Author: Andrew West

Goodbye to Chromebooks after 10 years

10 years ago I started buying Chromebooks for our staff to use as travel/meeting machines. I’m now reluctantly moving to Windows, mainly because of hardware issues.

We’re a UK charity with a staff of 45 (25 back then). We run on Google Workspace. And all our staff need laptops. At the start, Chromebooks fit the bill nicely:

  • They’re cheaper, lighter, and smaller than the equivalent Windows machine – certainly light enough to travel without being a hindrance
  • They can be centrally administered, and it works really well. Google Workspace has a comprehensive list of configuration settings that are pretty secure by default. It’s easy, too – you didn’t need a PhD in Group Policy/VPNs and to be on top of every CVE.
  • They’re encrypted out of the box, which means no data security issues when lost/stolen
  • Cheaper and easier than a Windows deployment: you don’t need to pay for and administer a central server (as you did back then)

So everyone got a Chromebook. Being completely cloud-based in this way was fortuitous: in March 2020 everyone just went home and carried on. At this point some machines went from second machines to primary devices, so we upgraded people to more powerful models such as the flagship Pixelbook. Since then we’ve recruited a lot of fully-remote workers who’ve also needed powerful machines, and Chromebooks have worked for them too.

Occasionally they’d get lost or stolen. One memorably turned up in a garden in Kensington, presumably abandoned when the thief realised they couldn’t do anything with it. (The owner of the house turned it on, saw the email address, and got in touch).

As such I have seen a lot of Chromebooks. I have literally dozens of broken machines under my desk. I’ve tried high-end machines and the cheaper market. I’ve tried the big enterprise suppliers, and the regular Currys brands. I’ve opened them up, jailbroken them, done a thousand soft resets. I like to think I’ve seen the full spectrum of Chromebook life.

They no longer cut it for us. This is mainly because they’re let down by the hardware. Chrome OS is great, but the machines are not good enough over the medium term.

From a staff perspective Chromebooks have been ok: they work, and when they break a new one arrives quickly. But my IT department can’t administer them any more. I really wanted them to succeed, but I’ve finally reached my tipping point. Jumping ship to Windows + InTune is the better option, despite all the work that entails.

(We’ll of course stick with Google Workspace, which I continue to think is great. It’s just Chromebooks themselves that have to go)

This is due to:

Don’t last long enough

The average machine has lasted 2-3 years. Then they die and can’t be repaired. Compare this to the Dell Windows laptops, which in my experience merrily last 5+ (some are at 8 and still running fine after SSD upgrades).

I haven’t been cheap, either – these are not bargain-basement machines. Most were £500+, with the Pixelbooks getting up to £850.

No repair options

There are barely any spare parts, and the warranties aren’t long. I tried to get a few Pixelbooks repaired, and thought this would be ok given their prominence and expense. I was pretty sure they just needed new PSUs. But nobody would accept them for repair and you couldn’t even DIY it on eBay.

You can’t upgrade them either – very few had RAM slots or replaceable hard drives.

Model churn

Models of Chromebook disappear astonishingly quickly. I’d find something good, buy a few, and it’d vanish forever. For a while Dell had a nice model that we got bulk discounts on, but that was soon discontinued and not replaced. Even the Google Pixelbooks – the top-end model at the time – stopped being made after a couple of years. So you end up with a dozen models coexisting, each with their own little quirks. This is hard to manage.

Every time you need a new one you have to find reviews, which are themselves out of date pretty quickly. Often the reviews are from the US, and the models either aren’t available or the model numbers don’t match and you have to work out which is which. This wastes so much time.

And you have to read the reviews because a lot of the machines are crap. No RAM, terrible CPUs, useless keyboards, etc. I got the impression most manufacturers were churning out new models every couple of months to catch people looking for a shiny £250 laptop on Amazon.

Too many hardware issues

A solid minority were taken out by major hardware failures: trackpads going mad (this one scared people); screens failing; PSU failures.

In particular: the charging cables. These break regularly. Almost every Chromebook in the last few years has had to have a new charger. We have spares in the office at all times. Having established that the office softball team weren’t using them for practice, my main assumption is they don’t travel well and can’t stand being coiled up or something.

Slow down over time

Seriously, it was like Windows in the 2000s. I saw so many 18-month-old machines that were wading through treacle – even with SSDs.

This one is super-frustrating because I don’t have an answer to “why is this machine so slow?”, let alone a fix. Presumably it’s because Google are aggressive with Chrome OS and its needs. Except it’s ultimately just a wrapper for a browser – how can this be happening so quickly? Maybe the hardware is so bad that the CPUs soon overheat and have to throttle?

Sometimes I could nuke a few Chrome extensions (Grammarly is a toxin) and it would eke out a few more months. But often I was having to replace them after 2 years.

So

We’ll slowly transition to Windows + Azure AD + InTune, which is at least a lot easier than VPNs + AD + Group Policy was back in the day. It’ll still be more work. And the machines will be bigger and heavier. But they’re easy to buy, they’ll last a while, and I can fix them.

Co-Screen and 1Password SSH are good

I had good experiences with two new tools today.

Co-Screen

Co-Screen is a ‘collaborative screen sharing’ app owned by the excellent Datadog. It’s a video chat app that lets you share multiple separate windows. Everyone in the chat is able to:

  • Move the windows around on their own desktops and arrange them as they will
  • Take control of the windows
  • See each other’s mouse cursors within the windows
  • Draw on top of the windows, to temporarily highlight a particular section

And, most fun: multiple people can share their windows simultaneously.

I am training a new employee this week and I got fed up with the limitations of Google Meet screen sharing. Co-Screen turned out to be a whole new world: it’s brilliant. I was watching him set up SSH in 1Password, as detailed below, while he watched me set up the server end in a terminal window.

My only concern is that Co-Screen is somehow free. I would be more than happy to pay for it.

SSH Keys in 1Password

As part of the same employee training I decided to try out 1Password’s ability to act as an SSH agent. This means you store your SSH private keys in the 1Password app, and it handles the workflow of any other Windows app requesting them.

This seemed good in theory as it meant avoiding having to set up .ssh config files, as well as having to find a place to securely store private keys. 1Password just handles it all.

So we tried, and it Just Worked. Not only did it Just Work, but:

IT. WORKED. FIRST. TIME.

When has anything involving SSH keys ever worked first time? I know of no higher testament to the efficacy of an SSH system.

Plus it’s nice to have the keys in 1Password’s silo, so they’re secure but you always have them.

The one limitation is that any application accessing the agent needs to support the Microsoft OpenSSH standard. Notable apps that don’t: FileZilla1, PuTTY. Notable apps that do: Git for Windows, JetBrains, VSCode. So we can live with that.

  1. That said, don’t use FileZilla any more 🙁 ↩︎

Dell’s XPS error

I’m in the market for a new ultrabook, and my instinct is to go to Dell. I’ve bought dozens of Dell machines for work at this point, and found them reliable, long-lasting, and with a good support network. Laptop-wise I’ve had my personal XPS 13 for years, and it’s brilliant. It’s powerful enough to edit 45mb RAW files on the fly, it’s light enough to balance on one hand at the back of convention stages, it’s robust enough to survive being hurled around planes and trains and taxis. It looks pretty too. It’s just great.

It’s starting to age now, and I would happily replace it with the latest model. But I can’t. Dell have refreshed the line and…broken it. After introducing a ‘Plus’ model last year, to disdain from most reviewers, Dell have inexplicably scrapped the standard model entirely. The 2024 models have:

  • Keyboards with non-standard key sizes and placements
  • A touch bar instead of F keys – something Apple tried and gave up on – that isn’t customisable
  • A palm rest that works as one giant touchpad, meaning you move the mouse whenever your wrist brushes the case
  • A price tag higher than a MacBook with better specs. I’m a Windows guy but even I know the current crop of Apple laptops are blowing PCs out of the water for anything except gaming

I really tried to overlook it all as I want an easy life, but it’s too much. I could have got an older model, but I wanted Meteor Lake. So after reading countless reviews and videos, where the Dell isn’t even a contender any more, I’ve ordered an HP Spectre x360.

It’s really annoying, as I’ve recommended the XPS line to friends a bunch of times. And I still like Dell’s support, with engineers who come out to your place of work. What a weird thing to do.

I’m a private pilot

I completed my radio telephony exam yesterday. And that’s the final checkbox. Done. I just need to physically receive my license, and I’ll be allowed to carry passengers. Eep.

Piccadilly Spotlight

My first public performance in…3.5 years, I think? It went well, though the photos suggest I was not exactly Mr Expressive. Plus ça change. It was a competition, and I came 2 out of 5. Not too shabby. Thank you to @vitawilton for the lovely routine and indeed the entirely delightful Piccadilly Spotlight event.

Skill Test

After 2 years, 64 lessons, a bunch of exams, and a cross-country solo, I passed my Skill Test today. This is the big hurdle before getting a license – it’s pretty much the equivalent of the driving test.

You take an examiner on a flight, and they ask you to navigate and perform various manoeuvres: stalls, recovery from a spiral dive, simulated forced landings, tracking to a VOR, various types of non-simulated landing, and more. It’s quite the day!

I have one more minor box to tick: you need a specific license to broadcast on radio frequencies from a plane, and I need to do a ground-based exam for that. I’ll hopefully get that in the next couple of weeks. And then I’ll have my full license!

The Peripheral

The Peripheral (Amazon Prime) doesn’t mess about. It drops you right in, and you’ve gotta keep up. You may struggle, as I did, because it takes no prisoners. But it’s worth it.

The year is 2032. There’s been an internal US war of some sort. VR is pretty immersive now, and ex-soldiers make a living in ‘sims’ – violent video games. But one soldier is continually outplayed by his younger sister, so when a new VR device arrives, and the money’s too good to pass up, he asks her to take his place. She lands in London, in a simulation so real she can actually feel what’s happening to her. It does not go well.

The future comes thick and fast and in deep grandeur. London is overlooked by statues the height of mountains. Sure, you think, whatever – it’s the future. But there’s a reason. There’s always a reason.

Everyone is intelligent and does the smart thing in any given situation. Everyone is capable of absorbing new information without requiring half an episode to freak out and be talked round. Everyone is gracious under pressure. Essentially: everyone behaves exactly as you’d hope you would if your reality were upended. But despite doing everything right, *it all still goes wrong*. I like this.

While everyone’s smart, some of them are proper psychotic. You think you’ve seen it all, but this show comes up with some truly appalling ways to behave. Geez. It helps that half the cast are Brits and the others have southern US accents to die for: the Brits sound super sinister in comparison. Plus they all get to say interesting stuff *all the time*, and are charismatic to a fault. One showdown in particular is just phenomenal – you’ll know it when you see it.

It’s not really a show you can make predictions about. From time to time you think you’ve got the lay of the land, but then there’s some whirlwind of new ideas and probably an unexpected robot and whoosh – everything’s different. Just enjoy the spectacle. This is to be expected as it’s based on a William Gibson novel: it stays true to his form. You just land in the world, and there’s a lot that’s incomprehensible for a while. It throws you the odd bone, but you spend a lot of time trying to stay afloat.

If you wanted to be a cheap critic you could say it exploits the sunk-cost fallacy. It’s a lot of work to figure out what’s going on, and your brain really does not want this to be a waste of your time. So it’s in your interest to think you’re enjoying it, and the threshold for backtracking is super high. And I agree that when people do this in the real world it’s a grubby trick. Continental philosophy innit. But for entertainment: bring it on. Exploit me. Manipulate my emotions as much as you like. Do whatever you gotta do to get me invested – that’s what I’ve signed up for.

I don’t think it’s all a trick, though. There’s enough food for thought that your brain chews on it for a day then cheerily spits stuff out when you want to sleep.

All in all: loved it; very exciting; favourite sci-fi since The Expanse; did I mention the adorable southern accents, you’ve never heard people tell each other to fuck off like this, come the metaverse I’m giving myself a Texas drawl.

The coming existential crisis

Have I mentioned I’m turning 40 this year? I’m turning 40 this year.

I have friends who are sailing through this with nary a breakdown. It is, they say, fine:

  • Time is a continuum
  • You’re only one day older than you were yesterday
  • The past is done and the future hasn’t happened yet so all you can do is enjoy now

All of this is true and indeed wise but, you see, that’s about them and it’s me who’s turning 40. I am.

When I was a kid I read a lot about the history of magic and I learnt that Robert Houdin, the father of modern magic and the magician’s magician, didn’t start until he was 40. I have always remembered this. No matter what happened, I thought, I could always change direction in the far distant future and become the father of modern magic.

But that’s now, guys, it’s now. I don’t even know what needs birthing.

Something needs to happen, though. There is a tickle at the back of my mind that won’t go away. I don’t know what it is yet. But I feel like it’s kicking for the surface.

While I await existential enlightenment, the obvious backup plans are:

  • Dog
  • Curl up in a ball and await the Singularity
  • Van life

Or some combination of the above. I’d better get ready.

Good things of 2022

Books

Fiction: The Expanse series

I got slightly obsessed with The Expanse last winter and tore through all the books. I thus recommend them, which is certainly not the sunk cost fallacy. They are top sci-fi, I promise. Humane, thoughtful, and rich. Cavalier captains, cowboy pilots, badass marines, sweary diplomats, noir detectives – it’s just great.

Fiction: Children of Time

Do you want to read a book about giant space spiders? Are you sure you want to read a book about giant space spiders? Because it is an odd sensation to experience constant low-level revulsion while reading a story, but if you’re good with that this is the book for you. It is a book about giant space spiders. They evolve out of tiny space spiders. There are some humans too, but they’re mostly jerks. The spiders are where it’s at. Just relax into it.

Non-fiction: The Natural Navigator

I assume everyone’s jealous of people who can read nature. People who can identify bird calls, or point at a tree and say ‘that’s unusual’, or point at a cloud and say ‘that’s worrying’, or point at a bee and say ‘that’s Ernesto’, or very confidently know what a fern is. Such people seem to experience the world in a very satisfying way. It’d be nice to be like that.

I figure your options for achieving this are:

  • Retroactively develop an interest at age 5
  • Experience some sort of amnesia, get rescued by a hot recluse, learn the wonders of nature, get rescued, go back to the city and realise it sucks and you want to be a hot recluse too
  • Get an ecology degree
  • Tristan Gooley

Tristan Gooley is the easiest option. He will get you 10% of the way there, anyway, and that’s enough to feel like a wizard for a bit.

I’ve read three of his books about the natural world, and they’re all one fascinating fact after another. The Natural Navigator is a good start. It teaches you to answer one question: which way am I facing? Other than the position of the sun, how do you know?

You learn that the branches of trees are most dense towards the south, and then you suddenly notice that lots of trees are like this. You learn that birds usually sit facing the wind so they can take off quickly, and then you suddenly notice birds more. It’s great.

You read one book for 90mins and then get to wander around the world spotting all sorts of patterns and clues that were there the whole time. I recommend this experience wholeheartedly.

TV

This is Us

This is Us is the best written show on TV and I will hear nothing against it. The words, man.

(I haven’t actually finished it yet, so don’t tell me anything please)

Boots

Blundstone boots are the magic trinity of ankle boots: light, comfortable, and hard-wearing. They work for the office, and for the Devon coastline. They have grip, without looking like hiking boots. If you walk funny, like me, they take two years to wear down on one side. And the colour doesn’t fade for ages.

In 2022 mine dealt with Norwegian forests, muddy towpaths, snowy pontoons, Disneyland, and fundraising dinners. They aren’t actively waterproof unless you buy a specific model, but in practice I’ve had no trouble. There are dressier versions too, although they’re still boots.

If you would like a second opinion, see Adam Savage.

Fitness

The Body Coach app

Joe Wicks’ Body Coach app has kept me fit for 2 years now. You get a series of workouts to do, at home, in monthly cycles. Some are 20mins, some are (urgh) 40mins. Once complete, you get a harder series. And repeat. It’s always a challenge, but always achievable.

Joe does the workouts in real-time with you, so it’s not like those YouTube videos where you’re yelled at by some beefcake who won the genetic lottery. You see him struggling, or needing a rest, or really not enjoying himself. He’s likeable too, or at least he is when he’s not making you do fucking squat jumps.

It’s a mixture of aerobic exercise and weight-training. He introduces dumbbells at a certain point, but you don’t need any more equipment than that.

And most of all, it actually works. I have kept it up. As a result I’ve been doing weight-training for 18 months, which is not a sentence I ever thought I’d write. It is very pleasant to feel fit, and I do – anecdotally, sample size of 1 etc – feel mentally sharper. I recommend just getting up and doing it before work: you get an early sense of achievement, and very little time to think up an excuse.

She’s a Beast

Relatedly: if you’re interested in weight-training but are put off by the constellation of bullshit that surrounds it, I recommend the She’s a Beast newsletter. It’s not about magically gaining 30lb of muscle in 3 months (impossible), or wanting to look like Chris Hemsworth (losing his hair anyway, pfff). It’s just lifting weights to be strong and healthy, via evidence, evidence, and more evidence. What works (slow and steady), what’s wishful thinking (you can’t lose weight and gain muscle at the same time), what’s unknown (how different genetics interact with different routines), what’s stupid (random supplements).