There's also Microsoft courses (and others) on the awesome edX:
https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=python
I don't know if these are different to the ones on Microsoft's websites.
I'm planning on learning Python to help my son who is studying it at school (with a useless teacher).
@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
@Carnival-Boy said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
Desktop OS is important, because you need a desktop to access the cloud - but it's only important in as much as it is used to sell Azure.
But you can access Azure just as well (or better in many cases) from Ubuntu, ChromeOS, Fedora, macOS, etc.
Of course, but you can push users towards Azure by controlling what users see on the desktop - think pre-installing Skype or Edge or the Microsoft App Store. Google do the same for their OS. Amazon are probably the most explicit in practically giving away Amazon Fires just to push Amazon services.
@scottalanmiller said in Why Microsoft Wants You to Think Windows 7 Can't Be Upgraded:
But their "real" money comes from sources like Azure, Office 365, MS Office, and such... all of which benefit from the OS being free and more wide spread.
I'd shorten that to say the "real" money comes from Azure (or at least, will do in the future). All other Microsoft products are now merely tools to sell Azure. They are now a hosting company rather than a software company.
I now work in Microsoft Dynamics, and it's not about what companies use to run their business applications, it's about where their business applications are hosted. Microsoft are happy for you to run Salesforce (ostensibly a competitor), if you run it in Azure.
I don't expect them to do much with their server OS, as I don't think they see that in their future. Desktop OS is important, because you need a desktop to access the cloud - but it's only important in as much as it is used to sell Azure.
I have various WhatsApp groups for family and friends, which is perfect for my needs. My niece loves to hear that my daughter won her swimming gala, but a bloke I went to school with who I haven't seen in 20 years really doesn't want to know. So WhatsApp group great, Facebook rubbish.
I just wish Facebook didn't own WhatsApp.
Access is included in Business Premium isn't it? They added it in 2016 I believe
How do you judge if a resume is successful or not? I really have no idea. As an employer, I was only really interested in who a person worked for, for how long, and what their job title was. Stuff about, for example, "system transformation", like Kelly's example, just went straight through me - it meant nothing to me. But for other employers, that stuff might be gold and just what they're looking for.
The other issue is that your resume normally has to go through at least two people - firstly, an employment agent, and then the employer. So who do you target, as they are two very different audiences? An agent will probably spend 20 seconds reading your resume, looking for keywords, whilst an employer might spend ten minutes, especially if they're interviewing you.
I do like to hear about hobbies, especially interesting ones. I think you can tell a lot about a person by his hobbies. But it's de rigueur to leave these off these days, sadly. Probably for the best.
@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I know Scott believes in the public healthcare solution - I just have a hard time paying for everyone else's lack of giving a shit about their health that leads to huge health care costs.
Do people with unhealthy life styles end up having higher health care costs though? Compare an obese, heavy-drinking smoker - he could well die from a heart attack/stroke without ever going to the doctor, whilst a super-health person could live to 100 but require 20 years of expensive age related costs (dementia, physical frailty). I'm sure there have been studies on this.
Also, in Europe, this is somewhat mitigated against by putting heavy taxes on alcohol and tobacco, so unhealthy people indirectly fund their extra medical care.
Anyway, in the US, aren't you still subsidising unhealthy, don't give a shit, people as that's the nature of insurance? You're just paying private insurance rather than public insurance.
Good places if snow, the freezing cold, and getting dark at lunchtime for half the year makes you happy. It wouldn't me.
@RandyBlevins said in Preparing to land that dream job:
How do you prep for that dream job? How many interviews do you do for practice, how hard do you look? Do you let it come to you?
No prep and I've never done a practice interview. But I don't know what my dream job looks like. What is yours? Same as your current job but with a 40% higher salary. Is that realistic?
I guess it's a bit like finding love, with your "dream job" being like love at first sight. How common is it for someone to know they will marry someone based purely on a first date? And did they practice for that date?
My point being, you don't always know what your dream job is until you've been working there for a while and realise how happy you are.
@Dashrender said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
But 3 months - this really seems more like a way to keep people from moving around between companies, all the benefit to the company - and piss off mr employee.
A bit, perhaps. But it works both ways. If they want to get rid of me, they also have to give me 3 months notice, which gives me plenty of time to find another job.
It's in my contract, so if I don't serve notice then I'm in breach of contract and could be sued for damages. No jail time though 
Normal job. Private sector.
@WLS-ITGuy said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@Carnival-Boy said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Do you generally only give 2 weeks notice in the US?
Depends on the state. Wisconsin is a "hire at will" state. Technically no notice is needed but it is ideal to give 2 weeks.
Wow. That must make succession planning a nightmare. I have to give 3 months notice, which is the norm in the UK.
Do you generally only give 2 weeks notice in the US?
As always, the answer is "it depends". In our case, we wouldn't charge for the initial high level meetings or the initial proposal. But the proposal would only contain ball-part estimates of cost. We wouldn't know the exact cost until we did detailed analysis, which is always chargeable.
So after receiving ball-park estimates, the client could choose to proceed on a time and material basis, or, if they wanted an exact cost, pay for analysis meetings and a detailed design document. Having written, and been paid for, a design document, the price can be fixed - so if it ends up costing more because we've made a mistake in the design or underestimated the time required, then that would be on us.
This generally works fine other than clients often fail to appreciate the difference between "ballpark costs" and "quote". So if we estimate it will cost between $10k and $30k, in their head the quote is fixed at $10k and they get upset if it ends up costing more. Clients also fail to appreciate how much time it actually takes to write a decent design document.
I think @PhlipElder's point about the difference in cost between small capacity SSDs and spinning disks is a good one. So if you're going to create a separate RAID1 for the OS on small disks, why not buy SSDs?
Apart from anything, the failure rate on them is much lower, isn't it? The labour cost of replacing failed disks often isn't trivial. It takes me over an hour per disk.
So the issue becomes should you install the OS on a separate array with small disks, or on OBR10? I'd argue that any disks under 250GB should always be SSDs.
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do Recruiters Never Get Involved in Forums Like This:
I've invited many recruiters to this and other forums, and none ever show up or decide to participate, even though the arena is absolutely perfect for them. What better way to find, engage, and validate potential candidates; and how better could you achieve visibility for a job posting?
Why? As far as I can tell, ML has about 20 regular posters, half of whom run their own business, and most live in Texas. The probability of an average recruiter justifying time spent on here seems negligible.
Recruiters seem to actively despise transparency, vetting, or even good placement. Why?
SAM logic: I think X. Therefore anyone who doesn't agree therefore must be somehow corrupt, stupid, incompetent or evil. :winking_face:
@scottalanmiller said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
@carnival-boy said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
@dustinb3403 said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
@carnival-boy said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
I don't understand what user/password management has to do with GDPR. My understanding of GDPR is that relates to restrictions on personal data held by companies,
and rules on reporting data breaches to authorities in a timely manner. Neither of these seem to relate to AD or similar services? AD doesn't even generally hold personal data.First and Last name of a person is personal data. But so is an email address, birthday, sex, sexual orientation etc.
Don't store sexual orientation in AD. Have processes to remove accounts for ex-employees in a timely manner. Job done.
I don't think anyone actually thinks AD is a problem. The question is just "how much of a requirement is it"?
Sure. I understand. But I think any standard, encrypted credentials management system is GDPR compliant. So Workgroups are fine.
@dustinb3403 said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
@carnival-boy said in GDPR Requiring Centralized Password Management:
I don't understand what user/password management has to do with GDPR. My understanding of GDPR is that relates to restrictions on personal data held by companies,
and rules on reporting data breaches to authorities in a timely manner. Neither of these seem to relate to AD or similar services? AD doesn't even generally hold personal data.First and Last name of a person is personal data. But so is an email address, birthday, sex, sexual orientation etc.
Don't store sexual orientation in AD. Have processes to remove accounts for ex-employees in a timely manner. Job done.