je krijgt meer dan 2 GB gratis webruimte die zich in de achtergrond synchroniseert met de computers waarop je werkt.

De voordelen zijn niet moeilijk te raden maar wel vérstrekkend:

• Je hoeft geen mails meer naar jezelf te sturen om een bestand op meerdere computers te hebben. Bovendien werk je altijd met de juiste versie
• Je kan heel gemakkelijk folders delen met anderen. Handig als je in groep aan iets werkt.
• Je kan ook individuele bestanden delen.
• Er is een foto-modus: gewoon wat foto’s naar de map kopiëren en de link doorsturen.
• Je hebt als het ware een gratis backup, want alle bestanden worden gesynchroniseerd op meerdere computers.
• Zolang je netwerktoegang hebt, heb je geen USB-sticks meer nodig.
• Stel: je bent op reis. Dan kan je bv in een internetcafé foto’s opladen en je geheugenkaart vrijmaken. Of bestanden raadplegen die je in je dropbox hebt gestopt.
• Best van al: dropbox gedraagt zich als een gewone map op je computer. Je moet dus niet inloggen en dergelijke om van de service gebruik te maken, dat gebeurt allemaal in de achtergrond.
• Je kan ook kiezen om Dropbox niet op je computer te zetten, maar om enkel van de webdienst gebruik te maken.
• Je moet geen persoonlijke informatie prijsgeven. Gewoon een username en paswoord volstaan.

Dropbox is snel, functioneel, gratis en rechttoe-rechtaan. Zoals ik het graag heb.

→ Intekenen kan op https://www.dropbox.com

As a coach, your role is probably a “chicken” role (remember? Pigs and chickens can attend, but only pigs can talk?) So you have to be silent, but that does not mean you’re not active. In fact, this is your best opportunity to listen actively. That is, to try to understand the true meaning of what is being discussed so that you can coach the scrum master and the team so that they become even more effective and efficiënt.

Team Interaction Picture

One little tool I have found useful when coaching a team is something I call the Team Interaction Picture (TIP). It’s easy to draw, yet you can learn a lot from it.

Here’s an example. (it’s fictitious but representative of the actual TIPs I make when observing a daily standup meeting–and every single element is based on real TIPs).

The Team Interaction Picture: an agile coaching instrument

Rainy day

It’s 2009 November 23d (a gray Monday morning) and the team has gathered around the task board in the corner of the landscape office. The place is not ideal: somewhat too small, and there is a pole and a chair which hinder access to the board and invite team members to sit down/hang around. Luckily, the team has discussed this before and nobody will use the chair.

TIP technique: draw the task board as a narrow rectangle, the team members as circles (indicate their name and if needed, their role). For absent team members, draw a striped line outside the team. Also draw any other large objects (like the pole and the chair) present.

Usually, the meeting starts at 9h30 but now they’re six minutes late because Sandy is not there yet (you know she has to bring her daughter to school).

Sandy arrives

Finally, Sandy arrives. She has had a phone call from Nancy, who is ill and won’t return before Wednesday. Sandy joins the team (they’ve already gathered around the board!) and starts with giving an update on the impediment list.

TIP technique: write date and hour of start next to the TIP diagram. Indicate the order of events with numbers and indicate the end of the standup meeting under the event list. Use the same number to indicate in what order each attendee takes the word.

Eight constructive minutes

When Sandy tells the team an old and important impediment will be solved today, Dave interrupts and says that he hopes this will be the case, since he remembers Sandy promised this the week before, and the week before that… Then there is a short discussion between Sandy and Dave, which they conclude not to continue here.

TIP technique: when person A adresses person B, draw an arrow from A to B. If B responds, draw the arrowhead next to person A. For each next discussion between A and B, draw a small perpendicular line on the arrow from A to B.

The meeting continues in a constructive way and after eight minutes, everyone is up-to-date and knows what to do for today.

Coaching the scrum master

After the meeting, I’ll have a brief word with Sandy. I ask her opinion and we compare. Here’s how I use the TIP:

• General conclusion: a constructive meeting that respected the 15 minutes timebox (even if it started late, no problem here because even then the meeting ended before 9h45).
• Is it possible to remove the chair so that there is more space and better access to the board? Maybe, but Sandy will talk about the idea in tomorrows standup.
• Starting with the update on the impediment list (especially if there is good news) is a good practice. It helps to prove to the team that the scrum master is there to help them, not to command&control.
• Team dynamics are determined for a large part by the interaction of Dave and Sandy. Sarah occasionally tries to interrupt, but Sandy does not answer.
• Jeff, a junior team member, never takes the word unless he gets the talking stick. Even then he does not really talk, he just indicates on the task board what user story he will work on and that’s it.

Especially the last two topics might be sensitive, since they can indicate there’s an underlying problem. It’s dangerous to draw conclusions from one eight-minute meeting, so I would compare my TIP with the TIPs of two or three other meetings.

But in any case, I have a good graphical representation of what happened during this standup meeting. The team might even be able to use my TIPs during the evaluation meeting so that they can see how they interact.

For readers who use this TIP: please share your experiences by replying to this post. Thanks!

• Duplo
• Carot-kussens (in Lier te koop bij Dox, richtprijs €50/€60)
• Houten speelgoed
• Kleertjes (aub rekening mee houden dat hij flink groeit )

Waar je ons geen plezier mee doet:

• Studio-100-toestanden zoals K3 en Kabouter Plop
• Disney-figuren en dergelijke
• Plastic prullaria

Benodigdheden (voor 2 personen, afhankelijk van de honger)

• 400 gram gehakt
• 2 ajuinen (kan ook vervangen worden door sjalotten)
• Enkele tenen look
• 500 gram passato van tomaat (geconcentreerde tomatensaus)
• Een bouillonblokje
• Boter, bloem, peper, zout, chilipeper of cayennepeper
• Een glas madera
• Een glas champagne

Stap 1: Balletjes aanmaken

Ajuin en look pellen. Handen zeer grondig wassen. De helft van de ajuin en de look fijnsnipperen en grondig onder het gehakt mengen. Stevige balletjes maken van telkens ongeveer 30 gram gehakt. Van de champagne nippen.

Stap 2: Balletjes koken

Water aan de kook brengen en ruim zout toevoegen. In het kokende water de balletjes leggen en vuur afzetten. Wachten tot de balletjes boven drijven. Ondertussen de saus maken en een slokje champagne drinken.

Stap 3: De saus maken

De andere helft van de ajuin grof hakken en in wat boter in de pot braden tot hij bruin begint te worden. Twee soeplepels bloem over de ajuin verspreiden en goed roeren tot de ajuin wat kleverig wordt. De tomatensaus toevoegen en roeren.

Aan de kook brengen, bouillonblokje verkruimelen in de saus en de helft van de madera toevoegen. De andere helft van de look grofhakken en toevoegen. Grotere slok champagne drinken.

Stap 4: Afwerken

De balletjes in de saus leggen. Gaandeweg lepels van het kookvocht van de balletjes toevoegen om een mooie saus te krijgen. Afkruiden met peper, zout en wat chilipeper. Regelmatig kleinere slokjes champagne drinken tot het glas leeg is. De saus een hele tijd laten pruttelen zodat de smaak in de balletjes trekt. Op het einde van de kooktijd de rest van de madera toevoegen en doorroeren. Vuur afzetten.

Extra tips

Optioneel kan de champagne weggelaten worden, maar dan is het veel minder leuk dit gerecht te maken.

Dit gerecht gaat heel goed samen met Parijse aardappelblokjes, waarvoor ik het geheime recept misschien ook wel eens prijsgeef, en met rauwkost (waar geen geheim recept voor bestaat).

Benodigdheden: voorverpakt ciabatta-brood, een teentje look, drie soeplepels olijfolie.

Werkwijze: voorverpakte ciabatta uitpakken en zonder te bakken in schijfjes snijden. Teentje look raspen en goed vermengen met de olijfolie. Met een borsteltje het mengsel aan beide zijden van de broodjes aanbrengen. Grillen op de barbecue. Mooist is als de grilstrepen dwars over de broodjes lopen.

Weremail is the “mafia” or “werewolf” mind game played by email, where each game day is roughly equal to a real life day. The game starts with one moderator and 10 to 20 players, of which 2 are werewolf, and end when (1) all werewolves have been lynched or (2) villagers no longer outnumber werewolves. The game starts with a night were werewolves decide on a victim to kill. After each night, all players decide on which player to lynch.

Apart from werewolf, some villagers can take a special role. These are the most common:

• Seeer: this player can pick one player every night and learn wether this player is werewolf or villager
• Possessed: this player does not know who the werewolves are, but he wins or loses with them.
• Outsider: is seen by the seeer as werewolf, but is innocent.

The existence of these roles in the game greatly changes the dynamics of play. There are other roles that have a still higher impact on game play, and player groups can invent their own roles if needed.

An important concept is the alignment of players: werewolf and possessed have negative alignment, all other players are positive. With the standard rules described above, either + either – alignment wins the game.

Basic tactics

Basic tactics include:

• Pick the right victim to kill (werewolf bite or lynch)
• Claim a role
• Gain trust from other players
• Influence voting, for example by making other players suspect
• Ask other players to reveil their role

Endgame tactics

Definition of the endgame:  the part of the game that starts on the day of the final lynch (immediately after announcing a nightly kill) and ends with the end of the game. Players come out of the “muddy waters” of the middle game and players with negative alignment might even find out it’s reasonable to unveil their game role.

If there is only 1 werewolf left, the endgame is played with 3 or 4 players. If there are still 2 werewolves left, the endgame is played with 6 players. In the last case, there are two possible outcomes:

• A werewolf is lynched: the remaining werewolf kills a villager during the night, after which the 3 player endgame is reached.
• A villager is lynched: werewolves kill another villager during night, after which the end condition is reached. The town loses.

Therefore, we will study only endgames with 3 and 4 possible players. Tactics with 6 players alive are more closely related to midgame play.

Starting the werewolf tactics study with endgames is good for two reasons:

• If you know and endgame and you know your side has a high chance of winning it, you can work to it
• Since the endgame has only few players, tactics are more clear than during midgame play where possibilities are still endless.

The four player endgame

Four player endgames are simple, assuming the standard rules described above. If the werewolf is lynched, the villagers win (probability ¼ in most cases). If the werewolf survives, he will kill a player during the night after which the werewolves win by daytime massacre.

Special four-player endgames include:

• With a possessed: the werewolf can block a lynch if he can persuade the possessed not to vote or to vote for a nonsuspect player. During the night, he has a 1/3 chance to kill the possessed, in which case he loses because the villagers will know the identity of the werewolf, and a 2/3 chance of winning the game. Unless the werewolf is sure who the possessed is, he shouldn’t block the lynch. Simply letting it happen has a higher winning probability.
• With a seeer: if there is no outsider, the seeer has a higher probability of voting correctly. When an outsider is present, the probability of the seeer voting correctly is higher than that of a villager, but lower than that of a seeer when no outsider is present. The nature of the endgame does not change, only the winning probability is a little higher when the seeer is present.

The paradoxical result is that games starting with one villager more, actually mean a serious handicap for the village.
The three player endgame
With the rules described above, there are a few different three player endgames. The most basic endgame is played by 2 villagers without special role, and a werewolf.

Under these conditions there are 7 endgames : VV, VP, VS, VO, PS, SO and PO. This can be reduced to 5 since the outsider is only important if the seeer is still present: the VO endgame is equal to the VV endgame, the PO endgame equal to the VP endgame. Each endgame needs to be studied from the perspective of 3 players (except for the basic VV endgame, where both villagers are interchangable.

The assumption of “no information”

“The assumption of no information” states that basically, players don’t know for sure what other players are. Therefore,  when it comes to lynch voting, players have a W/(N-1) probability of voting for a werewolf, where W = the number of werewolves and N = the current number of players alive and N>2W.

There are a few exceptions:

• Every person knows their own role (therefore, 1 is subtracted from N in the above equation)
• Werewolves know each other. They usually don’t vote for each other, unless for tactical reasons. In this text, I assume werewolves have a 0 probability to vote for each other. (“Sacrifices” in real games are mostly jumping on the bandwagon when a werewolf lynch is inevitable.)
• The seeer sometimes knows who is a werewolf. If he doesn’t, he might know who is not werewolf. Generally, when reaching the end game, seeers are fully informed unless the other villager is an outsider.
• Players may play suboptimally. This condition is not considered, since it might well be a tactic used by the player.

Basic VV endgame: 1 werewolf and 2 villagers

All three players will claim to be villagers.

• W: the werewolf tries to gain trust from one V and make the other V suspect. It is a sensible strategy to appear to be in doubt.
• V: villagers look out for which player tries to gain their trust, then throw suspicions on that player. With good werewolf play, villagers will have difficulties doing so.

This “vanilla” endgame is likely to be the most common but also the most difficult to play since all players will behave more or less the same. V wins only if both V choose the W to lynch.

Endgames with special roles

Further analysis shows that the other endgames can be classified in two groups:

• Endgames with a possessed: if played well, this is a sure win for the negative side. The werewolf does not know who is P and who V. He knows that if he can avoid daytime lynch, he will win the game because he then kills any one player during the night, after which the end condition is reached. The possessed will agree not to lynch anyone, because he then wins with the werewolves.
• Endgames with a seeer but without a possessed: If the seeer survives the middle game, which is not likely, chances are that he knows the role of the other players. Only in the SO endgame, he is unsure because both other players are reveiled to him as W. Therefore, this endgame boils down to the vanilla endgame VV. For the VS endgame, the village has a slight advantage because the seeer knows which player to trust and can try to gain the trust of the villager himself, while the werewolf is unsure what player to choose. Generally, the werewolf needs to gain trust from both other players, which has a higher probability of being discovered by the + alignment players.

Winning probabilities

Under the condition that players don’t have more information than from their role, estimates can be made:

• In the vanilla endgame, the probability of the village winning the game is 1/3 since there are three players, two of which will hang the third.
• When a seeer is present, chances of a win for the village can be as high as 1/2. Assume that the villager votes randomly and the seeer votes correctly . This is the only situation where (assuming no information) the village has a chance of winning that exceeds random voting (1/3)

Opening and middle game tactics

• Metatactics: why werewolf is difficult
• Exception: being too smart is dangerous
• Voting patterns and the bandwagon
• Convincing others (not) to lynch during the day
• Picking the right night kill victim
• Picking the right player for the seeer – information value
• Role of the seeer – unveil role even if dangerous
• Mystifying by negative alignment roles

Reaching the endgame

Werewolves like to reach and endgame where (in decreasing order of importance)

• The possessed is still alive, for the three-player endgame with a possessed alive is a sure win for the negative side
• As many werewolves as possible are alive. With 6 players and 2 werewolves alive, the chances for the town to win are slightly below 1/3.
• The seeer is dead, since a living seeer will have information on who is the werewolf. 

Related posts:

• Weremail – modtool: a freeware tool for guiding a game of werewolf by email
• Kaarten weerwolf: in Dutch
• Weerwolf – spelregels: in Dutch

La Chapelle on the hill of the Hermitage

The offer is royalty-free, so if you should decide to buy some of my photographs, you can use it in (almost) every way you like.

At this moment, I have four albums with high-resolution photos:

• Burgundy: with a view on chateau Corton, the polychromatic roof of the Hospices de Beaune, and a glass of Burgundy wine poured in
• Champagne: with glasses of champagne poured in, a demonstration of the remuage on a pink champagne bottle and a glass of pink champagne on a black background
• Rhone: with La Chapelle on the Hermitage Hill, a view on the fabulous Cote Rotie vineyards, the terroir of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a cellar with wooden barrels
• Languedoc: an old vine in the chalky Languedoc terroir

Might be applicable for related cameras such as the FS20, FS21, HF S10 and other Canon camcorders.

I recently bought a Canon Legria FS200 camcorder, which is a lightweight and easy to use camcorder.

However, the software that comes with it is less easy to operate. Some tips for if the Pixela transfer utility software does not work or when you just want to transfer files via a usb card reader. In the latter case, you will find out that Pixela ImageMixer does not recognize the files – it expects mpg and the Legria produces mod files.

The files with extension “mod” are actually just mpg files. The best way of getting them to your computer is by using a flash card reader. Just take out the flash card and copy the files with explorer to your hard disk. Use any bulk renaming tool to get the file extension correct (the Vista trick of selecting multiple files and renaming them does not work for extensions). Open the files in the Pixela ImageMixer and export them to any other place on your hard disk. If the video settings are correct, the export will also correct the problem of “stretched out” movies.

Features of the Canon Legria:

• Very compact and lightweight – fits nicely in the palm of the hand
• Records on SD or SDHC flash cards, which are available everywhere and fairly cheap
• Video snapshot function and dual shot mode
• 41x zoom – sensitive zoom button so you can zoom in slowly or abruptly if needed
• You can attach a microphone or headphones to the camcorder
• Battery can be charged in less than half an hour