Vista Whips XP in Gaming Tests ZDNet: Vista Screams Past XP in Gaming Tests! The bottom line? "It took about a year and a half, but the performance gap between Vista and its forerunner has finally evaporated."

Background Checks: What You Need to Know Business Week: Background Checks: What You Need to Know - "With background screening now the norm, employers and employees should be aware of how checks are done and how to protect themselves."

Lost: Season 4 Finale Lost ended season 4 with a very strong finale. No complaints, here.

Uncontacted Tribes? Is this story for real? Are there really uncontacted tribes on the earth today?

Managing the Windows Firewall Managing the Windows Firewall - "In this article, I go into more detail on some of the features in the Windows Vista firewall that are specifically designed to ease enterprise management. And I will also be giving advice on how you can use them to make your job simpler and ensure your users are more secure."

"Cult Mind Control Made Easy" YouTube: How to Become a Cult Leader: Part I, Part II. Definitely worth 10 minutes of your time. Both entertaining and scary.

Internet Speed Update

Hillary's "Assassination Remark" Dick Morris comments on Hillary's recent "assassination" remark. He says, "That is not to say that she is hoping for a murder. But it is to say that the possibility is uppermost in her mind and a significant part of her rationale for staying in the race. And, by raising it, she has made it more possible."

Titanic Discovery Was Cold War Cover-Up Fox News: "The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover-up for the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines. When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985, he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. Both of the U.S. Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the Soviet Union."

Music
SeeqPod - Playable Search

Linux People vs. Microsoft People Why MCSE's Won't Learn Linux: "Just because you had the spare change and the time to memorize hundreds of rote answers doesn't make you a decent technician."

LCDs Outsell Plasma by 8 to 1 Are plasma TVs old school? Sort of looks like it.

Vista FUD Update Ed Bott: "The anti-Vista hysteria is extreme, but the reality for businesses is that adoption takes a long time. Always has, always will."

FastAccess DSL XTREME 6.0 I've upgraded my DSL at home to BellSouth's 6 Mbit service. So far, I'm impressed with the results.

Netflix Streaming Box Review Gizmodo: Netflix Streaming Box Review.

Napster MP3 Store Napster is now the home of the world's largest MP3 store, boasting more than six million songs.

Healthy Foods under $1 WebMD: 10 Healthy Foods Under $1. (via lifehacker)

Indy Survives Cannes Evidently, the new Indiana Jones film is not half bad. That's good news, indeed! It would also be the first thing Lucas has done in more than a decade that doesn't stink. I'll be the final judge.

Photos: John Ellis New photos of John Ellis, taken Saturday, May 17, 2008.

Budget Video Card for Gaming NewEgg: EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-E - $80 (Or, $50 after a $30 rebate. Personally, I don't do rebates.)

Misunderstood Vista Features 5 Misunderstood Vista Features - This article would like to clear up some of the confusion about UAC, 64-bit architecture, Windows Search and a couple of other Vista features.

New Rules for Buying a Mac MacWorld: "But for most people, even those who consider themselves power users, we strongly suggest an iMac rather than a Mac Pro. As Apple has improved the Mac Pro’s specs, it has added features once considered “pro level” to the iMac line. If you’ve never considered buying an iMac, it’s time to take a closer look at its dual-core processors, high RAM ceiling, abundance of speedy USB and FireWire ports, and support for external monitors." (via BigJim)

Gas Saving Myths Debunked CNN: 6 Gas Saving Myths. (via Consumerist)

Iron Man Recommended: Iron Man (Trailer). The film has appeal, beyond the comic book crowd. You'll probably enjoy it.

Vista on Ice BusinessWeek: Closing the Door to Microsoft Vista - "A number of companies are opting not to embrace Redmond's latest operating system and, like GM, are waiting for Windows 7 instead."

NBC Shoots, Misses NBC has decided to replace Conan O'Brien with Jimmy Fallon, when O'Brien moves into Leno's spot. Huh? Has Fallon ever done anything even remotely funny? I don't think so.

National Geographic Special National Geographic: Inside a Cult. I highly recommend this National Geographic special. It will next air on Wednesday, May 14th. It focuses attention on Doomsday cult leader Michael Travesser and his followers. You may also find this Houston Chronicle article about Travesser to be interesting.

Related: Cognitive Dissonance, Millenarianism.

Minimizing XP SP3 Woes ZDNet: Minimizing XP SP3 Woes - Some good tips on precautions to take before installing SP3 for Windows XP.

"It's NOT a Clown Car" Well, the Duggars are having another child, number 18 for them. Remember, folks, "It's not a clown car".

Seriously, though, as long as they can provide for all of those kids, congratulations to them.

Improve Your Vista Performance Ed Bott: Learn to Use Vista's Real-Time Performance Sleuth

Superman Comes to the Museum The Atlantic: "The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art held its annual gala last night, attracting a red-carpet lineup of fashion and movie stars. As guests entered the Museum's Great Hall, they were confronted by three superhero figures looming nearly 20 feet high -- Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman -- made of high-density foam and painted to resemble monumental sculptures. Reminiscent of the marble figures in the nearby Greek and Roman galleries, these statues were mere foam, disposable after a night of partying."

U.S. Presidential Race Hillary failed to win North Carolina last night. This almost guarantees that Obama will be the Democratic nominee in November. Current polling data of Obama vs. McCain shows Obama with a slight edge.

Install AVG 8 Free Without LinkScanner You may have discovered, like I have, that AVG AntiVirus 8 Free Edition has an annoying feature called LinkScanner. This feature is simply not something most power users would want. It slows down browsing and it consumes CPU cycles and RAM. If you simply disable the feature within AVG, the status icon in your system tray will grey out and display an exclamation mark, which is undesirable. What's the fix?

By following these instructions's on AVG's site, you may Install AVG 8 Free Edition Without LinkScanner.

Japan: Land of Few Children Washington Post: "Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908. About 22 percent of the population is 65 or older, the highest proportion in the world. And that number is on the rise. By 2020, the elderly will outnumber children by nearly 3 to 1, the government report predicted. By 2040, they will outnumber them by nearly 4 to 1. The economic and social consequences of these trends are difficult to overstate. Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050..."

Brooklyn's Bossert Hotel Sells for $100 Million "Brooklyn Heights’ famed Bossert Hotel, on the auction block since January, has reportedly snagged a buyer. Robert Levine, the same developer behind One Brooklyn Bridge Park, has reportedly made a deal to buy the Bossert for upwards of $100 million, according to real estate blog Brownstoner. That answers questions of whether a softening real estate market might keep the famed building from commanding a price tag over $100 million. The 224-unit building at 98 Montague Street has 20,000 square feet of space. With some renovation, the Bossert could make up to $1,000 per square foot, according to Brownstoner."

"The Day the Music Died" Mark Pilgrim, on why you should NEVER purchase encrypted music files: "So what happens on August 31, 2008? On that day, Microsoft will turn off the servers that they maintain for the sole purpose of validating that the songs that people have already "purchased" through MSN Music are still theirs to play. Those people (hereafter "the victims") will not notice the change right away. The victims will only notice it when they purchase a new computer, or when they upgrade the operating system on their current computer, or when the hard drive in their computer dies and needs to be rebuilt/reinstalled. At that point -- transferring the music files they have “purchased” to another drive or a new computer -- the Microsoft music player running on the victim's PC (like iTunes, but all Microsoft-y instead of Apple-y) will make a call to Microsoft’s validation servers to verify that the music files were legitimately purchased. This call will fail, since the servers are not responding, since Microsoft has intentionally turned them off. The Microsoft music player will then conclude, incorrectly but steadfastly, that the music files were downloaded illegally and that the victim is a filthy pirate, and it will refuse to play them. In this case, the left hand knows exactly what the right hand is doing: they're both giving you the finger."

'The Happening' A new trailer has been released for the upcoming M. Night Shayamalan film, The Happening. (The older trailer is here.)

My expectations are absolutely ZERO for this film, so perhaps I won't be disappointed. His last two films were stinkers.

Photo I think this is a nice photo. (via Flickr Interestingness)

'My Kid Could Paint That' Movie Trailer: My Kid Could Paint That. This documentary has been highly recommended to me by a friend who loves film. It does indeed look interesting.

The Dark Knight New Batman Trailer

Iron Man Iron Man is getting good reviews. Disclosure: RDJ is one of my favorite actors.

James Berardinelli says, "Over the years, there have been only a handful of exceptional superhero movies, and Iron Man is among them." Speaking of RDJ, he continues, " His performance is riveting. He commands the screen."

Free Spyware Removal I've updated my spyware tools page: Free Spyware Removal.

Music Listening to: Buffalo Springfield: Retrospective. The entire album is good.

HDTV Prices to Drastically Drop in May HD Guru: "Sony wants to regain its number one market share, so its drastically dropping the prices of its first new 2008 1080p flat panel models in order to pick up more sales volume. Want more good news? According to a well-placed industry sources, you can expect Sony’s major competitors (LG, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba) to react by dropping their respective prices too (in May). Here is an example. Sony’s latest 40” 1080p (1920×1080) HDTV the KDL-40S4100 will have a (suggested minimum price) of just $1199 making a full $500 less than its lowest priced predecessor." (via BigJim)

Giddy-Up!

Vista Tip: Turn Off UAC! If you're running Windows Vista, please, turn OFF the feature called UAC, or User Access Control. It will make your life much easier. Here are the instructions: Disable UAC in Vista.

The benefits? No longer will Vista prompt you for permission to do any little thing, over and over.

The Office Is it just me, or have the last two episodes of The Office basically sucked? It's almost as if the writer's strike affected their mojo.

Consumers Cool on Blu-ray NY Times: Blu-ray: The Future Has Been Delayed: "Many consumers may not see the picture quality difference between Blu-ray and standard DVD's. . . Upconverting standard DVD players are winning consumers' hearts and wallets."

There you have it. These facts, coupled with the insane price of Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs are making Blu-ray an option primarily for those with money to burn. The magic pricing point is not hard to figure out: Players below $200 and movies below $20.

iPhone Deep-Discount Coming? BusinessWeek: Why AT&T May Deep-Discount the iPhone