Joshua Herzig-Marx » Reviews

It’s like a bar-mitzvah party

herzigma — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:08:17 +0000

Listen up, folks: chicks dig Drakkar. What we suspected in middle school turns out to be true. How did I learn this?

My wife started sniffing my face. It took a while to figure out, but apparently my new aftershave smells just like what she still loves from her (clearly mis-spent) youth.

Not only have I spent the past few weeks living in an Axe ad, but it’s really nice after shave.

Tish’s Dish: CK Shanghai, Wellesley, MA

herzigma — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 01:08:24 +0000

Another restaurant to try: CK Shanghai, in Wellesley, MA. Not that we can afford to eat out, but I could take one of my Taiwanese classmates to evaluate. Speaking of, a classmate from Beijing tried out Szechuan Gourmet in Framingham. She didn’t say it was fantastic (though it’s one of my favorites) but she allowed it was better than she expected. Gotta get to China some day…

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Breaking Down Silos

herzigma — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 03:37:37 +0000

The Entrepreneurial Mind is a blog written by Belmont University b-school professor Jeff Cornwall. In a recent posting, Breaking Down Silos, he lauds curricula that are interdisciplinary. I’d just like to point out that at Babson College’s Graduate MBA program, not only have semester long courses been replaced by multidisciplinary “mods”, but we begin the 21-month program with creativity projects (I’ve got pictures!).

For the next few weeks, I’m studying communications, strategy, data analysis, ethics, finance, law, economics, and marketing and we share cases across all the subjects. It’s pretty cool.

Great chicken soup – from a store

herzigma — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:38:10 +0000

We had some friends for dinner last night, and I picked up some frozen chicken soup from Owen’s Poultry Farm (no website, unfortunately). They’re a small, still-operating farm in suburban Needham , MA. While their meat birds come from other local farms, they still maintain poultry coops to entertain kids and produce eggs. I loved going as a kid, and now that I drive past on the way home I was happy to stop in. Despite a fire last year the inside looks just as I remembered. Besides fresh and frozen chickens, turkeys, capons, ducks, and geese, they sell dinner and dessert pies, traditional thanksgiving side dishes, fish from Captain Marden’s in Wellesley, miscellaneous gourmet items, and occasional local produce.

The soup was great. Very strong chicken flavor, not off tastes at all–even better than home made.. The ingredients are chicken meat, chicken broth, carrots, noodles, and celery. There was a generous amount of whole chicken (white and dark meat). The pasta was pretty soft, but overall, a quart could have easily been a meal for my wife and I. If they sold just the broth, I’d buy that as well.

Owen’s Poultry Farm
585 Central Ave
Needham, MA 02494
(781) 444-1861

Apples

herzigma — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:59:48 +0000

Fall is the best time of year in Boston, and all the delicious apples are a big part of that. Volante Farms is just around the corner from Babson and they have about a dozen different locally grown varieties. I came home today with Empire, Fortune, Liberty, Enterprise, and Golden Russets.

SnapStream reviews Wireless MediaMVP

herzigma — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:22:08 +0000

Over on their blog, the folks at Snapstream (makers of the BeyondTV software) reviewed Hauppauge’s new-ish Wireless MediaMVP networked media player. They liked it, but as a user of both BeyondTV and a (non-wireless) MediaMVP I wish they’d included the great MVPBTV skin in their review.

The software which comes with the MediaMVP is fine, but doesn’t let you take advantage of any BeyondTV functionality (if you have it, obviously). You can’t browse upcoming listings, search for shows, schedule recordings, or, crucially, delete recordings. The Open Source MVPBTV project remedies that by using BeyondTV’s client-server architecture. It’s pretty slick. (And yes, I did purchase and extra Beyond TV Link license to use.) It would be great if the SnapStream folks would sponsor the project (it’s been languishing) to better compete with SageTV.

I should do a writeup on my home TV recording system because it works so well and was so cheap: $70 for a Hauppauge PVR-250, $80 for the MediaMVP, $70 for BeyondTV, and $30 for BeyondTV Link. That $250 for better functionality than Tivo!

Mt. Wachusett State Park

herzigma — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:21:14 +0000

Two weeks ago we went hiking with some friends in Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, about 45 minutes west of Boston and a scenic drive along Rte 2. It was supposed to be brutally hot in the city and we hoped that the mountain would be cooler and less crowded than spots in southern New Hampshire. We covered about 4.5 miles in five hours of sometimes very difficult hiking. Unlike Borderlands, it wasn’t too buggy and we enjoyed well marked trails and varied topography. We look forward to returning.

Here’s a 180 degree panorama from the top, facing mostly southwest.

Wish we could have climbed the fire tower.

Another view from the south slope.

New England may have wussy mountains but the trails are steep. This one on the south face of the mountain turned into tough glacial scree on the east face.

My father-in-law would be happy to know we were hiking with a Ham.

Hot and rainy weather means there have been lots of these great mushrooms.

More fungus – I do love the sprouts.

Not just fungi growing. Here’s a sapling emerging from the rot on a recent cut.

Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide

herzigma — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:19:43 +0000

We’ll be travelling to Washington DC this 4th of July weekend, and perhaps our search for good cheap food will be guided by Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide. This is the blog version of the George Mason econ professor’s guide what to eat in the metro DC area. Some might also enjoy Professor Cowen’s economics writing where he blends a liberal and libertarian perspective with a real interest in the arts, popular culture, and practical philosophy.

Dear Sonos,

herzigma — Fri, 12 May 2006 01:45:17 +0000

Dear Sonos,

Please send me a review system to evaluate. I don’t have a big following like Josh Rubin, Fred Wilson, or Avi Greengart but I will do something none of your other reviewers have: install it at my parents’ house. My dad is a late adopter but technically sophisticated classical music geek. My mom is…less of a technophobe than she was ten years ago. The have a good sized house, different tastes in music, good ears, and influence with their friends. Let me help you target this ripe demographic.

Sincerely yours,

Josh

Dell Inspiron 700m SD card problems

herzigma — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:33:29 +0000

Update: This is by far the most popular post on my site, generally appearing in the top few Google results for related searches. Well, it seems like Dell has finally released an updated driver. Enjoy updating!

A few years ago, I bought my wife a Dell Inspiron 700m on one of Dell’s once-frequent $750-off sales. Total price for a loaded ultraportable? $800. It’s a great little machine with long battery, great screen, and usable keyboard.

Unfortunately, on my recent trip to South Africa, I discovered a major bug: it wouldn’t read SD cards greater than 1 GB.

According to the Dell-hosted message boards, this problem has been reported at least since April of 2005 and no fix has been posted. Not acceptable.