Google OS Pilot Program CR-48.

[sk8mystery23]

Since I got one, and apparently no one knows what it is, I'm going to update my post and make it less lame.

If you guys didn't know Google is trying to create a new operating system. They have deemed it Chrome OS. This operating system is designed to totally work on the "cloud".

To test their new operating system they have decided to send out a bunch of test notebooks they call the CR-48.

Here's a few pictures of the CR-48.





It only has one USB, one SD slot, VGA, audio jack, and the charging port.

It is coated entirely with a rubber coating which feels rather nice.

Here's the specs for anyone who cares to know.

No it's not the most powerful machine by any standard, its about as powerful as a gimped netbook, but that's the beauty of it. It doesn't need to store anything because all your information is on the cloud. If it breaks, you get a new one and all your stuff is still there when you sign into your account.

If anyone is interesting in getting one the sign ups are still there.

Link.

[Vandamguy]

No picture.
No link.
No interest.

[shoopfox]

Looks pretty lame

[HeK]

Sorry, I have a real laptop.

[sk8mystery23]

Sorry, I have a real laptop.

This isn't designed to be a "real" laptop.

My first post was updated. Sorry for how bad it was, please forgive.

[Surf314]

How did you get one? I applied too  :'(

[sk8mystery23]

How did you get one? I applied too  :'(

Luck of the draw I guess. Or my story was more convincing. Don't know. D:

[CaffeinePowered]

Sorry, I have a real laptop.

This, and also for all the good google does, their OS and their ideas behind it seem downright evil.

Its safer with the cloud, give us all your data and programs on one centralized server, they're "safer" there, you can never lose them, and there always search-able.

It phones home and you always need an internet connection, you shouldn't be worried about that though.




Sorry, but the idea of the cloud and losing control over local programs and data scares the shit out of me, not just for my own privacy issues, but for personal data reasons, now they only need to break into one machine to steal a ton of personal data, and no system is 100% secure.

Thankfully this is still just an idea, but I hope it dies on the drawing board.

[sk8mystery23]

[quote author=HeK link=topic=5428.msg195360#msg195360 date=1297013308]
Sorry, I have a real laptop.

This, and also for all the good google does, their OS and their ideas behind it seem downright evil.

Its safer with the cloud, give us all your data and programs on one centralized server, they're "safer" there, you can never lose them, and there always search-able.

It phones home and you always need an internet connection, you shouldn't be worried about that though.




Sorry, but the idea of the cloud and losing control over local programs and data scares the shit out of me, not just for my own privacy issues, but for personal data reasons, now they only need to break into one machine to steal a ton of personal data, and no system is 100% secure.

Thankfully this is still just an idea, but I hope it dies on the drawing board.
[/quote]

I don't quite understand the bold part. If I break into your computer with a password on it and can't figure out the password. I'm just going to take the harddrive out of it and take it home. Boom, all your data. Am I missing something?

[Surf314]

[quote author=Caffeine link=topic=5428.msg195372#msg195372 date=1297017209]
[quote author=HeK link=topic=5428.msg195360#msg195360 date=1297013308]
Sorry, I have a real laptop.

This, and also for all the good google does, their OS and their ideas behind it seem downright evil.

Its safer with the cloud, give us all your data and programs on one centralized server, they're "safer" there, you can never lose them, and there always search-able.

It phones home and you always need an internet connection, you shouldn't be worried about that though.




Sorry, but the idea of the cloud and losing control over local programs and data scares the shit out of me, not just for my own privacy issues, but for personal data reasons, now they only need to break into one machine to steal a ton of personal data, and no system is 100% secure.

Thankfully this is still just an idea, but I hope it dies on the drawing board.
[/quote]

I don't quite understand the bold part. If I break into your computer with a password on it and can't figure out the password. I'm just going to take the harddrive out of it and take it home. Boom, all your data. Am I missing something?
[/quote]

He means their servers now become an attractive target because you can get a lot of people's data at once. Maybe you aren't what one would consider a target but because someone else with their data in the same place is they get all your stuff too.

[sk8mystery23]

I thought he meant someone directly stealing my CR-48. That's why it didn't make sense. If anything the CR-48 would be more secure in the sense of someone stealing it BECAUSE there is no local data.

But, yes you are right about googles servers getting attacked. But I really don't give a fuck if someone STEALS MY POWERPOINT OH NOES.

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=sk8mystery23 link=topic=5428.msg195373#msg195373 date=1297017798]
[quote author=Caffeine link=topic=5428.msg195372#msg195372 date=1297017209]
[quote author=HeK link=topic=5428.msg195360#msg195360 date=1297013308]
Sorry, I have a real laptop.

This, and also for all the good google does, their OS and their ideas behind it seem downright evil.

Its safer with the cloud, give us all your data and programs on one centralized server, they're "safer" there, you can never lose them, and there always search-able.

It phones home and you always need an internet connection, you shouldn't be worried about that though.




Sorry, but the idea of the cloud and losing control over local programs and data scares the shit out of me, not just for my own privacy issues, but for personal data reasons, now they only need to break into one machine to steal a ton of personal data, and no system is 100% secure.

Thankfully this is still just an idea, but I hope it dies on the drawing board.
[/quote]

I don't quite understand the bold part. If I break into your computer with a password on it and can't figure out the password. I'm just going to take the harddrive out of it and take it home. Boom, all your data. Am I missing something?
[/quote]

He means their servers now become an attractive target because you can get a lot of people's data at once. Maybe you aren't what one would consider a target but because someone else with their data in the same place is they get all your stuff too.
[/quote]


This


Lets say I want to start gathering credit card numbers, and other dirt on people, I can compromise individual boxes, which is usually easy to moderate to do for the average computer user, but i have to do it many many times to get anything substantial.

But now you have one place that has everything, sure its harder to break into, but you find one way in and suddenly you have access to hundreds and thousands of people's data. Why do you think its such a huge deal when someone manages to break into a business customer database?

Now imagine that same data, loss, but now all your personal stuff too, pictures, documents, etc.

[Kirby]

I could understand wanting one for it's novelty as a Google product and a netbook replacement, but add on the cloud aspect and I'm out.

That, and in addition, I've got 2 laptops.

[Surf314]

I just want one to play with.

[sk8mystery23]

I just want one to play with.

Yea. Pretty much this.

[Coppanuva]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=5428.msg195390#msg195390 date=1297024488]
I just want one to play with.

Yea. Pretty much this.
[/quote]

Same. I could see me doing (at most) taking school notes on it, which would be something I could care less if someone wanted to hack and obtain. Honestly if you're willing to break into google I don't think my freshman level Computer Science and Psychology courses are going to be of much interest to you.

[Kirby]

Random Google related thing:

Ever since it's inception, Chrome would hard-lock and require a task kill if you attempted to open a new tab via middle mouse click, if the page being opened pointed to a URL that required HTTP authentication.

Instead of opening the tab in the background like it should, it just simply locked up. I finally got sick of this and made a bug report about it. Not 2 days later I check to see if it's been fixed (Google doesn't reply in any way to bug reports, they don't even take your e-mail) Sure enough, it's fixed.


Yay.

[sk8mystery23]

Random Google related thing:

Ever since it's inception, Chrome would hard-lock and require a task kill if you attempted to open a new tab via middle mouse click, if the page being opened pointed to a URL that required HTTP authentication.

Instead of opening the tab in the background like it should, it just simply locked up. I finally got sick of this and made a bug report about it. Not 2 days later I check to see if it's been fixed (Google doesn't reply in any way to bug reports, they don't even take your e-mail) Sure enough, it's fixed.


Yay.

Nice. This is now the google thread. Ready. Set. GO.

[at0m]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=5428.msg195390#msg195390 date=1297024488]
I just want one to play with.

Yea. Pretty much this.
[/quote]Yup.

I have to agree with Caff though in his security assessment. Breaking into an individual PC may garner much the same data as breaking into Google's servers in this case, but the scale of the payoff when you compromise a server is much, much greater. The largest thing protecting most users from active attacks isn't routers or personal firewall software - it's how small of a 'score' they would be versus how much effort it takes to do it.

That said, in terms of physical security a few excellent points have also been made. If there's no local data, there's nothing to lose if you have a hardware failure in your terminal device, because that's all it is. That bit's attractive. But giving all of your data to a corporation whose business it is to analyze it and determine how to sell you things based on it, might not be the best of ideas.

[sk8mystery23]

I don't quite understand what you guys think most people will be putting on the server. Maybe a few pictures here and there, but I'm not going to be uploading all my passwords and my SSN and things that like to the cloud. I have lecture notes and things like that up there. I don't give a fuck if anyone has my history teachers powerpoints. Like its not already on the internet anyway.