Marc's Musings

Re-heally???

This is in the don't spend it all in one place department:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN®) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* -- $.03 has been placed into your Go Daddy® account

The 5 domains I have registered are really gonna net me a whole bunch. Maybe it'll help pay for the difference in one gallon of premium gas.

It probably cost you more to send me the email to tell me the "Good news" (once you take into account the electricity, etc.).

Review: Tuccio's Fresh Italian Kitchen

Just barely off the beaten path near downtown Mount Prospect (in the Clock Tower Place strip center) there exists a cute little Italian restaurant called Tuccio's Fresh Italian Kitchen. Beth and I have been there a few times and have never been disappointed.

The dining room, with seating for about 35 people, is open to the kitchen where you can watch owner John Messina and his small staff cook up each meal to order. There seems to be enough wait staff for one for every 3 tables (they have approximately 12), so the place is constantly moving. Every time we have been in there "Grandma," John's mother, has been in clear sight, either sitting at the counter, or walking around making sure everything is to your liking. The pictures and memorabilia on the wall appears to all be of and from family as the people bear striking resemblance to grandma or the owner.

The food is outstanding. The one time we had the calamari it was grilled to perfection. I haven't had the same thing twice, and haven't had a bad meal. The lasagna is stuffed full of cheese, the ravioli fresh--I could go on, but I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. The portions are huge, and we usually end up taking some home with us so that we save room for dessert. Speaking of desserts--grandma bakes them fresh each day--if you have room, I highly recommend the lemon bars. Regardless if you get dessert or not, when you get the check, there is a pizzelle for each member of your party on a plate.

We have not yet tried their pizza or calzones, which apparently are rated #1 in the NW suburbs. The atmosphere is casual; they will cater a party and/or deliver tasty goodness to you. Sadly, their website is no longer up--it appears they didn't pay the hosting bill and someone squatted on it. The best I can do is provide a pdf of a copy of their menu--click their logo to get it.

Links for 18 Apr 2007 [del.icio.us]

• 6-Year-Olds Under Arrest - Ummm.... All I have to say is "wow."
• Ron Zook Can No Longer Track Your Movements - Apparently NCAA division 1 athletics wants to limit SMS use in recruiting. This is A Good Thing (tm).

On voting

Yesterday was election day in the state of Illinois. What were we electing? I really don't know, and that's why I didn't vote. I like to be an informed voter and know the topics and candidates before I go. When I tried to do research, I found that unless I lived within the boundaries of the city of Chicago, there was no consolidated list of offices, etc. up for election in my community. Sure, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times have online centers, but I have to wade through every community and category to figure out the candidates.

Take the election "center" from the Tribune. There's a nice drop down that has Mount Prospect in 4 different places, with the library separated from the park district. Then I have to remember that we might have school board elections, and oh yeah, which districts (elementary and high school) do I live in? Hmmm... None of these names match the signs I see on people's lawns. What am I missing?

For major elections (US senate/house, state senate/house, presidential, etc.), both the Trib and Sun-Times have a form where I can submit my address, and it will show me my ballot. It's 2007. Why don't/can't they do this for local elections, too? I know there is more data, but at least they don't have to generate a database of addresses--it's already around from the last election.

Did I miss something? The Daily Herald (Big Picture. Local Focus.) didn't even make it easy...

UPDATE: It never fails, as soon as I post something like this, I find the information I am looking for. The Cook Count Clerk has a site that will show you your ballot. I wonder if there is something similar for surrounding counties?

Links for 10 Apr 2007 [del.icio.us]

• User Agent Switcher Extension - I may have posted this before, but this is an excellent development tool. It also has other uses such as "breaking" user agent based detection for content. One of my favorite useragents: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot
• B&B brunch - I'll have to try the french toast recipe in this article...
• The Ploy - Excellent article on how the US found Zawqawi back in 2006. (If you can't find a copy nearby, or don't want to get a full subscription, there are ways to get the article *cough*see other link*cough*)
• Watch World War II airplane videos playing live online - A whole bunch of training vidoes, etc from WWII aviation

Internet Radio

I've been hearing a little bit here and there about the royalty rates that the US government wants to impose on Internet Radio. I decided to do some research this morning and I was appalled. First of all they are making a law in 2007 that applies retroactively to Jan 1, 2006. Anyone else see a problem with this? I certainly do. Second, they want to increase the royalty rate 37.5% for 2007, and 28% for each following year. Raise your hand if you get that big of a raise (especially a pre-determined one) every year. I didn't think so. Yet again the recording industry is flexing its big muscles with congress and influencing the entire Internet radio business. I'm not sure what normal broadcast stations pay, but I'm sure that it's a percentage of revenue--similar to the current internet radio deals--and not a charge per "impression" which is what this is.

This would effect me (and at least 2 of my 3.14159 readers) quite a bit as I tend to listen to several RadioIO stations as well as have created a few Pandora stations. Both of these, but especially Pandora, allow me to listen to music that I want to and not the radio killed, mainstream garbage that the RIAA shoves down our throats through the broadcast stations.

Links for 06 Apr 2007 [del.icio.us]

• Turbine Toucan - Let's strap a turboprop with 3000lbs of thrust onto an airplane that weighs 1600lbs. Awesome!
• Tour of accounting - "That's the problem with randomness..."

Links for 04 Apr 2007 [del.icio.us]

• Getting out of debt — an amazing idea to behold - "Let us return to the day of States that are United under one philosophy: no federal intrusion, and open competition that foster prosperity not laziness."

Links for 02 Apr 2007 [del.icio.us]

• Jostens Fantasy Sports Rings - A ring for fantasy leagues? This is VERY disturbing.

National Championship roundup

So that happened. In case you were living under a rock late last night, Florida beat THE Ohio State University in the NCAA basketball national championship game. Here are a few of my observations from the game:

Billy Packer: If you watched the game on CBS and didn't turn down the sound, you got to listen to the soothing voice of Billy Packer. The great thing is that you don't hear one second of silence when he calls the game. It's really interesting stuff, too. What did he talk about last night? Well, he provided huge insight as to why OSU lost. Here's what he had to say:

1. Florida will win by setting screens because Greg Oden is not coming up when they do that.
2. Corey Brewer may be listed at 6'9", but he has really long arms and plays like he 7'1".
3. There is no 3.

Yup. That's it. Every possession. All night long. CBS, please do us a favor and find someone else to call the game next year. Perhaps Gus Johnson? Bill Raftery? Actually just about anyone other than Packer will do.

Joakim Noah: Apparently I don't know what it means, but his Florida boys know. He's gonna do it big. I actually TiVo'd the game last night, so I will pull the clip and put it on GooTube Someone put it up on GooTube. Joakim, will you please cut your hair and go away? Actually if you just go away, I'll be happy. Good luck in the NBA. Please.

Bonus moment: Every year CBS puts together a montage of the tournament with a clip from every game put to the song "One Shining Moment" (also the title of the montage). This year's clip from the Illinois "Game" was none other than Brian Randle making like Popeye after his dunk. If you haven't seen the dunk (and the moments after), go here.

UPDATE: Added link to Noah talking about doing it "big"

Image from Saved By The Blog

Joakim Noah has no respect

I wish I could find a picture of this (and I didn't TiVo the game so I can't even screen grab), but after the Florida vs. UCLA NCAA basketball semi-final game Jim "a tradition unlike any other" Nantz and Billy "I don't add anything useful or accurate" Packer interviewed Billy Donovan (Head Coach), Joakim Noah (head thug) and Corey Brewer from the Gators. They start out talking a little to the coach, and then Jim asks Jo Noah (apparently, that's his thug name) a question. I don't even remember what it was, all I remember was that Noah wasn't looking anywhere near the camera, Nantz, or Packer. He was staring off in la-la land. He didn't even answer the question in any intelligible fashion. Maybe he needs to go into politics.

At least Brewer and Donovan feigned interest out of politeness.

Gino's East Pizza Crust

I was browsing around this afternoon and found what appears to be the actual recipe for Gino's East pizza crust. I'm copying it here in case the post mysteriously disappears from the interweb:

1 Cup water
1 package yeast
1/3 cup oil mixture
1 T sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 lbs Bread Flour
1/4 tsp yellow food coloring

In a bowl, put water (luke warm), then yeast, oil, cream of tartar, and sugar. Mix with hand until yeast dissolves. Then, pour in Bread Flour a little at a time. Mix with your hand. Just curve your hand like a dough hook and hold the bowl and mix. Then, knead it until it gets firm. Add more flour if needed. Secret is also in the kneading. Knead it for about 10 minutes straight. Then, roll it into a ball, and put it in a bowl with oil brushed in the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. let sit overnight unrefrigerated. Only let it rise once. Portion and use.

And, the kind of pan they use is a Tinned Steel pan that is seasoned. And, when you cook it, make sure you put oil in the pan also. Stretch it out in the pan and put a layer of cheese over it. Then, put it in the fridge for about a day. Then, take it out and put another layer of cheese, then sauce, then pecorino romano cheese and oregano.

The oil mixture is about 95% corn oil and 5% extra virgin olive oil.

Also found Lou Malnati's recipe.