Chrome Extension Crazy

Google recently announced that extensions are now available in the stable release of Google Chrome.  I have gone pretty nuts on installing extensions in Chrome.  What started off as just one or two essentials has now bloomed into 19 installed extensions.  I am not noticing any reduced performance which is good, although I gradually worked my way up to 19 so perhaps it is just that I was able to get used to the reduction in speed.

These are the extensions I am using. I have updated my list of Chrome extensions that I am using.  You can see a complete list of my extension use, including extensions I am not using anymore at: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg3nwtbg_331d8ww5dhh  Extensions in bold are the ones that I most highly recommend.  Extensions with an * next to them replaced functionality I used to have in a bookmarklet.
Are you using Chrome?  How many extensions are you running?  Any must have extensions I am missing here?

1. Slideshow
2. IE Tab (Only at work)
3. Google Voice
4. Google Similar Pages
5. Google Sidewiki
6. Google Reader - Note in Reader
7. Google Quick Scroll
8. Google Mail Checker
9. Google Dictionary
10. Feedly
11. Docs PDF Preview
12. Blog This! for Blogger
13. AdThwart
14. Add to Amazon Wishlist
15. Add Google Bookmark
16. Unread Bookmarks
17. Send to Google Docs
18. Snippy
19. Readability

Hello from Android Land

I grabbed a new apparently called Blogaway that allows me to post to my Blogger blogs.  Seems to work well.

Even lets me include cute pictures of the kids, like this one of Liam sleeping after draining a bottle of milk.

Mystery Campaign - Week One Recap

This past week marked the kickoff of my 4th edition D&D campaign for 2010.  The campaign ran players from 2nd till 6th level last year and represented the first time since the early 90's that I ran a regularly scheduled roleplaying game campaign and my first ever D&D campaign.  Things were a bit rough in "season 1" but I have high hopes for the campaign this year which looks like it will bring the players to at least level 12.

The players started off in Winterhaven, having defeated Kalarel and his minions in both the keep and Winterhaven itself.  "Season one" of the campaign was a mix of the Keep on the Shadowfell module and some home written stuff.  One of the major story arcs is the discovery of a number of ancient artifacts, the Sou Daggers of Orcus, which were made long ago in the great Demon/Dragon wars.  My campaign is set in the land of Treayal, and is the back drop for all of the campaign work I am doing in 4e.

The party journeyed to visit the last member of an otherwise dead race of ratmen named Nicodemus (yea not that original).  He bargained with a demon long ago to gain eternal life so that he may find a way to re-make his race again.  His age and power as a sorcerer give him great wisdom, and he knows of the soul daggers. After imparting some knowledge to the party he suggests that a visit to the Feywild is in order.  One of the party members died in the previous part of the campaign and was revived by a scroll.  The scroll did restore her life, but also bound her to Orcus.  Nicodemus suggests that a visit to an old Eladrin scholar may prove useful in removing the taint from the scroll.  The party agrees and are shown to one of the boundaries between this world and the Feywild.

Upon arrival the party was shocked by how dense the forest was in the Feywild.  They were also surprised to see a cave guarded by 3 huge Fomorians.  Fortunately, the party was able to successfully sneak past the guards without raising suspicion.  They found there way to the Eladrin enclave to meet the scholar only to find that he was not there.  It seems that other members of the Eladrin race took an interest in his work, and hoped that they could use it to defeat their enemies.  They took him captive to try and extract the information they needed (the key to library in his enclave).  It was up to the party to rescue the scholar before it was too late.

It did not take the party long to find the prisoner, or his captors.  The party found out the hard way how powerful the bows of the Eladrin can be, and the Eladrin were almost successful in carting off their prisoner to deeper parts of the forest.  The Eladrin underestimated the power of the poison cloud spell, and soon found how how quickly it can dismantle a well organized attack.  The Eladrin surrendered to the party and released the captive.  The night ended with the party returning the scholar to his home for medical attention and rest.

It was an interesting evening of play.  I felt that the game ran much more smoothly than some of the games in the past did.  There was a lot of intro material to set up where things were headed in "season 2".  There were also a number of skill challenges. In fact the entire night only had one combat encounter (although others were possible).  I think we had a great kick off, leading to more of the story unfolding this week.

Go Buy a Pogoplug

Like many geeks, I was first introduced to the Pogoplug at CES last year.  This small power plug adapter with a computer inside that would let me connect to an external (USB) hard drive drive from anywhere in the world.  It has worked very well over the past year, and I was pretty happy to see some video of the updated model from CES this year.  The Pogoplug is an awesome netbook accessory as it gives you basically unlimited storage in your own personal cloud for a one time purchase price (there is no monthly/annual fee to use the Pogoplug).

Pogoplug has client software for Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android.  I loaded up the software on my Nexus One yesterday and could not login.  I was 100% sure that I was typing in the correct password and decided to fire off a message to support.  The reason I am telling you to go buy a Pogoplug is because of the support experience I had with today, and every other time I have contacted them in the past.  Today is Sunday, I submitted my question online at 9:35 this morning.  At 9:36 it was assigned to the correct tech (and I got a personal e-mail telling me so) and we had the issue resolved by 2:00.  The resolution was actually a workaround, one I was fine doing, but I have been told by support that they will follow up when the full resolution is in place.  I have no doubt I will receive the update when the resolution is available.

Pogoplug offers a great product that works like they say it will.  They offer top tier support from people who obviously know the product very well.  If you have not already looked into Pogoplug I would strongly suggest you do.

Gaming with Kids

Iain loves playing games.  Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Chicken Cha Cha Cha to name a few.  Even better though is the chance to play with some of dad's games.  Recently, he has been very interested in the miniatures and tiles I have for playing Dungeons & Dragons.  He sees me setting them up for game night, and sees us playing with them and thinks that he should be able to as well.  He has loved rolling dice since he was tiny (so tiny that he should have been no where near dice) and that makes the RPG all that much more interesting.

Recently, a set of rules were published on the Newbiedm blog for playing an rpg like game with kids.  The idea was exactly the situation I was seeing with Iain.  I downloaded the rules and we had the chance to try them out a few times.  Iain really likes it.  Basically, I dump out my miniatures on the floor and let him pick four guys he likes.  I set up some tiles and makeup a bit of a story to go along.  He has always been a fan of making up stories, and this is one of his favorite parts of playing.


Last time we played he had the chance to explore the mummies tomb and fight off the mummy kings skeleton guards and pet spider.  His goal was to defeat the mummy king and collect the treasure, he was successful. The game is very simple, combats involve dicing with d12's with the higher number winning.  There are a couple of simple modifiers which can cause a bit of trouble though.  Each fighter/monster in the game has two wounds, and after they have taken one wound take a -1 penalty on their rolls.  This modifier is difficult for him to understand (perhaps because there is nothing visual to denote it).  The other modifier, a +2 for having an extra friendly attacker in contact with the same enemy, is much easier for him to grasp.  We are working on it though, and he is getting better.

We roll dice, and use our fingers to determine the totals with modifiers.  He has to determine which roll is higher, and he loves this part...when his is higher.  He is a good sport though, and has never complained when one of his party members goes down.  It is a very fast game to play, which makes it ideal for a four year old.

We have played three times, and he has won two of the games.  Typically the victory is enough for him, but in the last game when he found the treasure it turned out to be 45 cents for his piggy bank.  You cannot go wrong with real treasure right?

If you have young kids, kids to young to play the real games with, I highly recommend you try out this simple set of rules.  They work great with D&D miniatures and the D&D tiles as well.  Even if you don't have the tiles, any grid surface will work.  The movement for the game is set base on squares which makes it very easy to count.  The is a great way to teach kids simple arithmetic, and does a great job of teaching how to understand and follow rules.  If you give the game a try be sure to let me and the NewbieDM know how it goes.

I tried to get Iain to record a video with me to talk about playing the game, but he decided to watch They Might Be Giants instead.

Day One with the Nexus One

Not that it should come as any surprise to those who know me, but I did buy an unlocked Nexus One
 earlier this week.  For those living under a shell, or simply not as geeky as me, the Nexus One is a new smartphone running the Android operating system that was designed by Google and HTC.  The phone was built buy HTC, but it is sold by Google direct.  This is Google's first foray into the direct sales market for Android phones (or anything else for that matter), and appears to be an attempt to slowly shake up the way that mobile phones are sold in the US.

Prior to receiving the Nexus One I was a Blackberry Storm user on the Verizon network.  I had the opportunity to carry both the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris, each for a few weeks after they were released.  They were my first introductions to the Android OS, and gave me a good idea of what to expect.    Making the change from Verizon to T-Mobile was perhaps the hardest part of the transition, especially since T-Mobile coverage is no where near as good as Verizon.  I should also point out that I am a heavy user of Google products, and a fairly entrenched fanboy of those products.  So why make the switch now?

• Unlocked Phone:  I really do not like being locked into a contract with a wireless carrier.  The Nexus One is sold unlocked (though it is certainly not the only phone) and for full price.  This allows me to take advantage of a month to month service plan.
• T-Mobiles Plan:  I am saving quite a bit of money with the 59.99 plan from T-Mobile.  I get 500 minutes of talk with unlimited everything else.  The most important part is that this is a month to month price.  The only downside I have found is that the month to month plan is not eligible for the discount they give for work.
• Android:  After using the Droid for two weeks I knew that I needed to switch to Android.  I will mention the Gmail client in a bit, but it is just one of the many reasons that heavy Google users should be considering Android.

I have had the phone for a little over a day now.  My thoughts on the phone after spending time to configure and play?

• The screen is awesome.  I have heard people say that they think the screen on the Droid is better, but I disagree.  The N1 screen is bright and vivid.  Colors look great, and I am not seeing any pixelization.  The Droid screen was never as bright or crisp.
• The touch screen is pretty good, but I am noticing some times where I need to tap an icon more than once to get it to register.  I have also noticed that when I am in the application list I sometimes need to scroll up a little before I can scroll down.  My hope is that this can be tweaked via software, because the screen is generally very responsive to touch.
• The speed increase over the Droid is noticeable.  The phone switches between apps faster, scrolls through lists and web pages faster with less stutter, and flies through the Facebook widget better than on the Droid.  The FB widget on the Droid was very slow to switch between posts.
• The device itself is thin and light and fits very nicely in the hand.  The power button is easy to press, but not so much so that you bump it.  The button on the Droid was a pain in the ass to push.  I like the inclusion of the trackball.  Something like this is a godsend when trying to edit something in the middle of a block of text.  The volume rocker on the N1 is as poorly placed and sensitive as the Droid, so easy to bump.  It is especially bad when using the camera.
• My T-Mobile experience has been great so far.  It did take a while for my number to port from Verizon (about 14 hours), but I don't think that is their fault.  Phone call quality on the N1 is amazing, better than Verizon in my very limited testing.  I am sure this is at least in part due to the phone, but is also a factor of the T-Mobile network.
• The network speed at my house for 3G is faster on T-Mobile. With my Storm and N1 right next to each other my N1 is getting 502 Kbps and the Storm is getting...well the Storm hasn't even loaded the test page yet.  In general though I am seeing 200 - 400 Kbps faster on T-Mobile around Houston and Pearland.

Let me finish up by saying two things.  First, the out of box experience for the N1 was very nice.  I am perhaps not the best judge, but it seemed very straight forward and easy.  Second, to all of my family and friends who use Verizon, I am sorry but you will need to pay to call me now.  Oh and you have no excuse not to use my Google Voice number now.  :)

Here are a few useful links about the Nexus One:

• Engadget Review
• Boy Genius Report Review
• Google Reader Items (A collection of interesting links I have saved)
• Nexus One Channel You Tube