Apr 01 2014
As I have gotten increasingly comfortable with subversion and have started to develop a work flow, I ran into a problem. Most of the scripts I have added to my repository thus far have been self-contained scripts that’d I’d typically run straight from the repository folder. But I recently ran into a use case where …
Mar 31 2014
As my knowledge of Powershell has increased, so too has the length and complexity of the scripts I create. My current record for example is a 387 line script. How did I keep track of all of the changes in a script of this length? Not very well I’m afraid. I knew there had to …
Mar 23 2014
Note: The following was tested with PowerGUI 3.8.0.129. As I have gotten more confident with Powershell, my scripts have grown longer and longer. I use PowerGUI as my IDE of choice and I have been quite happy with it. One of the problems I’ve increasingly run into however is that as the code grows in …
Mar 21 2014
What do you do when you need to provide a password in a batch file or to a legacy command line application but don’t want to store the password in plain text inside of the file? As usual, it’s Powershell to the rescue. The basic steps are: Create a text file that contains …
Mar 16 2014
During a recent swim, I happened to overhear a conversation between two other people in the pool that was distinctly Korean. I introduced myself and we ended up having a great chat that was probably 70% Korean. After that encounter, I came to the realization that I’ve learned enough of the language that I’m right …
Mar 14 2014
Last year I watched an absolutely fantastic two day training session on Powershell now available here: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/getting-started-with-powershell-3-0-jump-start Among the many things I learned from that training, one quote from one of the trainers really stuck out with me. Jeffrey Snover, the inventor of Powershell said “Powershell is designed to solve business problems.” The take away …
Jan 25 2014
This HOWTO describes how to create a bootable USB recovery CD for Macrium Reflect. This in itself isn’t terribly useful in itself as the Reflect Software offers an excellent GUI based wizard to accomplish this. However, the default Windows PE environment it creates does not include ISCSI support which means if your backups are stored …
Dec 26 2013
This is going to be one of the more unusual HOWTOs I’m likely ever to produce for this site. It all started earlier today when I asked myself a seemingly simple question: What is the average weight of famous celebrities that are roughly my height and age? I was curious because I was wondering how …
Nov 09 2013
I’ve decided to try to learn some of the basics of the Japanese language. At first I thought I’d limit myself to memorizing some spoken phrases only but I found myself increasingly curious with how the Japanese writing system works. I installed the Japanese keyboard on my tablet and… was immediately overwhelmed. “How could anyone …
Oct 20 2013
Windows 8.1 has now been officially released. I tried to download the update but ran into a design decision Microsoft has made that I honestly can’t explain. I discovered the only official way to download Windows 8.1 is by logging into the Windows Store using your Microsoft account. I’m not sure if you installed Windows 8 …
