Category Archives: Informational - Page 3

Hidden Windows Features

Posted by on April 2, 2013 No comments

Windows 8 has gotten a lot of press, mostly negative, for the Metro Start screen and the lack of the traditional Start menu.  In all that debate and discussion of the pros and cons of the new design, a few obscure features that are new to Windows 8 have been overlooked,  These new functions show that Microsoft continues to innovate and improve the Windows product.  Some features may not be available in all Windows versions, so your experience may be different when attempting to use these.

Morse Code Entry

This functionality was added to Windows in response to a demand for increased security, especially in the military space.  A recent news story discussed how the US government was investing in major upgrades, including Windows 8.  The Morse Code Entry (MCE) system is designed to allow secure data entry for sensitive communications.

One of the most effective ways to steal information on a computer is to install a key-logger application.  These applications capture each keystroke and store it to a file for later retrieval.  This means username and passwords that are typed in are captured, along with emails, chats, URLs, and all other typed in data.  MCE defeats this by allowing text entry using Morse code.  Open up Notepad and begin a message by pressing the . key as you would on a Morse transmitter.  Windows detects the patterns and converts the dots and dashes to characters for display.  The keylogger simply records a series of periods, with no timing information between them to indicate a dot or dash.  The keylogger has been defeated.

Internet History Sync

This feature was added for US markets, but ironically was requested by some specific governments in Asia.  The simple description of the new service is that all Internet addresses accessed by a Windows 8 computer are synchronized with a central server.  It’s like your normal Internet History in IE or Chrome, but extending system-wide.  By default, this data is transmitted to a facility in an undisclosed location, operated by an unknown organization, but Microsoft is quick to point out that the data is secure and there is nothing to worry about.

From a technical perspective, this feature was extremely easy to implement, since all DNS resolution occurs in a system module.  Initial reports show little to no performance impact from this enhancement.  Although it can’t be confirmed, this feature may not be new for Windows 8, but may just be getting announced with this version.

Subliminal Mechanics Framework (SMF)

For developers, this new framework API is long-awaited.  It provides a way to inject messages into the video output that are only perceived at a subliminal level.  Most computer monitors operate at 60hz and higher, so displaying an image or a message for one of those frames would hardly be noticeable.

According to the API documentation, SMF is a great tool for any of the following:

  • Display motivational messages to keep the user working
  • Display religious messages to inspire a user
  • Display corporate messages to improve worker loyalty
  • Display “targeted” advertisements to improve sales
  • Display messages of national importance to improve compliance

SMF is currently only active when using Metro applications, which explains the urgency to deprecate all classic Windows desktop applications and replace them with Metro versions.

Internet Simplification

If you are unable to find any information on these new features on any other blog or news source, then Internet Simplification (IS) is enabled on your Windows computer.  This enhancement is being back-ported with each update to Microsoft software.  So although it’s new with Windows 8, it’s not exclusive to Windows 8.  The purpose of this application is to make the Internet easier to navigate by reducing the number of sites that have redundant information.

The Internet Simplification service leverages the search results from the Bing search engine and will redirect a web browser to the best (or first) source for the information being searched.  Since this blog post is the first source to discuss these new Windows features, it will be considered “authoritative” by IS, and will be redirected to, regardless of what search engine originally performed the search.  It’s also possible that this whole post is bullshit, but the IS service has been through a few revisions already, so the chances of a bullshit posting being flagged as authoritative by IS are pretty slim.

Married Bliss… with Taxes

Posted by on February 25, 2013 No comments

It’s time for the 2012 edition of Tax That Married Couple.  Let’s jump right in to the numbers.  For previous posts on this topic, check out the Taxes tag.  Here’s the tax charts for last year and this year:

2011 Taxes

Single Filer 2011

10% on the income between $0 and $8,500
15% on the income between $8,500 and $34,500
25% on the income between $34,500 and $83,600
28% on the income between $83,600 and $174,400
33% on the income between $174,400 and $379,150
35% on the income over $379,150; plus $110,016.50

Married Filer

10% on the income between $0 and $17,000
15% on the income between $17,000 and $69,000
25% on the income between $69,000 and $139,350
28% on the income between $139,350 and $212,300
33% on the income between $212,300 and $379,150
35% on the income over $379,150; plus $102,574

2012 Taxes (from page 105 of the 1040 instructions)

Single Filer 2012

10% on the income between $0 and $8,700
15% on the income between $8,700 and $35,350
25% on the income between $35,350 and $85,650
28% on the income between $85,650 and $178,650
33% on the income between $178,650 and $388,350
35% on the income over $388,350; plus $112,683.50

Married Filer

10% on the income between $0 and $17,400
15% on the income between $17,400 and $70,700
25% on the income between $70,700 and $142,700
28% on the income between $142,700 and $217,450
33% on the income between $217,450 and $388,350
35% on the income over $388,350; plus $105,062

Ok, as in all other years I’ve been doing this, the break happens between the 25% and 28% brackets.  When you’re married, you’d think you could stay in the 25% bracket until you collectively make $171,300 (which is double the upper bound of the 25% bracket), but no, you jump to 28% at $142,700.  That is $28,600 earlier.  Last year, the 28% bracket started $27,850 earlier.  It just keeps getting sooner and sooner.

The salary range for couples getting screwed this year is between $71,350 and $85,650, a range of $14,300.  That’s about the same as it was last year.  So if you and your new spouse are fairly successful and equal earners in that salary range, surprise and congratulations!  Why do gay people want this?

So all these years, I’ve been complaining about this marriage penalty, but there is a common belief that you pay less taxes when you are married.  The tax charts in the 1040 instructions stop at $100,000, so there is no easy way to visually compare a single person earning $50k or more against a married couple who each earn $50k or more.  So I wrote a quick program to calculate taxes using the single and married tax charts and ran a bunch of numbers through it.  Here’s the results:

image

Single Income is just what it sounds like.  Married Income is double that value, assuming both people making the same amount.  Single tax calculates the Single income against the single tax chart.  Married tax calculates the Married income against the married tax chart.  Married Tax as Single simply divides the total married tax in half, showing each person’s share of the married tax burden.  Premium per Person  shows how much more each person is paying for being married.

My plan was to find out at what point your taxes become lower when being married.  I wanted to make the point that it happens at an unreasonably high income level.  It turns out that the savings never happen.  After the tax rate split at about $71k, you pay more being married.  It’s not as much as I originally calculated, but still more.

In all my previous posts on taxes, I definitely exaggerated the impact of this marriage penalty, and because of the graduated tax chart, I was miscalculating its financial effect.  I regret that a little.  But with more in-depth research, I found that the actual situation isn’t all that much better.  The more income you make when married, the better off you are being single, starting at $71k.

I think I’ve now beaten this topic into the ground and I won’t bother doing these in future years unless something interesting happens with the tax code.

Sharing Is Fine

Posted by on May 10, 2008 No comments

I’m going to try and scan a lot of my CD covers for albums that aren’t easily found through the general sources.  Not surprisingly, I have a few albums that don’t appear to exist anymore and have been forgotten to time.

A lot of my MCA Master Series CDs are not represented, so those are available.  You can get them in my public SkyDrive folder.  These are now hosted here on the website as a side quest.

Hopefully this helps someone out there who is looking for this album art.