The knowledge of the password pattern could give you really speed-up in the brute-force method. If you know, that brute-forcing password is a repeating pattern password, you can reduce the cracking time.

If you know, that the password consists of N the same parts, then, all you have to do is find that part. So to speed the cracking process up, you need to add a few lines into your brute-force function. Let's say that the brute-force algorithm checked if your password is abba. Before you let it go to the another step (checking abbb), you should "glue" that try and check passwords like abbaabba, abbaabbaabba and so on.

Is a password easier to brute force if it contains a repeating pattern?
Microsoft Outlook used to display a padlock icon together with the subject line for appointments that were tagged as private.  Now, it will show the padlock icon on the day and week views, but it does not show it on the month view of the calendar, even though I have Show High Detail selected for the view.  I want to be able to see at a glance from any calendar view whether or not a particular appointment has been designated as private.  It used to just happen by default.  I don't know why it is not rendering the padlock icon on the month view now.
