Aaron Hoover was kind enough to webcam the Summit sessions he attended, and he’s posted the videos on YouTube. URLs, from Aaron’s channel, are below.
Just Enough Admin - Security in a Post-Snowden World - Jeffrey Snover - PowerShell Summit 2014
Windows System Internals with PowerShell - Adam Driscoll - PowerShell Summit 2014
PowerCLI: How to Automate Your VMWare Environment Reports - Matt Griffin - PowerShell Summit 2014
Parallel Execution with PowerShell - Tome Tanasovski - PowerShell Summit 2014
After all the DSC-related excitement this week, there have been a few online and Twitter-based discussions including Chef, Puppet, and similar solutions. Many of these discussions start off with a tone I suppose I should be used to: fanboy dissing. “Puppet already does this and is cross-platform! Why should I bother with DSC?” Those people, sadly, miss the point about as entirely as it’s possible to do.
Point 1: Coolness
First, what Microsoft has accomplished with DSC is cool. Star Wars Episode V was also cool. These facts do not prevent previous things - Puppet/Chef/etc and Episode IV - from being cool as well. Something new being cool does not make other things less cool. This shouldn’t be a discussion of, “Puppet did this first, so nothing else can possibly be interesting at the same time.” As IT professionals, we should be looking at everything with an eye toward what it does, and what new ideas it might offer than can be applied to existing approaches.
I’ll be using these examples in my TechEd 2014 session on PowerShell patterns and practices. They won’t make much sense, perhaps, until you see the session (live, or in the recordings - and I believe this session is one of the “Taste of TechEd” ones that will be live-streamed), but here are the scripts.
TechEd-NA-2014-Patterns-Examples
The PowerShell Summit is the number one place where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. Experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, and PowerShell team members, join together for a few days to discuss and learn how to maximize using PowerShell in the workplace.
And now the PowerShell Summit is coming to Europe. PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 will be held September 29, 30, and October 1 at the Hotel Park in Amsterdam, Holland. https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-europe/
If you want to share your PowerShell expertise, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!
**Topic Areas – What we are looking for
** We are looking for 45-minute presentations covering a wide aspect of PowerShell expertise. We have three main topic areas that may assist you in building an abstract.
• PowerShell Internals – A deep look into the inside workings of PowerShell and practical solutions that are built from them. These presentations are more focused on the PowerShell development community that is building extensions and solutions relating to PowerShell.
• PowerShell in Production – These presentations are focused on domain specific PowerShell solutions for IT Pro’s such as managing Exchange, System Center, IIS, SharePoint, VMware and more.
• PowerShell Features Deep Dive – These presentations are a deep look into configuring and working with PowerShell features and capabilities such as PowerShell Remoting, PowerShell Web Access, Reporting and more.
We are open to presentations across the entire ecosystem that has been built around PowerShell; so don’t hesitate to send an abstract for your particular area of expertise. And don’t think, “oh, I can’t do a presentation!” We aren’t looking for Toastmasters winners – we’re looking for folks to be a part of the community! Take the leap and present! Each session is only 35 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&A!
Presentation submissions – What you should send to us
Presentations will be 45-minutes in length (planning for 30-40 minutes of material and 5-15 minutes of Q&A) and the submission should include the following:
• Presentation Title
• Presentation abstract – a description of the presentation and the topics covered. 100 words or less and suitable for marketing.
• 50 word biography
You can submit multiple presentations in the same topic area or for different ones.
What you get if you present
The European Summit is working to a very tight budget as this is the first time we are running it. Compensation for speakers will be free admission (not free Association for Windows PowerShell Professionals membership, https://powershell.org/association-for-windows-powershell-professionals, just free admission, which includes food). We will not reimburse hotel, expenses, or travel. It’s important that speakers not register for the conference, because we will not be refunding you if you do that.
The financial situation may change to a certain degree if the event sells out but we can’t cover all of your expenses as a speaker and we can’t make any guarantees at this stage.
We also ask that you help publicize the event.
Presentation submission deadline – When you should send it by
Start sending your presentation submissions immediately! The selection committee will start selecting presentations as soon as they arrive so you don’t want to miss out. The last day we will accept presentation submissions will be May 23, 2014.
Send your proposals to cft2014eu@powershell.org. Please either put multiple proposals in a Word doc, or send just one proposal in the body of an email, so that we can track these more easily.
When you will know you’ve been selected
The selection committee will start reviewing submissions immediately and begin the selection process. You will be informed if one or more of your presentations have been selected and sent a contract on or before June 14, 2014. You will need to return the signed contract by June 21, 2014.
The final agenda will be announced early July and posted on PowerShell.Org.
We look forward to your submissions and your help in making PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 your most valuable IT/Dev conference of the year!
Our IndieGoGo Campaign is off to an amazing start, raising over $6,300 (including some offline donations) toward our ultimate $9,000 goal. So far, we’ve raised enough to ensure we can record two tracks of Summit content - enabling us to record speakers’ laptops and voice, and to post the videos on YouTube, for free. Meeting our full $9,000 goal will enable three tracks of recordings, which is what the North American show currently produces.
The equipment we’re investing in will also support, should we choose to add it, an analog camera input and automatic picture-in-picture, meaning we can later add-on to include video of the speaker(s) as well as what’s on their laptop.
This equipment also meets an important set of goals for us: It requires no software on speaker laptops (often problematic), and it’s operated - literally - by a single big, red, lighted button. Meaning, it’s easy to use and shouldn’t interfere with the live audience’s experience.
I’m personally humbled by the generosity of our community. While larger donations are being considered “share purchases” in PowerShell.org, Inc., these contributors are essentially getting nothing in return for their money - but they’re making something possible that will benefit _everyone. _Making this content permanently available, for free, will become a treasure trove of valuable information _forever. _I can’t express my gratitude enough.
Tell a colleague, tell a friend: Every donation helps, no matter how small. And thank you, thank you, thank you.
We’re often asked if the PowerShell Summit sessions will be recorded or live-streamed. The answer, so far, has been “no,” because the equipment needed to do so gets expensive.
But we’re willing to give it a go - with crowd funding. Check out our IndieGoGo campaign, where you can contribute to making session recordings a reality - forever. We’ve got about 30 days to reach our goal. So if recorded sessions are important to you - now’s the time to put your money where you mouth is!!
Fingers crossed!
The regularly scheduled meeting for the group will not be held due to overlap with the PowerShell Summit and travel related to it for some of our members. If there is interest in scheduling a side meeting, we can do that to accommodate those of us that are not attending the Summit.
If not, we will be back on track and ready for YASG! (Yet Another Scripting Game) on 6/5/2014. Looks like it is going to be a good one.
We all know that working with WMI/CIM can be frustrating. So little of it is documented, and it can be tough to find the class that has the exact info you need.
A long time ago, SAPIEN released a very nice WMI Explorer tool that, recently, was taken offline. The reason is that the company was producing an all-new, from-scratch replacement - and it’s now available.
Their new approach is pretty interesting. Rather than just live-browsing the local WMI repository or a remote computer’s repository, the tool can now go through the repo and actually create a local cache. That cache is optimized for searching, making it a ton easier to search not only for class names, but also for property names and more. Even property values! So if you know (for example) that “Windows 8.1” is part of some property of some class, this tool can help you find where it is. It also provides in-product links to what online WMI documentation exists, making it quicker to get to that stuff.
Although the old tool was a freebie, this new one will set you back $40, and I imagine it’s included with the $789 kitchen-sink bundle the company sells. While I miss the free tool, this new one is significant enough that I’d pay for it. After all, money is what keeps the programmers at SAPIEN employed, so we can’t expect great tools for zero money. Frankly, this new WMI Explorer is one of the very, very, very, very few tools that’s going to earn a place in my base VM images that I use in classes - simply because it’s so useful. The ability to search for property values gives me a whole new approach to finding the exact WMI class I need.
It’s a well thought-out tool. Now, it’s not “zero footprint” like the old one - but the old one didn’t do nearly as much, like creating a local, searchable cache of the repo. Also, this isn’t something I’d install on all my servers. There’s no need - you install it on your computer, and let it reach out to key servers to discover their repositories. So it’s “zero footprint” on the server, which is all I care about. That cache means I can even browse a remote machine’s repo when I’m completely offline, like on an airplane working on a book. That’s a huge deal for me.
SAPIEN’s blog article on the software release includes another interesting fact: They plan to release a new line of smaller tools like WMI Explorer, and either sell them separately or as a community package. Cool! But what’s even cooler is this: _“The proceeds from these tools will go towards supporting user groups and non-profit organizations.” _Well, damn. So that $40 isn’t even funding the development of the tool per se, it’s funding (in part) your local user group. That’s awesome, and makes it well worth the standalone purchase if you don’t own the whole Software Suite already.
As usual, SAPIEN offers a free trial. Give it a whirl.
