As Scott mentioned yesterday, we've been playing with InfoPath and we were sufficiently impressed.  We had some great meetings with Microsoft today, and took some time to demo the tools for some Microsofties that hadn't had the time yet to see the environment.  We did the same demo - building a simple front-end for adding new weblog entries to ChrisAn's BlogX.  Demo worked great - went from nothing to spell-checking front-end in less than 3 minutes.

Someone then mentioned how cool it would be if the .xsn specification file was completely transparent as well (read: XML), but we were disappointed to learn (after opening in Notepad) that it is clearly a binary format.  How could they stoop so low?

So what do I learn after arriving in my hotel room and pulling down my feeds in NewsGator?  Clemens points out that it is just a CAB file.  And inside you can find tidy little (OK, so not all of them are quite so little) XML, XSLT, XSD, JS file.  Pleasant surprise.

Tim Schutz was kind enough to send me a free deck of his Alpha Playing Cards for review.  Tim has done some great work, and his focus on gaming systems rather than just games is very appealing.

An Alpha deck consists of 74 cards - 42 consonant cards, 30 vowel cards (each vowel card has two vowels printed on it), and 2 wild cards.  You can purchase a deck from tjgames, or print one out for yourself.  There is a similar mass-market game called Quiddler that is similar, but I find the card distribution and extensibility better in Alpha.

I have played several different games with Alpha with adults and kids.  It has already become a staple filler game for our family.  My 2 sons (ages 6 and 8) enjoy some of the simpler games, and we've found interesting variations of the games that allow us to handicap the adults to let the kids be more competitive.  Let's discuss a few of the games.

makeAword
This is a great, open-ended game for kids where the victory conditions can be tuned and tweaked to suit the audience.    7-10 cards (more cards make the game easier) are dealt to the middle of the playing area, and players alternate making the best word possible from the inventory.  The cards are refreshed after each player makes a word.  The winner can be determined by points, funniest word, word with most consonants, etc.  This one is Matthew's (6) favorite.

6x6
A solitaire game in which you try and use up all of the cards in a 6x6 grid.  This solitaire game is the better of the two - I found there were more choices to make and strategic elements than in WordSolitaire.

Alpha War
This is modeled on the game War played with standard playing cards.  The deck is split in two, and players alternate dropping cards in the center of the table.  Once three cards are on the table, a player can either make a word or pass.  When a player makes a word, she gets to keep the cards.  The goal is to capture all of the cards.  Matthew enjoys this one as well.

WordSnake
This is an unusual game and one I expect to play more.  There are no turns - play happens in real-time - it reminds me of some of the Icehouse games.  Each player is dealt 13 cards, and a central pool of 9 cards is placed in the center of the table.  The dealer calls "1,2,3, GO!" and players proceed to try and build a word snake - words with at least 3 letters, where each successive word begins with the last letter of the previous word.  Play ends when a player uses all of their cards and calls "Stop!", or when all players pass.  Players score points for letters in words, and lose points for leftover letters.  The game is tense, frenetic, and fun.

AlphaRummy 500
This is rummy for Alpha cards.  Melds are made by making words of 4 letters or more, with bonus multipliers for longer words.  You can also play cards on existing words to make new words.  My wife Julie and I played this one and had a blast - we expect to play it again.

Summary
If you would like a "portable Scrabble" that can be played quickly and is easier to teach kids, get this game!  I strongly recommend it for educators and home schoolers.  The price is right and you might even enjoy designing your own games.

Odds are, you haven't heard of this game.  You won't find it on the shelves of your local retailer and you won't see see 16 year olds lugging it to LAN parties for death matches.  Laser Squad Nemesis is a turn-based, tactical, squad-oriented game played via email.  It has a real-time feel to it though - this isn't like most hex-oriented turn-based war games.

The game is very light weight and approachable.  The client is free to download and you can get started quickly with the tutorials.  In a LSN game you are pitted against a single opponent - each can play one of four races (Marines, Machina, Spawn, or Greys).  There are a variety of maps to choose from and a flexible map editor is included with the game.

Once you have tried the tutorials, you can play up to three games against a real opponent before paying for a subscription, though you are limited to playing the Marines on just a few maps.  This try before you buy philosophy is very attractive, and subscriptions are low-risk if you want to get your feet wet playing the full game ($7 for 1 month, $15 for 3 months).

A Laser Squad game begins with force deployment - each player has a number of force points and an area on the map on which they can deploy their forces.  This is a key strategic element to the game - which units to use, where to deploy them - decision based on both the map and the race of your opponent.

Gameplay involves controlling individual units in an attempt to either wipe out the opponents units or destroy the opponent's headquarters.  The central LSN server resolves each turn and emails the turn results to each player.  I won't go into strategy here (you wouldn't to follow my advice any way - I'm still a rank amateur), but there are great guides published and a continuous stream of community participation.  The masterpiece of strategy guides is the Grenadier's Bible.

I've had no problems finding random opponents and recruiting friends - this community has critical mass and the game is here to stay.  If you are a fan of X-COM, Squad Leader, or would just like a break from the frenetic pace of RTS or FPS, try this game.

I'll be using this space to talk about gaming (boardgames mostly), technology, software development, and just random thoughts.

I'm the CTO at Corillian Corporation, and we provide software and services for banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions.

I'm a family man, with two amazing boys and a beautiful wife.

One of my favorite hobbies is games, primarily German-style boardgames.  You can learn more about these types of games at BoardGameGeek; you can even view my ever-expanding collection there.  I'll periodically post game reviews, session reports, and other items of interest for gamers here.  If you are ever in the Portland, OR area and want to meet up for some gaming, let me know.