Newbury Networks is hiring

My company, Newbury Networks is seeking applicants for a number of
positions. These positions include Professional Services, QA
Engineers, Sales Engineers, Sales Account Executives and Software
Engineers. All of these, except the developer positions, are href=http://www.newburynetworks.com/company/career.php>described on
the web site. The developer position description should be posted
soon. All positions are in Boston except for the Sales Exec and Sales
Engineer where we're looking for someone on the west coast.

For the developer position, we're looking for experienced Java
developers where experience in J2EE, wireless networks, security,
embedded systems and UI design are all valuable.

For those who don't know, href=http://www.newburynetworks.com>Newbury Networks is a wireless
security company providing physical perimeter security for 802.11
based networks. Feel free to email me (matthew@gray.org) with a
resume or just submit it to the address on our web site.

Heroscape

Wow, Heroscape (official site, fan site) is an amazing toy and a rather fun game. It's pretty much a miniatures game, which I usually find appealing, but not actually enjoyable. This succeeds at being both rich in gameplay and simple. The terrain and corresponding rules are outstanding. Plus, it is an amazing amount of toy bits. It's a blast. There's something very geeky but very entertaining about a game coming down to a battle between a Viking and a robot.

I've written a web-based unit card creator for aiding in the creation of new units.

Updated: See my review of Heroscape and some unit creator improvements.

Typo

Typo is "6 nimmt!" meets "Ghost". It is a new small card game from
Cwali. If you're familiar with the word game Ghost and Kramer's 6
nimmt!, it is rather obviously a direct mixture. If you're not, the
Cwali website has a
good description of play. I'm a big fan of 6 nimmt!, enjoy word games
in general, and have enjoyed Cwali's products in the past so I was
eager to give this one a try.

I like it, and it seems to do well with different numbers of players.
I've played with 2, 3 and 5 and it worked well in each number. The
play isn't quite as quick as 6 nimmt!, but unless players are
exceedingly pensive, it moves along fairly well. Unlike many word
games, it feels a bit more luck driven than is typical, but not
overwhelmingly so. With more players, the luck seems to spread out a
bit more evenly, while with two, one person can get a lot of bad cards
and be more hurt by that than they would be with more players.

I've seen other comments that point out that this game may more
strongly require evenly matched players, and I'm inclined to agree. I
don't think it's as strong a requirement as it may initially seem,
however. Certainly, playing with children may not work, and a broader
vocabulary will benefit a player, but not so much as to prevent
enjoyment of the game by others.

Like other word games, I imagine Typo would heavily reward studying of
word lists, especially the thorough learning of unusual 3 letter
starts to words. It's quite entertaining without such preparation,
naturally.

Overall, I really like it. It's got a good amount of luck and has a
good playing length (30 minutes) for its depth. Further, it is nicely
produced and is extremely compact, which to me is a very positive
feature. Recommended, especially if you like word games and wouldn't
be put off by a fair bit of luck in it.

Habanero Cheddar

Cabot "Hot Habanero Cheddar" is really good. It's actually
quite spicy and rather tasty. I've had other spicy cheeses,
particularly various varieties of Jalapeno Jack, which are all well
and good, but none nearly as flavorful as this. I've found it locally
at both Shaw's/Star and BJs Wholesale.

August 2004 Games

As expected becoming a father causes a substantial slowdown in game playing. It's worth it, though.
Shockingly enough, I did play some games this month with family and friends while Genevieve slept (sometimes).

11 games played, 7 titles (0 new to me) over 5 sessions with 5 different people.

Hot Games for August, 2004

(ok, all the games for August, 2004)

Mississippi

My mom kept wanting to play this.

Loopin' Louie

It can even be played with a baby in one arm

SpinBall

Another family hit

Billabong

I really like the opportunities for clever tricks here

Durch die Wuste

Enjoyable as always.

King Lui

It plays differently, but well with 3. Scores are much higher.

Master Labyrinth

I like this, but it always feels a little incomplete, like there should be more to it.