Articles from June 2014 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!

European PowerShell Summit

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 07:35:51 +0000

There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding the European PowerShell Summit as the site will tell you that registration is currently unavailable.
There isn’t a problem and the Summit HAS NOT sold out at this time. WE just haven’t opened registration yet.
Registration will open on 15 July 2014
.

Omaha PowerShell User Group is Filling Up Fast!

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:55:25 +0000

The first meeting of the Omaha PowerShell User Group is filling up fast! There are only 16 available seats so make sure you get your spot!
Meeting details and sign up information can be found at omahapsug.eventbrite.com

Charlotte PowerShell User Group No meeting in July, enjoy your holiday!

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 22:00:59 +0000

There will not be a meeting in July in Charlotte, please enjoy the 4th of July holiday. We will be back on schedule in August.

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Free Online Access to TechLetter Back Issues

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 18:38:08 +0000

Did you know that PowerShell.org has, for more than a year now, offered a mostly-monthly TechLetter e-mail newsletter? It’s stuffed with community news, announcements (like our free webinar schedule), feature articles on PowerShell, and much more. It’s a great way to learn a little bit at a time, and it’s truly awesome content.
And we keep back issues for your perusal!
You can find the back issues online. We post all but the most recent 2-3 issues, but of course you can subscribe and have them delivered right to your inbox around the middle of most months.
We’re always on the lookout for new content, too - and if you’re thinking, “oh, I have nothing really to share,” you’re wrong! It can be as simple as an article about something you figured out. With more than 5,000 subscribers, someone’s sure to appreciate your perspective! Contact our Editors at PowerShell.org via e-mail to submit your article, or to suggest an article idea.
And please - tell a friend!

PhillyPoSH 06/05/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 03:19:05 +0000

Jeff Hicks gave a presentation entitled “Getting Started with Desired State Configuration (DSC)”. During his talked Jeff gave an overview of DSC and walked through an example of a push mode configuration. A copy of his presentation materials are available here .
- A recording of this meeting has been posted to our YouTube channel

Wish List: Better Code Formatting in the Forums (Can You Help?)

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:06:36 +0000

I know it’s been a “wish” of many folks for our forums to have better code formatting. Well, if you know some PHP and a little about WordPress, you can make it happen.
What we need is a WordPress plugin that hooks the action for post displays. The plugin needs to take the post body, and look for anything contained within HTML “code” tags or “pre” tags.
Within that content, the plugin needs to strip any further code/pre tags (WordPress has a bit of a glitch where it’ll sometimes nest them). It should then HTML-encode the remaining content to turn any backticks into an HTML entity. Finally, it should color-code the content, or whatever, and hand it back to WordPress for display.
If you think you might be interested, let me know.
There ARE existing code formatters. But they have some weaknesses:

Many require you to use a custom shortcode, which our forums users won’t pick up on. Getting folks to use the standard CODE tag, which is even on the toolbar, is hard enough.
Most require additional directives to specify the language and whatnot that will be formatted - that’s a hurdle people, in the past, weren’t able to grasp.
Some use extensive client-side JavaScript, which is heavy, performs poorly, and doesn’t interact well with some of the other JavaScript on the site.
Many don’t accommodate WordPress’ treatment of backticks. WP wants them to be code delimiters, but obviously in PowerShell the backtick is important for other reasons.

What we need isn’t giant, and it isn’t complicated, it’ll just require some time.
UPDATE: I’m working on it.
UPDATE: I think I got it. I’m using the GeSHi parser Joel uses on PoshCode.org, although I’ve applied different CSS style to it. If anyone would like to tackle improving that parser, or the CSS, you can hit me up and I’ll give you the code as it stands. But as-is, we get line-numbered, colorized syntax in a scrollable window when you use`to enclose your code blocks. WordPress backticks aren’t allowed for code, and inline code isn’t supported. Older HTML-style CODE and PRE tags will be converted automatically. I think.

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Omaha PowerShell User Group is Open!

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 18:51:10 +0000

The Omaha PowerShell User Group is now open for business! If you are in the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Lincoln area and are interested in being a part of it, either let myself, Jacob Benson (@vhusker) or Boe Prox (@proxb) know.
We are currently looking for a meeting place and are shooting for having our first meeting the last week in July. In addition to finding out who might be interested in attending, we would also like to know what days/times work best for you and the kinds of things you would like to get out of the meetings.
You can follow us on Twitter at @OmahaPSUG. If you wish to contact us through email you can reach us at omahapsug@gmail.com .

Quick Tip: WMI vs. CIM Syntax

Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:31:32 +0000

# List all classes in a namespace Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List # list all classes containing “service” in their name
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 | Where CimClassName -like ‘*service*’ | Sort CimClassName
(or)
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Classname *service*
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List | Where Name -like ‘*service*’ | Sort Name
# get all class instances
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem
# filter class instances
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter “DriveType=3”
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter “DriveType=3”
# show all properties
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member
# show all properties and values
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *
# remote computer
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81
# use CIM command to talk to non-CIM computer
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName win32_BIOS -CimSession (
New-CimSession -ComputerName OLD-XP-PC -SessionOption (
New-CimSessionOption -Protocol Dcom
)
)

PowerShell.org Annual Operating Budget

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 14:30:30 +0000

As we approach our annual shareholder meeting for PowerShell.org, Inc., I wanted to take a moment and share some details about our 2014-2015 operating budget.
First, you can always review the budget spreadsheet in our OneDrive account. This is updated as our plans change, prices rise, and so on; you’re welcome to check back whenever you like.
Now, let’s talk about some of our organizational goals, and what some of the items in the spreadsheet mean. As you know, we’ve been fortunate to have the support of several corporate sponsors since our invention. MVP Systems, Interface Technical Training, CBT Nuggets, and SAPIEN Technologies have been amongst those helping us out; Interface and SAPIEN both signed on for a generous three-year commitment right when we launched, and we couldn’t have gotten to this point without them. However, we know that companies’ goals and positions change over time, so we’ve been trying to drive to a point where we didn’t need to rely on corporate sponsorship. We now believe that the PowerShell Summit is stable enough that, with a conservative budget, we can meet our operational needs out of the profits from the North America and Europe events.
As a note, PowerShell.org isn’t classified as a _nonprofit; _we’re a _not-for-profit. _We’re legally allowed to make a profit; it just isn’t a goal. The corporation pays Federal income tax on any profits, although most of our income is spent on expenses, which end up being deductions.
As you’ll notice in the spreadsheet, we believe we can meet our annual operating budget by applying a $175 overhead charge to each attendee of the Summit, assuming we get 100 attendees between the two events annually. That’s _conservative; _the N.A. show has done 100 and 150, in its two years. So in reality the number can probably be much smaller.
Our $750 annual AWPP fee includes Summit admission, VERIFIED EFFECTIVE exams, and other benefits; our operating budget reflects the costs for these items (including virtual machine hosting for the examination program). So $175 of that $750 is earmarked for PowerShell.org; that leaves $575 to cover actual Summit expenses. Due to the exchange rate, Europe is our worst-case show for expenses, with a $330/person overhead for food and beverage. The remaining $245 goes to cover speaker overhead: speaker food and beverage (we admit them to the event for free, but they still eat), and some speaker travel reimbursement. With 50 paid attendees, that’s $12,250 in overhead income. Subtract $3300 for 10 speakers’ F&B, and we have about $9000 left to cover other expenses, including some speaker travel reimbursement. The US shows do somewhat better; in reality; we probably will take less than the $175 per person from the Europe show, to allow for more speaker travel expenses, and take a bit more from the US show where our expenses are lower and attendance is known to be higher.
Most of the budget line items should be fairly self-explanatory. In some cases, we’re receiving some of the services for free at present; we’ve budgeted to pays for them should our free ride ever end. You’re welcome to ask about anything that seems unclear, too. But you’ll notice that there’s no budget for salaries: nobody associated with PowerShell.org, Inc. is paid for their efforts. We’re run by volunteers.
So what happens when we get 200 global Summit attendees instead of the 100 we budget for? That’ll give us an operational pad. In most cases, it means we’ll be able to be a bit more elaborate with the Summit itself, buying some food for an evening event, for example. As I mentioned, it’ll also allow us to better reimburse speakers for their out-of-pocket travel expenses, which is definitely a goal. In fact, one reason we’ve tried to pay the operational budget from just half our expected attendance is specifically so we’ll have extra funds so that speakers don’t have to be entirely out-of-pocket to present at the Summits.
I hope this is helpful. As always, feel free to post your questions.