You Know You've Been a Unix Admin Too Long When...

I've had some challenges at work lately, and they all revolve around Internet Explorer. Earlier, attempting to fulfill my annual online ethics & security training, I discovered that IE11 far surpassed the supported version we're allowed to run, IE8 (this, despite working for a Top-Tier technologies company - but I digress). Naturally, I did what any of you would have done - I dusted off (literally) my old Win98 Second Edition CDROM and installed a VirtualMachine, getting as far as a gorgeous 32-bit 1280x1024 desktop (even installed Plus!) before I found Oracle's guest additions don't run on Win98.

My next step was equally as obvious when I carved out some space on my ESX host - VMware tools does (unofficially) run and load (kinda) - at least enough for networking! But that's when I discovered Win98 shipped with IE5 - not IE8 (I had no idea - who can even remember that far back?) - and was unable to upgrade for a whole host of topographical machine-language emulation reasons even I didn't fully understand.

At wits end, I tested an even more far-fetched theory and discovered IE11 ("its a new browser, it might just surprise you") ran the training just fine in something called, "Compatibility Mode."

But I hit my new low today when I called my boss, and asked him how to bookmark a webpage.

(Note to self: Its an orange star on the far right of the page, under the address bar.)

Mystery!

Taxes Will be the Death of Me

I tried to get an appointment with a CPA to explain the results of my taxes with me (done in Turbo Tax), but the ones which will let me hire them without having prepared my taxes themselves won't see me until after the 15th.

Here's my concern:

My Gross Adjusted Income puts me below the 28% tax bracket, and my Taxable Income is 30% less than the Gross Adjusted, which means - if my tax is truly being levied against Taxable Income - I'm paying an insane 27.9% which is nearly double the bracket I was able to get myself into.

What am I missing?