Intertech C# Training Review

I recently took a C# course offered by Intertech out of Eagan, MN taught by Andrew Troelsen. The class was very helpful learning the C# language and Andrew is a great instructor. I would highly recommend this course to any one looking for quality C# training.

Google CR-48 Notebook Thoughts and Review

I received my Google CR 48 on Monday 2/7/11.  I had all but given up hope that I was going to be selected to get one of these rare machines.  I didn't receive notice of any kind from Google and when I got home it was just sitting on my doorstep.  My initial impressions of the machine and Chrome OS have been very good.  The machine itself is very solid and Google picked a good piece of hardware to run their system on.

One of the things that I have noticed is that the power efficiency of Chrome is great.  I get about 7 hours of battery life out of the machine.  If this machine were running anything else I am sure that the battery life wouldn't be as good.  I have only had a few issues with Chrome since using it since Monday.  I have had reports that Flash Player has crashed a couple of times but from what I understand a fix for this is in the future.  The sleep to awake time on this notebook is very good and it doesn't take the CR-48 very long to connect back up to wireless.  It is very easy to just stop what you are doing, close the lid and resume from right where you left off with this machine.

I work as a software developer, mainly with Microsoft products so this could never be my main machine but it has definitely taken the place of my laptop.  The CR-48 will become even more useful to me when Citrix develops a driver to connect to remote desktop.  Then I can do all my work from home on my CR-48 and take it to meetings.  The only option I have right now is LogMeIn or another similar web-based remote desktop.  Overall, I have had a very solid experience with it and am very happy to have been chosen for the pilot program.  The few issues that I do have, I am confident that Google will straighten out in the near future.  I have owned a netbook before and never really got the performance out of it that I needed.  Chrome is so lightweight that this thing runs like a dream.

Android Development

So I began looking into Android development shortly after I purchased the Droid X.  I have been having a lot of fun but I know little Java so the prospect of me developing great apps without this knowledge is very slim.  So I decided to purchase a book on Java development and have begun my look into that.  I took a Java course in college but it was my very first programming class and very little of the information I learned stick with me.  Hopefully it will be like riding a bike and it will all come flooding back to me.  Anybody that has any tips for beginning Android development is welcome to share their experiences.