November 2005 Archives

It was an interesting and easy read: Not really academic and not too technical. I think I can understand why some of the Amazon.com readers' reviews were critical of the book's non-technical contents. But this is really a lighter reading than anything else.

Although the writers seem to say the book does not have any unifying theme, in short, the book is about incentives and using economic tools to analyze social and cultural data. Steven D. Levitt is the economist who did (and probably still does) this type of studies. Stephen J. Dubner wrote for The New York Times Magazines where he wrote articles featuring Levitt's studies. I believe the idea for the book came out of those articles. It also seems two of them are currently writing articles for the paper.

The book contains some very interesting examples, but the writing is very easy to digest. It also gives something to think about your everyday life although not for too long since we normally lack the data and the analysis to gain any real insights (I mean, without proper data analysis, your hypothesis is just that, an interesting story and nothing more). Anyway, I'd like to see more analysis on other social/cultural data.

1814 Hillsdale Avenue Suite C
San Jose, CA
408.445.9696
M-Sa: 11:30 - 22:00
Su: 16:30 - 21:30

I love sushi: Not the rolls, not sashimi, just nigirizushi. But I am also cheap. :p

For the past couple of years, the sushi place of choice for my wife and I were Sushi Maru in Sunnyvale, CA. It was a bit far from where we lived, but we loved its "price-performance ratio" (PPR). (If that wasn't a factor we would go to Ino Sushi in San Francisco.) For a sushi boat place, their fish quality was very good. We've always ordered directly from the chefs and their cuts were fairly large and the taste were very good.

Well, that's what we thought until a couple of weeks ago.

I think I've seen the sign for Sushi Expo around the neighborhood since I moved into the area a couple of years ago. But it never occurred to me that a better sushi place would be around the neighborhood. Also, the place was behind a couple of buildings from the main street and in a strip mall that looked deserted, so I didn't think it could be that good.

Was I ever wrong! (And they've been around for almost 10 years.)

It turns out the Sushi Expo's PPR is even better than Sushi Maru's (both are sushi boat places). Their cuts are larger, and the bills are 10~20% lower. Some expensive items (cho-toro, for example) are maybe more expensive, but the quality was very good. On bonus, you get fried head for ama-ebi!!! (This has been the reason why we haven't been enjoying ama-ebi at Sushi Maru).

For my wife and I, saba has to be good at a sushi restaurant. We order mostly saba, hamachi, and sake. We usually order toro, uni, ama-ebi toward the end. They were all good here.

Also, they seem to have various "creative" rolls. They aren't really my thing, but they seem to be popular among the mostly non-Asian regulars.

Sushi Expo is run by a Korean chef/owner, Kevin. He is pretty cool (but we liked Eric, the other chef). The first time we were there, we thought the decor was "interesting". I mean "interesting" by the TV showing CMT and country music playing in the background. I guess the fact that the place is a bit away from the center of Asian communities and most of their regulars are non-Asian probably played toward the ambiance. But did we care? No, the fish quality is very, very good. I'd say at least equal to Sushi Maru. And it is cheaper.

We did not try much else besides sushi. But we did order agedashi tofu once. That was not great. Had a very weirdly chewy texture. I think we would just stick to sushi.

My wife and I think agreed that we don't have to drive far any more for good PPR sushi.

72 South Abel Street
Milpitas, CA
408.946.3558
M-Su: 07:00 - 21:00

Continuing the lunch place reviews...

This is my favorite "Banh Mi" or Vietnamese sandwich place. If you are not familiar with Vietnamese sandwiches (I am sure a lot of people are familiar with "Pho" or Vietnamese noodle soups), you should. They are usually (always?) made with a baguette (usually about 10" long), various julienned vegetables and various kinds of meats ("shredded pork", "barbecued pork", "chicken", etc.).

Not only the crunchy baguette and the excellent taste, but the key selling point (for me) is that it's really cheap! Usually a Vietnamese sandwich will cost you $1.50 - $1.75 (and not more than $2). Well, there are other "fancier" places (such as Lee's Sandwich) which seem to charge way more.

I usually order two sandwich and I always get "shredded pork". I also like "Chinese hot dog", but I think shredded pork is the best. They also have many other small items. So, sometimes, I get one sandwich and spring rolls (3 for $2 or $2.50, I can't remember). I guess you can consider it as a Vietnamese snack place.

Anyway, one of my Vietnamese co-workers have introduced me to this place many years ago and I don't think I have found a better place yet (not that I was looking that hard). Recently, my wife was introduced to here, and she also likes it a lot.

With the imminent introduction of the next generation gaming consoles (Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo "Revolution", and Sony PlayStation 3), a lot of people talk about the future trends and stuff.

For me, two things stand out. One is that the console gaming market needs to grow. That is, it should appeal to more than just young males, to females and younger/older people. Nintendo mentioned this when they introduced the new "TV remote" controller.

The other is that with the increased capability of the hardware, the game development cost is growing out of hands (ArsTechnica, GameSpot and News.com). Some game production costs seem to rival those of movies and it is highly likely that the costs won't come down. Most of the cost increase, I think, is in the increased/more-detailed artworks. Although Microsoft and Sony promised better developer tools and middleware solutions to ease these developer complaints, it is indisputable that it is becomingly very difficult for smaller (and probably more creative) game developers to survive.

In these sense, I have a high hope that Xbox Live Arcade ("XBL Arcade") can solve both issues. XBL Arcade is a way to play downloadable "small" or classic games such as "Bejeweled 2" or "Joust" on the Microsoft's console. All XBL Arcade games are supposed to have demos, and if people like some they can buy full versions. You can think of it as a "shareware" game that was popular on PC except that it is distributed only through the Microsoft's console network.

Not only this is a great outlet for smaller gaming outfits, but this is a great way for many people to enjoy simpler puzzle-type (or brain-teaser if you like) games. Although there have been "classic collection" games on disks so far, I don't think those were that popular. This way we may be able to nurture more creative games instead of standard NFL or WWII games with glitzy graphics.

Sure, XBL Arcade was introduced a year ago, but I don't think neither Microsoft nor the game developers had proper strategies developed. Also, Microsoft was trying very hard to establish itself in the traditional console market as a newcomer, so it seems this project was given less attention. And then they already knew that Xbox's life was coming to an end (or Xbox 360 was coming).

This time, it seems it's going to be different. For one, every Xbox 360 owner gets an Xbox Live account free. Although this XBL Silver account won't let you play online mode of the DVD games, it allows you to enjoy XBL Arcade along with some other basic features. Of course, one still needs to connect the console to the network, but it greatly increases the target audience for XBL Arcade.

What's still not known and which is probably the most important thing for XBL Arcade to succeed is the price for each XBL Arcade games. For me, $15 would be the maximum I would pay for buy-once type of games. I'd like it to be around $10 a game, but we'll have to see. It just can't be "expensive". Otherwise, XBL Arcade is doomed. And I do think that Microsoft should subsidize this for the first year or so to make it a real success if the numbers don't add up initially.

Although not discussed by Microsoft, I think the XBL Arcade could really charge like a real arcade. That is, one would pay $0.10 or $0.25 per play. These type of micro-payments might seem difficult at first, but Xbox Live already has a concept of "points". So you can say one "XBL points" for a play, for example.

For me, the most interesting genre for XBL Arcade is definitely puzzle games. One of the games my wife and I enjoyed at an arcade in Korea a few years ago was "find-the-differences-in-two-pictures" type of games. Or those "bar"-games that some places (even arcades) have that have hundreds of quick games. This type of games will work really well with the per-play model since the contents need to get updated regularly, and paying for the whole game (or whole collection of games that I may not play) would be too much.

I hope Microsoft can set up good pricing models. HD gaming is all good and nice, but I believe this will make home-gaming truly popular.