Merry Christmas!

I am up early, and it is pretty obvious that Santa made a stop at our house. The carrots we left out for the reindeer are gone, and the cookies we left for Santa are all missing a bite. My inability to control myself on Amazon.com is evident again this year as wrapped gifts explode our from under the tree. I am sure my brother, the poverty expert, is thrilled by this massive show of consumerism.

"I am a weapon of massive consumption, it's not my fault its how I'm programmed to function."

Lily Allen - The Fear

I am up first this morning, everything is quiet. The only sounds are the keys on my keyboard as I type this, and the coffee pot brewing the morning pot. I am sure that will all change in about an hour though. I am not sure the boys will last much past 7:00 in bed. Time to go setup the inflatable jump house in the driveway, a gift from the boys aunt and uncle.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who read this blog! I hope you enjoy the season as much as I do, for whichever reason you celebrate.

Super Savage - Week 2 Game Recap

This week was a light session, giving us a chance to explore some of the mechanics (especially combat) some more. Our goal at this point seems to be to make our way through the wasteland of once was what the central United States in search of "better transportation". We are not finding it an easy thing to do.

We made our way down to a river, and were able to obtain a boat (a rather mysterious circumstance to find a boat, hiding in a house, fully charged up). We set off down the river on our way to Evansville, IN in search of still better transport. We started on foot, moved to horses, then the boat. I wonder what is next. I should take the time to note that none of the super heroes in our party can fly, run really fast or do anything super as it relates to movement. We are kinda lame in that regard.

On the river we are able to see what is left of human society, a meager existence that most humans would have thought was left far in the past. The boat comes to the remains of yet another town, when the party is attacked. More of the same alien robots we had seen before, but this time with some men working with them. All of the enemies were quickly subdued, no thanks to my character. We talked to some of the towns people and found out that there are people who work as agents for the aliens. Easy to get the impression that the people out in the world, who are not slaves to the aliens are very interested in keeping a low profile.

Further progress is made up the river, and we find a few people selling & trading junk. The mind reading member of our party senses a trap, and we are able to scare off the people without much of a fight. We wrapped up a quick night of gaming as we rolled into the docks at Evansville. Next session, in the new year, will have the party trying to find our new transport. We need to make our way towards one of the Aliens big pyramid cities to see if we can't "reason" with them.

Frank has not had much chance to do anything. I am 100% focused on melee combat, and my skill set is basically limited to beating (burning) information out of people. Hopefully, I will have a chance to shine, or burn as the case may be, when we pick up again in January. The podcast of the session should be up on 6arrows soon.

Impressions on the Galaxy Tab

I could not help myself! After watching JKK Mobile's video review of the tab, and listening to Kevin, James and Matt discuss the Tab on a couple of episodes of MobileTech Roundup I had to grab one. I am really, really not sure what I was waiting for.

Last Monday I stopped at the T-Mobile store before heading into the office and grabbed a Samsung Galaxy Tab along with a 2 year commitment on a data plan. I am currently signed up with the unlimited plan, but the way T-mobile works the commitment is month to month. I can swap out plans freely, as long as I keep a plan for 2 years. I am normally hesitant to enter into a commitment with a mobile carrier, but as this plan allows me full access to the T-Mobile 4G network (though not on the Galaxy Tab), I am pretty sure I will get use out of it for two years. I also like the fact that the plan comes with access to all T-mobile hotspots for free.

I have been using the Galaxy Tab, pretty much as my main day to day web device, for about a week now. Here are my thoughts.

The Awesome

• The size of the tab is much nicer than the iPad for walking around the house, and especially mobile. The Galaxy Tab is about half the size of the iPad and about half the weight, it makes a big difference when you are holding your computer (as opposed to having my netbook resting on my lap). Steve Jobs should buy one of these and use it for a week, wouldn't take long till we saw the 7" iPad announcement.
• The display on the Tab is very nice, and the difference between my 3.7" Nexus One and the 7" Galaxy Tab is huge. I was a bit concerned, before I really played with the Tab, that only having the 7" display would be limiting, especially on the web. I can say that is not the case. I do still zoom in on some pages when reading (I did the same on the iPad), but I do it for enhanced comfort more than necessity. It was needed on the Nexus One, its just a nice feature on the Tab. Most apps are showing up full screen, and they look very nice. Videos look sharp and crisp, and the darker colors display particularly well.
• The speakers on the Tab are not the loudest I have heard, but they beat the pants off of the speakers on my EEE PC. What they lose in volume they make up for in quality. The sound comes through very clear on the Tab. On par with the iPad to be sure. I am constantly using headphones with my EEE PC (and the Cr-48 for that matter) to actually hear videos and podcasts. That will not be an issue on the Tab.
• The Nexus One has a seriously limited amount of application storage space. I am constantly having to shuffle apps on and off the device to try new things. The 2 GB of application storage space on the tab is soooooo nice. I have loaded up close to 100 apps on the thing and am still at about 75% free space. On an app driven device this is huge.
• The battery life on the Tab has been amazing. I would call this an "all day" device to be sure. I am getting between 8 and 12 hours each day on what I would call moderate usage. Each day I have watched videos, listened to music (stream and local), browsed the web, played games and installed apps. Great device for mobile in that regard.

The Not So Awesome

• Samsung made a huge mistake with the device charger. The cord that comes with the device is so short that it barely reaches to the top of my night stand. I have to leave the device hanging a bit over the edge to get it to reach. I have been putting it in the drawer at night to charge instead. Very disappointed.
• Continuing on with the charger, lets talk about the proprietary PDMI port. Listen up device makers. The standard is micro usb now. All the phones have them, everyone in the world has a couple of cables lying around, and more device docks are being built with that connector in mind. The PDMI port is supposed to provide universal connection to accessories, but it seems that Samsung didn't fully implement the spec anyway (something about powering the device is different if I understand correctly). Anyway, the proprietary port means I have to buy more proprietary cables, and carry them around with me. Thats not cool.
• Samsung has done an OK job with the Calendar, Contacts, and messaging apps in terms of making them useful in landscape (tablet) mode. However, having even a little change off of stock Android means that I am going to have to wait (and wait) for Gingerbread on this thing. I would love to see Samsung roll this device back to native Android when Honeycomb releases, but I doubt that will happen. It is because of this issue that I imagine I will end up selling the Tab long before the 2 year contract is up, and buy a new tablet at full price to run with this contract.
• The camera does not seem to auto focus like my Nexus One does, which is annoying. I want to use the camera on the Tab for two primary purposes. 1) taking pictures of documents and other bits of information for storage in Evernote, and 2) for barcode scanning/Amazon remembers pictures. Both of these situations call for close in detail. I get far better detail on the Nexus One, and I think it has to do with auto focus.

I said early that I have no idea why I waited, and that is very true. I should have picked this up the day it was released. Right now the Tab has replaced the EEE PC as my daily computer. I am using the CR-48 daily to create written content (Google Docs, blogging) and my desktop as my main media/backup/powerhouse machine (photo and video editing are done on the desktop). It is amazing to me that the Tab can replace my netbook, which has been my faithful friend since August of 2009. I have heard people claim that they leave the computer at home and travel with just their phone. I could never have done that, but I am sure I could with the Tab.

I will post more about apps on the Galaxy Tab later.

Related articles

• Galaxy Tab vs. iPad: The tablet war begins now (msnbc.msn.com)
• T-Mobile Drops Price Of Galaxy Tab To $349 (informationweek.com)
• No 7-Inch iPad? That's a Shame (pcworld.com)
• T-Mobile looking to supercharge their 3G network to be as fast as 4G (geek.com)

ChromeOS Keyboard

getOne of the hardware aspects of ChromeOS that may find it's way onto all devices is the keyboard. There are a few noticeable differences between a standard Windows keyboard and the keyboard on ChromeOS. The major differences are:

• No Function Keys (F1 - F11)
• No dedicated Home, End or Delete Key
• No Caps Lock

What Google has done is given a reference to what a keyboard on a computer built for the web might look like. In place of the typical function keys Google has added a row of keys each dedicated to a function of the netbook. They have keys for:

• Navigate Forward/Back (2 keys)
• Refresh
• Full Screen
• Switch Windows (Same as Alt + Tab which also works)
• Brightness Up/Down (2 keys)
• Volume Mute, Up/Down (3 keys)
• Power

Perhaps the one thing about the keyboard that makes it seem like a web based OS is the key map overlay you can display to figure out all of the alternate key options. Home, End, Delete, Print Screen and other options are all available, if you know the right keystrokes.  The map helps you to learn them all, and reminds me of the Google web apps which often feature a way to list keyboard shortcuts as an overlay.

Easy to figure out what different key combinations do.

I am quite fond of the new keyboard. Once I figured out how to do the Home, End and Delete key functions I was much happier. Having quick dedicated keys for full screen and search are very handy. Since I have all of my apps on the new tab screen, which is displayed when I press the search button, I can easily launch into new apps or do a search. That does bring me to one feature request for Chrome. It would be great if Apps were indexed and launchable from the Omnibar. Since apps are really just URL's this sort of works already, but I would love to see them show up in the omnibar results, by name with a unique icon. I don't think that the average user will have a difficult time adjusting to this new keyboard. Google will need to be sure to include the shortcut to display the overlay (Ctrl+Alt+/) front and center in the documentation so that people can find those keystrokes to the commands they are used to seeing.

As to the lack of CAPSLOCK? Good riddance.

A day with CR-48

I wrote yesterday about receiving the Google Chrome OS notebook, dubbed the CR-48. I had most of the day today to spend using this new notebook to get work and personal stuff done and wanted to share my first impressions.

The Good

• Like Android, the Chrome OS has a great "getting started" experience. If you have ever used a Google service, and especially if you use the Chrome browser, your Chrome OS will auto build for you when you login. The whole process is super fast (see the bad for one caveat).
• Working with just a browser is surprisingly easy to do. Just need to find the right apps. (see below)
• The keyboard is really amazing to type on. Super responsive keys and great key spacing. The changes that they have made to a standard keyboard are almost universally great. I do miss a) the home & end key, and b) the delete key, otherwise all is great with the keyboard.
• The wifi seems to work just as well as the other devices (netbook, ipad, laptop) in the house. Connects up very fast on resume from sleep.
• The speed at boot and restore is fast like has been claimed.
• Battery life is decent.  I got about 6.5 hours today with moderate to heavy usage. I have the display set pretty close to full, and mobile broadband off.

The Bad

• I am a netbook user, so I understand what it is like to use a Atom processor based machine on a daily basis. With my EEE PC I would say that things can be slow, but not to the point where it is annoying. With the CR-48 I cannot make that claim, it can be frustratingly slow to use. Granted, this is a beta hardware platform, running a beta OS, but still for an OS built on the premise of fast web access it can be painful.
• This has been said, a lot, but the touchpad is horrible. Hopefully it is a software issue, but I think perhaps it is just a crappy touchpad. I really wish there was a keystroke to disable it, because it is easy to bump while typing.
• I mentioned the ease of setup, and that is 99.9% true. I need to add though the Chrome's browser sync is not configured by default. About 99% of the magic when logging in for the first time is generated by browser sync. It would be nice to see that enabled by default.

The App Suite

I am limited to working online, so I have started to build a collection of Web Applications to get everything done. Many (most) of these apps are tools I used prior to owning this notebook, but they take on even more importance without the option of rolling back to apps.

• PIM Functions (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks) - All handled by Google
• E-mail - Handled by Gmail and OWA (for work email)
• Notepad - Using the Scratchpad App
• Photo Management - Picasa
• Photo Editing - Piknik (with Picasa Integration)
• Music - Pandora & Streaming from Pogoplug
• Screen Capture - There are a number of extensions, but all seem to fail to install on Chrome OS
• Office Suite - Google Docs
• File Storage - Google Docs and Pogoplug
• Screencasting  - Still looking (worried about this one - especially where quality is concerned)

I will continue to use this netbook as my main day to day computer where I can.  It does not replace my main desktop/media center, but I will put aside the EEE PC for a while.

Related articles

• First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook (searchengineland.com)
• First Impressions: Google Cr-48 Chrome Notebook [Video] (fastcompany.com)
• A Walk In The Cloud: My First Day With Google's Chrome OS (techcrunch.com)

Game Nights on Tape

Jeff, a member of my Wednesday night game group, runs a blog called 6 arrows.  In addition to blogging, he also records our game sessions and posts them as a podcast. We are currently playing Savage Worlds, but chances are we will get back to playing 4e and other games in the future.  Check it out.

Update: Also check out Blue Dragon Pub, Jeffs old blog/podcast site which has some extensive archives of our past games.

Super Savage - Weekly Game Recap

57 years ago five of the most powerful super villians ever to walk the world vanished. Now in the year 2059 they find themselves alive, and working together to understand what happened to the earth that they knew. Cities crumbling and in ruin, people hunting in untamed wilderness with bow and arrow. All the result of an apparent alien invasion. What super "heroes" remain work with the aliens to avoid further loss of life, and people are used as slaves living in huge colonies. Could it really be up to the evil scum of the former world to save the planet and rid mankind of the evil alien menace?

This is what we hope to find out in our new Savage Worlds campaign, inspired by the Necessary Evil setting.  I am happy to be on the players side of the screen for this game. I really enjoy running games, especially Savage Worlds, but getting some time off to play is going to be quite nice. We kicked off the game on Wednesday night, having all five PC's retrieved from somewhere after having been "dead" for 50+ years. I am thinking there is a good chance that rather than actually dying, we were somehow transfered into the future to save the world. Only time will tell I suppose.

So who do I play? My PC is Frank Lambai, former mob enforcer and army specialist. After his rather lackluster stint in the military he joined a military research firm helping to develop new weapons. Seeing an opportunity to make himself out to be the "hero", he stole some of the research into new methods for compressing flame thrower fuel. His own experiments, on himself, caused his body to change. His body has become capable of exuding a living flame. His punch can set fire to all but the most inflammable of objects. He is a mean bastard who would just as soon catch the world on fire as save it, but perhaps he will find something worth saving in this post apocalypse wasteland.

Frank Lambai (known as Flambai)
Agility: d4 Smarts: d4 Spirit: d8 Strength: d10 Vigor: d8
Pace: 6 Parry: 8 Toughness: 9(3) Charisma: -2
Fighting: d12 Streetwise: d4 Notice: d4 Guts: d8 Intimidate: d8
Hinderance: Heartless, Mean, Overconfident  Edges: Super Powers, Power Points
Powers
Hardened Skin (Armor/2), Flame Punch (Melee Attack Lvl 2 w Elemental Trick Fire), Burning Aura (Damage Field w Elemental Trick Fire), Super Skill Fighting, Super Attribute Vigor

Looking forward to more playtime with this game, and Savage Worlds in general.

1 of 60,000 - Chrome OS

Such a cool box!

I am not sure how I got to be one of the lucky, select few to receive one of the notebooks running Googles new Chrome OS. Perhaps I was just fast on the draw, perhaps it was because I scanned the QR code during the event and registered from the resulting url? I didn't have to fill out the justification that others did, just my name and address. Regardless, it is here now (amazing how fast them can get these things shipped and distributed), and I am drafting this post on my new laptop.

Despite the already considerable amount of time I spend online, in the clouds, I am a bit nervous about a laptop that I cannot install any applications on. Its just me and the Internet on this machine, and I am pretty excited to see how well that combination really works.

I plan to post a number of videos, pictures and comments about the new device and how it works out for me. I will say that the hardware is very nice for what amounts to a free computer for me to use. It is going to take me a while to get used to the touchpad.  I am not sure I have ever had trouble adjusting to the touchpad on a new PC, but this one is giving me some issues.

I really cannot thank Google enough for selecting me, however it actually happened.

Web App Review - Entanglement

This is the first in a series of short reviews of web applications available from the Google Chrome Web Store.

(Sorry the audio cut off at the end, I recorded this with Jing and went over my 5 minutes.)

Starting off with a game called Entanglement by Gopherwood Studios. This is a fairly simple strategy tile laying game where the goal is to build as long a path as possible. Each tile contains a number of different possible paths and you rotate the tile to pick the one that extends your path furthest. The game offers both solitaire and multiplayer modes, and allows you to keep track of scores with your Google login.

The game play reminds me of the board game Tsuro which was published back in 2005. The concept and game play for the two games are nearly identical. Fun little game if you can find a copy for a decent price.

The ability to set apps, especially games, to launch in full screen really lends to the feel that this is a standalone app. This game looks awesome in full screen, you really cannot tell your in a browser at all. I have not tried it, but I believe that this game will work offline using HTML5.

Running Savage Worlds

Image via Wikipedia

I have often read that Savage Worlds is a great RPG for the busy game master.  Little or no prep is needed and you can run a game. My game group is switching from 4e D&D to Savage Worlds, and the new GM was not quite ready to start last night. I offered to download a quick scenario and some pregen PC's from the Pinnacle web site and run a single session game.

I can now say that it is indeed true. I printed the Unnatural History one sheet from the web and read it at about 5:30 last night. Our game session started a little after 6:00 and I was ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I had only played Savage Worlds a couple of times and had never run a game. I can honestly say that I have never had an easier time running any game. The adventure was easy, they pregen PC's had a good variety of abilities, and the Savage Worlds rules are just easy enough to grasp to make the game a complete success. I think everyone had a good time, perhaps our best game night this year.

The Unnatural History One Sheet adventure is set in the Rippers game world. Rippers is a game about monster hunting in the Victorian Era. The PC's are part of a secret society who hunt down and eliminate all of the things that go bump in the night. In this short adventure the party is tasked with recruiting a new member into the organization. They journey to a museum where they meet the doctor they are trying to recruit and see the prize T-Rex skeleton he "recovered" from the Congo. While convincing the man to join the organization a sorcerer in a nearby cemetery casts a powerful spell, without much success, which causes a number of creatures in the museum to come to life. Included among the now animated animals is the T-Rex skeleton.

The party handled the adventure well. One thing I noticed as we played was how much easier it is to say yes when one of the players wants to do something. One PC shot down a chandelier, squashing some undead scarab beetles. Another jumped on the back of the T-Rex and tried to decapitate him. Either of these two situations would have been much harder to handle in a system like 4e. Savage Worlds made it simple.

I am really looking forward to playing in the upcoming super heroes game, based on the Necessary Evil setting. Hopefully, the group will stick with Savage Worlds for sometime to come.

If you are interested, the resident mathematician in the group wrote an article on his blog dealing with the math behind some of the die rolling in Savage Worlds. (His post is actually what made me think to write this up - I need to post more here.)