There is one main reason why I don’t use Firefox.

98% of my “surfing” or “browsing” time happens in Outlook 2003, where Newsgator delivers my RSS feeds. The reading pane in Outlook is built on Internet Explorer. So I’m already hitting IE’s cache, security settings, admuncher settings, page behavior. Now if I were to click on the link to open a particular post in the full browser (which I do all the time) all that stuff is already there and I know what to expect. If I had Firefox set as my default it would have to go and re-download all that content and load up a second cache which is wasteful and slow. Plus, if the page doesn’t load like I expect it to, I won’t know if the problem is firefox specific or not.

Really though I’m glad that they are pushing Microsoft to build IE 7, but the whole business of getting so passionate about it is ridiculous. In the long run a lot of good will have come from doing all that work, but really the actual product is a bit of a distraction for Windows users.

Johnny Depp: Suburbanite?

Weston, ho!http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/15010/ 

Although Johnny Depp has been living mostly in France since 1998, the word on the quiet, tree-lined streets of tony, rural Weston, Connecticut, is that he’s discovered that some things function better back home. In 2003, Depp was quoted saying he didn’t want to raise his kids in the U.S.: “America is dumb, it’s like a dumb puppy . . . I’d like them [his children] to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out.” According to the town rumor mill, Weston’s top-ranked schools attracted Depp, his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, and their two kids into returning from their exile. He’s said to have paid close to $10 million for a big white traditional house on nine acres that he’s partly gutted and is doubling in size. Depp apparently fell in love with the town when he was visiting his friend Keith Richards, the inspiration for his campy, Oscar-nominated performance in Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Newman and Christopher Walken also live in the area). Depp’s rep, Robin Baum, denied that he was becoming a suburbanite.

I found out it is 000 [update: removed the number] Kellogg Hill Road, I know that one (by the location on the google map). I also have a good story about Keith Richards having dinner at Aspetuck, the country club very near Johnny’s new house.

Cafepress.com has allowed an idea that was hatched on a road trip to Cape Cod into a product you can buy.

It says “Without the C it’s just od” or if you prefer “Without the sea it’s just odd”

Get yours today.

Emily gets the 100% of the credit for coming up with this one and executing the idea.

http://www.cafepress.com/ewphoto

Rocky Top Tube Socks Custom t-shirt shop.

There are seven different T’s to choose from including women’s and baby sizes.

As one who is frequently teased for being selective about where I am “from”, e.g. California vs Connecticut, suiting the answer to the situation, I can say definitively my taste in Mexican food is CA based. That is to say I have high standards — for guacamole and carnitas especially. So far living in New York has netted some enjoyable Mexican meals, and there are a few good dishes at otherwise less than spectacular spots. I’m thinking about the salsa and steak tacos al carbon at Rancho on the upper west side for example.

But last night, I had a really remarkable meal at a place in the East Village called Mercadito. From meal start to finish:

• Although I ordered a Negra Modeldo and only sipped it from my date’s glass, the margarita was really nice. Good quality tequila with fresh fruit (mango in this case) bits.
• Guacamole comes in three flavors: traditional, mango or pineapple. I don’t like sweet in my guac, so I ordered the traditional and it was the best I’ve had in NYC. The provided chips were double thick and not the best ever, but were an adequate vehicle for big loads of fresh avocado.
• Cerviche seems to be one of the specialties, probably due to its profitability ($13.50 for less than a cup-full). Despite the small portion, the tuna variety (there were probably ten to choose from) we tried was quite good. The tuna was impeccably fresh. This time too, the flatbread cracker type thing they gave us wasn’t great, but it was hardly the point.
• Tacos are the size of those mini-cds you almost never see — say 4” diameter or so. Four came on the plate, placed in the middle of the table, meant for sharing. We had the Shrimp cama-something which was shrimp and a chipotle sauce. The shrimp were tender like a scallop and the chipotle flavor had this popping sensation in the mouth that is hard to describe and a delight to experience. And of course I seek our restaurants that serve carnitas, so I had to order it. Carnitas (shredded pork) can be made a number of ways, and this wasn’t the same style my family uses, but it was tender and flavorful with a mild green salsa and a sliver of mango. I didn’t like the idea of the mango at first, but the execution was flawless and the whole thing worked incredibly well together.
• Sorry, didn’t order dessert, but they sounded good.

</restaurant portion of review>

<music portion>

Went to see Erin and her Cello at the Telephone Bar. Erin is a new friend from the neighborhood and it just so happens, she is really talented and put on a fantastically entertaining show. She sang and played the cello (mostly picking/plucking whatever it’s called), while a xylophone player, percussionist (bongo + shakers and clackers n’stuff) and beat-boxer/mouth hornist backed her up. Bonus moment, the beat-boxer had to leave half way through, but gave us a rendition of Lionel Richey’s “Easy” doing the whole song, beats and lyrics simultaneously Rahzel style. She’s playing again at Telephone Bar on December 5th, “All Shows Will Begin at 9pm, and All shows are FREE.”

CNN.com – Boeing jet breaks nonstop record – Nov 10, 2005

LONDON, England (AP) — A Boeing Co. jet arrived in London from Hong Kong on Thursday after 22 hours and 43 minutes in the air, breaking the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet.

I had to read this a bunch of times scratching my head before I understood why I was confused.

See, I have flown Hong Kong to London on Virgin (wow, that was a nice flight) and that was not a 22 hour flight, more like 14 if I remember correctly. I read this thinking, “Jees, did the pilots just do a few laps or Europe just so they could break the record? Seems like a waste of fuel.”

The answer? They flew the other way around (East)…

(zoomed from above right)

Check it! Emily used us as models in her shoot for Food Arts magazine. Got to love the title of the article too: Hong Kong Cocktail Heroics.

Left to right = Amanda, Corey, Vibha, Vinod’s back, Vic.

Model: Dell PowerEdge 1750 (1U Rackmount) Intel CPU: Dual Xeon 3.0Ghz 512k Cache RAM: 2GB of PC-2100 DDR ECC Floppy: 1.44 Floppy Drive Hard Drive: 2 x 36GB 10K SCSI Hot Swap Hard Drives Backplane: 1 x 3 Bay 80Pin SCSI Hot Swap On-Board SCSI: Dual Ultra 320 RAID: Not Included CD: Internal CD-ROM Drive On-Board LAN: 2 x 10/100/1000 On-Board Video: ATI Rage XL 4MB Software: No Software is included Power Supply: Single Power Supply Condition: Used Warranty: 30 Day Limited Warranty Unit Price: $1499.00 From: www.stikc.com

This is for a new web project I’m working on.

Here’s the [tech] plan: I bought two identical ones with the idea that one will be the IIS server and the other will run SQL 2005. Each will have IIS and SQL Installed. Via some kind of backup/synchronization mechanism I will keep both the database and the ASPX files updated on both. In the event of a hardware failure on either one, the other would take over duties for both and run in 50% capacity mode until new parts could be installed. Clearly there is some exposure here, but since this is being done with personal funds I’m willing to take on some risks. As this project begins to succeed, I’ll be adding capacity and redundancy along the way.

Knowing our obsession with toilet themes (toilet bowl tricycle, toilet bowl restaurant), reader Marc N sent us this shot of the men’s room at the new Sofitel in Queenstown, New Zeland. Apparently the life sized images of girls peering in to the urinals are creating quite a buzz down under.

[via Cool Hunting]

“A new poll shows that 66 percent of Americans think President Bush is doing a poor job of handling the war in Iraq. And the remaining 34 percent think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church.”

-Tina Fey on SNL (that I just watched in Tivo)

This past weekend I went to my first NASCAR event at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Emily was able to get a press-pass so that meant it was me and her dad in the stands while she was down in the pits getting photographs of the action, dodging lug nuts and snapping portraits of drivers. (She did join us for the middle 75 laps or so)

I am pretty proud of this PhotoShop job I did on Dale Jr and Matt Kenseth. This is only the animated gif, cropped sample — the real one is being sent to her stock agency.

I could totally get a job at the Megatouch corporation.