"Why Chromebook Pundits Are Out of Touch"

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Another design flaw - the SD card doesn't seat all the way in and sticks half-way out. What's with that? If it's going to stick out, may as well use a USB flash drive. It's cheaper.

Yeah, it does that on the Samsung ARM Chromebook too. A bit unsightly.

Graham

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Graham

Yeah, it does that on the Samsung ARM Chromebook too. A bit unsightly.

Graham

These quirks will take some time to get used to. While bothersome, it's livable.

I've been listening to some Christmas music by the Carpenters via YouTube and I'm impressed by the speakers. Although they're not as good as a set of powered desktop speakers, they do put out plenty of sound without distortion; but a bit on the tinny side. Color me surprised at this nice feature.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by jj2me

Because there is so much knowledge in this thread, I'm going to go a little off-topic to ask a question that I couldn't find an answer for in the Google forum.

Is there any way to auto-fill the initial ChromeOS Google password?

Rationale: A relative with depression, short-term memory loss, and occasional episodes of anxiety, could really use the simplicity of ChromeOS (and so could her family support team). Except her problem on Windows has been that she compulsively changes her e-mail password, which she invariably forgets.

She's been through all sorts of password recovery options, including contacting Google, but eventually she runs out of chances and has to get a new e-mail address. And since she forgets any contacts' addresses, she can't alert her friends and relatives except via phone. She's given up on e-mail and is now more isolated, adding to her problems.

I realize that ChromeOS will come out of sleep and not require a password. But for those other times....

Thanks for considering.

Can't you just set up your own email address as the recovery email, and reset it that way for her? Or what's this about running out of chances?

[tubemonkey]

Chrome has stuff missing. So how do I get this info easily?

• control panel
• system info
• display settings
• menu bar
• storage left

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Chrome has stuff missing. So how do I get this info easily?

• control panel
• system info
• display settings
• menu bar
• storage left

A lot of that info can be found through chrome urls, check chrome://about

ApK

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Chrome has stuff missing. So how do I get this info easily?

• control panel
• system info
• display settings
• menu bar
• storage left

The first three are the Settings pages (as APK says chrome://settings) reached from the three bars button in the top right corner of the browser, or by clicking on the system tray and choosing Settings. However, ChromeOS's goal is on simplification, so some of the things you're looking for might not be there. In particular, I think when connecting monitors or TVs ChromeOS pretty much makes its own decisions.

I'm not sure what you mean by menu bar, but you pin things to the black launcher that by default is along the bottom by dragging them from the apps tray which pops up when you hit the Search key, or by right-clicking on them in the apps tray and choosing Pin To Launcher.

As APK says, storage left is on a Chrome flag:

chrome://quota-internals

but it's also now available from the Files app, by clicking on the gear icon on the toolbar, though this seems to show slightly less space.

Graham

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Graham

The first three are the Settings pages (as APK says chrome://settings) reached from the three bars button in the top right corner of the browser, or by clicking on the system tray and choosing Settings. However, ChromeOS's goal is on simplification, so some of the things you're looking for might not be there. In particular, I think when connecting monitors or TVs ChromeOS pretty much makes its own decisions.

A bit too simple if you ask me; to the point of making it difficult to access basic info. I still can't find the system info (manufacturer, CPU, speed, RAM, OS, etc).

I'm not sure what you mean by menu bar, but you pin things to the black launcher that by default is along the bottom by dragging them from the apps tray which pops up when you hit the Search key, or by right-clicking on them in the apps tray and choosing Pin To Launcher.

In Windows, the menu bar contained file, edit, view, history, etc in drop down tabs across the top of the screen. I realize some of this info is available in the menu tab in the upper right, but it requires an extra step to access.

As APK says, storage left is on a Chrome flag:

chrome://quota-internals

but it's also now available from the Files app, by clicking on the gear icon on the toolbar, though this seems to show slightly less space.

I've already discovered some of these, but was hoping for something better. Obviously that's not going to happen. So now I'm in the process of bookmarking these various urls so I can readily access them when needed.

Don't get me wrong, because I really appreciate the help. Like I said, I was really hoping for better solutions than what I've already discovered.

What's really driving me crazy is the missing delete key. I keep reaching for it and hit the power button instead.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

A lot of that info can be found through chrome urls, check chrome://about

ApK

Thanks; that list a much larger than the info I've discovered so far.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

This is my first post from my new Chromebook.

Does it look different from my previous Windows posts?

Well a woman might say "you are definitely slimmer, and have you had a touch of work done?"

I would say, you seem to bound through the trees quicker with that light device,
but don't go thinking it is a frisbee.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What's really driving me crazy is the missing delete key. I keep reaching for it and hit the power button instead.

I've been trying to make sense of that one since I heard about it. I am pleased that my Acer C7 has a delete key. When we first bought it, it would not have occurred to me to look for it any more than I'd have looked to ensure all the letters were there.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by afv011

That's just delusional.

Yeah, I know. Except the number of legitimate Mac viruses in the wild is very, very low. FlashBack comes to mind, but even that one required you to enter your administrator password to install. I run Avast on my daily driver Mac, and it's found exactly... um... zero viruses that I could actually catch. A few Windows viruses showed up in my spam email folder once, which I could theoretically forward to an unsuspecting Windows user, but that's been it. For years.

The real vulnerabilities are in Java and Flash, and I don't use Java in my web browsers, and I have Flash disabled on my PowerBook. So yeah, it's pretty hard to figure why I need to keep updating stuff on a regular basis when it isn't broken. And honestly, at this point, who would take the time to write a PowerPC virus? There's probably less than a million in use, and they're running a pretty secure OS. Windows is a much more lucrative target, and easier to breach as well.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A bit too simple if you ask me; to the point of making it difficult to access basic info. I still can't find the system info (manufacturer, CPU, speed, RAM, OS, etc).

chrome://system

Expand cpuinfo and meminfo for the internals.

The manufacturer of the device itself is usually written on the case.

Graham

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

In Windows, the menu bar contained file, edit, view, history, etc in drop down tabs across the top of the screen. I realize some of this info is available in the menu tab in the upper right, but it requires an extra step to access.

You'll get fairly familiar menu bars in specific apps, like Google Docs and Pixlr Editor.

There are shortcuts in the browser tabs which give you single click access. For History, for example, right click on the Back/Forward buttons in the top left.

If you want to open a file from the local storage or your Google Drive you can use Ctrl-O to open the file manager and pick it.

Graham

[Graham]

Further to my comments on chrome://system above, the only one of CPU, speed, RAM, OS that you may want to look up on a regular basis (as it's the only one which changes) is the OS version, and that's also available from the normal Settings menu, under Help. This can also be reached directly at chrome://help.

That page is also the one which checks for any operating system updates. Those normally happen completely silently, but if you want to trigger one, you simply visit that page.

Graham

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Can't you just set up your own email address as the recovery email, and reset it that way for her? Or what's this about running out of chances?

Thank you! She's now using Gmail again. You pushed me into looking further into this and discovering that I was trying to solve the wrong problem. The "running out of chances" to get her password reset was what she had told me was the reason she serially acquired new e-mail addresses. Her memory and cognition are not reliable, but I live 3,000 miles from her, so took her story at face value.

Thanks to your questioning, I tried entering one of her old e-mail accounts on a Google password recovery page, and got as far as it asking me if I was her. Excellent! Then I composed a simple search term for her to enter into Google.com that would return that page as the first search result. Called her, and though it took almost an hour just to walk through the simple password reset procedure, she's now up and running.

Her daughter's e-mail is and was the recovery password. A shame her kids just aren't that interested in addressing her quality of life problems.

Thanks again to you and Graham.