Don Jones
Explore articles and content from this author
Don Jones
372 articles published
•
2 min read
Winter Scripting Games Tentatively Scheduled
We’re tentatively scheduling the 2014 Winter Scripting Games for 4-6 weeks beginning January 6, 2014. Right now, we’re running functional tests on the platform (which will be all-new and much-improved), and soliciting scenarios from MVPs and PowerShell celebrities. As previously announced, players will work in teams of 2-6 in this edition of the Games, and it’s never too early to start finding friends to form a team with you. Because you’ll be working in teams, and because you’ll have a full week to complete each scenario, expect more complex scenarios!
•
3 min read
The New Look of the Scripting Games
I’ve been busily working on a new interface for the Scripting Games - we’re still planning a Winter Games event - and wanted to share progress. You can click this thumbnail to see the full image. The new Scripting Games features movable, resizable panes The new layout features movable, resizable panels, allowing you to position them however works best on your screen. No, they’re not especially mobile-friendly. As you can see (at least in implication), entries can consist of multiple files, as in a complex script module.
•
2 min read
Seeking Curators for PowerShell eBooks
[UPDATE: I think I’ve finally gotten all the books under curation - but if you’ve an idea for a PowerShell-related ebook, and would like to co-author or even be a principal author (I’ll help out with logistics), still hit me up.] As you may know, PowerShell.org hosts a number of free ebooks that have, to date, been written mainly by me. But I’ve recently been delighted to welcome some co-contributors - Forums regular Dave Wyatt has contributed new content to “Secrets of PowerShell Remoting,” for example, and Matt Penny has volunteered to organize the forthcoming “Community Book of PowerShell Practices.
•
2 min read
Nominate Your PowerShell Hero
PowerShell.org is proud to announce a new community recognition program: PowerShell Heroes. We’re looking for your Hero nominations! A PowerShell Hero is someone who you feel does an outstanding job helping the community, perhaps by answering questions in forums (here or elsewhere), writing useful blog posts, offering education, and more. A PowerShell Hero is someone who has not already received formal recognition elsewhere , meaning past and present MVPs are not eligible.
•
4 min read
Winter Scripting Games: More Feedback Needed
So I’m continuing to work through some logistics regarding the Winter Scripting Games (and no, there’s no dates set). The intent of these Games, as I’ve written before, is to offer a collaborative experience. You’ll work in teams of (proposed) 2-6. You have two ways to join a team: Pick an existing one that needs players (you’ll be shown the average time zone offset, in minutes, of the existing players, so that you can choose a team near you) or create a new team from scratch - which others can then join.
•
2 min read
My New PowerShell Video Series, Covering v2/v3/v4, Launches
It’s finally starting to be published - my Ultimate PowerShell Video Training Series, covering versions 2 and onward. This series will initially consist of 90 chunks of roughly 20 minutes each, adding up to more than 30 hours total. I’m building each individual video to CLEARLY differentiate between PowerShell v2, v3, and v4; for the most part, I switch to Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 to demonstrate specifics in each version.
•
2 min read
Great Debate: The Conclusion
All this Summer, we’ve been encouraging your feedback in a series of Great Debate posts. Most of the topics came from the 2013 Scripting Games, where we definitely saw people coming down on both sides of these topics. My goal was to pull everyone’s thoughts together into a kind of community consensus, and to offer a living book of community-accepted practices for PowerShell. This’ll be a neverending story, likely adapting and growing to include more topics as the years wind on.
•
3 min read
Writing Courseware: 10961 PowerShell Class
We’re in the process of working on a 10961C revision to the Microsoft PowerShell course, and I’ve been reviewing the anonymous comments submitted by MCTs and students on 10961A (the “B” rev, which is what was produced after our beta teach, is just now orderable so we don’t have comments yet). **By the way - if you’re a student or MCT who has taken/delivered 10961A, you’re welcome to contact me directly if you want to share any info on typos you found.
•
2 min read
Regular Expressions are a -replace's best friend
Are you familiar with PowerShell’s -replace operator? "John Jones" -replace "Jones","Smith" Most folks are aware of it, and rely on it for straightforward string replacements like this one. But not very many people know that -replace also does some amazing stuff using regular expressions. "192.168.15.12,192.168.22.8" -replace "\.\d{2}\.","10" That’d change the input string to “192.168.10.12,192.168.10.8,” replacing all occurrences of two digits, between periods, to 10. The 12 would be skipped because it isn’t followed by a period, as specified in the pattern.