That’s right, I was selected to test the new Google ChromeOS Notebook as a part of their pilot program. Hooray for me! If you’re even a little bit of a geek, getting a box in the mail with a free device in it is a good thing. (Who doesn’t love the smell of new electronics?) And when that device is a part of a highly-anticipated pilot program that lots of your friends want to be a part of, well, that just makes it so much more satisfying. I’ll have more to say about the program and how it has been handled by Google from a marketing standpoint in another post. (Promise #1)For now, let me just say that I like what they’re doing. There wasn’t a huge amount of information packaged with the notebook. I didn’t even receive an email that I had been selected. But the paperwork that is included is hip and irreverent. (They have some funny copy writers.) It makes me want to help Google out by testing their stuff. I’m betting some will find it off-putting, but I think it’s a good way to go about launching this program. As I said, more on that in another post.

So what about the notebook itself? I like it. I probably picked the wrong word when I called the Cr 48 a “beauty.” Honestly, it’s not very pretty. It’s a plain little notebook with no ornamentation, logos or anything. It looks very utilitarian, but that’s not a bad thing. (Google did include a sticker in the box which I immediately stuck on the back of the machine.) It’s what you want,meaning it’s small and thin. It has a little heft to it, but it’s not heavy. Even the keyboard is stripped down. The function keys that you would normally expect across the top have been replaced by web browser keys (e.g. forward, backward, refresh). It includes a few other items you need, like a webcam, mic and speakers for videoconferencing, but it’s a pretty basic little notebook. (The one thing I’m having a hard time with is the touchpad. It’s way too sensitive so that if you rest your hands on it your cursor moves.) From the standpoint of the machine, it’s not a very big deal.

And that’s where I expect to hear a ton of “yawns” out of the technorati. I’ve already read a few reviews that say something like “So what if Google makes a bunch of plain little notebooks? It’s not a ‘game-changing’ design like an iPad. And the operating system is just a stripped down version of linux with a browser to control it all. Boring.” That’s where I think a lot of people may be missing the point entirely. I think this may be a bigger deal than the iPad in the long run. (Let that sink in for a second.) The iPad is an impressive design. I think it’s a great little gadget. It’s entertaining and engaging and fun and cute. (It’s also relatively useless without a “real” computer or as a “real” computer.) The Cr 48 is unabashedly not a gadget. It’s too ugly to be a gadget. But it’s so much more useful. I could never write a blog post like this on an iPad. I wouldn’t even try. With the Cr 48 I’ve already written some client papers, done a presentation and worked on a spreadsheet using Google docs and some applications. It wasn’t perfect, but that had more to do with me and 20 years of habit working on computers. This is a test to see if Google can strip down an open source operating system to the bare necessities, stick everything “in the cloud” and make a real computer for everyone for under a couple hundred bucks (maybe less)–one that can actually be used for work and home. That’s been a goal of open source zealots like me for a long time. I hope Google is wildly successful. If being a part of their pilot program helps them achieve it, I’m in. More to come on my predictions about Google’s long term success later. (Promise #2)

As for the Chrome-browser-as-OS concept I’m still playing around with it. As I said, it’s not perfect (which is kind of the point of a test program). At this point it hasn’t been that difficult an adjustment. It helps that I’ve been using Google docs for a while. I’ll have to save a full review of the OS for another post too. (Promise #3) So much to say.

Full disclosure: If you’ve gotten to this point and you haven’t fully understood, Google sent me a computer to test for free. It came bundled with two years of free limited data service on Verizon. I got something from Google and I must disclose it. (See how easy that was?) That being said, I am under no obligations to Google except to use the wares as much or as little as I want to, report the bugs and provide user feedback as a part of their pilot program.

Photo credit: Google

The other great thing about Sendible is that it’s just not very expensive. I’ve now worked with literally dozens of CMS, social media and email platforms, and a lot of them are just stupidly over-priced for the level of performance they deliver. I don’t care if your company has offices all over the world, if all your doing is updating my Twitter feed or sending out emails, I don’t need to pay you $10,000 a month. Ever.

I’ll keep working with this little tool and let you know if the whizbots and doohickeys really whiz and doo. (Rethinking that metaphor.) For now, consider me impressed.

Note: This update has been lovingly crafted and placed into the tender care of Sendible. If it craps out, expect a “Sendible is poo” post shortly.

I’ve been watching ejamming.com for a while now, ever since a talented ex-co-worker of mine turned me on to the site. I’m still fascinated by the idea and keep expecting the site to break out and become more widely known. (It’s possible that there are a ton of musicians using the site. I don’t have any numbers for them but I get a sense they’re still in an early growth phase.) Basically, you plug in to eJamming, look up fellow musicians on the network–say a drummer, bass player, whatever–and begin playing with up to four musicians from anywhere in the world. It’s as simple as that: you collaborate online in real time. (There are some technology requirements to get instruments linked up, but nothing particularly advanced or onerous.) The technology behind it is smooth enough that there’s no latency, no hiccups; you just begin a virtual jam session. Reports from the talented ex-co-worker are that it all works well. eJamming offers a 30-day trial so musicians can give it a test. After that the subscription is around $10 a month. That seems a reasonable amount for anyone looking for an online musical hook-up.

And once you and your virtual bandmates decide you want to chuck it all for rock stardom, Guguchu is there to help you deal with fame and fortune. It provides a set of tools for bands/musicians to sell merchandise and music, book gigs and communicate with their (hopefully) growing fanbase. The site is still in beta, so I’m not sure how robust their tools are, but the concept is pretty smart and I appreciate the idea. There are a ton of good local bands that deserve more attention but simply don’t have the time and resources to support their own efforts. Guguchu is a way for them to coordinate everything and hopefully make some money. As far as I’m concerned, any tool that disrupts the way music has been marketed, distributed and sold (to the detriment of nearly every artist involved) for the past 50 years deserves my respect and attention.

Even with the twofer it’s a short post. As with all posts, as I learn more about eJamming and Guguchu I’ll provide updates. And if you’re from eJamming or Guguchu, reach out to me if you have more to share. I love what you’re doing and I’m happy to help you out.

I’ve been tinkering with Backupify the past few weeks since they so kindly gave me an upgraded subscription. (I’d love to think I’m special to them, but it was a promotion they offered to any old shlub.) I had been looking for some way to archive my little chestnuts of wisdom from my Twitter account (Who can forget this gem from February 7, 2009: “I have a wig in my front yard. Why?”), but with 5000 Twitter updates (and counting) I wasn’t sure how easy that would be. Turns out it’s pretty darn simple. Backupify allows you to archive updates and activity on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and a host of other social networking sites. There’s even a handy feature that allows you to create a pdf of your archives. (I’m having some issues with the non-pdf archives, but I’m assuming it’s user error and not a problem with the software.) It currently has some archiving for WordPress, Google docs and some others in beta. (I haven’t had a chance to play with the WordPress backup since I just installed the module today, but I’ll keep updating this post as I get more information.) They have a free version that is good and has the basic archiving features, but I have to say that I will likely pay to continue my subscription when it expires next year. (I think it’s $30.)

The fact is 5000 tweets is approximately 683 kilobytes of data. That’s about the size of a short novel. Include your replies, DM’s, etc. and you’re talking about a sizable amount of writing that goes into keeping a Twitter account active. And if you’re like me, those tweets form a skeleton of ideas, discussions and thoughts that may lead to deeper things. You’d hate to lose them and you might want to eventually go back through them to find good stuff that needs to be fleshed out. Searching through tweets now using the Twitter client or Tweetdeck is next to impossible. Backupify protects your work and makes it simple to sort through.

Like I said, I’ll come back to this as I tinker with Backupify, but it’s been a handy little tool to have. You can follow them on Twitter (@backupify) or go to backupify.com.