Data science on a Chromebook
Introduction
About nine months ago, I announced that I was trying to run a Chromebook experiment for the second time. At first, I thought it would be a short-term experiment just to see if it was only possible to run with a Chromebook. But in an interesting twist, I got used to it and worked exclusively on a Chromebook in the last few months since the experiment began.
I define the following requirements:
1. I could only use Chrome OS without installing/booting Linux
2. I could not use another computer for any task
3. It had to be “totally cloudy” in the sense that I had no additional hardware
One of the reasons I did this was that I wanted to see if it was possible to be a data scientist in operation/day to day without using an expensive laptop. This is part of a larger experiment that I just started on how to democratize education in data science.
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I’m not going to go into extreme detail about how I set it all up here (more on that in a second), but I thought I’d describe the setup of my Chromebook I’ve been using in the past few months.
I have used two Samsung Chromebook Plus computers, one of which I stay at home and the other at work. One of the best parts of Chrome’s operating system requirements is that it means that from the user’s point of view, everything is always synchronized. I disconnect from the computer at home, I come to work, I connect and it’s like I’m on the same computer.
I thought I would simply go through a high level of software that I am using to keep everything running.
• Google Presentations for Presentations — (Cost: Free) Most of the time, this was very easy and it’s a smooth Powerpoint transition. One thing I found very useful is the Chromebook plus laser pointer mode to highlight things on the screen when it is presented. I also discovered that since they are using USB-C adapters, I can participate in communism with Apple users. I had to decipher the screen mirror menus in Chrome OS, but after that it was easy.
• Google Docs / Paperpile for Recording — (Cost: Free) This works great and has been my workflow as described in my book since before beginning the experience with the Chromebook.
- DocHub to sign things: (Cost: $ 4.99 / month / charged annually) I often have to “sign” a document by adding my electronic signature. I used the note function to create a jpeg of my signature. So I can send the file to Docub
• On the back to write latex — (Cost: Free or $ 10 / month / billed annually) This is not necessary for all data scientists, but has some interesting features, including when I can write a grant and people see that
• Gmail by email — (Cost: free) This is pretty obvious.
• Google datasheets: (cost: free) This is an option I’ve been making before switching to Chromebooks. The Google sheets R package lets you do all sorts of interesting things with Google Spreadsheets.
• Digital Ocean for Rstudio -
_ (Cost: US $ 20 / month) __ Set up a Rstudio server and run it remotely in Ocean Digital. I currently use the $ 20 / month option, but sometimes I climb up or down as needed. One great thing about the coupled version of the software is that I can pause the instance, expand the computing infrastructure, restart and everything is as I left it, but with more computational power. So I can use this for a few hours as needed and scale again. I use the terminal in Rstudio for most of my code management / etc. on Github.
• Google Hangouts for video conferencing — (Cost: free) This is the default, but honestly, I would like to have a better option. I often find it tricky and slow to work with but it’s still better than Skype. I would be open to suggestions on that front.
• Communication gap (Cost: $ 6.67 / month) Several different teams here at JHU and across the country use Slack for group communication. I use it through the web browser, although Chromebook Plus allows you to install Android applications.
• Google Music to listen to music/podcasts (Cost: $ 10 / month) This is an unnecessary expense, but I like to have something to listen to while working.
• Tweetdeck for twitter — (Cost: free) I have some accounts that I manage and do through the browser. Most of the time this works very well.
Therefore, my total monthly cost reaches approximately $ 35 per month for various cloud services. At first, doing this was like writing a Haiku. I could still write, but the limitations made me think a lot about how I did things. But after a while, I was so accustomed to the way it seems natural to me and I did not lose my Apple products (which are really expensive).
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The biggest headaches were:
• Wi-Fi connectivity issues: not as great as I thought, most places have wifi where I work and most are fine. When I have problems, I leave my phone.
• Wifi blocking my OD server: this has been a headache. I think if I have a custom domain for the web server and I do not use the IP address, I could avoid it. When I have problems, I leave my phone.
• HTTR and studio on the server: when I need to login to sites, I have problems, but if I set httr_oob_default == TRUE (documentation here), the OAuth process generates a code that can stay on my server.
Besides, it’s been pretty simple to do just about everything I need. Stay tuned because this experiment inspired a broader effort we’re making with Chromebooks here at the JHU Data Science Lab. To learn about this effort as you progress, subscribe to our weekly newsletter and be the first to see new ads.
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