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The French Laundry & Bardessono
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Ben Vincent
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When Lisa and I realised we wouldn’t be taking a honeymoon immediately after our wedding, we knew we needed to do something special when we got back to San Francisco. Lisa suggested we try to get a table at the French Laundry, Napa’s 3-Star Michelin Restaurant. Apparently it’s really hard to get a table, but on our second attempt we managed to get a table for lunch. Our next dilemma was were to stay. Yountville is not know for cheap accommodation. After looking at plenty of crazy priced luxury hotels with two night minimum stays, I found Bardessono. It’s not cheap but I knew Lisa would be in heaven, and that normally makes me a happy man. So after our fantastic wedding, the next weekend we headed out to Napa and the French Laundry. The Chef’s Tasting Menu
There are two menu options at restaurant – non-vegetarian and vegetarian. We chose the non-vegetarian and then selected one of each when there were two options for a specific course. |  | Amuse-bouche I
Gougere (basically fancy cheese puffs)
|  | Amuse-bouche II
Salmon Cornet |  | Cauliflower “Panna Cotta”
with Island Creek Oyster Glaze and California Sturgeon Cavair |  | Moulard of Duck “Foie Gras En Terrine”
Rainier Cherry Relish, Tokyo Turnips, Pecan Streusel, Mache and Aged Balsamic Vinegar
My Choice |  | Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Peach Palm
Santa Rosa Plum, Breakfast Radish, Pine Nut Brittle, Yogurt and Komatsuna
Lisa’s Choice |  | Tartare of Japanese Bluefin Tuna
Chickpea Purée, Globe Artichoke, Jingle Bell Peppers, Lavash Arugula and Pimenton
My Choice |  | Grilled Fillet of Atlantic Cobia
Fennel Bulb, Baby Beets, Navel Orange and Red Ribbon Sorrel
Lisa’s Choice |  | New Bedford Sea Scallops “Poélée”
Basil Dumplings, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Tomato Confit, Spring Garlic and Tomato Vinaigrette |  | Marcho Farms “Cervelle De Veau”
Hobbs’ Applewood-Smoked Bacon, English Peas, Petite Lettuce and “Ranch Dressing”
My Choice |  | Salmon Creek Farms Pork Belly “En Feuille De Bric”
Granny Smith Apple, Red Pearl Onion, Summer Truffle, Frisee and Tupelo Honey
Lisa’s Choice |  | Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Rib-Eye
”Collier d’Agneau”, Sunchoke, Celery Branch, Alfonso Olive and “Sauce Bordelaise” |  | “Montgomery’s Cheddar”
Tellicherry Pepper Scones, Peach Jam, Watercress and Dijon Mustard |  | Coconut Milk Sorbet
Vanilla-Roasted Maui Gold Pineapple, Medjool Dates, Cashew Nuts and Candied Ginger |  | “Savarin Au Citron”
Citrus “Vierge” Per Mio Figlio Olive Oil and Straus Dairy “Creme Glacée”
My Choice |  | “Crémeux Aux Fruits de La Passion”
Silverado Trail Strawberries, Pistachio, “Pain De Géne” and White Chocolate Sorbet
Lisa’s Choice |  | Amuse-bouche III
Lemon and Blueberry Tart |  | After the meal we had a quick tour of the kitchen.   
A couple blocks down the street was our humble dwellings for the night. The exceedingly modern Bardessono. Lisa was delighted to find our Spa-Suite had a steam shower, outside shower and an enormous soaking tub. Which she immediately took full advantage of whilst sipping the complimentary Champagne they brought to our room! |
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Twickenham Stadium - Our Wedding Gift from Marriott
by
Ben Vincent
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| Having stayed at a Heathrow hotel once before, I vowed never to do it again. Simply put, they are cattle markets, and way over priced. So when I realised we needed a hotel before our return flight to San Francisco, I knew I needed an alternative, especially as it would be our first night alone as a married couple. A quick search revealed the Twickenham Marriott, about 10 minutes from Heathrow. [Read More] |
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Home Made Lincolnshire Sausages
by
Ben Vincent
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| Having watched the abysmal England game, we decided to make good use of the early morning and make some sausages. Specifically Lincolnshire sausages, which are our favourite, and impossible to buy in San Francisco. Armed with our new KitchenAid Mixer, we set out to try the relatively simple recipe: Ingredients 2.5 kg Pork, half fat half lean (5 lb)400g Day old bread (15 oz)50 Gram Salt (2 oz)10 Gram Pepper (6 oz)10 Gram Dried sage (6 oz) Directions Cut the pork into small cubes. [Read More] |
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Fat Duck Tuesday
by
Ben Vincent
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| On Saturday we are getting married. A day we’ve been looking forward to since we got engaged 18 months ago in Australia. We thoughts we’d finish off our life as single people in style with the Tasting Menu at the Fat Duck in Bray. The Fat Duck is legendary for having a crazy menu built from the ground up to challenge your senses. [Read More] |
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England vs USA World Cup Football game to be cancelled
by
Ben Vincent
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| Apparently the USA team are going back to school to get some geography lessons…. [Read More] |
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Obama’s Motorcade Shuts Down San Francisco
by
Ben Vincent
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| I left work early on Tuesday to get home in time for an early evening conference call. As we exited 101, we knew something interesting was going on. There were close to a 100 police motorbikes on a side street near by. If we’d been ten minutes later, we’d have got stuck behind President Obama who had just landed at SFO. [Read More] |
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My $103.80 Starbucks Order
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Ben Vincent
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| Today I offered to buy our Dev and Test teams a Starbucks. Little did I know they’d take my suggestion of a “Iced Single Vente, 7 pump Peppermint, Caramel Sauce Top and Bottom, Light Ice, No whip, Mocha” seriously! What I ended up with was 28 completely different drinks. It took me 15 minutes to order them and created a twenty person queue behind me. [Read More] |
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Hotmail, The New Busy
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Ben Vincent
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| Hotmail’s getting a bit of press recently, both TechCrunch and Cnet posted articles today. It’s always nice to see some positive press about something you've been working on for over two years. I also got to see first hand some of the Ads we’ve started to run in Seattle last week. Just as I got back to SeaTac I also heard the radio ad. [Read More] |
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The CalTrain iMuppet
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Ben Vincent
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| Spotted on Caltrain on Friday…. Looks like you all wasted money on those fancy cases. You could have just put your favourite baseball cap on and slipped it right up there. [Read More] |
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Our Insurance Won’t Cover Volcanic Ash, it’s An Act of God
by
Ben Vincent
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| I’m not really that worried about the volcanic ash that’s currently paralysing the UK’s airspace. Our wedding is in 6 weeks and I’m just presuming the panic will be over with… That fact is though, no matter what insurance we have to cover the flights or the event, we wouldn’t get see a penny. This is what insurance companies call an Act of God or a Force Majeure! Anyway, I found this image fascinating, I’d love to know what it normally looks like. [Read More] |
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Two dives away from my 100th Dive
by
Ben Vincent
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| I guess I should thank Jon Oliver for getting me started. We’d both wanted to start diving but he did the research and we both signed up with Dive Crew in Bracknell to do our PADI Open Water certification. It started in a pool in Bracknell (I really hated diving in a hot pool in a dry suit) and finished with four really boring dives in Horsea Island just outside Portsmouth. I passed my PADI on 22nd September 2002 in some very green murky water: [Read More] |
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The Bing Photo of the Day – On TV and Twitter!
by
Ben Vincent
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| Well Friday was pretty cool, lots of really nice comments from friends and colleagues. In addition there was lots of internet activity that I thought I’d share. On TV!!! This is the best part. Unbeknownst to me, my photo was used in a TV segment on Friday as well. [Read More] |
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The Bing Photo of the Day!
by
Ben Vincent
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| Today is a very cool day. There are not many perks to working at Microsoft nowadays but the occasional internal competition is cool. Many months ago I submitted my Sea Nettle Jelly photo for the the Bing Photo of the day contest. Well today it’s been put up for the world to see! [Read More] |
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Arnie Visits The Microsoft Campus
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Ben Vincent
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| Arnie (aka The Govenator) had a flying visit to the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus today. He was here to launch California’s Elevate America program. I think I grabbed one of the last seats before it started and was able to take a few photos. Amusingly, Just before he entered I heard one of his protection detail say on his mic “He’s not with me, I thought he was with you”…. [Read More] |
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Things We Collect
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Ben Vincent
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| We travel a lot (and long may it continue) and apart from taking thousands of photos, we’ve started to collect a few things. Starbucks Mugs I started collecting Starbucks mugs in Kuala Lumpur and now it’s a little bit addictive. In total I have 38 from over 20 different countries and four continents. [Read More] |
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San Francisco Fleet Week 2009
by
Ben Vincent
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| Fleet Week comes to San Francisco once a year and this was my third chance to check it out. In fact, I’d been looking forward to it for quite some time because it’s a great chance to take some really cool photos. On Saturday we found a prime location at Aquatic Park with Kevin & Vivien from work. The weather was a little weird -- typical SF! [Read More] |
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Published in My First Book (Follow-Up)
by
Ben Vincent
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| Since the Photography@Microsoft book was released last week it’s made quite impression. I’m not going to release the actual numbers but it exceed the committee’s expectations on day two! I thought I’d share a couple of the ways it’s popping up across the web: Picked up by Ina Fried at Cnet “… the photos are all amazing.” http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10371366-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 and on the front page! [Read More] |
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Dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s v3
by
Ben Vincent
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| Having succeed in getting away from San Fran for Memorial Weekend and 4th July, it was pretty obvious we’d do something for Labor Day Weekend. We made a pretty last minute booking at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood. Despite booking late we also got a great deal at the Marriott in the centre of Hollywood, complete with a Spa which always makes Lisa happy! Having already done the tasting menu (Menu Prestige) at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant's in London and New York, it was natural that we’d do the same again. [Read More] |
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San Francisco’s Nuclear Missile Battery
by
Ben Vincent
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| On Saturday, after months of trying, we finally visited the SF-88L which is one of the only remaining Nike Missile Batteries in the United States. I say finally because it’s only open the first Saturday of each month and we’d kept finding ourselves double booked for almost a year! SF-88L is one of 280 such sites around the country that housed missiles designed to protect the US from airborne attacks during the cold war. What I didn’t realise was that these are nuclear missiles, five times more powerful than the bomb used at Hiroshima! [Read More] |
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Published In My First Book!
by
Ben Vincent
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| Earlier this year I had my first photo published in a magazine and now I’ve had one published in a book! Some clever people in the Photography club at Microsoft decided to create a book and donate the profit to our Giving Campaign. I don’t think they realised how much effort would be required because they received hundreds photos and had to plough through every single one to pick the best. And I was fortunate to be chosen! [Read More] |
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Kylie’s Windows 7 Desktop Backgrounds
by
Ben Vincent
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| For those of you who pay any attention to the Windows 7 launch, you’ll have seen two amusing ads from Kylie, Microsoft’s four year old ambassador. Kylie is a little kid who is out to make a slideshows using quotes from all the positive Windows 7 reviews! It started with Kylie’s Good News a few weeks ago and the latest instalment is Kylie’s Conversations. I thought it would be amusing to grab the images and use them on my laptop. [Read More] |
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My First Hotmail Release
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Ben Vincent
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| In February I moved over to the Hotmail team and along with owning Mobile Hotmail & Calendar, I’m also the project manager for the entire Hotmail UI team. So it’s exciting to see our first milestone start to get deployed, just as we start coding our second. Here’s a repost of the blog posted on Live Wire made earlier today. [Read More] |
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Fracturing My Rib in Mammoth Lakes
by
Ben Vincent
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| After our first trip to Mammoth we were eager to go again. So we persuaded Andrew (who really didn’t need any persuading to be honest) to make the most of his temporary bachelor time and join us. So we headed out on Friday after work and arrived just in time to grab a pint before heading to bed. We made an early start (well early for me - I think having kids may redefine my definition), grabbed some passes and headed up the mountain. [Read More] |
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Oh Google, where do thou get thy Keywords from?
by
Ben Vincent
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| The traffic to Tassography has definitely increased since I started playing with Search Engine Optimzation (SEO). The Microsoft IIS SEO Toolkit has definitely helped me get my head around the common things to fix. Amusingly the traffic to the site continues to be less to do with my Photos and more to do with this Blog! According to Google’s Webmaster tools I’m appearing in a wider variety of search results now. Which pretty much matches the traffic I get into the site (from all Search Engines, not just Google). [Read More] |
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Mountain Biking in Mammoth Lakes
by
Ben Vincent
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| After our adventure in Kirkwood we were itching to try some more mountain biking. Lisa found Mammoth Lakes on the internet and we quickly realised why Kirkwood was empty. The longest run in Kirkwood was a couple of miles, but in Mammoth they have runs that are more than 8 miles long! For $39/day you get unlimited access to 70+ miles of dirt single-track, with a descent of 3,000 feet from Mammoth's summit! [Read More] |
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Mountain Biking in Tahoe and Kirkwood
by
Ben Vincent
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| Ever since boarding in Whistler I’ve been enamoured by the idea of going to a ski resort in the summer. Last weekend we finally got our act together and went to Tahoe with our bikes (and all our camping gear). After arriving late on Friday night at Emerald Bay State Park camp site, we set out on Saturday to find a gentle introduction. After visiting a bike shop we headed out to the Tahoe Rim Trail. Not really the gentle introduction we were after but there’s nothing like starting in the deep end! [Read More] |
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The 5th Most Popular Photo in the Facebook Bing Competition
by
Ben Vincent
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| Bing is getting plenty of press recently, and one of the most popular features is the home page photos. In partnership with Facebook they’ve started a competition off so people can submit their own photos. I immediately submitted my Sea Nettle Jelly photo from last months visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In just one day it’s rocked up to number five in the list! [Read More] |
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One Computer in Two or More Live Mesh Accounts
by
Ben Vincent
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| I’m a huge fan of Windows Live Mesh and it’s completely revolutionised the way I store my files. When my x300 solid state hard disk died it was a life saver. Whilst I do use Windows Home Server to backup my machine. The backup can still be a few days old. [Read More] |
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Showing Paul and Jacqui around the Bay
by
Ben Vincent
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| Paul & Jacqui had been planning a trip for a while, so it was great to finally see them in San Fran. We took the opportunity to show them around the Bay. I’m not sure what Paul enjoyed the most, cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge or all the local Star Trek sites. I had no idea the Monterey Bay Aquarium was used in Star Trek IV: [Read More] |
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Windows Live Web Communications Art Exhibition
by
Ben Vincent
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| It amazes me how creative some of my colleagues are. Last Friday we had an Art Exhibition for everyone working on Windows Live (Hotmail and Calendar), down in Silicon Valley. I entered five photos, making a total of 37 pieces entered by the team. Everyone was allowed three votes and the winners announced at the end of the day. [Read More] |
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Why I Love American Express and Zune
by
Ben Vincent
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| I’ll get the bad news part of this blog out the way first. My 18-month-old Zune died. These things happen and generally speaking my electronics last for a long time, so I wasn’t that peeved. American Express Extended Warranty Lisa said I should look at American Express Extended Warranty because it might cover the replacement. [Read More] |
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Excitement on 3rd Street
by
Ben Vincent
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| Living on one of the main roads into the center of San Francisco is always full of excitement. Over the last few years I’ve only had to move 10 feet from the coach to grab some interesting photos. Late last month, our morning was disturbed by Police sirens. That’s not particularly unusual when you live in a city but when you hear them on their loud speakers it worth looking outside. [Read More] |
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Walker's 'Do Us a Flavour' Competition
by
Ben Vincent
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| On our trip to the UK we stumbled across some new flavours of Crisps from Walker’s. I wouldn’t normally care, but a friend recently sent me New York Times article about the British eating Squirrels. To my delight, I found that they had introduced Cajun Squirrel Flavoured Crisps! On further investigation we learnt that there were six new flavours; Builder’s Breakfast, Cajun Squirrel, Chilli & Chocolate, Crispy Hoisin & Duck, Fish & Chips and Onion Bhaji. [Read More] |
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My Grandma’s Recipe for Marmite Egg
by
Ben Vincent
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| I remember when I was young how fun it was to go to my Grandma’s house. She was an excellent cook, and having been bought up in the war years she had learnt to be a frugal cook. One of our favourite inventions was Marmite Egg. It was probably the first thing I learnt to cook, so in her memory I thought I’d share the recipe. [Read More] |
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Cooking the Perfect Roast Beef
by
Ben Vincent
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| Every time I go back to the UK, I always ask my Dad to cook Roast Beef. Ever since my University days, I’ve been able to cook damn good roast chicken, but I always avoided even attempting to do beef. When we visited in March, Lisa got hooked as well, so it was finally time to bite the bullet and learn how to do it. Since we got back we’ve had it three times, and each time it was excellent! [Read More] |
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The New Windows 7 Backgrounds Rock!
by
Ben Vincent
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| In a recent blog posting Steven Sinofsky talked about how the Windows 7 team has really gone to town on personalised content. The Release Candidate has just launched and the new backgrounds are now available for everyone to see. In each country there’s a different pack of photos, the US ones are awesome. Here are my two favourites: [Read More] |
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I’m now a Published Photographer!
by
Ben Vincent
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| The TransRockies continues to be really good for my fledgling Photography career, I can finally say I’m published! Breathe magazine in Canada has included two of my photos in an article they wrote about the TransRockies in their February 2008 edition: [Read More] |
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Tassography Usage or never believe stats…
by
Ben Vincent
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| After posting the story about usage of Tassography it got me thinking. So I did some digging into the data and realised it’s rubbish. When I look at the visitor’s data it looks like the usage logs aren’t capturing everything that’s going on: [Read More] |
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First look at Usage of Tassography
by
Ben Vincent
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| I’ve been meaning to look at the log files generated for my site for a while, especially after the TransRockies. I finally got round to it this weekend and there’s good and bad data! Unfortunately I only have log files from July 2008 but it’s clear the TransRockies had quite an impact on the usage of the site. In August-September the traffic doubled and in November it tripled. [Read More] |
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Tassography Gets Personal, thanks to Facebook
by
Ben Vincent
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| Thanks to a little more magic from Facebook I’ve been able to use Facebook Connect to create a personalised view of Tassography for all my friends. The page will show you any pictures I have of you and any photos of your friends based on your Facebook friends list. To get there just click on the Facebook Connect button at the top of each page: [Read More] |
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Now you can Comment on my Photos
by
Ben Vincent
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| Thanks to some magic from Facebook it’s now possible to comment on any photo on Tassography.com and see comments left by others. At the bottom of each photo you’ll now see a very familiar Facebook comment box, simply type in your comment and it’ll show up on the page and on Facebook. [Read More] |
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New Tassography Silverlight Search App
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Ben Vincent
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| I’m starting to get the hang of Silverlight, so I thought I’d replace my very basic HTML search feature with a Silverlight app. It only took about 3 hours, with most of the effort spent tweaking the UI to make it look right. Which just goes to proves how easy Silverlight is. Now when you visit www.tassography.com/search you’re presented with a pretty straightforward search box: [Read More] |
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Turning the Silverlight on Tassography.com
by
Ben Vincent
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| I’m always up for learning something new and when it comes to development the best way for me is to add a new feature on tassography.com. That’s why the site is packed full of features, half of which I’m sure only I know about! Silverlight has been usable for about 18 months now and it was time I finally played around with it. Over Christmas I pulled together two simple applications that I think are pretty cool. [Read More] |
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Windows Live Calendar is out of Beta
by
Ben Vincent
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| Ok so I’m no longer the PM Lead for Calendar but I really enjoyed by 4 months stint on the team and I’m looking forward to the work I’m going to do with them next Wave. So it’s really cool to see the plan I helped build has finally delivered and Windows Live Calendar is no longer a beta product. Here’s the blog post David (the new lead) did today: ------------------------------ Over the past several months, Windows Live Calendar has been in beta. We’ve been experimenting with features, listening to your feedback, and polishing up the service. [Read More] |
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I’m Number 1 on Live Search, Number 2 on Google
by
Ben Vincent
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| I don’t know much about Search algorithms but I do know that they are getting better all the time and sites don’t normally appear high up in the list unless they are meant to. Google uses a method that works out how many sites link to yours, I don’t know how Live’s works. So I’m pretty impressed that I now appear as the first hit on Live Search and the second hit on Google when you search for my name: Live Search: [Read More] |
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Why and how you should switch your ISP Email to Hotmail!
by
Ben Vincent
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| Ok so I work for Hotmail, and this might sound me I’ve been drinking the company kool-aid but hear me out. If you’re using Gmail or Yahoo! then you can also tune out now, I’ll tackle that conversation for another day! But if you’re using a random ISP and you have your own domain name then read on. When I joined 8 months ago I was using an ISP that gave me POP3, IMAP and Web access to my email, that’s pretty good. [Read More] |
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A Never Ending Flight from Chicago
by
Ben Vincent
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| So you left Lisa and I sitting comfortably in United’s new Business class seats in Chicago. We thought our day wouldn’t have any more problems, little did we know! We boarded the flight at 3.40 and were actually looking at an early departure. But time kept going by and we both finished our first movie and we still hadn’t moved. [Read More] |
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Birthday Gifts from United Airways
by
Ben Vincent
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| So it's my Birthday and Lisa and I are trying to maximise our vacation\holiday time by getting home on Sunday, in time for work on Monday. Travelling on my Birthday isn't my idea of fun but if it means one more day of diving or snowboarding then I'm happy! The good news was Lisa booked dinner with Daniel & Ellie at Zuni Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants. So we had something to look forward to. [Read More] |
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It’s Goose time
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Ben Vincent
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| It’s my fourth year of cooking Roast Goose for Christmas, my second in San Francisco. Whole Foods gave me a bit of a shock by letting me know last minute that they couldn’t get one. Thanks to Yelp I found Guerra Quality Meats in the ‘Outer’ Sunset. We were pretty lucky because we got the last one! [Read More] |
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Christmas Tree v2008
by
Ben Vincent
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| Well it’s that time again, we’ve down sized a little from last year, just a 7 foot tree this time: [Read More] |
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A Fire Shrimp
by
Ben Vincent
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| We’ve started restocking the fish tank after a couple of deaths… We’ve added another turbo snail, the last one ended up on his back, which they can’t recover from! We were planning to add another cleaner shrimp, but the shop didn’t have any stock but now we have a cool Fire Shrimp: [Read More] |
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Lisa, Will You Marry Me?
by
Ben Vincent
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| Well we've been back for a few days now and we've finally had a chance to look at the photos and put some online. This is a quick preview of the holiday and more will be up in the next few days. Everyone’s been asking about the proposal, so we wanted to get some photos up now. First, let's set the scene, it's sunset on the 6th night of our liveaboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea: [Read More] |
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Where Mountain Bike’s were Invented
by
Ben Vincent
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| In 1979 Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly coined the phrase Mountain Bike after riding the Repack race on Pine Mountain. This weekend Darren persuaded Anton and I for what he termed an easy Mountain Bike Ride on Pine Mountain. Except it really wasn’t easy, it was some of the most technical cycling I’ve done, with some long (30 minute) climbs and some really step descents on fist sized rocks. I guess it was inevitable that one of us would have a tumble and I was the luck one! [Read More] |
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Sorry for the Spam….
by
Ben Vincent
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| Every so often, I’m tired and I do something silly! This time I was trying to fix a broken link in a blog when I accidentally uploaded my test config, used on my laptop, onto tassography.com! So you will probably have got 4-5 “This Week” postings, most of them with broken links and no images displayed! I’ll try and not do it again! [Read More] |
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Tassography v3 Goes Live…
by
Ben Vincent
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| For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trickling out a couple of changes, which I have now wrapped up into what I’m calling Tassography v3. The site has come pretty popular to the point that I’m getting about 10,000 hits a day on a consistent basis. So hopefully these changes will be some freshness to the site and some new features. New Design I’ve had the same design since I launched Tassography in 2007, so it was time for a refresh. [Read More] |
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When passing all the tests just isn’t enough….
by
Ben Vincent
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| The fish tank has been going well, perhaps we have a little too much Algae (it drives Lisa up the wall) I’m not certain we have a problem. But anyhow, it was time to give our home chemical testing kit a run for its money. After 3 tests at our Aquarium (Lucky Ocean in Inner Richmond) which we ‘passed’, here’s the results of our own test: [Read More] |
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A Long Labor Day Weekend in Mendocino and Russia River Valley
by
Ben Vincent
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| Lisa and I got away for our long Labour Day weekend. We started with two days in Mendocino in our luxury room with a sauna, a log fire and a hot tub on our own deck. We stayed at the The MacCallum House Inn. [Read More] |
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TransRockies (Stage 6-7 & The End)
by
Ben Vincent
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| Well that’s it, Darren and Jackie have finished and we’re all back to the day jobs. I’ve just uploaded photos for Stages 6 & 7 and a few more highlights for the rest of the week: http://www.tassography.com/photography/2008-08-08-darren-and-jackies-transrockies Darren & Jackie finished, just as they started, 21st in the Open Mixed competition, out of 30. I think they are both relieve it is over but I suspect they’ll be looking for a new challenge soon! Whilst waiting for them at the finish line, one of the girls I got to know in the support group had a bit of a surprise! [Read More] |
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TransRockies (Stage 5)
by
Ben Vincent
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| After my flying visit to the Internet cafe, it turned out that our ‘Campsite’ for the night has free Wireless access :) So I’ve uploaded some more photos in Darren & Jackie’s adventure: http://www.tassography.com/photography/2008-08-08-darren-and-jackies-transrockies I’ve also started off a separate Album for other teams I’ve taken photos of this week: http://www.tassography.com/photography/2008-08-10-the-transrockies-2008 The fast driving was worth it because I finally managed to get Jackie and Darren crossing the finish line: [Read More] |
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TransRockies (Stage 4 & 5)
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Ben Vincent
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| Once again I find myself at a coffee shop, I think they must be replacing Internet cafes as the place to get online! Darren and Jackie had an excellent Stage 4, they came in 17th in the Open Mixed group with a time of 7 hours 14 minutes. That’s up from 21st place and they are now 126th overall! Another few days like this and they’ll be in the top half, which is really their aim, well at least Darren’s, I think Jackie will just be very pleased to finish and not come in after the cut off times! [Read More] |
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TransRockies (Stage 2 & 3)
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Ben Vincent
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| I’m back in the same Internet cafe, and I’ve uploaded photos from the end of stage 2 and start\finish of stage 3: http://www.tassography.com/photography/2008-08-08-darren-and-jackies-transrockies Darren & Jackie have had a much better day, finally some real biking and they have pulled back 4-5 places and are now 21st out of 27th Mixed teams. And they only have 20 minutes to make up to get into 22nd place… Stage 3 was a timed event, so no early morning packing for me. I spent the day taking 850 photos of the riders as they did 40km figure of eight course around the forest. [Read More] |
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TransRockies (Stage 2)
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Ben Vincent
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| Ok, so I know that I’ve just put up day 1, but I’m taking full advantage of a cafe with wireless whilst I can find one! It’s called the Smoking Water Coffee Co, I guess because the hot spring up the road makes all the streams smoke! [Read More] |
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TransRockies Mountain Bike Race
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Ben Vincent
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| This week I’m in British Columbia, Canada, helping Darren and Jackie do the TransRockies Mountain Bike Race. Whilst they compete in the ~600km race, I’m driving the Ford Explorer (which is full to the roof), taking photos and catering to there every whim (which usually is just an energy drink). It’s the seventh year it’s been running and Darren had this crazy idea to take part. They’re only on day one and I think Darren would agree, it’s been a little bit tougher than they thought! Here’s how the rest of the week will pan out: [Read More] |
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Airline Tax (cont.)
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Ben Vincent
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| I’m still confused how tax can be 75% of a flight leaving Heathrow, then it got more confusing when Lisa got a quote from US Airways. The tax was less! Well that makes no sense. So I looked at Expedia UK and US and the tax is different based on the country you book from. [Read More] |
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bmi and the case of the over taxation!
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Ben Vincent
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| For the last couple of months Lisa and I have been trying to book our holiday (vacation in American). For various reasons our first few ideas fell through. So then we had the idea to visit the UK for a few days and go to Sharm for some diving. The first problem with this is the fact that bmi and in fact all of Star Alliance don’t allow you to book points across multiple carriers online. So you have to phone them up, which for a complex trip can take anything up to an hour to work out with the agent. [Read More] |
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Introducing Sofia and Matias
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Ben Vincent
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| Well we now have our first fish tank residents Sofia & Matias. Introducing Sofia [Read More] |
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10 Years at Microsoft
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Ben Vincent
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| It’s the 20th July 2008 and today I have been working at Microsoft for ten years! I thought I’d share one useless fact for each of the years I’ve devoted to Microsoft. 1 million emails - Last year I worked out I had received 100,000 emails that year, an average of one every 37 seconds in a very theoretical working day. Things have changed over the years but I don’t think the volume has really changed that much, so it’s safe to say I’ve probably received\sent 1 millions emails since I joined! 2 hundred and 30 Flights – I’ve flown roughly 230 times for Microsoft, including 42 flights across the Atlantic. This also shows that I’ve been tracking 10 years of my life in Outlook. 3 dollar drop in share price! [Read More] |
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The Windows Live Calendar Refresh gets noticed!
by
Ben Vincent
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| For the last two months, I’ve been the Lead Program Manager for Windows Live Calendar. So far it’s been one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve done at Microsoft, and it’s nice to see people appreciate the work we do. Here’s two postings today on the web about our latest upgrade: CNet: [Read More] |
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Windows Live Calendar Beta Update
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Ben Vincent
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| I’m just about to roll off the Calendar team but we’ve just done another update, so I thought I’d share the good blog we just posted: The Windows Live Calendar team has been working hard the last few months on a cool update to the Windows Live Calendar beta. After many more bowls of udon noodles, lots of lattes and many late nights …we’re live! Everyone on our team is fired up about the release and we’re looking forward to your feedback. [Read More] |
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My first Blog...
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Ben Vincent
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| This feels a bit like writing a Hello World application, but I guess it's where we all start. Welcome to my Blog, which I will be writing to supplement the photos that are already published to this feed. My aim is to share random things that I think people will find interesting, useful or amusing. Hopefully I'll also try and share some of the technology behind www.tassography.com, so I can do some small part to pay back all the bloggers that help me solve numerous hurdles I've overcome. [Read More] |
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This website, all photography & other content is Copyright © Ben Vincent. Unauthorised use of images is strictly prohibited.
Catalog Last Updated: Mon, 19 Jul 2010, 22:48:43 | Version v4.0.3861.38195
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