Tag Archives: cr-48

My favorite Google Chrome OS extensions

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Google Chrome OS Logo - Source: doobybrain.comWith another round of Google Chrome OS laptops coming out today, I figured I’d compile a list of my favorite extensions from the past 2 months that I’ve had my Cr-48 in daily use. I don’t do a whole range of diverse things on the internet – I mainly keep on top of my facebook account and blog. I post my updates through Twitter and they get syndicated everywhere else. Meanwhile, I do web development, and store my files in the cloud using Mesh and DropBox. Hopefully some of these extensions seem useful to you.

Internet Browsing extensions

  • Adblock Plus for Google Chrome (beta) – Just like in Firefox, it blocks ads. There is the ABP stopsign in the omni-box next to the Favorite-Star that you can use to turn it on/off or create a filter.
  • Flashblock – Does what it says on the tin…and more. This extension blocks all types of Flash/Shockwave media files as well as Silverlight. There’s no visible toggle switch aside from turning the extension on and off or clicking the blocked flash object in question to activate it (as long as it’s visible). To whitelist a whole site (in the event that it is blocking invisible flash objects) press CTRL + SHIFT + F.

Communications

  • Google Talk – Allows you to chat with a fixed Google Chat window inside of the Chrome browser.
  • Meebo.com – A uber-service IM web-based app for any of your conceivable IMing needs.
  • Trillin.im – My favorite Multi-Service IM application, in web-based version, with cloud sync for contacts, logs, and other settings.

Social Networking / Sharing

  • Bit.ly – Adds a button to the browser that shrinks the active page’s url and puts it in a box ready for you to share. Social Account toggles appear on the window for granular sharing.
  • Facebook for Chrome – Adds a notification button to the browser, that shows a red number when you have new notifications (mail, reactions, invitations, etc). When clicked, it opens a tabbed view of your Wall, News Feed, Notification list, and Messages, as well as ability to update your status. Also includes Facebook Chat capabilities
  • Seesmic Web – A one-stop app for all your social networking needs. Switch to the Black UI to save some battery power.
  • WordPress Comments Notifier – Useful for bloggers who want to stay on top of their blog comments. I decided to install this in light of my intention to bring this blog back to life. Ironically, with the frequency I check my blog (out of SEO curiosity for traffic sources based on search terms) I don’t have to worry about many unapproved comments sitting around for very long. Plus it makes a handy shortcut to the blog.

Games

  • Entanglement – Included in the first version of the Google Chrome OS laptops, this is a fun, time-passing, connect the lines mental game.
  • Qbox – A challenging mental game where you have to unscramble the letters of an insightful quote from someone historic.
  • Sinuous – A simple, addicting game. Avoid crashing into the red dots by moving your mouse around the screen. The longer you last, the faster and more abundant the dots become. Pick up the power-ups along the way to last longer.

Living in the Cloud

  • Aviary – A layer-based, Photoshop-like web-based image editor/creator.
  • DeviantArt muro – Web-based paint-like graphics app that lets you draw right on the webpage, and save them to load for later. It’s a super-advanced graphics app, compatible with several types of hardware input devices.
  • DropBox – Adds a button to the browser that, when clicked & authenticated, shows you a directory listing of your DropBox shares and their contents. When you click on the interested file, it opens in the browser (provided it is allowed). Useful for text-based files, images, and media.
  • Full Screen Weather – Based on data from WeatherUnderground.com, this full-screen weather app uses the location-awareness built into Chrome to determine your location (if allowed) and then overlay current weather conditions on a scalable/movable full-screen Google Maps frame.
  • Google Calendar Checker Plus – If you’re all sync’d up in Google Calendar, this extension keeps it all in the forefront of your mind. On the browser button it shows the timeframe for your next appointment (5m, 2D, 1w, etc). On hover, it shows what/when the next appointment is. On click, it loads the actual calendar, based on the options you’ve set in the extension settings. The plugin also has toaster alerts for events, and the ability to create new events inside the popup-calendar.
  • Google Voice – The browser button shows the number of new items waiting for you. On click, the ability to send text messages or place calls right from your browser and view your inbox, where you can clear items from the notifications with a click their message body or archive/delete them.
  • Grooveshark – Similar to the late Anywhere.fm and iMeem, Grooveshark lets you listen to whatever song you can search for on the internet, create your own music collection, or stream their pre-made radio stations.
  • Picknik – Made popular as Flickr’s web-based photo-editing application of choice, you can get this photo editor as an app for your chrome browser as well.

Web Development

  • Firebug Lite for Google Chrome – Adds a browser button that creates a frame similar to the appearance of the Firefox extension, but with a little less functionality. Still helpful to see what files are being called, and viewing their contents/locations.
  • FTP Free – If you haven’t made the switch to a cloud-sync’d file storage, and rely on FTP access, then this is the extension for you. FTP functionality, right in your browser. Just configure the server connection/creds and go.
  • SourceKit – This was my solution from a previous post, that I mentioned I’d write more about when it was completed. The last time I checked, they had gone from a non-functional version, to one that works, but has some minor cosmetic issues that make it nearly unusable. Once it is finished though, it will be a powerful DropBox-syncing code editor, using the Bespin (now ACE) web-based HTML5 editor.
  • TextDrop – A simple web-based DropBox-syncing text editor. More details can be found here.
  • Web Development Toolbar – A popup window-based version of the toolbar extension in Firefox. Useful for web developers and designers in all areas of CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and anything else you can find in a webpage.

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Living in the Cloud: Code Editing

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As I mentioned in my previous post of the Living in the Cloud series, the majority of the stuff I do on the computer at work, and on the internet these days, involves creating/editing PHP codes or work and personal projects. Continuing the effort to turn the CR-48 into a useful and productive tool for people in my line of work, I have found a workable solution for those wishing to edit codes, and keep them sync’d onto their computers via DropBox.

Over the course of the last couple weeks with the Chrome OS netbook, my file synchronization setup has come to this:

  • Intranet web server runs Windows Live Mesh 2011 – syncs website files & database to Skydrive
  • Work PC runs Windows Live Mesh 2011 and pulls files from Skydrive. It saves them in a DropBox subfolder, and sends them up to the DropBox server.

A couple things about why my configuration is the way it is:

  • I use Windows Live Mesh 2011 for two reasons: the remote desktop feature and the fact that it doesn’t care where the folder you want to sync is, you can sync it right there.
  • I only recently started using DropBox for the potential of its API functionality. However, not many people are using the API, and it’s only available in certain programming languages.
  • I do use WAMP on my intranet server, so I am capable of moving the website’s files out of the www drive and into a DropBox subfolder and creating an alias in the Apache config for the new location. I haven’t done it yet, because I hadn’t found a web-based code editor that works with DropBox to provide a compelling reason to make that change – until now.

On to the good stuff.

For my web-based editing, I have decided to use a relatively new app from DropBox‘s own app site called: TextDrop. (Update, the app is no longer listed in the DropBox app site. The Link now goes directly to the app’s site.)

TextDrop - First Run

At first glance, this is a very basic text-editor. I do all my web coding in Notepad++, so using a notepad-type app is not an issue for me. If this is not the case for you, you may be better off using Kodingen.com or Bespin from Mozilla.

Also, right now, if you create a new page with the app, it is unable to save that back to DropBox. I don’t know what the status of this issue is, but at this time, it is only a minor annoyance as I’m not creating files usually, I’m editing existing ones.

TextDrop - Open files

The opening page has a Log In link, which gets you set up with DropBox to authenticate the app and give it permission to access/edit your files. Once you’ve granted TextDrop permission, you’re all set. Choose the Open button and you’ll be presented with the top-level directory of your DropBox cloud storage. Open up any text-based file, and you’ll be able to edit it right there, and save it back.

Since I only just found out about this app recently, I’m by no means an expert on it. However, Monday when I return to work, I will give all the pieces of my Living in the Cloud configuration a shot to see how productive I can be with only an internet browser.

Another web-based app that I’ll be keeping an eye on (which is being actively developed as of a couple days prior to this posting) is SourceKit. Right now it doesn’t get past the login screen – apparently the developer is working on getting it approved as a Production Application from the DropBox folks (API Key requirements, etc., if you’re familiar with how all that stuff works). It will have a tree-structure file list, and include the Bespin code editor along side it – essentially a light-weight Kodingen setup, using the DropBox storage instead of an FTP backend. The author has released some updates and looks like everything is ready to go. I’ll be working on a blog post after I’ve spent some time with it on my web development projects. It might even become my de facto code editor.

There will be more Living in the Cloud posts to come as well, with some Google Chrome OS features, functionality examples, and hardware demonstrations, some of which will also have videos. But for now, this is a promising step in the right direction to make this a viably productive utility.

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Cloud File Synchronization

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At my company, I’m the only IT person there. As such, my jobs range from fixing the hardware, to maintaining the network, to developing the website. And being the only person who’s able to do any of these things in the company, I can’t really be out of reach from the files needed to keep things going.

The one thing that has kept all of this in line for me for so many years has been Microsoft’s Windows Live Mesh. I’ve known about others for many years, but none of them could offer remote desktop solutions as well as file sync without having to add additional software.

That was all well and good, until I got my Google Cr-48 Chrome OS Netbook. Microsoft allows you to connect to other computers through your local internet browser, but the feature is not supported for Chrome. This only poses a small problem, but it also removes a requirement of the service. If I can’t remote into a computer from Chrome on the Cr-48, then Mesh is no longer the only option for me.

The other issue I found (on any computer) was that to edit the files I had to do so locally – either they had to be on the computer via a share already, or I had to download them from Microsoft’s Skydrive. This was not a problem on a desktop computer – I would just open up Notepad. On the Cr-48, though, I can only view certain files natively within the Chrome browser…not edit them.

To edit the files, I’ve chosen to use Kodingen.com, for reasons that I will go in to with another blog post. However, keeping the files sync’d to a completely separate server on the internet would require one additional thing from my file synchronization software: an API.

Windows Live had an API called Live Framework, but that was pulled in September 2009. I have yet to find out if that service is still available, and if it offers API access to your Mesh/Skydrive shares. In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention to DropBox.com.

DropBox has API access, as well as real-time file synchronization, and is multi-platform. It doesn’t offer the remote desktop connection ability, but that’s unavailable in Google Chrome anyway. It also doesn’t have the ability to create shares out of folders – you have to create a folder to share, but it must reside in the primary Drobox folder. This creates a dilemma when the files you want to sync are in a specific location and already in production. (You can find a full comparison of DropBox to Live Mesh here.)

So right now, I have created a DropBox share on my Work PC. This sends files up to DropBox.com. I’ve also pulled down my development codes from Mesh and created a Mesh Store inside the DropBox folder. Now, I have my files sync’d from the Server to Mesh to my Work-PC to DropBox. The next step is to learn how to implement the API so that I can pass this information off to the Kodingen.com guys. I have yet to dive into the API, but my hope is that I can selectively sync folders from it, and in doing so, keep my intranet site sync’d with the Kodingen cloud for editing the files.

I will have more on the DropBox API stuff in a later post. For now, though, no matter which service you use for keeping your files in the cloud, you have to make sure you can manipulate them there as well.

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Concept: DropBox API Integration, Webhost Sync

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I enjoy trying to find solutions to things that are difficult to accomplish, whether that is researching existing technologies to try and mash them together, or developing new ones to solve a problem. It’s rare that I have to create completely new things, so more often than not, all the pieces to solve the problem currently exist. This is one such occasion.

Here’s my dilemma:

  • I’m creating a web-based application for my company’s intranet. We’ll call the application “Jada”.
  • Jada is hosted on a computer that has a one-way connection to the internet: out. No one can get in from the internet.
  • I sync my files to the cloud with Windows Live Mesh 2011 on Jada, and that gives me a real-time backup, as well as a copy on my computers at home.
  • Windows Live Mesh 2011 does not have the ability to edit files in the browser. DropBox does not have the ability to edit files in the browser. But DropBox has an API.

My requirement:

  • I have a Cr-48 Chrome OS netbook, and must edit my codes inside a browser. When I save the file, it must automatically end up back on the Jada server, without installing software (since I can’t, on this laptop).

The file-editor of choice for my codes is to host them on Kodingen and use their Bespin integration (as the actual Bespin site doesn’t have an import/upload feature yet). I have uploaded a copy of the files via FTP, however, that is a single instance of those files…thus any changes I make there must then be downloaded onto the Jada server via an FTP client, or pushed. Either way, that would happen at intervals, and not instantly, and definitely not from the Chrome OS laptop.

The concept of webhost sync would be similar to this:

  • A user would set up their DropBox folder so that the files they want would be scraped up by the software, and sent to the DropBox website.
  • A user would then authenticate to Dropbox on the editor (Kodingen in this example), and then map a folder created on the Kodingen FTP server to say “this folder is where I want the Selective Sync of that DropBox store to be located” or a new folder option would be offered to say “make this a folder in my dropbox account, and sync it.”
  • Every X minutes of inactivity to the files (no files have been edited or modified), or the user being logged out/session expiration, the Kodingen would poll DropBox’s file metadata to see if any files have changed. If so, pull them over to Kodingen’s store.
  • While inside the editor, a Save action on the file being edited would activate a hook to sync that file and any other files that have been changed.
  • There would also need to be a manual sync button for posterity in environments where multiple people would be working in other locations. Such changes could exist in the span of X minutes between CRON jobs to sync the server, and one would want to make sure they have the latest version of the files before they get started.

This is a general overview of how I would envision something like this working – and would definitely be a huge step in the right direction for programmers who wish to keep all their files in the cloud, but don’t have direct access to the computers they are developing for…especially if the Cr-48 is going to be as limited as it is when it comes to file editing.

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In the Cloud, First Things First

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Source: flickr/oskay

I didn’t start using a computer full-time until 2001 when I landed in the college dorms back at East Texas Baptist University. I immediately set out to create something memorable for the university in the form of student communication: an instant messenger based on school emails. That never took off, as I barely understood how to set up my email account in Outlook Express. Instead, I focused more on a social network (before that term existed), and running a web server from my PC in my dorm room.

Fast-forward 4 years.

The social network I started in college migrated to a global website. I also now owned a PocketPC, a laptop, and had a corporate desk job. During my off time (and sometimes my “on time”) I would work on the code for the web pages. The biggest problem I had was making sure the files I changed in one place were propagated to all other places.

It was just my luck: I became a beta tester for Microsoft Office. My favorite office program for that suite: Groove. Microsoft Groove was the very, very early fore-runner of what is now known as Windows Live Mesh. It was a desktop client that sync’d your files to the Groove Server. From there, conflicts were resolved, you could chat with other people in the work-group, and everything stayed in sync.

Fast-forward another 4 years, and you’d find me keeping my bookmarks sync’d with Del.icio.us, my web pages with Windows Live Mesh, my email in Thunderbird, my finances with Microsoft Money, and my IM contact lists with Digsby.

The one thing all those have in common: they all require a piece of software to keep them sync’d to the cloud. Over the last 2 years, I’ve been migrating as much as I can to the cloud, and exploring the available software replacement options as I find them.

So in making this transition to Living in the Cloud, first things first: cut the cord. Figure out what you do on a daily basis, and how you’d go about doing it if your only software was the Google Chrome OS.

Luckily for you, you can also experience the Chrome OS experience, even if you didn’t get one of the Google Laptops:

Imagine starting up your computer, logging in with your Google Account, and the first and only thing that opens is your internet browser: Google Chrome. Now, try to work. Attempt to go about your daily routine without access to any Windows network shares, Microsoft Office programs, an abhorrent collection of randomly placed desktop icons, or really anything you would normally launch from a taskbar/start menu/icon on your computer. Everything you do must be done in the browser.

Once the stress of not being able to minimize the browser has subsided, then start thinking about where the data is stored that you want – and where you can put it online to get it. So, first things first: start finding online resources to store all the things you think you have to have software to use.

I’ll start documenting my changes once I’ve picked them. I have a few resources I’m currently testing, but I may have to create my own solutions to actually achieve what I want in the end.

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