Right Hand Technique

Marcus,
I joined GMC a few months ago and so far its been great. I especially enjoy your lessons and I want to say thanks because they've been really helpful for me. I have 2 questions for you:
1- Seeing as you're really into shred, I feel I should ask you what you think about the advantages or disadvantages of circle picking. I notice that you seem to use a pretty standard alternate picking form that is quite effective (kind of like Yngwie). The reason I'm asking is because one of my favorite players is Takayoshi Ohmura. If you're not familiar with him you should check him out on youtube. He's great. His technique is amazingly smooth. Speed picking really requires some kind of set form to become comfortable with right?. I've been reading a lot about this topic (pros and cons... wrist vs forearm vs thumb and index; open hand vs closed hand etc) but then I realized that I should just ask you! Any insight that you can give me on your picking hand or just right hand technique in general would be extremely helpful.

2- My next question is actually about the left hand. I loved the instructor plays instructor lesson with you and Muris. In that lesson you mentioned that Muris plays more with his pinky than you do so you altered some of the fingerings. This may be a dumb question but is there any set rule that you use when fingering a particular lick? I am sometimes unsure about what to do because an instructor may play something one way (with his pinky high up on the fret board for example) and I just find it more comfortable to play without my pinky especially when I'm that high up (I guess that's like you). Is there any real reason to play it one way or another or is it just preference?
Thanks a lot- Joe
P.S. Sorry about the long questions. lol