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New Chromebook videos

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google has just released a set of Chromebook videos, just in time for the holiday season. The purpose of these videos is to show how easy a Chromebook is in set up, use and maintenance. I experienced the ease of maintenance this morning, while during a meeting I:

  1. received a notification that a new ChromeOS version was available
  2. applied the update, which requires rebooting the machine.
  3. was back in business after about 15 seconds.

Consider a Chromebook for your family members, who do very little besides surfing the web. I heard Chromebooks work great with Facebook…:-)

Filed Under: Features, Network Tagged With: , , ,

20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A Twitter post alerted me that something called “20 Things I Learned” went open source. Curiously, I went to check out what “20 Things” actually is.

“20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web” is an e-book created by the Chrome team back in November of 2010. It shows you what the Internet is, and how it’s being used today. It then moves on to the building blocks of web pages, HTML, JavaScript, and the modern browser and how it helps to keep users secure. Finally, it looks towards the future, speculating on new technologies to improve the web experience.

It is a book, and at the same time a showcase of what modern browsers can do: curling pages, use keyboard and mouse interfaces to turn pages and go to certain sections in the book, zoom in and out, and change background colors on the fly.

And then for the Tweet that led me to “20 Things”: Google open-sourced the book. The source code is available for anyone to download, and tinker with. It shows the techniques that were used in developing the book (Google App Engine at the back-end, HTML5 at the front-end), and allows developers to learn how to apply the same techniques to their own projects.

All in all worthwhile to check it out, both as a developer interested in the techniques, and a user who is interested in the web.

Filed Under: Books, Features Tagged With: , , , ,

Google Docs introduces Pivot tables for Spreadsheets

June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently Google Docs added Pivot Tables to the Spreadsheets type of documents, adding a powerful and much-needed feature.

It has most of the functionality PivotTables in Excel has: you can select columns and rows to display, how the data in the table is displayed (Sum, Average, Count), and add filters to it. All this is done with drop-downs and dragging fields around.

One feature I missed during my short forage through the pivot tables is the Collapse All/Expand All: when you have multiple fields selected on either rows or columns, creating a hierarchy, the higher level fields get a little + or – sign next to them. It appears impossible to collapse or expand all on a certain level, forcing you to do it one by one.

A step by step tutorial to Pivot Tables is available here. For those who need a visual to make it all understandable, Google provides a training video:

Note: the step by step tutorial explains how to add a filter to a pivot table, but uses fields that were not available in my version of the sample spreadsheet. Just add a filter on Major, and select Physics as the only value.

Filed Under: Features, Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

Lady Gaga uses chrome…?

May 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A promo video from the Google Chrome team, showing how Lady Gaga is using the web to create a larger fan base. It makes you wonder what Madonna would/could have done if the web was in place 20 years ago…

Filed Under: Features, Lifestyle, Network Tagged With: , ,

Jason’s Deli showing use case for the Chrome netbook

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Jason’s Deli is a dining chain based out of Texas, and they have been selected to beta test the Chrome Notebook. Here’s some of the people involved with the test telling about their experiences:

Filed Under: Features, Network Tagged With: , , ,
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