We all love PowerShell and we all probably have some very entertaining stories about a situation where it really saved our butts (or caused problems). Either way, we can all tell some kind of interesting story around a memorable moment you had with PowerShell or automation in general. I’d love to hear about them. I’m looking for a short story anywhere from a few paragraphs to an entire article if you want.
In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I wanted to offer a smaller, and more unique, challenge. Send me a PowerShell article. Seriously. My name is Don Jones, and this is PowerShell.org, so you can probably figure out how to contact me. Send me an article between 800 and 3,000 words (including code) in Microsoft Word format. Don’t attach any scripts. Please keep the formatting super-simple: paste code from the PowerShell ISE, and use Word’s default styles otherwise.
Join us Thursday Jan 23, 2014 as our guest will be the Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, as he talks about PowerShell Saturday 007 in Charlotte (Feb 8, 2014); his new book Windows PowerShell Best Practices and who knows what else. We record live at 9:30PM EST hope to see you then.
Join us this Thursday, Jan 16, 2014 at 9:30 PM EST as we talk with Steve Roberts from Amazon about the AWS Tools. Read more about it here: http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/
Join us tonight at 9:30 PM as Rick Claus and Symon Perriman talk about how to Build a Windows Server and System Center Environment with the PowerShell Deployment Toolkit.
You’ve probably been hearing about Desired State Configuration from a number of sources (Runas Radio, the PowerScripting Podcast, or the Channel 9 TechEd video for example).  If you haven’t go check out those previously mentioned resources, I’ll wait… Ok, now that you have a basic understanding of what Desired State Configuration (DSC) is, I have an announcement. PowerShell.Org is building a repository of DSC modules for the community to use and contribute to.
I’ve been working with a couple of folks lately who’ve been trying to review and pilot Active Directory auditing solutions. Both bemoaned the fact that, unlike consumer products of nearly any kind, IT products (specifically, enterprise software in this instance), don’t really get reviews from the admins who use those products. So, I’m curious. If you could (a) anonymously, and (b) without giving your organization’s name, would you (c) leave reviews of enterprise software for other admins?
So what’s with the “super secret” PowerShell session being given by Jeffrey Snover at TechEd 2013? First, if you’ll be in New Orleans, plan to attend this. The deal is pretty simple: Microsoft has got a lot of information pertaining to v.Next under embargo, which means people can’t talk about it yet, or even tell you the title of the session. But trust me, if you’re interested in the world of DevOps (and if you use PowerShell, you are), you’ll want to be at this session.
Looking for a great getting-started PowerShell class? Or perhaps you’d like to send a colleague or peer to some PowerShell “zero to hero” training? We’ve just finished the official beta-teach of Microsoft’s 10961, Automating Administration with Windows PowerShell, and it went _great. _The sequencing of the class was spot-on, and we had an absolutely incredible group of students. Many were n00bs, which was perfect; a couple had “some” shell experience but wanted to learn “the right way.
A long time ago… about a year, in fact… Jason Helmick and I started talking about a community-owned PowerShell “certification.” It went nowhere. Well, not very far.
Some background on exams: Microsoft, in my opinion, will never do a PowerShell cert. I say this having been part owner of a company that did outsourced exam development for the company. The deal is that Microsoft tries to certify _job tasks, _not _tools. _Nobody (well, maybe me) wakes up thinking, “gonna do me some PowerShell today.” No, PowerShell is the means to an end: “gonna automate me some user creation today” is more likely. And Microsoft tries to certify that end. PowerShell’s an important tool, and it already shows up on certification exams here and there.
For the most part, I agree with Microsoft’s reasoning, there. The argument can be summarized as saying “bosses don’t hire IT pros based on their ability to operate a low-level tool, they hire them to perform job tasks, which encompasses the tool.” Except that, in the case of PowerShell, I think it’d be tremendously useful for an employer to use PowerShell expertise as a discriminating factor in hiring. I mean, “someone who can automate stuff” is more valuable than “someone who can only do stuff manually,” in any situation.
So “PowerShell Verified” was intended to be a way for someone to prove - at least to themselves - that they’ve taken their PowerShell skills _to the minimum level necessary to be an effective automator. _Not a guru. Not an expert. Not Poshoholic. _Minimally effective, _who could then grow from there with experience.
So that’s what I’m going to put together.
I want to explain why I’m not using the word “Certification,” though. In my mind, certifications come from, mainly, first-parties like Microsoft. Microsoft has to jump through a lot of hoops to make sure their exam content is accurate, legally defensible, blah blah blah. They worry about security, brain dumps, and other stuff that diminishes the value of the certification. I don’t have that kind of bandwidth or their resources, so in many ways my little program will be less effective than a “real” certification. Plus, few bosses will give a rat’s patooty what that Don Jones guy said about your skillz (I can’t even convince bosses to buy you guys 12-core 64GB workstations for your desk). So my “Verified” program is going to be _low stakes, _meaning you take it to prove something to _
yourself
_.
Here’s how this is going to go.
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