Because I know you folks are passionately interested, especially on Christmas Day, some further thoughts on working with the Cr-48 and the Chrome OS:

* The Cr-48 generally continues to be a pretty nifty little computer, although it is not without its flaws. The flaw I’ve noticed the most are the genuinely terrible track pad, with its awful right click mechanism; even with the sensitivity dialed down to its lowest setting, it’s a 50/50 chance of getting the two-finger right click to work. This is apparently something lots of people hate about the Cr-48, so it’s nice to know it’s not just me a case of me being physically incompetent. When I use the computer for any extended period of time I plug in a mouse. Less annoying but still noticeable is the automatic screen brightening, which is a good idea in theory but which in practice is a bit twitchy. If I have a light behind me and I move my head, the screen brightness spasms. I’ll look to see if I can fiddle with that.

* On the software side I’m not really having any problems in terms of daily use. I used the Cr-48 to write the two “interviews” I did last week (with the innkeeper and the Christmas Bunny), and I found it useful, not because of Google Docs specifically but because the computer isn’t all cluttered up with crap and it’s easier not to get distracted. I then cut and pasted the interviews into the blog tool; again, no problems. I’ve also been carrying around the laptop for casual Web browsing and reading, and perhaps not entirely unexpectedly it does just fine with that, with the caveat of the annoying right-click thing.

I suppose if I were trying to use the Cr-48 for more substantial things I would run into more problems, but I’m not; I’m trying to figure out whether it’s because I just tend to spend most of my time doing low-impact things, Web and computing wise, or if it’s because I know the Cr-48 has limitations and just work inside of those. At some point I may try to stretch what I do with the thing, but for now, like I said, it’s working just fine for what I want to use it for.

Because that’s how we roll, Christmas morning.

Athena hard at work at Christmas 2010: The Unwrapination.

One of Athena’s gifts. Her gifts parted out between geekish and stylish, because, you know. Look at her parents.

 

“Put down that camera and unwrap your presents.” I got a very nice coat with hat and gloves, the Autobiography of Mark Twain (which I bought for myself, but which Krissy wrapped when I wasn’t looking) and a Belgian Waffle maker. His name is Hans.

And of course it wouldn’t be Christmas if one didn’t spoil one’s dog!

The cats were also spoiled, with catnip-filled mice. Here is Lopsided Cat, who is, dude, so very high right now.

Happy Christmas!

A small sampling of photos from our Christmas Eve, which we spent at my sister-in-law’s with her family and Krissy’s parents:

A larger set of photos is available for your perusal here.

Hope that your Christmas Eve was excellent and that your Christmas is even better.