It appears that as we get closer to November 4th, people (by people I mean the WSJ) all across the country are beginning to look closer at Obama’s proposed “tax cuts” and other tenants of his campaign. One of the most startling things people are finding is that while he promises to cut taxes on 95% of families (40% of which do not pay taxes) he’s “proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%”. Something hardly anyone was talking about a week ago.

Now MSM (main stream media) and Others are finally taking note. So yes, while he would “cut” taxes, the truth is that just like other democrats before him who promised lower taxes, he’s actually raising them. In fact, according to the WSJ article:

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of “making work pay,” but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you’re a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year.

Thats something you won’t hear any of the talking heads on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or any other MSM outlet mention or ask him about. Its only a wonder why we haven’t heard that from the McCain Camp yet.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I came across JJGames.com on line the other day and I was intrigued. Used GameCubes from 29.99, used games from $1.79. Could it be this good? If you’re lucky enough for the site to function as it should and if you’re lucky enough to find what you’re looking for (they had Super Puzzle Fighter II for gameboy) then yea, its good. However, it does take a lot of looking and you do have to be a little careful of what you buy. The only down side to finding games on here so far is that they really cater to the older systems (nothing on here for the wii yet) such as nintendo 64 games out the yang.

Popularity: 3% [?]

In light of the event I attended this morning and knowing my own feelings on Vista, I wanted to find out what everyone else thought about it. So I created a poll. I’ve been using vista for two months now and I have to agree with one of the sales reps here, it seems to be a very deliberate OS. Its slower than XP, it uses power quicker (my laptop battery drains way faster) and there isn’t much gain. That being said, according to a recent article in Computer World (I think it was CW) not many IT departments are rushing to upgrade to the OS from Redmond for many of the same reasons. MS is supposed to have SP1 out in January (1st Q 08) which should have some improvements….

But what about you? Will you upgrade?

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Can he? The packet8 VoIP video phone is awesome. I mean look at it. LOOK AT IT! It plugs in to your existing phone and you can now video chat! OVER THE INTERNET! Freaking awesome. Now, Grace and Emma can chat face to face with their Grammie and Breezie in Chicago as though they were there. Pretty cool isn’t it? And it works over your current internet connection (really cool if you have cable internet, you can ditch the land line!)

We’ve been on VoIP phone service for a while now with a company I won’t name and we’ve been really happy with the voip technology. Its been a steady, always on phone connection that is crystal clear. I even managed to hook it in to the existing phone lines in the house so we could use the older phones on the existing jacks as well. The Video Phone offered by packet8 looks to be worth the upgrade. I can add it to the existing phone, keep my number and video chat away at the same cost I’m currently paying for VoIP service (which is tres less than we were paying for conventional phone service).

One of the cool things is that they offer a free PC based soft phone option as well and the prices on their other offerings are all priced with in reason. And look at these features:

* Plug-and-play Videophone
o Simple to set-up, simple to use
o Turn any standard analog phone into a state-of-the-art videophone
* Regular Dialing to Any Other Packet8 Videophone for Video Calling or Regular Telephone for Traditional Audio-Only Call
o No learning curve
* Rotating High-quality CCD Camera
o Crisp and colorful images
* Up to 30 frames per second Video Quality
o Smooth full-motion video
* 5″ High-quality Active Matrix TFT-LCD screen
o Clear, moveable display
* Video Conferencing
o 2-way and 3-way video conferencing
* 100 number Phonebook
o Program numbers in and always have them at your finger tips
* Local Camera View
o Picture-in-picture, adjustable to different screen quadrants
o See and adjust the images your are sending
* Customizable Background/Wallpaper
o Choose your favorite background to use for Tango
* Privacy Mode
o Block video send
* Remote Surveillance (Auto-answer) Option
o Set number of rings for pick up
o To use for surveillance applications
* Friendly On-screen Menu Instructions
o Intuitive, easy to handle
o Icon-based Graphic User Interface
* Echo-cancellation and No-delay High-quality Audio
o For your listening pleasure
* Built-in-Router
o Designed for prioritization of voice packets
o Eliminates need for external router purchase and set-up
* Auto-adjusts Throughout Call
o To maintain best video quality
* Adjustable Brightness
o Tailor the images to your preference
* Call Logs
o An automatically generated listing of both previous calls placed, received, and missed for documentation and easy call back

I think this might be the way to go for phone service (though do I really want to chat face to face with ColonelPanik??

Popularity: 3% [?]

I attended a Microsoft technet event today and while I did glean some good information about a program of their’s (have you ever heard of System Center Operations Manager?), I gleaned some information that was even more valuable.

In vista (and apparently in server 2008) the tcp stack has drastically changed. The catch is that the changes, when implemented will improve your network connection between vista and 2008 (and even a little between server 2003). The problem is that its not enabled by default. But I now know what to do…

Open a Command Shell:

C:\ Netsh
netsh> interface tcp
netsh interface tcp> set global congestionprovider=ctcp
netsh interface tcp> set global ecncapability=enabled
netsh interface tcp> show global

Type the stuff in bold

If you did it right, when you run show global, you’ll see:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\mcangeli>netsh
netsh>interface tcp
netsh interface tcp>show global
Querying active state…

TCP Global Parameters
———————————————-
Receive-Side Scaling State : enabled
Chimney Offload State : enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level : normal
Add-On Congestion Control Provider : ctcp
ECN Capability : enabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps : disabled

netsh interface tcp>

How much this gains you, I have yet to learn… just thought I’d share…

Popularity: 4% [?]