<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>Articles from October 2015 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!https://powershell.org/articles/2015/10/Recent content in Articles from October 2015 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!Hugoen-usJoin Computer to Domain with Specified Computer Name and OUhttps://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-30-join-computer-to-domain-with-specified-computer-name-and-ou/https://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-30-join-computer-to-domain-with-specified-computer-name-and-ou/Fri, 30 Oct 2015 18:10:55 +0000<p>I addressed a reader requested script for my article this week. PowerShell gives you the ability to add computers to Active Directory right from the command line with the built in PowerShell commandlets. This was introduced with PowerShell version 3 and can be used to automate imaging processes or to prompt an agent for the desired computer name and organizational unit. This is useful since a lot of organizations will use specific OUs for computers according to location or department. This allows them to set group policies that apply to those computer accounts accordingly. By default these computer accounts are created in the root Computers OU, but creating an account can be targeted. The highlighted examples should provide you everything you need to tackle that use case. I provide the basics of adding a computer to the domain as well as prompting the user to enter the computer name and location. Head on over to <a href="http://powershellblogger.com/?p=220">PowershellBlogger.com</a> for the full write up and thanks for everyone&rsquo;s continued support!</p><![CDATA[

I addressed a reader requested script for my article this week. PowerShell gives you the ability to add computers to Active Directory right from the command line with the built in PowerShell commandlets. This was introduced with PowerShell version 3 and can be used to automate imaging processes or to prompt an agent for the desired computer name and organizational unit. This is useful since a lot of organizations will use specific OUs for computers according to location or department. This allows them to set group policies that apply to those computer accounts accordingly. By default these computer accounts are created in the root Computers OU, but creating an account can be targeted. The highlighted examples should provide you everything you need to tackle that use case. I provide the basics of adding a computer to the domain as well as prompting the user to enter the computer name and location. Head on over toPowershellBlogger.com for the full write up and thanks for everyone’s continued support!

]]>Win a Free 4-Day Pass to PowerShell and DevOps Summit 2016!https://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-28-win-a-free-4-day-pass-to-powershell-and-devops-summit-2016/https://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-28-win-a-free-4-day-pass-to-powershell-and-devops-summit-2016/Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:56:18 +0000<p>Want to attend the newly expanded, 4-day <a href="http://powershellsummit.org">PowerShell and DevOps Summit</a> coming to Bellevue, WA in April 2016? Well you can - if you make your own community contribution!</p> <p>Our <a href="https://powershell.org/newsletter/">TechLetter newsletter</a> is looking for articles. And, November is of course <a href="http://nanowrimo.org">NaNoWriMo</a>, the National Novel Writing Month. But we aren&rsquo;t looking for a novel - just newsletter articles! So we&rsquo;ll call it National PowerShell and DevOps Article Writing Month (NaPoshDoArWriMo). Er. Or something.</p><![CDATA[

Want to attend the newly expanded, 4-dayPowerShell and DevOps Summit coming to Bellevue, WA in April 2016? Well you can - if you make your own community contribution!

OurTechLetter newsletter is looking for articles. And, November is of courseNaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. But we aren’t looking for a novel - just newsletter articles! So we’ll call it National PowerShell and DevOps Article Writing Month (NaPoshDoArWriMo). Er. Or something.

Anyway, here’s the rules:

  1. Submit your articles in Word or RTF format, in a ZIP file via email, to “editors” here at PowerShell.org. Please include a plain-text file with copies of any code in your article, as this makes formatting easier. Also include PNG files of any screen shots your article uses.
  2. Your article can be on any PowerShell or DevOps topic. Talk about techniques, challenges you’ve solved, best practices, or whatever you like. Minimum article length, excluding code, is 1,500 words. Maximum article length, excluding code, is 5,000 words.
  3. The best articles usually tell a story - a problem you ran into, what you tried, what errors you encountered, and what eventually worked. This is true of “best practices” as well - talk about how the practice helped you solve a problem, or will help prevent problems. Provide lots of examples!
  4. You may submit more than one article. Please do so in a separate email for each. In each email, include your name and e-mail address. Entries are due by the end of November, 2015.
  5. Our Editors will choose the winning entry and announce it in the January 2016 TechLetter. Editors reserve the right to decline any article they feel is unsuitable, and Editors’ decision on the winning article is final. Winners are responsible for any taxes or duties imposed by their local government. Prize does not include travel expenses, lodging, or anything else. Anyone, anywhere, is eligible to win unless prevented or limited by local law. Prize is nontransferable and has no cash value.

All right. Go to it!!!

]]>Find any E-Mail Address or Proxy Address In Active Directoryhttps://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-23-find-any-e-mail-address-or-proxy-address-in-active-directory/https://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-23-find-any-e-mail-address-or-proxy-address-in-active-directory/Fri, 23 Oct 2015 16:58:00 +0000<p>I am back this week with some more Exchange and Unified Communications goodness. This is another request I see a lot, someone want&rsquo;s to know where an e-mail address is assigned. This opens up the possibilities of user mailboxes, shared mailboxes, distribution lists, public folders, conference rooms, contacts or resources. I have also seen duplicate e-mail addresses being assigned outside of Exchange causing delivery failures. I take a look at how you can quickly find any e-mail address in your environment along with partial searches of e-mail addresses. The two attributes for e-mail addresses being mail and proxyAddresses.</p><![CDATA[

I am back this week with some more Exchange and Unified Communications goodness. This is another request I see a lot, someone want’s to know where an e-mail address is assigned. This opens up the possibilities of user mailboxes, shared mailboxes, distribution lists, public folders, conference rooms, contacts or resources. I have also seen duplicate e-mail addresses being assigned outside of Exchange causing delivery failures. I take a look at how you can quickly find any e-mail address in your environment along with partial searches of e-mail addresses. The two attributes for e-mail addresses being mail and proxyAddresses.

I cover finding specific types of proxy addresses such as sip: x500: eum: etc. I also touch briefly on creating a simple function that will accept e-mail addresses as an input to return all of the AD objects that contain it. I cover the search through Active Directory commandlets, including LDAP query syntax, as well as the Exchange commandlets. Head on over toPowerShellBlogger.com for the full article.

]]>The JAPE challengehttps://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-19-the-jape-challenge/https://powershell.org/articles/2015-10-19-the-jape-challenge/Mon, 19 Oct 2015 08:58:34 +0000<p>I have wanted to write my very own obfuscated e-mail signature for a long time but kept myself from doing it. At the time I thought of all these lines of obfuscated code that people wrote during competitions such as the <em>International Obfuscated C Code Contest (IOCCC)</em> or the <em>Obfuscated Perl Contest</em> as beyond interest.</p> <p>Then I started competing in the Scripting Games, and some tasks involved writing Powershell oneliners that required <strong>mastering the use of the pipeline</strong> as a tool to refine what each cmdlet passed to another. Once I added a few aliases to these oneliners - which sometimes happened to involve pretty arcane regular expressions - I often came back with hard-to-read and impossible-to-maintain pieces of Powershell code. But, hey, this was fun!</p><![CDATA[

I have wanted to write my very own obfuscated e-mail signature for a long time but kept myself from doing it. At the time I thought of all these lines of obfuscated code that people wrote during competitions such as theInternational Obfuscated C Code Contest (IOCCC) or theObfuscated Perl Contest as beyond interest.

Then I started competing in the Scripting Games, and some tasks involved writing Powershell oneliners that requiredmastering the use of the pipeline as a tool to refine what each cmdlet passed to another. Once I added a few aliases to these oneliners - which sometimes happened to involve pretty arcane regular expressions - I often came back with hard-to-read and impossible-to-maintain pieces of Powershell code. But, hey, this was fun!

So, today I have reviewed my point of view. I have understood that reading and understanding obfuscated code can be an interestingmental challenge. And being able to write it is a game I like to play.

Last week I was writing anarticle exploring different ways to implement primality tests in Powershell. In the last part of that article I show how to port to Powershell a powerful Perl onliner that can find prime numbers only by matching strings whose length is not prime.

This Perl oneliner, originally written by Abigail, is part of a collection of famousJAPHs - Usenet posting signatures in the 90s - that will output the text ‘Just another Perl Hacker,’ to screen.

When you have a look at some of these JAPHs (there is a canonical list on CPAN.org), you can see how it can actually be surprisingly difficult to write truly breathtaking obfuscated code.

Having said all that, I have come up with the idea of starting some kind of similar challenge around Powershell.

Write your JAPE