Author: Sam Kornstein

1969 Reviews of Led Zeppelin

Posted on by in Music

Magazine writers in the 1960’s probably didn’t think their content would be easily accessible, searchable in fact,  more than 40 years later. The internet is an amazing thing. My good friend Ed recently sent along a fairly negative 1969 review of Led Zeppelin I that was written by John Mendelsohn and published in Rolling Stone magazine: “The latest of the British blues groups so conceived offers little that its twin, the Jeff Beck Group, didn’t say as well or better three months ago, and the excesses of the Beck group’s Truth album (most notably its self-indulgence and restrictedness), are fully in evidence on Led Zeppelin’s debut album. Jimmy Page, around whom the Zeppelin revolves, is, admittedly, an extraordinarily proficient blues guitarist and

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ShootTokyo Photography

Posted on by in Photography

A friend recently sent me a link to ShootTokyo, a nicely done photography blog from a Boston ex-pat now living in Japan. He captures people very well, something I strive to focus on more often when I shoot, and I find his use of colors, or lack of use, very thoughtful. I’d imagine that in addition to his composition approach, his results are also a combination his post production work and his use of a Leica. I’ve always wanted to try out a Leica. Here are a few of my favorites: Check out more here.

Thoughtful Context on North Korea

Posted on by in Current Events

A thoughtful and concise article in the LA Times lays out some interesting context surrounding North Korea’s recent executions, and why this start (or continuation) of a “youthful revolution” may very well lead to substantially more instability and uncertainty. A few excerpts: “At 30, Kim Jong Un may well be the world’s youngest head of state. His brother, Kim Jong Chul, two years older, is best known as an avid Eric Clapton fan but is also said to keep an eye on the leader’s security.” “‘He couldn’t be a boss with subordinates who are twice his age, who don’t understand him and don’t take him seriously.’ Kim’s tactics in some ways are reminiscent of China’s Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Tse-tung in

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Google Just Bought Some Scary Robots

Posted on by in Technology

From the NYT: “Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham, Mass., has gained an international reputation for machines that walk with an uncanny sense of balance and even — cheetahlike — run faster than the fastest humans.” But they’ll probably do less scary things with these guys then the Pentagon would have. Check them out below. Bigdog: Wildcat: Petman: Petman in Camo:

Joie de Vivre (JDV) in Businesweek

Posted on by in Boston/Cambridge

Max Jahn, what a guy. I used to be a part of the JDV club during my last year at Sloan, which mostly meant that I spent time with some great people and organized group homebrewing sessions. A nice shout out in Businessweek: “In January 2011, 20 students at MIT Sloan School of Management traveled to Austria to learn about chocolate-making, the waltz, and proper etiquette for greeting a dance partner in the grand tradition of the Viennese ball. (The gentleman bows his head to the lady’s outstretched hand, but stops short of planting his lips.) Those aren’t skills most MBAs have on the top of their to-learn lists. Then again, Sloan’s Joie de Vivre club, which organized the trip, isn’t your typical

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Learning to Code (Kind of)

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Aside from playing around with visual basic over the years (I coded a configurable metronome in 1997 and a number of other simple windows-based apps), and learning just enough HTML and CSS to know which questions to Google to run a few websites, I can’t by any reasonable definition code. A colleague recently suggested that we take the One Month Rails class in our free time (of which I seem to have less and less), to learn some Ruby on Rails basics. It’s essentially a video and exercise online class. I like the idea. I don’t have any far fetched illusions that I’ll become a competent coder in the near future (or likely ever). But as coding becomes increasingly important

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