Beer Myths Top 10 Beer Myths

Prepping the Space Shuttle Great photos.

Showtime Content for Vista Media Center TV Squad: "Computer users running Windows Vista with Windows Media Center will soon be able to download and purchase original content from Showtime, including full episodes, cast information, and various video highlights."

Ocean's 13 Trailer Here is a new trailer for Ocean's 13.

Plextor USB HDTV Receiver I'm a fan of Plextor products, so their new USB HDTV Mini Receiver is something I may be interested in one day. Please note that the minimum system requirements for watching HDTV are beefy. Other manufacturers make make similar products, but Plextor's reputation and support are outstanding, making this offer more attractive than others. More, here.

iPhone Best evidence yet that the iPhone will be a huge success? John Dvorak doesn't like it.

Vista: Weak Vista can be brought to its knees by an animated cursor. Yikes!

Bourne Ultimatum Teaser Trailer Watch it here or here.

Mac Buyers Guide Don't want to get screwed buying old Mac hardware immediately before a new hardware release? Consult this guide.

Star Wars Postage Stamps May The Force be with your mail! Read all about it here. Giddy-Up!

Vista Additional Licenses Program Buy additional Vista licenses online, save 10 percent. You can use your existing media.

American I-Dull I now have a bonafide, one-word answer as to why I don't (and never will) watch American Idol: : Sanjaya.

It trumps all opposing arguments. And yes, I do hope he wins. That would be awesome.

Yahoo! Mail: Unlimited Storage Beginning this May, Yahoo! Mail will offer unlimited email storage.

Hard Drive Deal 500 GB SATA Hard Drive for $129, Free Shipping

Vista: Juggernaut Microsoft has sold more than 20 million copies of Vista in the first month - double the number of copies that Windows XP sold in its first month. That noise you're hearing, above the chatter of the naysayers? Yeah, that's Bill Gates laughing all the way to the bank.

Remember, boys and girls: Never bet against the house!

Unsafe Exercises MSN: 5 Common Exercises You Should Never Do

One that both surprised and delighted me:

Sit-ups: Not only are sit-ups bad for your neck, but they're also one of the least-effective abdominal exercises you can do, according to a recent study at San Diego State University.
Safe Alternative: Bicycle Crunches: That same study found the bicycle maneuver works the abs and obliques 250 percent better than traditional crunches or sit-ups. Lie on your back with your feet up in the air, then bend your knees at a 90-degree angle. With your hands behind your ears, pump your legs back and forth while moving your armpits (not your elbows) toward the opposite knees.

Intel vs. AMD The Tech Report gives the edge to Intel, for now. "Right now, Intel has the magic combination of a superior processor microarchitecture and a more mature, fully realized 65nm manufacturing capability working together on its side." (via an email from Blonde)

HD Question Will one my smart readers please clear up a few HDTV questions that I have?

If a television is HD-Ready, does this mean I cannot watch over-air broadcasts without another piece of equipment? What about connecting such a TV to an HD DirecTV receiver or an HD cable box? In other words, will an HD-ready TV work for all scenarios except watching broadcast HD?

BSG Season 4 Update Great news! "SCI FI Channel has upped its episode order for season 4 of its Peabody Award-winning original series "Battlestar Galactica" from 13 to 22 episodes. This will include a special two-hour extended event that will air during fourth quarter 2007 and be released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment thereafter." Now, if they'll just bring back Starbuck, already!

Twitter Goodness Via Kottke, here are three Twitter-related sites for you: Twitterholic, Twittermap and Twittervision.

Beatles in 5.1 Surround I purchased a decent, low-end set of Logitech 5.1 speakers for my PC on eBay last month. This allowed me (at long last) to listen to the new Beatles 'LOVE' album in surround sound. You have to hear it to believe it. I cannot wait for the entire Beatles catalog to be released in this format. (MetaCritic)

Microsoft Blog Directory Microsoft has many blogs, and here is a directory of them: Microsoft Blog Directory.

Battlestar Galactica This Sunday, the 2nd half of the Season 3 Finale will air. Overall, this has been a weak season, but there have been a few spectacular episodes, too. The finale is really a 2-part episode with the first very good half having been aired this past Sunday night. Spoilers are available online for the finale, but I'm avoiding them.

The best episode this season was non-standard, to say the least. Entitled 'Unfinished Business', it featured boxing matches among the crew of Galactica. Dirty laundry and old grievances were aired and dealt with. The film editing of this particular episode was a marvel to behold.

24: Season 6, Episode 14 Last night's episode was the first time I've enjoyed 24 since episode 4. Upward trend?

Vista: More Than Just a Pretty Face Ars Technica: Windows Vista: More Than Just a Pretty Face - Among other things, this article provides some details regarding Vista's audio and video features.

Postal Rate Increase On May 14th, the price of a U.S. first class postage stamp will increase to 41 cents.

The Prestige The Prestige - I had wanted to see this film from the very first time I saw the trailer. Finally saw it on DVD yesterday. It was mostly enjoyable, but disappointing. To me, it was a case of a pretty good idea for a movie, with a flawed delivery. There is no doubt that Christopher Nolan is a gifted filmmaker (see Memento or Batman Begins), but his skills cannot save the wholely unsatisfying screenplay. Three quarters of the way into the film I began to realize that it wasn't going to deliver, which is to say the ending is weak. I would still recommend the film, as there are some very entertaining moments. However, it is by no means a great film.

I am mostly in agreement with this review by James Barardinelli. He does a good job of expalining the weaknesses.

Quick Fixes for Vista Quick Fixes for Five Nasty Vista Problems - Topics include installing Adobe Reader, Firewire issues and VPN issues.

New Photos I've posted a few new snapshots to my Picasa Photo Gallery.

In-Browser FPS This is quite impressive: Phosphor.

Linux Ignorance (at Large) One word: Priceless. Guaranteed to make all geeks laugh!

Twitteriffic The Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users

The Foam Test This is a must-see: The Foam Test.

You'll need either PowerPoint or the free PowerPoint Viewer to view the file.

Monopoly If you ever want to stir up a really good argumenet among otherwise civil folks, just bring up this topic: Monopoly 'House Rules'.

NPR vs. RIAA The Consumerist reports that the RIAA has pissed off NPR.

Artist I was really impressed by this video of an artist at work. I'm not exactly certain what this method of painting is called, but it's quite neat.

Trinity Rescure Kit 3.2 Trinity Rescue Kit 3.2 - "Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues."

I have not yet personally tested this tool.

Halo 2 for Vista May 8th is the big day for Vista gaming, as Microsoft will release Halo 2, as well as 'Games for Windows Live', a cross-platform system allowing XBox Live players to interact with Vista gamers.

Google Image Ripper Google Image Ripper - "No more thumbnails, straight to the good stuff."

Twitter Twitter - "A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!" Yes, the Broomeman Twitters, mostly by IM.

Vista Ultimate Extra: DreamScene Content Pack Windows DreamScene Content Pack - A new Vista Ultimate Extra that was released yesterday. I successfully installed it today. It is described as follows: "This Windows Ultimate Extra contains high-resolution, looping videos that you can use with Windows DreamScene." I now have several DreamScene videos to choose from, as shown below.

The DreamScene backgrounds look terrific, but they really peg my (Athlonx XP 3200+) CPU, sending it to a steady 50% utilization, which is unacceptable. It will run much better when I move to newer hardware, obviously.


Click for larger view.


My poor little 2003 model processor begs for mercy.

Pollen My seasonal allergies started acting up yesterday. Gee, wonder why? Fortunately, it's just a little sneezing and (minor) itchy eyes, for now. In a few weeks I'll need Allegra to ease the symptoms.

Amberjaque Rye Ale I purchased a party pig of Lazy Magnolia Amberjaque this past weekend. Excellent beer, and the only rye beer I've ever had, I believe. It's a local brew, so I'm not sure about the availability in your area.

50 States in 1 Week 50 State's in a Week's Vacation - The same gentleman also visited 21 states in a single day on another trip. I'm both impressed and jealous.(via Kottke)

64-bit Windows a Real Downer George Ou, on Choosing between Vista x86 32 bit or x64 64 bit - "For this reason, x64 edition for a typical consumer is usually not very practical because there are simply too many hardware peripherals you won't be able to use. Getting the computer itself to work is relatively easy; it's the one or two obscure devices that stops you dead in your tracks if you must have that device working. For this reason, no PC maker (that I'm aware of) will pre-load x64 edition of Windows on its PC because it will be a support nightmare if a customer starts complaining about a printer driver that won't load. To this date, Apple iTunes won't support any x64 edition of Windows, and it will absolutely not work at all because of hardware driver issues."

Peggle Peggle - Best new game I've seen in a long time. If you play three minutes of it, you will be addicted. Good, clean fun for all ages. (I purchased my copy via Steam, after trying a free demo.)

Family Snapshot We're having (rare) wonderful 80 degree/low humidty weather, here in MS right now. Here is a snapshot of me and my family from yesterday. More photos are here.

External Hard Drive Here's a pretty good deal on an external hard drive.

20 Years Ago Today U2's Joshua Tree was released 20 years ago - on March 9, 1987. Make you feel old? I do think U2 is now overrated, but Joshua Tree is a great album, from start to finish.

4 GB of RAM Jeff Atwood: Where did my RAM go? Short story, if your application needs more than 2 GB of RAM, you better switch to a 64-bit operating system.

Windows Ultimate Windows Ultimate - A site for Vista Ultimate users and enthusiasts.

Microsoft Process Monitor v1.1 Microsoft Process Monitor v1.1 - "Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit."

Website Statistics For the time being, I've set my website statistics application to 'Open Mode', which allows for public viewing. UPDATE: The sneak peak has ended, as of March 11, 2007. Thanks for your interest.

Broomeman.com Web Statistics

The stats are powered by Mint, and they are best viewed using Mozilla Firefox.

Technical Note: Mint tracks only the pages that I tell it to track. Therefore, the numbers you'll see do not represent all traffic, as some pages are not being tracked. My best guess is that I'm currently tracking more than 95 percent of my site's content.

doPDF doPDF - A freeware PDF converter for Windows. How does it work? "doPDF installs itself as a virtual printer driver so after a successful installation will appear in your Printers and Faxes list. To create PDF files, you just have to print your documents to the doPDF pdf converter."

Borders Coupon Valid Until March 11: Buy 1 Drink, Get 1 Drink Free (Rewards Members Only)

Windows 2000 DST Fix IntelliAdmin: Windows 2000 Daylight Savings Fix Tool. Read more about it here. I have personally used this on a Windows 2000 machine, and I also know of at least one more network admin who has done the same.

Scot's Newsletter: March 2007 Scot's Newsletter - In his latest newsletter, Scot details some of the reactions to his recent (public) switch from Windows to Mac. He says, "The surprise for me, though, was that even though 200 to 300 people promptly unsubscribed from the newsletter, another 200 to 300 new subscribers promptly signed up."

Another highlight of this newsletter is the All About Upgrading to Vista section.

Message to My Readers Dear Reader:

My web stats reveal that this page (my weblog) is visited each day by approximately 120 unique individuals. Honestly, I don't know who some of you are. I would like to change this. If you wish to remain anonymous, that's perfectly OK with me. However, if you're agreeable, I'd love to hear from you. Just a simple hello and a little bit about yourself would be great. I would also like to know what part of the country/world live in.

If I had to compile a list, I think I could guess who about 40 of you are. I'm thinking that you are personal friends, family, current coworkers, former coworkers and acquaintances, both in person and online.

If you feel that you fall into the list of people that I already know about, feel free to keep your response to a brief, "Yeah, I visit your site."

To send me a message, just click on this link or email me at donny at broomeman dot com.

Sincerely,

Donny Broome

UPDATE: I've had a great response to this post. Please write if you haven't done so already. I've appreciated all of your messages.

Open Letter to Microsoft Christopher Null: An Open Letter to Microsoft: Re-Release Windows XP. In contrast, I must say that my opinion of Vista Ultimate, so far, is mostly positive. The basic hardware requirements are significantly greater than XP, but the best features of XP are present, along with lots of other great stuff. UAC is the one feature that I think needs to be redesigned, and quickly.