Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post describing a problem I had been having when Rochelle migrated to Mozilla Thunderbird for email, and Norton Anti-Virus was corrupting her Inbox. The gist of the post was that there didn’t seem to be a good anti-virus solution that worked well with Thunderbird.

A couple weeks ago a comment defending Thunderbird came in on the post. I started to respond in another comment, but because the attitude expressed by the commentor is so prevalent in software, I wanted to respond more publicly.

Here’s the meat of the comment (or read in full):

The problem with virus checking in Thunderbird is actually not Thunderbird. It the strategy you are using to scan for email viruses. […] If your antivirus program doesn’t have a function to scan email as it’s downloaded and prior to hitting your inbox, get a real antivirus solution that does. Let’s not be bad mouthing Thunderbird for something you are not doing appropriately in the situation you have.

Well, at the simplest level, this is correct, it’s really just a matter of configuration. But on other levels this philosophy — that the features are there to solve the problem, the user just needs to find and configure them — is not a very customer-friendly one. You could argue that it’s the opposite. There are very few people out there looking to buy “anti-virus software with an email proxy or plug-in to scan incoming emails.” They just want “safe, virus-free email.” By itself, Thunderbird still does not provide this.

And, in spite of 2½ years passing since I wrote the original post, the software and the web site still do not provide any useful information about how to achieve “safe email.” The only official information about anti-virus protection I found today is the FAQ Is Thunderbird susceptible to e-mail viruses?, which still has the same essentially useless information I noted 2½ years ago. On a very real level, the level at which most people will experience the product, getting “safe email” with Thunderbird is a challenge that most people will not be able to meet.

A person can say “don’t bad mouth Thunderbird,” but what they’re really saying is “people who aren’t smart enough to figure out this Thunderbird + anti-virus stuff for themselves should use something else.” I wonder what the response would be if the Thunderbird project posted those words on their web site, instead of the useless words in the FAQ?

Final note: Rochelle’s solution to the dilemma was to switch to Gmail. Works great, and virus-free.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Friday wine section has an article, Social Swirl: Surging in popularity, wine clubs let you learn while you drink, with some choice quotations from Rochelle and from our friend David, about the wine tasting group Rochelle started more than four years ago.

This is our third major news article having to do with obsessions with food and drink. Not sure what says about us, except hopefully we’re fun to be around…

Rochelle found the weblog of Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and I ended up reading it for an hour. Nice writing, and some fun stories and insights from an experienced bartender. Eight Things You Should Never Say to Your Bartender was the one that caught Rochelle’s eye, and I was gratified to see that we’d never done any of those things. (When we are traveling we will ask about fun things to do in town, but only if the bar’s not busy, and the bartender has time and interest in chatting.)

In addition to stories and so on, he’s also got recipes and histories of favorite cocktails. While I’d certainly make a different choice for tequila than he does, the recipes all sound interesting, especially the Richmond Gimlet and the Brisa, both his own creations. Recommended reading.

When Rochelle and I go out, and especially when we travel, we often run into other tequila enthusiasts. Many of them are just beginning their appreciation of this fine spirit, and the number one question we get is “what is your favorite tequila?” We always disappoint, because we can never limit ourselves to one, or even a couple. We tell them what we can, point to good selections on the current bar’s list (part of our “love the one you’re with” philosophy), and promise to follow up with recommendations. But we have never attempted write down a list of our favorite tequilas. Until now.

I have written previously, in Tequila 101 and Everything you need to know about ordering tequila, some basic facts about tequila; what follows here is more opinion and personal preference. You can read the prior articles for background, or simply go with this summary: always look for and verify that your tequila says “100% agave” on the label. If it does not say that, it’s not a quality tequila.

Specific Tequila Recommendations

I’ve drunk more than 150 different tequilas at this point, and when I go to Tommy’s I have more than 200 options to choose from. While I enjoy tasting new things, more often than not I fall back on my favorites. When I’m not at Tommy’s, and the selection is much more limited, I can still usually find one of my preferred products, at least if the bar has any selection at all. Note that these are not the only tequilas that I love, they are simply the ones that most often come to mind when I am ordering.

I would drink any of these tequilas neat or in a margarita. Don’t let anyone tell you these are “too good to drink in a margarita;” I’ll have more on this in a future article. These are in no specific order:

• Herradura Silver, Reposado, and Añejo
• Oro Azul Blanco and Añejo
• El Tesoro, everything they make
• Don Julio Reposado and Añejo
• El Charro Reposado and Añejo
• Chinaco Reposado and Añejo
• Regional Reposado and Añejo (you won’t find this outside of Mexico)
• Centinela Reposado
• Arette Reposado, especially the Suave

I also have a few “special occasion” tequilas, which I will only order if I am celebrating something, or feeling especially flush with funds. As you might expect, these are more expensive; a 2 oz. pour of the Chinaco Black Label is more expensive than a bottle of any of the above tequilas. I would only ever drink these tequilas neat, in a nice snifter or glass.

• Chinaco Black Label (very rare, not made anymore)
• San Matias Rey Sol
• Herradura Seleccion Suprema
• Don Julio 1942
• Arette Gran Clase
• Jose Cuervo Reserva de Familia

Rochelle’s preferences are similar, but she also has a few that she likes better than I do, primarily Siete Leguas, of which I am not particularly fond.

We also have a few “workhorse” tequilas, which we happily order in a bar if none of the above are available, and some we also buy in bulk when we’re having a party. These are fine tequilas, but we don’t reach for them in the same way.

• Pura Sangre
• Pueblo Viejo
• Gran Centenario
• Cazadores
• Cabrito

Finally, one last “special purpose” tequila. We personally love the San Matias Carmessi, but we think it’s especially useful for introducing people to fine tequilas. It’s great for people who have never tried tequila, and even people who think they don’t like tequila usually find they enjoy it.

Just Say No

I don’t really want to recommend against specific products, because everyone’s taste is different, and if you like it, drink it. But these are products which I personally don’t care for, or find over-priced or over-rated. You make your own decision.

• Cuervo Especial, Gold, 1800 — I’ll order a beer if these are the only selections
• Sauza — the Tres Generations bottlings are OK, but there is no Sauza product I genuinely like
• Don Eduardo — we gave this up forever the last time we drank it, 2-3 years ago; it’s just not good, and often expensive
• Patrón — actually a decent tequila, but over-priced

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I’m sure a million people will be linking today to the Apple announcement of Boot Camp, a new utility which now makes it both possible and easy to install Microsoft Windows XP onto an Intel-based Mac. I’m also sure most of them will put their amateur analyst hats on, and tell people what they think it means. (Most will be wrong.)

My interest in and comments on the announcement are quite a bit less global in scope.

Rochelle’s current PC is a desktop system I assembled myself. It’s got a 1 GHz Celeron processor, and 512 megs of RAM. It’s sloooooow. But this is Rochelle’s year for new computing hardware, so we’d been planning to replace it, with a top-of-the-line ThinkPad.

I had entertained the idea of getting her a MacBook Pro, because I think that she’d probably come to like Mac OS X (and the iLife applications) quite a bit, but also because it seemed likely that someone would eventually announce a decent way to run Windows on that system.

But while I would love to Switch Rochelle, I know that a fallback plan of “it will probably eventually run Windows” will not save my ass if she decides she wants to stay on Windows. (And Rochelle quickly saw through my real fallback plan of “Well, I guess I could take that brand new MacBook Pro off your hands. It’s a little better than my two year old PowerBook…”)

With Apple delivering today dual-boot capability (and no doubt delivering more sophisticated virtualization capabilities in Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5, when it ships), I don’t need a fallback plan. I don’t have to figure out the Lenovo online store and how to order the damn ThinkPad I decided was the safe choice for what to get Rochelle. I tried twice to work my way towards the model I wanted, which is basically the T43 with similar specifications to the MacBook Pro. But I must be stupid, I couldn’t figure out how to get the store to let me select anything like that, even though I could find the model number in PDF-only spec sheets…

Two years ago, Rochelle and I were held captive during the imfamous Tequila Hostage Crisis of 2003. This month an article in the San Francisco Cronicle describes a local journalist’s experience on a similar trip.

Tequila trail leads to innovation gives some of the highlights, which we remember well, and alludes to the impact of the more intense moments of the trip (of which we remember little ;-), by describing the author’s regimen of no alcohol and lots of exercise for 10 days before the trip, and no activity at all for 3 days afterwards.

Entertaining and educational to read, there’s some good new tequila drink recipes as well. We will have to visit the local bartenders mentioned, and try them all out!

I was surprised to discover this evening that Rochelle’s very creative movie (given the constraints of our 1999 digital camera’s 10-second video limit) is not the top result for corporate drone on Google.

I have to admit, I bought Apple’s iMovie, and then Final Cut Express, and then upgraded it, all without producing something as compelling as what Rochelle dreamed up on a (slow) Happy Boss Day at the office. “Check it out.”:http://www.michaelandrochellessite.com/resources/moov/happy-boss-day.mpg

Rochelle and I are currently in Palm Springs, on vacation for two weeks. So far we have done very little except eat and drink and sleep and…play Scrabble.

I don’t usually talk about our vacations on this weblog while we’re away, because I’m too paranoid: I don’t like telling people when it would be easy to break into our house. But this trip, we’ve taken the most valuable (to thieves) stuff (our computers) with us. (Plus we have house sitters for most of the two weeks. House sitters keep the cats from revolting while we’re away…)

Rochelle and I both have projects we’re working on during our two week “retreat,” and most of them involve or require the use of a computer. Sounds crazy, but it really is relaxing to be able to go away, and concentrate on things you’ve been meaning to do, but can’t find the time, or have too many daily distractions. And the things we’ve been meaning to do — writing, organizing photos, leaning new skills for work — are all intimately tied to technology. Welcome to the 21st century, I suppose.

At any rate, we’ll be back to San Francisco in a week or so.

“That Luigi is a fat, filthy, disgusting animal. What did we ever do to deserve him?”

“I don’t know, but you must have been very bad in a previous life, because you have him, Basta, and me.”

Heard around the office…

“You can’t take tomorrow off, I’m already out of the office.”

“How come?”

“Our au pair is at Burning Man.”

If you’re not familiar with the linked terms, be sure to view the definitions…