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This is a PowerShell-based WMI Explorer tool created by Marc van Orsouw (aka //\O//). His Web site has been down for ages, but Thomas Lee was helpful enough to post a copy of this, and we’re hosting it here as a backup against further unavailability.
Download WMI Explorer
In an effort to keep folks as fully informed as possible, I’ll periodically share information about the Summit for next year. In this update, I want to explain how we’re hoping to address some of the issues (all good ones, actually) that we’ve experienced with the 2013 event.
First, the 2013 event sold out fast. We have a fire code limit of about 100 people and we hit it quickly - and our wait list ballooned to almost as many people. The moral of that story is that (a) we need more space and (b) people gotta sign up quicker if they want a spot! This is like grabbing those U2 tickets - camp out overnight and snap ’em up. So we’re hoping to be in the Microsoft Conference Center (MSCC) on campus, which should allow us around 250 attendees in 2014. We can’t book that space until about a year out, we’re told, but once we can start booking we will announce it here. Our 2013 alumni will get first dibs, and we’ll have about 25 early bird tickets to sell. We expect pricing to be about $700 for those, and about $850 for full-price tickets, plus about $40-$50 in ticketing fees (which covers credit card merchant fees and the ticketing company fee).
Second, we will offer tickets as soon as we can do so. That may include an “I’m Feeling Lucky” ticket even before we know our dates (we’re still aiming for April 2014). However, due to changing regulations, we can only offer refunds for 30 days after you make your purchase, or (due to logistics) until February 1st, whichever comes first. That’s something you’ll have to take into account.
Third, we’re going to make the waitlist process a bit more automated, and give you the ability to use the waitlist to sell your ticket to someone else if you change your mind about attending. People will be able to waitlist on PowerShell.org, and prospective ticket-sellers will be able to offer tickets to that list. You’re on your own for completing the transaction (we suggest PayPal), and you simply notify us of the transfer once it’s complete.
Fourth, in case the question of recording the sessions comes up again, here’s the deal. It’s expensive. We’ve looked into it, and we’ll need about $8,000 in equipment, which is a one-time expense that will let us record sessions with a minimum of on-site labor. So we’re going to launch an IndieGoGo campaign in late 2013 to try and raise that money. Contributors will receive (depending on the amount they contribute) access to all future Summit recordings, a discount on Summit recordings for 2014, or full access to the 2014 recordings. If we don’t meet our goal, we won’t record, and everyone gets their money back. If we do meet our goal, only contributors will get access to the 2014 videos. However, in subsequent years we will sell (for a nominal fee) access to the videos to the public - that’ll happen after the Summit is over. In years where the Summit sells out, we’ll put the videos online for free (unless we need to recoup labor costs, in which case there might still be a nominal fee). This is the fair-est approach we could come up with that balances our need to have a successful on-site event (without the paying attendees, we can’t do this thing at all) and to accommodate the needs of folks who can’t possibly attend.
Fifth, we still have no word on any events outside the US, and probably will not. We are simply not pursuing it at this time. It gets very complicated when a US business starts doing events in other countries, and we don’t have the manpower or resources to tackle that right now. Several folks have expressed an interest in spearheading various non-US versions of the Summit, and most of those are going nowhere. One problem is that, in Europe, nobody appears interested in a “Euro Summit;” they all want one in their own country, which makes the whole endeavor financially risky and exponentially more complicated. There’s a huge concern that if we do one in (say) Barcelona, nobody from outside that area will even come. Another problem is that the Summit involves an insane amount of work - personally, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this and I know Kirk has as well, along with Jason, Jeff, and Richard, the Scripting Wife, and a few more volunteers. It’s a lot of work, and thus far we haven’t seen anyone outside the US willing to take it on. Keep in mind that we all still need to have our full-time jobs to pay for silly things like groceries and electricity; we can’t afford to take out much more volunteer time.
Sixth, the 2014 Summit will look much like the 2013 Summit in terms of content: about three dozen sessions in one-hour blocks, with about 45 minutes per session (including Q&A time). We’ll feed you breakfast and lunch. We are going to book out a block of rooms at a nearby hotel, and will run a shuttle bus to and from that hotel (only!) and the Summit venue. That should help lower travel costs by reducing the need for a rental car. We are not going to be able to hold enough rooms for all 200-250 attendees (when you hold a room, you pay for it whether it gets used or not, so the financial risk there is huge). We are hoping to block about 60 rooms - so it’ll become important to book early. Once that block is sold, you’re on your own - although the same hotel may well have rooms at their normal rate, which is what we’re hoping will happen.
Seventh, communications with registered attendees has been a huge PITA, mainly because some providers - like ForeFront Online Protection (FOLP) have a global block against EventBrite, our ticket company. Yeah, awesome. So for 2014 we’re going to use THIS blog category and our [Twitter feed][2] to “push” communications. We’ll still attempt to use email, but it’s just not reliable in this age of ultra-spam-blocking. So if you register, it will be your responsibility to check for updated information. After all, you’re supposed to be the big, smart IT professional, so you should be able to figure out how to do that .
I’ll continue posting updates as information is available, and we hope you’ll start talking to the boss about the 2014 show. The 2013 show is sold out. As of right now, we are no longer to able process refunds for existing attendees, so we’re no longer processing the 2013 wait list. That means it’s time to start looking at the 2014 show.
Any questions, drop ’em in the comments!
Thanks!
Don
Folks often ask for some advice on what to do, and what not to do, in the forums. Here are some suggestions.
Have your own etiquette suggestions? Drop ’em in the comments!
It’s now available globally.
I suggest downloading the Program Guide, which includes the agreement and directions for enrolling. There’s also a specific guide for the PowerShell 3.0 Toolmaking examination, which you should read prior to paying.
Once you’ve paid, and sent in the necessary signed paperwork, you’ll get your exam info via e-mail. You can log in at any time to download your exam scenario and begin working. From the time of your first login, the clock starts ticking and you have 24 hours to upload your results. After uploading your results, you’ll hear back within 5 business days - these are graded by a human, not a machine, so be patient.
Before the verification exam becomes available to the public, I need ONE OR TWO people to be the first through the complete program. This is not a “beta;” the exam is finalized and you will have to pay for your verification. The first one or two people will be semi-automated as I nail down the final payment integration bits, and then we’ll throw it open to the public.
If you’re interested, contact me at don at Concentrated Tech.com. First come, first served.
Ok, aftermath time. In Winter Scripting Camp I saw some very cool stuff, but I know folks want to learn from this event too, so I want to call out some stuff that I didn’t like so much, and explain why. I’m keeping these brief - if you’d like a longer explanation, hit me up in the PowerShell Q&A forum. BTW, none of the discussion below implies anything about the grade I awarded the entry. I considered a much broader range of criteria and opinions in awarding grades.
We’re well into our beta for the VERIFIED EFFECTIVEâ„¢ Windows PowerShell 3.0 Toolmaker exam, and expect the program to go live in March or April of 2013. There’s a good bit of information on the program home page that you should review if you’re interested in getting verified.
[As a note, once the program goes live, it’ll be available to anyone worldwide - although the exam will only be available in English for the foreseeable future; we don’t have the resources at this time to offer localized versions] I should point out first that we’re doing this program through my company, rather than directly through PowerShell.org, mainly because of some legalities. My company (Concentrated Tech) has the insurance and other items in place needed to do something like this, and I didn’t want PowerShell.org, Inc., to have to pay for those things. That said, a lot of folks have been involved in vetting and designing the exam scenarios. Another advantage of using Concentrated Tech is that the company is set up to do a lot of the interviewing and statistical analysis needed to make a relevant exam. The cost is the second thing I’ll discuss: at $150/person, I know it’s not cheap. But at least two human beings look at each person’s work - there’s no machine grading - and they gotta get paid. We also need to recoup some of the substantial investment that went into the exam design. Over a 3-year period, it’ll hopefully be about break-even. We’ll see. On to the exam itself. There are a variety of “forms” for the exam, meaning everyone isn’t getting the same assignment. That said, the approach for each form is pretty much the same. You’ll get 2-3 “assignments” to complete, all of which involve writing scripts and/or commands. You get a specified amount of time to complete your assignments. (as an aside, making multiple different exams that all test substantially the same skills is really tough, which is one reason we did a lot of testing and statistical analysis - to ensure the equivalency of each form - as part of the development process). Some assignments are straightforward: write a script that does this, this, and that. You’re given a bunch of criteria and just have to spew out the commands. There’s room for creativity - so long as you (a) meet all the criteria and (b) comply with the stated best practices, you pass. “Extra” stuff doesn’t count against you, and the exact approach you use isn’t graded - so long as you achieve all of the results and comply with all of the stated criteria. The “main” assignment in each form is harder. You’re given a shell transcript, and you’re asked to look at it and duplicate the tools you see used in it. For example:
NOTE: As of 4th February, we’re full up for the beta. Check back later this year for the program launch.
I’m ready to begin a formal beta test of the new VERIFIED EFFECTIVEâ„¢ examination program, which we’d previously referred to as “PowerShell Verified.”
Participation in the beta will be free, and if you pass it “counts.” If you’re interested, please download the Program Guide before February 10th, 2013.
You must agree to perform you examination on February 11th or 12th
. Complete the Program License Agreement found in the Guide, and return it, with photo ID, as indicated. Be sure to indicate either Feb 11th or 12th as your desired exam date. Materials will be sent to you via e-mail, and you will have 24 hours to complete the assignment. A qualified candidate should need no more than 4-5 hours.
We’ve posted a complete set of information about the program in general and the PowerShell exam in particular.
At this time, I can only accept participants who are USA residents (more on that below). International expansion will happen when the program formally launches later this year. I will only be accepting 2-3 beta participants. If you submit your Program License Agreement but don’t hear back the same day, then you weren’t selected for participation.
The final examination will be $150, and will be a human-graded assignment not a machine-graded exam. A certificate for passing scores will be delivered electronically, and you may order a physical certificate for a nominal fee.
The first exam will be PowerShell 3.0 Toolmaking. You should be able to pass if you know how to write advanced functions, including dealing with pipeline input, ShouldProcess support, and parameter attributes and validation. You will also need to know how to create custom formatting views and type extensions, and how to create script and manifest modules. You will need to be familiar with Windows PowerShell remoting and remoting configuration, and know how to create custom remoting endpoints (session configurations) having a specified configuration. You also need to know how to write proxy functions. You should know how to connect to SQL Server databases from within PowerShell, and how to issue queries to retrieve and manipulate database data. Note that not all of these topics may be included on every examination, but you should be prepared to perform all of them.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Everything’s been going pretty smoothly, so we’ve decided to open Winter Scripting Camp to everyone! Read everything below carefully for the best camping experience!
Scripting Camp is a precursor to the Scripting Games, which will kick off in late April. During Camp, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in two events. We aren’t offering any prizes, but we will announce winners in the PowerShell.org blog, on Twitter, and so on. Camp is really a way for us to kick the tires on our new software platform.
If you want to participate, here’s how:
We’ll be announcing Winter Scripting Camp the first week of February. This is a special invite-only event that will be open to subscribers of the PowerShell.org TechLetter. It will work just like the Scripting Games, but will feature only a couple of events and will not include any prizes. We will, however, announce the top scorers.
Scripting Camp is primarily an opportunity for us to audition our new platform, to kick the tires, and make sure everything’s ready for the official Games, which will kick off in April at the PowerShell Summit 2013 North America.
If you’re interested in Camping with us, please sign up for the TechLetter this week (prior to Feb 1st). We’ll be sending out a special notification to the TechLetter subscriber list with sign-up instructions.
