If you look at the Microsoft website listing the number of certified personnel (www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx), on the site dated 20 May 2008 you will see a mention of:

MCITP: United States History Major    2

I think this is someone's idea of a joke, but it may be related to the blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2008/03/25/back-in-the-saddle.aspx

For some reason, the MCP site is down, so I can't see if I am one of the two. I am the one who suggested the "Certified Since 1857" cap.

If you have more information about this, please let me know.

UPDATE: The certification is not on my MCP transcript, so it must be someone else. I just had a talk with a "Thomas Cornelius Tips" at Microsoft, who provides the best possible braindumps to whomever asks and admits that they used braindumps in their study for certification exams (his e-mail address is tctips@microsoft.com). He gave me a few questions from the new exam 70-666: Pro: United States History Major. Here they are:

Q1. The Panic of 1857 was caused by:

A. People realizing that it is no longer 1856.

B. A sudden downturn in the economy, caused by greedy financial institutions and problems with the nation's railroads

C. People starting to get upset that once again, they voted for someone from the two-party duopoly (Democrat and Whig) and made a determination that in 1860 they needed to elect someone from a third party.

D. People realizing that Bill Gates would not be born for another 98 years.

Answer: The real world answer is B, but Bob Barr hopes the answer is C and that history will repeat itself. However, since this is a Microsoft test, it would be wise to use the Microsoft answer -- therefore the answer is D.

Q2. What happened at Homestead High School in Sunnyvale, California in 1972? (Choose all that apply.)

A. Larry West won the District Math Competition, being the first person from nearby Monta Vista High School to do so.

B. Steve Jobs graduated from High School there.

C. Upset that he couldn't defeat Mr. West in that math contest, Steve moved to Oregon and got an idea for a machine to take revenge on Mr. West by confusing his mind. He called it the "personal confuser," later changed to "personal computer" to hide its real intent.

Answer: A and B are true -- I don't know about C.

Q3. Why did the Wright Brothers fly their plane at Kitty Hawk?

A. To get frequent flyer footage.

B. So that Ohio couldn't claim "first in flight."

C. Microsoft Streets and Trips gave them wrong directions to Toledo.

D. Microsoft Flight Simulator wasn't available in Ohio at the time.

Answer: Ah, two answers with Microsoft in them, but since C criticizes Microsoft, the answer must be D.

[note: other questions will be inputted as I get free time to type them in.]

P.S. A good site on this exam is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2008/05/30/what-the-hell.aspx