Chrome OS is getting closer. The hunt for your mom's desktop? The bigger story is that 5 years ago your OS was Windows or Mac OS. Today there's a huge variety in operating systems. Chrome aims to appeal to the light user. Android is an OS that works on a phone, but might appear in tablets sooner rather than later. Will Doyle move to Android? No he's tied to the Apple ecosystem. If you're new to smart phones, it's a good option, but nowhere near as polished as iPhone. It's like Mac OS X vs Linux. They're mostly the same, but the experience belongs to Apple. Someone from Microsoft said they took some ideas from OS X. OS feature borrowing makes the industry better. Google's trajectory has been to be the OS, with a network front end with the ability to move to another computer without hassle. Most Google apps have offline support, so an internet connection is required.

Facebook worms show up every now and then and people send emails asking you not to click on links. URL shorteners lead us to trust. Learn to look both ways before you cross the internet. Trust no one, especially if it just looks wrong. Don't enter your user name and password promiscuously. A Doyle rant occurs. It's like the AOLification of the internet, but in social media. The internet with training wheels. Let's lower the wheels. The virus and the worm have been focused on the desktop, now they're moving to the cloud. What's the point of these attacks? Are these genuine/real hackers doing this stuff just for fun? If the URL you just logged in to isn't the right page, change your password on the real site immediately. Job's big bag of hurt comment. On to Doyle's AT&T rant.

iPhone rant. As a system/network administrator, if you do unsupported things, unsupported things will happen. Why do people jailbreak? To use the iPhone on another carrier? What if Apple forced you to use Earthlink or you can't get on the internet. The mobile industry is different of course. Lots of people jailbreak to run apps that Apple won't let in to the App Store. Doyle's argument is bogus. Carrier lock isn't unique to Apple and AT&T (the DROID is only Verizon and CDMA, eek). There must be business reasons for the US lock. Doyle likes to dislike AT&T. There is complete freedom in Europe (really?). Doyle would rather pay more for his hardware to ensure carrier freedom. Channels have moved away from movie lock to original content locks. Doyle likes the integration with his technology ecosystem. (Someone, please gawd, let Doyle have choice. Thanks.) We're all having problems with our connectivity. We're complaining because we have no choice. Who can we fire over this? No one. The whole system is fubar. AT&T has seen a 5000% increase in network traffic. Doyle thinks they (AT&T and Apple) should have see this coming and planned for it. AT&T still calls Doyle trying to sell business service. AT&T has invested 62 million in San Francisco over the last few months. Michael doesn't have data problems, and doesn't care that he's paying for 3G. Most of the stuff I do on the phone works fine with EDGE (Twitter/Facebook, etc.) A GPRS icon appeared in the status bar at the top of the screen. It's a small circle. GPRS > EDGE > 3G. Michael rarely uses the phone as a phone. It's like buying a Ferrari with a 65mph limiter. Apple has new ads poking fun at CDMA 3G for not being able to use voice and data simultaneously. Apple doesn't mention that you have the same limitation with the EDGE network. LOL? What gives? AT&T and Verizon are fighting each other, is that best for the consumer? Why won't AT&T just fess up and tell people it's improving. Steal Verizon's marketing thunder. Boulder is hilly, it's difficult. AT&T won't come clean on the problems.

Quick Picks: Doyle picks 1password. Makes it easy to have and store super secure passwords across the desktop and iPhone. http://agilesoftware.com Dave pick the Leatherman tools, the Swiss Army knives of your toolbox. There are tech specific devices too. http://leatherman.com. Michael picks http://bfadds.net - a consolidation of upcoming black friday specials, including scans.

"Big bag of hurt" is a wrap. Thanks B-Side!