I just had my XKCD-806 moment. There's a company from which I've already bought some equipment for our #LoRaWAN project in my #wetlands. But this time I had some questions and called them. I pressed the number for tech support and heard that I need to use the form on their website and got disconnected. Why bother with giving a number that won't get me to talk with a real person? I called again, but this time selected payments. Of course someone picked up. No, they don't have a line to tech people, they don't know about xkcd or shibboleet. Please use the form on our website. I asked if this approach is why they named their company Botland. No answer. But they promised someone will call in two hours.

https://xkcd.com/806/

Someone called. A real tech person. I know people on help desks shouldn't laugh when talking to customers, but they did when I said that I'll take their stuff and if all goes south I'll have very little e-waste to dispose because the devices are really small.

Finally the #LoRaWAN sensors from Botland arrived. Thanks to @piotrsikora I managed to activate the first – a GPS tracker that's supposed to go on one of the #IdąPsięta for testing. Getting a SenseCap AppKey sucks, and I couldn't find a way to get it, Piotr did. You have to curl sensecap )(the device maker) with your deveui and device code and then you get the appkey. Motherfuckers.

The package from Botland included a "personal" letter to fe from some scammy outfit "Mennica Numizmaty" (Numismatics Mint) which gives me a ¾K€ if I buy some gold-plated patriotic junk from them for 1K€. The language in the letter is typical for 419 scams, and of course there's a picture of the Pope, the only Pope Poles accept, JP2, on the leaflet stuck in the envelope. They used the wrong color profile, though, and there is definitely not enough yellow (if you want to know what that means I'll try to explain)

I wondered why should Botland, a company selling #IoT devices, do something so ugly and evil. This might be a case of nominative determinism, once they've taken that path they have no choice but to go deeper. Or maybe their cousin is working in this "mint" and thought it was a great idea to offer this, because a lot of people buy motion sensors, intrusion detection systems, and location tracker to put on their trophy wives. I understand. Such people are likely to buy shit that makes them feel special (yes, I will get a free watch, wallet, and pen if I take their offer).

All I need is sensors to monitor wetlands – temperature, humidity, soil moisture, water levels – and see how badly my bog bog is being fucked up, so that, basing on data, we can start fighting to save and restore them.

We need our wetlands. You need our wetlands, even if you don't know that.

@szescstopni
Gawddammit… You can't open a fridge in p*land to not have the bloody p*pe jumping out.

@piotrsikora

@dzwiedziu he is not bloody, he is creamy and yelow.

@szescstopni @piotrsikora