My boss and I tried the Toaster Oven the other day. Limited menu, but great sandwiches. You can read my review on Yelp.
Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category
The Toaster Oven in San Francisco
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Apple TV, part 3 (Boxee)
Sunday, February 1st, 2009I hooked up the Apple TV, accessed iTunes on my Mac mini, and synced my music from my mini to the Apple TV.
Next up was installing Boxee. Not quite as easy as the instructions made it out to be, but I still got it installed and working. There was some overscan on the video but the software has a really easy way to adjust the overscan, so no problem.

Hulu worked, though it listed videos that weren’t available anymore. That was annoying. ABC.com didn’t work, nor did Fox. That’s makes Boxee a lot less useful. Didn’t try You Tube.
I like the Apple TV’s implementation of Front Row for music much better than I like Boxee. I see Boxee as my avenue to Internet video. For that it works well. I had an episode of 24 running from Hulu. It looked great.
The Apple TV and Boxee are definitely worth it.
Apple TV, part 2
Friday, January 30th, 2009As I said earlier, the Apple TV is a breeze to setup. I’ve since loaded all of my music onto it. It took forever to load 65GB of tunes via Wi-Fi. But it’s done and it looks and sounds great. It operates pretty much just like Front Row on my Mac mini. So it’s a keeper. I’ve disconnected my mini from the TV and taken it downstairs to the office where it will replace my ancient mini-ITX project PC. My next step is to load my photos onto the Apple TV. Then I’m going to try out Boxee.

Apple TV
Sunday, January 25th, 2009Speisekammer in Alameda
Monday, January 19th, 2009Great German food and great live Jazz. You can read my review on Yelp.
Customer Service Disaster
Sunday, January 18th, 2009We talked about excellent customer service on 1/17. Here’s the flip-side.
We all make mistakes but doing things that are plainly unethical, that’s different. I found this on CrunchGear. Here’s what happened:
A site called The Daily Background found evidence that Belkin Bizdev guy, Michael Bayard, is paying folks 65 cents to write good things about Belkin routers.
Here’s Belkin’s response (also from CrunchGear):
We’ve acted swiftly to remove all associated postings from the Mechanical Turk system.
We’re working closely with our online channel partners to ensure that any reviews that may have been placed due to these postings have been removed.
I wouldn’t say that they fixed the problem. Yeah, they got rid of the reviews but they didn’t mention firing the employee (which I think should be a given for something this stupid and blatantly unethical), nor did they mention refunds for customers that may have purchased the products based on the false reviews.
The moral of the story – be careful what you do on the Internet.
Fisherman’s Wharf
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008Dad and I went to Fisherman’s Wharf today. It’s always nice to get fresh Dungeness crabs and clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. Yummy!
The sea lions were out making a bunch of noise at Pier 39.
And out in front of the In-N-Out Burger was The Bushman. This dude sits on a milk crate holding branches he cut off of a tree. He hides behind them and pops out to scare people walking by. He got us when we walked by. We wondered how he kept from getting his ass kicked. Turns out he hires a body guard. Claims to make about $60k a year. You can read about him at the link above. Pretty interesting stuff. He’s been doing this for years. It’s hilarious watching him. We sat in the In-N-Out burger watching him while we ate. BTW, In-N-Out Burger kicks ass!
Alcatraz was just as impressive the second time around as it was the first. The island was opened up so we could walk around more. The place is much smaller than you’d imagine and the cells are depressing. They’re small, damp, and cold. Few get any sunlight. It must have been terrible to have been there so close to the city, being able to hear all the life going on around you, yet knowing you were stuck in your little cell on the island.
After checking out Alcatraz, we saw the entire Miami Hurricanes football team waiting in line for their chance to see Alcatraz. They were in town to play Cal in the Emerald Bowl.
Mellow Mushroom – Great Pizza in Fort Worth, TX
Saturday, August 26th, 2006After getting a haircut in Fort Worth, I was hungry for some pizza. Sandy pointed me to Mellow Mushroom by TCU. So I headed out to to Bluebonnet Circle.
She said it would be crowded and she was right. But it was worth it. The pizza was great. The service was good. Somewhat pricey for a pizza, but it was so good I’m not complaining. I had the Kosmic Karma. The crust was kind of thick. It was chewy. The sauce was pesto. I loved it.
Their pizza choices are pretty eclectic. I’m adding Mellow Mushroom to my list of good, unique pizzas.
Time to Give a Shout Out to Amore’s in Grapevine, TX
Sunday, August 6th, 2006I’ve been going to Amore’s for years. It’s not unusual for me to go multiple times per week. The service is good, as is the food. The prices are very reasonable. I generally get a slice of cheese pizza and a salad with house dressing, but the other things on the menu are also worthy of your consideration. It’s BYOB so bring some nice wine.
Breakfast @ Savor
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006I had breakfast at Savor in San Francisco today. It was a great experiece. We talked about the Internet biz and enjoyed some yummy food.
