I wanted to call your attention to Smarterer, a company recently acquired by my employer, Pluralsight. Smarterer’s schtick (apart from vexing my auto-correct) is that the host crowdsourced technology assessments. In other words, the community decides what questions to ask someone in the test.
The magic is that their back-end engine, over time, figures out which questions are awesome and which ones suck, and adjusts the assessment accordingly. So as more people (especially qualified ones) take the test, the better it gets at identifying skilled people. It gives it a sort of built-in immunity against bad community-contributed questions, because those eventually filter out of the assessment that’s delivered to people. It’s pretty engaging, actually. I’ve had some fun taking some web development-oriented assessments, and surprised myself in a few places.
They’ve got a PowerShell assessment. Why not jump in, take it, and then add some questions of your own? Next time you need to interview someone for PowerShell chops, send ’em to Smarterer.
The PowerShell Summit is the number one conference where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. PowerShell experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, community leaders and PowerShell team members, will once again join together for a few days in Stockholm, Sweden to discuss and learn about maximizing PowerShell in the workplace. If you want to share your PowerShell expertise or story, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!
PowerShell Summit Europe 2015 will be held 14-16 September 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Shell and Tell is back.. bring your scripts you’ve been working on and show your PowerShell pride by displaying your scripting prowess. We’ll have food and drinks, so come join the fun!
Everyone is welcome. Please RSVP on the MeetUp event page so we can plan food accordingly.
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. If you must include screen shots, please embed them in the doc, but also include them as a a separate PNG in your e-mail.
You can write about anything, provided it’s PowerShell-related._ _What’s best? Some challenge that stumped you - and that you eventually solved (and please, tell us how). Something that you think folks could benefit from, or could learn to do better. Even an article that lays out both sides of a particular question, and outlines the pros and cons of each argument. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you write. _
I will
personally
commit to reading every single one, and providing you with feedback on your article. When suitable, I’ll make some specific suggestions for improving the article. If you then fix it up accordingly, I’ll run it by a professional editor - and I’ll have it published. _In some cases, we’ll publish it right here on PowerShell.org. In other cases, I’ll submit it to my friends at 1105 Media for their consideration in one of their IT magazines, like Redmond Magazine or MCPMag.com. Still others will go into the PowerShell.org TechLetter, which would be a huge help to our editors, who are always hungry for content.
Being able to communicate well is important in all walks of life, but being willing to share is even more important. Think you’ve got nothing to share? _Wrong. _You have unique experiences that everyone can learn from. You do not need to be an expert in order to have something valuable to share. We would all benefit a lot more if more people shared their experiences and successes - so now it’s your turn.
The deadline is November 30th, of course, and I’ll work my way through them all as quickly as possible. You’re not going to be judged on your grammar or spelling (although do use Word’s tools to help those as much as it can). Don’t try to write fancy, or overly formal. In fact, just write like you’d talk. Read your piece back to yourself _aloud, _and if it sounds weird, fix it so it doesn’t. If it sounds good, it’ll read well.
C’mon. Take up the challenge. And tweet folks over to this article, too. Let’s make it a thing. My goal is to help at least a few folks because regular bloggers, either here or elsewhere, and my dream is to find maybe a couple of folks who can pick up a full-time column with a magazine or other publication. That’d be awesome. I know you’re out there - let’s get the party started.
We’re often asked if we’re planning to have a PowerShell Summit in (insert name of town/country/city). The answer is, “no,” because we’re usually not planning much in advance of whatever’s currently on the table. Keep in mind - **we’re all volunteers. **We don’t have a ton of free time to plan 3 years out! As you’ll see in a minute, it’s a lot of work.
That said, you can play a big role in bringing the Summit to your town. How? Simply write a proposal and submit it to us. Use the “Admin” e-mail alias at PowerShell.org. Here’s what to include:
All of the recordings from the recent PowerShell Summit in Amsterdam are now available through the PowerShell.org channel on youtube. The playlist for the Summit is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeA8kIs7Coehjg9cB6foPjBojLHYQGb_
Thank you again to the speakers, and attendees, who made for a wonderful first Summit in Europe and more thanks to the people who donated to our appeal to raise funds for the recording equipment.
- John Mello gave a presentation entitled “Custom Object Creation”. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available here at our GitHub site.
- TJ Turner gave a presentation entitled “Runspace Pools”. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available here at our GitHub site.
- A
recording of this meeting
has been posted to our YouTube channel
The videos from day 1 of the Powershell Summit Europe 2014 are now available on the PowerShell.org youtube channel. The European Summit playlist can be found at
Uploading of day 2 is in progress and I’ll supply notification when complete
Enjoy.
All of the slides and demo code the speakers wanted to share are available for your enjoyment at http://1drv.ms/1vMWmtm
I’m currently uploading the videos which is a slow process. I’ll post when hat activity is completed.
At the 2nd of October, Lee Holmes gave a presentation about the current and future state of the Windows Management Framework (WMF) during the Dutch PowerShell User Group (DuPSUG) at the Microsoft headquarters in The Netherlands.
The slide decks and recorded videos will be made available soon, but this is what was discussed:
The release cycle of the Windows Management Framework (WMF)
Faster incremental releases of preview versions are being released. This rapid development means that companies that need specific new functionalities to tackle current problems they’re having, don’t have to wait as long as they had to in the past.
Everyone should keep in mind that documentation for preview versions can be more limited, but should still read the release notes carefully. They contain descriptions of some of the improvements that are discussed in this blog post, but also cover other things that aren’t discussed here. Also be sure to take a look at What’s New in Windows PowerShell at TechNet.
A request from the audience was to include more helpful real-life examples until documentation is fully up-to-date.
