how to do the triple jump on a new video game – it takes time. The Caps Lock key is replaced by a Search key. I had to bookmark the key combos. As a writer, I often have to click on Home and End and hope Acer and Google “let us go Home easier” next time.

I’ve never used a trackpad for more than a few minutes at a time, but I can imagine that Chromebook trackpads won’t win any awards. The chiclet keyboard is fine by me. I’m typing faster every day I use it. The screen is nothing special – my Galaxy Tab screen is much better, but I don’t plan on watching a lot of HD videos on my Chromebook. It’s fine for the occasional YouTube videos and perfect for web browsing and text editing.

The only other issue I have with the Chromebook is the user login process. Like most people, I have two Google accounts – one for work and one for personal use. The OS forces me to logout when I want to switch users; I can’t have tabs open with both accounts at once. I read that they’re working on fixing this in future versions of Chrome OS. Good idea.

The Chromebook Miracle

For $199, I didn’t expect a miracle. Besides James Kendrick’s Chromebook articles on ZDNet, most Acer C720 (and Chromebooks in general) reviews are lukewarm. They read like legal warning labels – “your Chromebook will not run Windows software, it will not donate money to the Bill Gates Foundation and it won’t let you spend $2,000 in upgrades over its lifecycle.”

Experience tells me to pay more attention to the street than the elites. 7 of the 20 top selling laptops on Amazon are Chromebooks. The Acer C720 is #1 and the Samsung Chromebook is #3. The Chromebook is the perfect laptop for students, writers and people who need a “no frills web experience.”

Most Chromebooks go for $199 to $299 and the prices will continue to go down. Chromebooks are ready for prime time and the Acer C720 is a worthy “webtop.” If you haven’t read about the Chromebook revolution, now is the time!

This article was written on an Acer C720 Chromebook.

Kenny Sahr

When The Police wrote the lyrics “Too much information running through my brain, too much information driving me insane” (from Ghosts in the Machine, 1981), the US had 3 TV networks and CNN was 1 year old. Not everyone bought into Ted Turner’s crazy idea of news around the clock. We watched the nightly news at 6:30pm and the 11pm late news broadcast was mostly a recap of earlier broadcasts. For me, the only time things got interesting was when there was a hurricane headed for Florida.

Today, it is hard to avoid the news and even harder to find the right balance. I am a reformed news junkie. I used to read more newspapers than I can count. Since then, I’ve learned how to filter information and get the best ROI (return on investment) for my time. Here are a few tips on how to keep up with the news without wasting time.

Focus on Hard News

When I see headlines on celebrities’ personal lives, I never click to read them. How will knowing about Oprah Winfrey’s latest diet or which rock star is in rehab change my life? I have over 100 Paul McCartney CDs and successfully skipped the news about his 2008 divorce. I’d rather listen to the end of Hey Jude over and over again.

I focus on the hardcore news. Events in Ukraine are interesting and so is the missing Malaysian airplane, though I skip the alien abduction theories. Unfortunately, garbage sells, so I don’t blame the media. You can waste an hour a day for the rest of your life reading gossip. Or not.

VOD = Violence On Demand

Reality horror isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t need to watch people suffering in order to have a deeper understanding of the universe. Lately, the mainstream media use gruesome video clips with tempting headlines in order to get attention. Of course it is important to know that people really are suffering in Syria, Iraq and wherever there is daily violence. Skip the VOD but read the deeper analysis of what’s going on.

Let Me Be Real Clear

A few years ago, I found RealClearPolitics. What a brilliant idea! Instead of spending hours reading the news, they collect the most important politics stories of the day in two editions – morning and afternoon. You’ll find articles from the NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Time and other news sites. Click and get right to the point. When a president, prime minister or senator writes an important piece, you won’t miss it. It saves me hours of scouring dozens of news sites.

Since then, they have added other topics – RealClearWorld, RealClearTech, RealClearScience.. In 15 minutes, I get all the news that I need.

Nothing Like the Real Thing

I often tell my friends, “Don’t go to a business meeting without taking a quick look at the NY Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.” In a world with billions of news sites, the big 3 still rule. Sometimes I am treated to interesting articles by Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger and former presidents. Believe it or not, no one covers art, culture and music like the Wall Street Journal. The NY Times opinion page often has fascinating pieces by sci-fi writers and entertainers. The Washington Post gave us Woodward and Bernstein (the two journalists who uncovered the Nixon era Watergate scandal); the Post still blows my mind with deep analysis that no other daily newspaper can touch.

The American Interest has excellent analysis from “the deep center” (non-ideological) that gives me a perspective that I will never get from left or right leaning news sites. When elections approach, there’s no one as honest and accurate as Larry Sabato and his Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia. He often appears on CNN and Fox News. Speaking of cable news, I stopped watching “video news” altogether. I sometimes miss the live action car chases that seem only to occur in southern California. Night time is music time.

A Lot of Help From My Friends

My friends are often the best source of news. They read things that I would never run into and I end up being exposed to new ideas and opinions. Whether it’s an email with a link or a conversation at lunch, I hear different views that shape the way I think.

How much news content is healthy? How much do we really need in order to understand the world around us? To be continued!

Israel Lifshitz

The government cloud is not as ominous as it appears. Despite its threatening appearance, the cloud offers security advantages over the datacenter. The government cloud has a number of challenges that smart IT teams can overcome.

Store Your Data in the Cloud

Let’s start with a given – the mobile device is the weak link in the government cloud food chain. This is self-evident to anyone who has ever worked in IT. What’s the point of using the cloud if mobile devices store the data? IT and vendors need to ensure that even temporary data and cache are stored in the cloud and not on the device.

Secure Your Cloud Connections

Untrusted networks (usually in the form of wifi) can be an issue. It is a fact of life that your users will access your cloud from the shopping mall wifi. How can you solve this problem? Make sure your cloud apps use strong encryption with technologies such as SSL pinning, which verifies signature hierarchy.

2 Factor Authentication

Two factor authentication is a must-have capability for every government cloud. This is just as self-evident as the mobile device’s status as the weak link. A password just isn’t enough. Two factor authentication forces your users to prove they are using their device.

Apps Are Not Inherently Secure in the Cloud

The cloud is a public space. Amazon and other cloud providers utilize a “vpc” (virtual private cloud) as a means of securing cloud space. Just as virtual private servers allow datacenters to create walls around data, the virtual private cloud separates clouds within a cloud service. Amazon has the most well known virtual private cloud.

Securing Multiple Cloud Locations

Here is an issue that is unique to government agencies and large enterprise. For most small and medium sized businesses, one cloud datacenter will suffice. Not so for the US government. When a government agency requires multiple cloud locations, a major challenge arises. How do you move data between cloud locations? The metaphor that comes to mind is from the 1997 Nicolas Cage movie ConAir. Data is most vulnerable while being transported from one place to another.

Your cloud service may not be of much help here (unless you use the same cloud service in both locations). IT should plan these moves carefully and know when to bring in outside help.

The Inevitable Cloud

Until recently, large government and enterprise organizations could avoid the cloud. That era is coming to an end. Small and medium sized businesses are successfully migrating to the cloud. 2014 will be the year that government begins its trek to the secure cloud. Instead of discussing the “ifs,” it is time to discuss the “hows.”