Closing the Games

The judging is complete for the fourth and final event in the 2014 Winter Scripting Games.
This Games was something very different in that we presented 4 we complex scenarios that were designed to be as close as possible to the type of tasks you may have to perform at work. The solutions required multi-file answers - there’s no way you could solve these with a one liner!
All of the teams that submitted entries rose to meet the hardest challenge I’ve seen in a Scripting Games - and I’ve taken part of judged all but the first Games.
All entries were scored by 2 judges with the judges being rotated to ensure that all judges scored each team in at least one event.
I’d like to thank the judges for their hard work and also thank the coaching team put together by Mike Robbins - most of all I’d like to thank all of the teams that entered for taking part.
In any Games we have winners and the winning teams from these Games are:
1.Kitton Mittons with 19.375 points (8 of 8 scores received)
2.TecHaH with 18.75 points (8 of 8 scores received)
3.Schnipersons with 18.5 points (8 of 8 scores received)
Congratulations to Kitton Mittons for winning the 2014 Winter Scripting Games - if a representative from the winning team could please contact Don Jones or myself we’ll see about getting your prizes to you .
The Games are closed. .
Until the next time.

Scripting Games event 1 close

Event 1 is over and the judging is complete.
First off congratulations to every team that posted an entry - the events in these games are different and we’ve tried to up the challenge level to account for it being a team based.
The high scorers for event 1 are:
1.Troll Bait with 22 points
2.Kitton Mittons with 22 points
3.Aliens with 20 points
4.PhillyPosh with 20 points
5.Thanks4TheInvite with 17 points
6.TecHaH with 17 points
7.Bengals with 17 points
8.TPUG THUGS with 16 points
9.DuPSOGD2 with 16 points
10.Hogans Heroes with 16 points
Congratulations to them.
Good luck to everyone with the remaining events

Scripting Games 2014 – event submission tip

I’ve testing out the judging system using the practice event and one thing jumped out at me.
It was a lot easier to understand the entries for those teams that included a transcript of their entry.
I would very strongly recommend that you include a transcript of your entry running. As a minimum I would recommend that you include:

• the solution running - show each type of input required by the scenario (pipeline, single values, file etc)
• if parameter validation is asked for - show that in action
• show error handling in action if you can
• show the partial contents of any output file
  Transcripts make for happy judges. You want your judges to be happy don’t you…

Introducing the Judges for Winter 2014 Scripting Games

In the last few years there has been a long list of people judging the Scripting Games. Those people were expected to view as many entries as possible, preferably all, and score the entries as well as providing feedback on the individual entries. That is a ton of work especially when you consider that the judges were all volunteers.
This time round we’re attempting to spread the load somewhat. Mike Robbins has done a superb job recruiting coaches for the Its their job to look at the entries and make suggestions and hints to the teams - if the teams wish to take advantage of this option. Looking at the list of coaches - I know I would take advantage of their assistance if I was competing.
That leaves judging. This time we’re using a small group of judges. We have prepared scoring criteria for the events with some additional style points available to the judges. This will make MOST of the scoring objective but we’ve a bit of subjectivity available for individual judges to pick out, and hopefully comment on, things they like or don’t like.
The judges are all very experienced PowerShell practitioners with more books written, talks given, blog posts created and classes taught between them than anyone would want to count. In alphabetical order your judges for the Winter 2014 Scripting Games are:
Don Jones - founder and CEO of powershell.org. Author of several PowerShell books including the highly recommended Learn PowerShell v3 in a Month of Lunches and co-author of PowerShell in Depth. Don is a PowerShell MVP, PowerShell educator, columnist and course creator.
Jason Helmick - Board member of powershell.org. A PowerShell MVP and author of Learn IIS in a Month of Lunches which includes lots of PowerShell. Jason also delivered the recent two-part Introducing PowerShell MVA sessions with Jeffrey Snover. PowerShell educator, columnist and speaker.
Jeffery Hicks - Board member of powershell.org. PowerShell MVP. Co-author of PowerShell in Depth, lead editor of PowerShell Deep Dives and author of other PowerShell books. Jeffrey is also a PowerShell columnist and educator
Ed Wilson - The Scripting Guy. Ed runs the Hey! Scripting Guy Author of several PowerShell books including Windows PowerShell Best Practices and Windows PowerShell Scripting Guide. Ed also delivers PowerShell classes and is a much in demand speaker.
The list of judges is completed by
Richard Siddaway - Board member of powershell.org. PowerShell MVP. Co-author of PowerShell in Depth and author of PowerShell in Practice and PowerShell and WMI. Frequent blogger on PowerShell related topics.
Between them the judges have accumulated over 30 years of PowerShell experience that is focussed on judging the Games. They are all looking forward to the Games and hope to see your entries.

CIM vs WMI cmdlets-remote execution speed

Following on from my previous post we"™ll look at how the two types of cmdlets compare for accessing remote machines.

I used a similar format to the previous tests but was accessing a remote machine.

First off was the WMI cmdlet ““ using DCOM to access the remote Windows 2012 server

PS> 1..100 |
foreach {
Measure-Command -Expression{1..100 | foreach {Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem -ComputerName W12SUS }}
} |
Measure-Object -Average TotalMilliseconds

AD Management in a Month of Lunches"“ chapter 9 in MEAP

The MEAP for AD Management in a Month of Lunches has been updated with the release of chapter 9 on managing group policies

CIM cmdlets vs WMI cmdlets"“speed of execution

One question that came up at the summit was the comparative speed of execution of the new CIM cmdlets vs the old WMI cmdlets. No of us knew the answer because we"™d never tried measuring the speed.

I decided to perform some tests.

This first test is accessing the local machine. In both cases the cmdlets are using COM. WMI uses COM and CIM will use COM if a ““ComputerName parameter isn”™t used.

Time for D-CRUD?

I was thinking on the plane back from the PowerShell summit about the CRUD activities. They are a concept we have inherited from the database world:

C = Create

R = Read

U = Update

D= Delete

Create, Update and Delete correspond directly to the PowerShell verbs ““ New,Set and Remove respectively.

The Read action corresponds to the Get verb.

Well sort of.

Get-* is used in two distinct scenarios. Firstly we know of an object and we we want to read its properties ““ for example:

Scripting Games 2013 have started

The 2013 Scripting Games kicked off during the PowerShell summit. Event 1 is open and you can submit entries up until 23:59:59 GMT on 29 April 2013. Voting on the entries starts at at midnight on 30 April.

You can enter and you can vote on the entries. This is a community games run by powershell.org ““ all are welcome.

If you haven”™t entered yet there is still plenty of time to get you entry in for event 1. Start by reviewing the information at https://powershell.org/the-scripting-games/

PowerShell Summit"“thank you

I"™d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who attended the PowerShell Summit this last week. The Summit was a success ““ in no small part due to you. Your questions, and discussions, are what this is all about.

It was a pleasure meeting you all and I hope to return next year ““ I hope to see many of you there as well.