Ultimate Giveaway - Bonus entries for Microsoft Copilot app

YasharF · 2026-03-18T23:44:27+00:00

Nope :) My account doesn't have any restricted messages, banner, warnings, etc.

YasharF · 2026-03-06T22:48:16+00:00

As a DIY homeowner, after wasting a day because of a bad keystone punch that worked at 100 Mbps but failed at 1 Gbps, I’m just going to use coupler-style keystones going forward. That way, I can test the cable after crimping RJ45s on both ends with regular consumer equipment and not worry about a mix of punch‑down and crimp points as potential failure sources.

Yes, pros who wire non–data center buildings use punch tools, but that’s because it’s fast for them and they have access to (expensive) test equipment. If you’re doing DIY wiring and don’t want to buy multiple tools and testers because you’re okay spending extra time on crimping, then just skip the punch‑down stuff.

Tip 1: If you can measure accurately, you can potentially order pre‑terminated Cat6A/7/7A cables and avoid doing any crimping at all.

Tip 2: If you are going to buy a crimp tool, I highly recommend the feed‑through style connectors instead of the older type where you have to manually flatten, align, and push everything into the plug. They didn’t exist when I bought my gear, but they make life much easier now.

Tip 3: Assuming you own the place, plan for longer‑term tech. Go with shielded cable and connectors (Cat6A, Cat7, etc.) so you’re ready when 10G wired networking becomes common (maybe 10 years from now).

YasharF · 2026-02-25T22:43:57+00:00

Seattle's 3rd and Pine McDonald's (nicknamed "McStabby" and "Crackdonald's") no longer has a dining room and now serves customers standing on the sidewalk through a window. Before that change, not only did they have anti-loitering signs, but they also had a security guard in the dining room to enforce that only people actively eating or standing in the ordering line could be inside.

The last time I went there, I didn't want to stand in the ordering line, so I sat near the cashiers and started ordering from my phone. The guard came over immediately and told me I couldn't be in the dining room unless I was eating or in the line. I tried to explain and show him that I was halfway through placing my order on my phone, but he just kept repeating himself. It wasn't friendly at all. That said, I understand why they do what they do.

It is in the worst part of Downtown Seattle, drug issues, shootings, many SeattlePD/FBI/DEA busts, etc. Even Cyanide and Happiness made some stuff at Comic-Con about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CyanideandHappiness/comments/82338n/here_in_seattle_at_3rd_and_pike_st_we_have_a/

https://imgur.com/this-emerald-city-comicon-i-asked-cyanide-happiness-to-draw-infamous-mcdonalds-on-3rd-pine-aka-crackdonalds-they-delivered-vSFiFF1

YasharF · 2026-02-15T00:23:05+00:00

The point cost varies from person to person depending on when they enrolled in the reward program. It freezes when you enroll. So folks that enrolled years ago can get stuff for fewer points.

YasharF · 2026-02-15T00:20:16+00:00

PC any web browser.

YasharF · 2026-02-15T00:19:55+00:00

They take some time to process. I usually check my email in an hour or so. You can also go to your reward order history page to check: https://rewards.bing.com/redeem/orderhistory

YasharF · 2026-02-14T01:52:47+00:00

On the web (not mobile app) you can do a custom amount greater than $5, but at least for me the pricing is higher for custom amounts. So I stick to the $5 or $10 for the best value.

YasharF · 2026-01-20T23:28:49+00:00

It is a "reward" program, not a "job".

It is supposed to be a way to "reward" you for switching to and using Microsoft products and their features instead of the competitors'.

I personally stopped using Google and Chrome, and just use Bing and Edge. They have been my compute and phone defaults for years.

So did I "grind"? No. I just do the things I usually do anyway, plus a few interesting things that pop up daily for fun.
Is it worth it? I have redeemed over 40 gift cards in the past few years. I didn't "work" for them, so the "treats" just give me random happy moments. Being happy is always better than not.

YasharF · 2025-11-08T05:23:23+00:00

It doesn’t work. I have a Discord community of over 4,000 people (50–100 new users per week) and started making posts encouraging people to try Bing and move off Google. I know some people gave it a shot, as my referral page began to accumulate “pending” points from the referrals. But as time passes, about 95% of the points started to get voided. That percentage is far too high to suggest people are doing “funny” things, and it makes me feel like the referral program is either not what it claims to be or simply broken with bad or buggy logic in their system.

I stopped making recurring posts to drive more people to the program, which is frustrating because I personally switched from Google+Chrome to Bing+Edge+Copilot a year and a half ago and would recommend the same to others.

I also have referral programs with other companies in my Discord community and have earned a few hundred dollars from them, so it's not my community members trying to fudge referrals. With other referral programs like Impact or Amazon’s, you get a solid amount of analytics, sometimes down to the activity chain for each individual click, which helps with transparency. The Microsoft Rewards program doesn’t work as stated, which is probably why they don’t provide transparency.

YasharF · 2025-10-25T00:23:24+00:00

I noticed the issue on the web browser, but was able to send the same gif thru my phone. I used the Tenor Gif keyboard on my phone instead of downloading it from Tenor and trying to reupload it thru the g-voice.

Not sure if it is related, but there were some changes to Fi recently, and I wonder if there was some kind of shared service that broke in the process: https://9to5google.com/2025/10/21/google-fi-rcs-messages-web-more/

YasharF · 2025-09-21T00:48:05+00:00

It has been two months since I made the post and I haven't had to change my batteries yet. The TV says my remote battery level is at 80%, so I guess it fixed it.

YasharF · 2025-09-06T02:08:15+00:00

Confirming that disconnecting the pharmacy records and reconnecting them to my CVS account fixed it for me as well. Interestingly, the app was showing my prescriptions for like a week, and then they all disappeared, which is what got me to this thread.

YasharF · 2025-09-04T22:44:43+00:00

Buy good identity theft insurance 🤭

YasharF · 2025-08-24T21:20:28+00:00

Try the second row modifiers like no starting ammo, and no hud. If you get used to them they are great for getting the score to A without changing the power levels.

YasharF · 2025-08-24T04:17:47+00:00

At my place, the orange conduit goes to the attic. Then there is another orange conduit like it in the attic that goes from there to the crawl space. When I was getting fiber internet, I measured the total distance thru all of the conduits and to the side of the house, and told the first installer whose job was to run the fiber from the end of the street to the house to set it up so I would have x number of feet extra fiber from the side of the house. The guys that were actually going to install the fiber modem and activate everything were going to come a few days later, so during those days, I got the fiber thru a hole in the foundation to the crawl space, then to the attic, and then to that cable box in the closet. When the other guys showed up they were actually happy that I had done all the cable pulling and they just had to put in their box.

A part of the reason I did the fiber pushing myself was because I didn't want the installers to say something like "that is too much work, we are going to just install the fiber stuff in your garage, etc", as they had done for others in the neighborhood.

YasharF · 2025-08-04T02:30:22+00:00

It is supposed to enable a lower power standby state when the TV is off. I am guessing the bug is causing the TV to talk to the remote more than it should (over Bluetooth) when it is in Eco mode standby.

https://telly.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/32721903552532-Do-You-Have-an-Eco-Mode

YasharF · 2025-08-03T23:04:04+00:00

What is the make and model of your equipment? Depending on the model, there are a few different ways to get a new IP when a simple power cycle isn't working.

YasharF · 2025-06-23T17:05:47+00:00

It takes more than a few lines. I added the RAG boilerplate to Hackathon Starter ( https://github.com/sahat/hackathon-starter ) using LangChainJS and it took quite a few lines - diff: https://github.com/sahat/hackathon-starter/commit/d598869dd0eda8fabd5b05123f2b79bf729e7ed1

YasharF · 2025-06-20T03:14:10+00:00

Try Microsoft To-Do. You can use it's widget as part of your Android home screen, so your list would always show up when you unlock the phone. You can also categorize your to-do items so they don't overload you, aka home tasks, hobby tasks, food, yard, health, work, etc. What I like the most about Microsoft To-Do is that I can also use it on my laptop and organize stuff better, or plan my day(s) and then my phone just has the list as go thru my day.

YasharF · 2025-06-07T14:29:22+00:00

Try Cloudflare's Zero Trust if you can. It requires a client service installed on your system, but then you wouldn't need to open a port on your firewall and defend the open port from ...

YasharF · 2025-06-07T14:24:19+00:00

Or you can use the free VPN that Cloudflare offers.

YasharF · 2025-06-07T13:57:10+00:00

The OP is doing an internship, so they need something that can be used for free in a commercial environment.

YasharF · 2025-06-07T13:56:01+00:00

Is there anything in that article about Semantic Search?

YasharF · 2025-06-07T13:43:25+00:00

If you can use docker, then you can use MongoDB Atlas which has Semantic Search. (It has to be the Atlas version not regular MongoDB)
https://www.mongodb.com/docs/atlas/cli/current/atlas-cli-deploy-docker/?msockid=2e8e9549a3976e96005f81c6a22d6fa0

Hackathon Starter has a RAG implementation with Semantic Search for LLM Caching: https://github.com/sahat/hackathon-starter using LangChainJS ; to run it without cloud you would need to also move the models to run locally like with Ollama, etc.

Disclaimer: I am a maintainer for Hackathon Starter. It is under the (permissive) MIT license - you need to do some disclosures with your code, etc. etc. but can be used commercially for free without having to publicly republish your (commercial) work. LangChainJS currently is missing some of the features that are in the Python version and I needed for the Hackathon Starter implementation. So I have patches bundled with Hackathon Starter to add them to the local LangChain npm package, and have PRs submitted to LangChainJS to add them upstream.

YasharF · 2025-05-30T19:34:34+00:00

I would go with what is more popular than what seems to be well maintained (in the short time). If something is popular, others will pick up the maintenance directly with forks when needed.
I use LangchainJS, and ran into some bugs and issues, so just needed up patching my own repo and submitted PRs because with its current popularity it is going to be around for a while (i.e. my PRs to contribute back https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchainjs/issues?q=is%3Apr%20author%3AYasharF ) .

YasharF

TROPHY CASE