Feb
27
2008
I guess I could only be classified as a Casualty of the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Disc war..
Being an XBox 360 owner, I became an early adoper of HD-DVD as an addon for my X-Box 360.. I loved the idea that many of the HD-DVD discs would also play in my standard-def DVD player.. Other than the Disney titles, most of the movies I wanted to purchase were available on HD-DVD and I was rooting for the victory of HD-DVD.
Having worked in the Video Business, I knew that SONY isn’t the most “generous” company and felt that if they won and had a basic monoploy on all HD Disc technology, it wouldn’t be a great thing for the average video producer.. SONY always charges a premium for their technology and why should Blu-Ray be any different.
I was excited last year when Wal-Mart offered the pre-Thanksgiving $99 HD-DVD player special. I and thousands of other consumers rushed out to take advantage of this awesome pricing. A HD-DVD player for my bedroom that would really make my Vizio LCD shine!
I was at CES when the death nail was driven into HD-DVD… The buzz on the show floor about how they canceled their big press event and traffic in the SWEET Blu-Ray booth kept growning stronger.
My personal outcome of the Format war?
No Blu-Ray player is in my near future…
Standard DVD’s look pretty awesome on a good upscaling player fed to a modern HD television.. I have two HD-DVD players at the house, tons of discs and I’m sure that there will be some aggressive sales on the HD-DVD discs that are already on the market…
Unless Sony starts giving them away to get people in their camp, I’m out of the game for now…
Feb
22
2008
I think every kids dream is to one day be as cool as their favorite sports hero and make thier Mom proud to see their son’s face on their very own Topps baseball card.
Now Topps is making this dream a reality for kids of any level of ability.. 🙂 I’ve seen photo studios that make “cards” for various kids teams but Topps has taken this to the next level allow you to create a card based on classic Topps Card designs.
Click on Card to vist the Topps site
Sure it’s cool for the kids but now you can impress your girlfiend, wife or buddys and prove just how much “game” you still have..
Now I know what my wife is getting for her birthday.. The Signed and Numbered Philip Nelson trading card.. 😉
Feb
20
2008
For those that follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that two weekends ago, I posted.. “Stuck at the Ranch – Two Flat Tires”…
We’ll I wanted to share my fun weekend with all the readers here. 🙂
My Dad and I were taking my son out to my west Texas ranch for a weekend of hanging out… On the way out in my Dad’s truck, we got our first flat tire.. Because American Car makers don’t thing ahead, the Jack wasn’t tall enough to lift the tire off the ground.. after an hour of jacking up the truck, stacking rocks under the frame and then re-jacking, we finally had the spare on the truck… Off to the cabin for a weekend of fun..
An hour later while driving on a ranch road, my keen hearing heard the familiar hisss of another leaking time… Anyone that knows anything about cars, knows there there is only ONE Spare… I turned the truck around.. Drove back to the cabin and propped the truck up on rocks BEFORE the tire went flat and sat down to hatch a plan to get us back to civilization..
NOTE: We are so far out that there is LITTLE cell phone reception.. Only on top of a mountain.. Fortunatly, that is where I was. 🙂
I called my realtor, Ed White and asked him for help. He showed up at the cabin 4 hours later with two cans of “Fix-a-Flat”… Unfortunatley, the rocks of West Texas were too much and the tire were sliced by razor sharp pieces of flint..
Since Plan B was a bust, Plan C was that Ed would come back in the morning with a Tire Patching Kit and we would try to patch the tires..
Morning arrives and so does ED.. We try to patch flat tire #1 and the rocks win again.. Fortunately flat tire #2 holds air..
We all jump in the truck and head to town.. 30 minutes later we are safely in Rocksprings, TX and the patch seems to be holding.
Being Sunday there was no way to get the tire repaired in Rocksprings so we decided to head to Kerrvillle which is about an hour away.. As we hit the mid-point between Rocksprings and Kerrville, I noticed a all too familir sound coming from the front left tire… ANOTHER FLAT!
Feb
17
2008
This shotgun really blows me away.. Literally..
Automatic Shotgun that has a 20 to 32 round magazine. Can also fire 20 Frag12 Grenades up to 175 METERS!!
Fires at 120 shots per minute..
They never mention a cost but I’m sure it’s WAAAY up there.
Enjoy..
Feb
16
2008
Having spent yesterday evening at the NBA Jam Session watching thousands of kids dribble, shoot and try to dunk, it really put what you are about to see in this video into perspective.
Jayshaun Agosto is an 11 year old basketball Phenom! Words can’t explain how good this kid is so….. Here is some video..
Feb
15
2008
I must admit that when I first heard the NBA was doing a work day as part of the All Star Weekend, I thought it would be a little cheezy.. I imagined that it would be simply a photo op but MAN was I wrong..
What a rewarding way to spend my morning. As we drove through the neighborhoods of destroyed homes, I knew that today would be a worthwhile event. It’s amazing that almost three years after katrina, people are still living in FEMA trailers behind their mangled homes.
With hundreds of other friends and family of the NBA, we jumped right to work helping refurbish homes in New Orleans.
At the end of our shift, we had painted almost 4 complete houses. What a great way to start the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Feb
14
2008
I was invited to the NBA All-Star Tip Off reception tonight at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans. What an amazing experience.
There I was hanging out with the legends of basketball including Bill Walton, Bill Russel, Willis Reed, Spencer Haywood and more. My son Noel even walked up to NBA Commissioner, David Stern and introduced himself by saying “Hi Mr Stern, I’m Noel Nelson and I just wanted to shake your hand.” 🙂
Great start to great weekend.
Feb
14
2008
I’m excited as I check into my hotel for NBA All-Star Weekend. Fresh on the heels of working with the NBA D-League and their TriCaster Implementation, I was honored with an invitation from Mike Rokosa, NBA VP of Engineering to attend the All-Star Game in New Orleans.
Check back this weekend for All-Star updates.
Feb
13
2008
I’ve been working with the NBA D-Leauge to help deploy TriCaster to all 14 teams, allowing them to live webcast their games to fans worldwide. Check out this Sports Video Group article on the project.
http://www.sportsvideo.org/portal/artman/publish/article_9774.shtml
Feb
7
2008
During my recent visit to CES, I was invited to be a guest on the popular Technology talk show, Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline. I’m looking a bit like a grizzley man in this one. After seeing this webcast, my wife made me get a haircut and trim my goatee. 🙂
Check out the interview here!
Tags: CES, Dave Graveline, Interview, Into Tomorrow, LIVE, Philip Nelson, TriCaster, viral, webcast | 
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