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Scripting Games

Scripting Games
• Glenn Sizemore
Scripting Games

OK i'm impressed: Scripting Games Week 1

Well guys, and gals another year has passed, and the annual scripting games are upon us again. After a week of reviewing submissions for their technique and style I must say that I am truly impressed! As a community the average ability seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. That"™s not to say we"™re all Samurai just yet, but we"™re getting there! Before I go off and nit-pick I want to congratulate you all on a small mountain of really well written scripts.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Event 2 Opens / Event 1 Winding Down

Event 2 is scheduled to open this evening in The Scripting Games - remember, all times on the Scripting Games Web site are GMT. You will need to adjust for your local time zone. Voting on Event 1 is scheduled to end on May 7th, so you still have 5 days to earn pointlets and leave comments for your colleagues. As of right now, we have over 330 entries, and an astounding 4,900 votes - an average ratio of more than 14 votes per entry.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Thoughts on Event 1 – and, frankly, a rant.

There’s been a lot of dismay floating around the community about the state of “community voting” in the Scripting Games. Some folks are voting without leaving comments (we’ve expanded the comment field to 2000 characters, hopefully that’ll help), and some disagreement about scores. Disagreement is natural. For example, stick a Write-Host in your script and I’m likely to score you lower. You may disagree, but it’s how I feel in many situations… and I’m seeing a distressing amount of it.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Scripting Games Voting Continues!

As of right now, we’ve got almost 1900 votes on entries in the Scripting Games. Remember that each vote is a “pointlet” (see the PowerShell tie-in we did there?), which is basically a raffle ticket in our prize lottery. But… there’s a secret about the lottery. It’s weighted based on how many entries you’ve voted on. The algorithm is a bit complex, but for example, if you’ve voted on 90% of the available entries, you’re something like 30% more likely to win a prize.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Meet the Scripting Games Judges: June Blender

June Blender is was a senior programming writer on the Windows PowerShell team at Microsoft from Windows PowerShell 1.0 ““ 3.0. You see her work every time you type Get-Help for the core modules. She’s now working on the Windows Azure Active Directory SDK team, and she remains an avid Windows PowerShell user and a passionate user advocate. She’s a guest blogger for the Scripting Guys and she tweets Windows PowerShell tips on Twitter at @juneb_get_help.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

State of the Games

As of Monday at 5pm Pacific time (which is Tuesday morning, 00:00 hours GMT), the 2013 Scripting Games’ first event will conclude. That means the first event is open for community voting - so get on it! Remember, some of the best prizes - including a free pass to the 2014 PowerShell Summit - are reserved for folks who offer their votes and comments. Incoming new registrations for the Games will not be able to compete in Event 1 at this point, but they can jump in with Event 2 (and subsequent events) if desired.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Meet the Scripting Games Judges: "Scripting Guy" Ed Wilson

Ed Wilson is the Microsoft Scripting Guy and a well-known scripting expert. He writes the twice daily Hey Scripting Guy! blog (the number 1 blog on TechNet). He has also spoken at TechEd and at the Microsoft internal TechReady conferences. He is a Microsoft-certified trainer who has delivered a popular Windows PowerShell workshop to Microsoft Premier Customers worldwide. He has written 11 books including 8 on Windows scripting that were published by Microsoft Press.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Meet the Scripting Games Judges: Jeffery Hicks

Jeffery Hicks is a Microsoft MVP in Windows PowerShell, Microsoft Certified Trainer and an IT veteran with over 20 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis in automation and efficiency.He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant.Jeffwritesthe popular Prof. PowerShell column for MPCMag.com, is a regular contributor to the Petri IT Knowledgebase, 4SysOps and the Altaro Hyper-V blog, as well as frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Advanced Practice Event

I want to direct your attention to this forums post, which I think is worth anyone’s time to look through. I’ve left a pretty long reply with some comments on the entry that would also be worth a read. I find that a LOT of folks - like the gentleman who posted his script - have a really good approach to PowerShell scripts. They want to use parameters. They want verbose output.

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• Don Jones
Scripting Games

Show Your Scripting Games Pride!

If you’re participating in the Scripting Games, log on to the Scripting Games Web site and check out your Profile page. You’ll find a redemption code that can be used to unlock a Participant achievement on the main PowerShell.org Web site!

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