technology, computers, video games, books. see my blog at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/gaming
Music
Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, The Calling, U2, Evanescence, Five for Fighting, Maroon 5, Nickelback, John Mayer, No Doubt, Rolling Stones, Don McLean, Simon & Garfinkel, Santana, Black Eyed Peas, Elton John, Sting, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Lenny Kravitz,Green Day, Tom Petty, The Killers, Creed, Goo Goo Dolls, Avril Lavigne, Jewel, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Movies
Lord of the Rings, Miller's Crossing, Apocalypse Now, Black Hawk Down, Brazil, The Remains of the Day, Blade Runner, The Seven Samurai, Ran, Saving Private Ryan, Breaking Away, A Bridge Too Far, Hannah and Her Sisters, Dr. Strangelove, Das Boot, Star Wars, Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, The English Patient, Field of Dreams, Schindler's List, The Godfather, Casablanca, Heaven Can Wait, Platoon, The Longest Day, The Natural, Parenthood, Paths of Glory, Planet of the Apes, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rashomon, Shakespeare in Love, Some Like it Hot, The Terminator, There's Something About Mary, The Thin Blue Line, Twelve Angry Men
Television
The Sopranos, The OC, Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, American Idol, Lonesome Dove, Band of Brothers, The Civil War, The West
Books
Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower, Gravity's Rainbow, The Once and Future King, Dune, The World is Flat, The Soul of a New Machine, Lonesome Dove, Into Thin Air, The Sun Also Rises, Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, Foundation, Snow Crash, The Mill on the Floss, King Lear, The Guns of August, 1984, Darkness at Noon, The Catcher in the Rye, All the King's Men, The Great Gatsby, Farewell to Arms, The Joy Luck Club, D-Day, Band of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, The Innovator's Dilemma, The Name of the Rose, The Iliad, In Cold Blood, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Silmarillion, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Da Vinci Code, The Crucible
Heroes
Spider-Man
Luke Skywalker
Woodward & Bernstein
Master Chief
About me:
Check out my cool video. It's not really me. It's a synthetic me. A company called Mova captured my face and cast it in digital form. With their animation technology, they could get me to say things I never did. :) Look for this technology to appear in video games in a year or two.
I am Dean Takahashi. I am going to start a new job at the VentureBeat blog at www.venturebeat.com. I'll start just after the Game Developers Conference. I'm leaving my job as the Tech Talk Columnist in the business section of the San Jose Mercury News and am the author of “The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft’s Next-Generation Video Game Console,” launched in May 2006. My book is available at www.spiderworks.com.
I'm a big fan of video games and blog about them at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/gaming. It's nice to be paid to play games.
I also wrote “Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft’s Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution.” I write about semiconductor chips, video games and Microsoft for the newspaper of Silicon Valley. I podcast on video games for the Mercury News as well.
I wrote my book on the making of the Xbox 360 for readers who like insider business tales. This is the story that goes beyond the official version and gets inside what it really took to get the Xbox 360 out the door.
My first book on the making of the Xbox chronicles the efforts of a few Microsoft renegades to convince Bill Gates to spend billions on a bid to challenge Sony and Nintendo in the $20 billion video game industry. The book offers an insider’s view of how Microsoft galvanized itself for one of the biggest startups in its history. I've been a talking head in game publications and in mainstream media such as CNBC, CNN, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TechNation radio show. I wrote the book while covering the video games and chip beats as a senior writer at the Red Herring magazine.
For most of my 18 years as a journalist I have written stories about technology. I have written about the video game industry for 10 years and the semiconductor industry for 12 years. Previously, I worked at the Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times Orange County edition, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald.
I have won several journalism awards, including Best technology Writer of 2005 for the San Francisco Publicity Club, co-winner of the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California Chapter award for deadline news writing in 2005, and a second place award on opinion writing for the Peninsula Press Club in 2005. This year, I also won an award for business writing from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for a story on the 40th anniversary of Moore's Law.
When I have time, I'm an avid gamer. I live in the suburbs of San Jose, California. Thanks to SlipstreamBro for designing this page.
Who I'd like to meet: people with interests in technology, semiconductor chips, and video games. I'm always looking for people who can tell me good stories about news in Silicon Valley or the video game world.
Here's a review of a Blu Ray Disc that was watched on a SonyBlu Ray Disc Player by a Legit reviewer. (The Fifth Element)
Written by Dan Ramer
Monday, December 11th 2006
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 1996 / 126 Minutes / PG-13
Street Date: June 20, 2006 blu ray disc review.
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
This disc came my way as a limited time bonus that accompanied my newly acquired Sony Blu-ray Disc player. I found Sony’s decision to include this particular disc to be a rather odd choice. The disc is single layer; just like we experienced with reverse-spiral dual-layer DVDs in ’97, it took a while for Blu-ray dual-layer production problems to be sorted out. So Sony was limited to only 25 GB of available space, 5 GB less than readily available dual-layer HD DVDs. Under the circumstances, one might expect that a very efficient CODEC would be used to compress the video. Nope. Sony only had MPEG-2 compression tools available and that CODEC is the least efficient of the three available. For the same apparent visual quality, both VC-1 and AVC will produce smaller file sizes than MPEG-2. Furthermore, a substantial chunk of the bit budget had to be set aside for this disc’s uncompressed LPCM audio track. It is entirely possible that Sony had to reduce the high frequency visual content by low-pass filtering the high definition video to accommodate the limitations of space on this disc. The result is a slightly soft presentation, certainly not demo quality. And there are a few visible specks of dirt that run through the film; the transfer print is not pristine. That came as another surprise.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
In my Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Theater - Part 12, I described a few problems I had setting up my audio to accommodate the BD player’s LPCM audio outputs. Once those were resolved, I was very impressed with the clarity and transparency of the audio track. The uncompressed LPCM audio is reference quality. Eric Serra’s unique and witty score is presented across a wide sound stage and reproduced with a broad frequency range. Surround effects are extremely generous. From my experience with this film on DVD, I know that bass extension is substantial, taxing a subwoofer’s abilities, but even though the bass on this disc is satisfying, I’m still not completely convinced that the bottom end is quite right yet in my installation. It is not quite as robust as I’m used to from other discs. Despite a very busy soundtrack, dialog intelligibility is maintained throughout. EX decoding is a must if you have the capability; the viewer is immersed in a complex, 360-degree soundfield that’s very satisfying. This is an outstanding track.
That was a great review that pretty much summoned it all up for those unfortunate people who think that the PS3 will be the new wave of the future.
The PS3 and Blu Ray will, if ever, take alot longer than a few years to catch up or surpass HD DVD without some miracilous advancements in their technology capabilities.
Not sure what Tony Porter is thinking, the PS3 will probably sell enough consoles but it will not beat out the 360.
Sony is pushing the Blu-ray format to the consumers. 360 gives the gamers a choice.
Something else to consider, the porn industry is sticking to HD-DVD and not jumping on the blu-ray format. The decision of the porn industry to stick with VHS instead of Betamax is what brought the downfall of betamax.
The PS3 is taking a big risk. Cost, for one thing. Blu Ray? I don't think so, too costly, unless mainstream goes Blu ray in a matter of months, or the corporations decide to change formats like they did with HD tv's, but that too Legislation which didn't go into affect for several years.
PS3 'free' online services? I don't think so, Sony isn't that generous.
