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First of all, I'm really pissed that Microsoft has started using completely worthless digital "badges" instead of certificates when you pass their tests.
But this takes the cake, today I got a mail from Microsoft saying:
Congratulations, you have now been a member of the Microsoft Dynamics Community for 2 years. Click here to redeem your "I've been a member of the Microsoft Dynamics Community for 2 years and all I got was this lousy badge" badge!
Precisely WHY would I want that? Is that all they have to do at Microsoft? And is that really the level of seriousness you can expect from a world leading company of Microsoft's size???
Yeah, I know that the mail was autogenerated, but still, somebody has put time and effort into developing this "valuable" feature... If they hadn't used a noreply mail address, I would have told them exactly what they could do with their "badge"! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
modified 4-Jun-19 4:21am.
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Relax have a cigar...
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Johnny J. wrote: Click here to redeem your...
What!! No credit card required???
I'd grab it before that changes.
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It's a sort of gamification.
Collecting badges is fun and gives a sense of accomplishment.
And while not something of real business value it does say something about your level of commitment and may even give an incentive to be more active.
If I had to hire one out of two people and one is loaded with badges that would certainly be a plus.
Kind of like CPs reputation system.
As far as I know they don't replace actual exam certificates though...
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Sander Rossel wrote: As far as I know they don't replace actual exam certificates though...
Can't speak in general, but in some cases at least, they do. I've taken exams for which I could get a badge, but not a certificate... 
For all the exams I took in 2018, I only got a badge, no certificate:
Exam 896: Distribution and Trade in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
Exam 894: Development, Extensions and Deployment for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
Exam 535: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions
In 2017 I didn't do any exams, but in 2016 I did 3 - for which I got certificates for all of them...
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
modified 4-Jun-19 5:29am.
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A hardware store here currently rewards customers with a bottle of beer[^]. Would you like that better?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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That would definitely be a step in the right direction - as long as it's not a virtual beer! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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You think you are special?
I just got an email from Microsoft telling me: "Hooray! Bing is 10"
So... take that! 
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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We don't need no stinkin' badges.
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Johnny J. wrote: And is that really the level of seriousness you can expect from a world leading company of Microsoft's size???
Microsoft is a serious business. Not everything needs to be taken as equally serious however.
That probably tells you all you need to know about how seriously they take these "badges". Frankly I don't know that they're any less valuable than their certs (says the guy who had to get a cert himself just last March to maintain some MS Partner "benefits"...)
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Badges are the new icons.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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"I'm really pissed that Microsoft has started using completely worthless digital "badges" instead of certificates when you pass their tests"
What planet are you on? Microsoft has their head shoved so far up their ass they can see daylight, and you want 'their' certificate?
I used to live in the openVMS, Unix world where there seemed to be some influence from engineering on code. Only MS has made it an art-form of never ending movement. It's gotten so bad, for UI we've just given up and gone Javascript with a light weight browser.
The company is an elephanting joke. Don't get me wrong, pay me enough, I'll write you an app, but you seriously need to get some perspective.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Smart EveryThing | CommitStrip[^]
Many a true word, and all that ... 
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I think that with that advice alone (do not connect what does not need to be), "packaged" properly, you can start a cybersecurity consulting business and make a lot of $$$ in the coming years.
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Yep, give me a load of money and I'll tell you not to be stupid.
I'll be richer, you'll be wiser.
Why oh why did I have to be born too honest to be a consultant? I blame my parents ...
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Rage wrote: do not connect what does not need to be
Once I connected my so-called Smart TV to my wireless router to let it download some firmware updates.
The lesson I learned is that it offered basically no option to disconnect, or "forget" the configuration settings. Once it got the updates, I couldn't get it disconnected, and my only recourse was to assign my router a different password (or I suppose I could've renamed the wifi connection, but the result would've been the same - re-establishing the connection everywhere else).
To those who write this stuff: Provide a way to disconnect and remove the settings. This should not be optional.
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I say hook up everything - not forgetting to link it to automated logistics
- and let AI do the programming
(above 2 in progress)
next: AI bots to read & reply to our email (and support tickets)
finally: AI bots read and comment in the forums
And then that's it, we're all done, our work is finally finished.
flush the phone down the toilet, mow the lawn, wash the dishes, fix the toilet, go fishing.
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lopati: roaming wrote: flush the phone down the toilet, mow the lawn, wash the dishes, fix the toilet, go fishing.
Can I suggest that you fix the toilet before trying to flush the phone down it?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: Can I suggest that you fix the toilet before trying to flush the phone down it?
I think it was the phone unfolding that broke the toilet.
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Start with the telephones.
Really.
I mean it.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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This is my area (www.charmedquark.com), and it's bad. The problem is that there is no ubiquitous home automation backbone. And, since all these companies are just looking to sell doo-dads, not systems, they only option they have is wireless (or maybe if you are lucky wired) local LAN. Some of them maybe even actually think that's a good thing, though they are wrong. But, even if they don't, there's no other option for most of them. So, they throw some LAN connectivity into it, and probably don't remotely give enough thought to security.
Throw in the extra, modern issue that a lot of these companies making small doo-dads are probably just interested in getting bought out and they know that that is a lot easier if they have keywords like 'cloud based' and 'data collection' in their sales pitches. That drives them straight to cloud based interfaces, where you have to go to their servers and back to talk to something you are standing right in front of.
'Traditional' automation products were generally serial connected. You'd see a lot of newbies screaming about how horrible and old fashioned that is, but it's a completely safe system of point to point, unshared connections between the controller and the controlled devices. USB is reasonable as well in that way.
That mostly only works for devices in the closet with the controller. Though, to be fairly, typically there would be a gateway type box in the closet and that would have wired connections to the various doodads. So none of these security issues existed, and all control was local.
If you buy into a system like Lutron's Radio RA2, you can get the core stuff (lights, thermos, motion sensors, button panels, drapes, and a few other things) all wireless but via proprietary wireless protocol that isn't accessible from the outside.
The generic option should be Zigbee. It's a good quality, local-only wireless protocol. But it's not caught hold in the home automation world in a significant way yet (though it's huge otherwise.) It's used underneath the hood, in a proprietary way, by some products (Hue, Control4 and some others.) But it could be the ubiquitous automation wireless backbone from the home.
Z-Wave is the VHS to Zigbee's Betamax. It's a low end, not terribly reliable scheme that should die but refuses to. It's never going to be something that lots of IoTs doodad makers are likely to support and that's a good thing.
But, anyway, everything is pushing the whole boat in the wrong direction. You can still do the right thing at the more professional level. But for the consumer, it's a mess of disconnected doo-dads that are just sitting there in the local LAN, making outbound connections to who knows where, downloading firmware from those same places to run locally with full access to your network. And few customers are remotely savvy enough to wall them off into a DMZ or some such.
Explorans limites defectum
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Hammered nail around promise first (9)
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Inaugural
Hammered nail IN ... AL around AUGUR
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Yup
Have fun tomorrow!
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Browse to "about:config", and you get this nice warning. I did not know there was a warranty.
Did anyone here ever call upon their warranty and get their money back?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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