Final thoughts on Powershell (and the class)...

Well now that the class is well behind me and I have a weekend of completely NON-IT yard work ahead of me, I can give an honest opinion. The class was generally frustrating because I didn't know what to expect and it was based on the assumption that students had some form of programming experience to build on which I did not unfortunately.

Now that said... I am extremely impressed with Powershell! You can literally do anything you could do in the GUI at the command line (and more) either directly or from a script! I really don't intend to learn to script myself in powershell because I simply don't have the time to devote to a completely new direction in IT since there are so many network related areas I need to learn to do my new job, but I still plan on using it. There are already a ton of resources on the Net with thousands of prewritten scripts for administrators and I do understand the logic of most of the scripts I read... I simply wouldn't know where to begin to write one myself from scratch. Therefore I feel fairly confident that I could take any simple to moderately complex script and modify it to do what I need it to do. Powershell version 1 which was what the class was based on did not have a lot of active directory integration, but version 2 which is currently in beta, DOES!

An example of how I might use this script... We as of right now only have corporate users in our Windows Domain, but in the future all remote offices will likely be joining the domain... so we could at some point be adding hundreds of user accounts. I could do all of that manually in the gui OR I could gather the names of all the users in a comma delimited text file including their office number and maybe even whether they would belong in a user group or admin group... then find/write a script which would pull the data in from the file, create the user accounts and depending on office number, put the account in the proper OU in active directory, and depending on group information in the text file, put them in the appropriate user group. This would all run automagically from the script and the work involved would be merely modifying the script and giving remote offices the format I need their users list in, which I would just copy/paste into my comma delimited file. Then if it didn't work, I would call my .Net programmer friend to help me debug it!

You can also do things like change, add, delete a registry file or value on a remote computer... shut down a running service.. shutdown a PC... monitor whether a particular service is running and if it has shutdown, email an administrator... it is very cool stuff and I wish I WERE a coder and could assimilate the "how-to" better. Maybe someday I will, but not this year for sure.

Also, I believe, today is officially the day when Bill Gates steps down from day-to-day activities at Microsoft and relinquishes control to Steve "DEVELOPERS!!" Balmer. Of course, Bill has so much stock he can still get whatever he wants, or sell all his stock and watch Microsoft tank.

Taking allergy medicine before a programming class...

Was a baaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea...

Like having lapband surgery right before thanksgiving dinner.

Powershell class is underway...

Well this my first real programming class... I am learning the basics of the PS scripting language. It is based on .net and so far my head is above water. This is an objected based language rather than an object oriented language because you use existing objects but do not create new. He is talking about functions and variables at the moment.

I'll check back in later.

Today was bike-ride #3 to the office

It is getting better each time. I should qualify that this is the third "successful" ride to the office; last Tuesday I had a flat after 4 miles and at that time I was without tire repair (which meant a cell phone call to the wife and getting to work a little late). I now have a portable pump, pressure gauge, spare innertube and CO2 cannister for a quick air-up. It is a good ride from my house to the office at about 11 miles. There are plenty of challenging hills which of course come with rewarding downhill stretches. Also the scenery is pleasant... Swope Park for part of the first third and then a bit after the halfway point I am on Meyer Blvd and there are some nice houses along the way... then I finish the route by riding through Mission Hills where the REALLY big houses are.

I'd like to get to the point where I ride at least three or four days of the week (not including weekend rides) and maybe by the end of the Summer I'll be riding every day. 22 miles a day should about do the trick if I can stick with it. Of course I'm not really seeing any difference when I get on the scale because my leg muscles are increasing as my belt length (very slowly) decreases, which keeps the weight static. I fully intend to stick with it however as it is rewarding, both physicially and (as gas prices rise) financially.

A lazy backpacker's dream!!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Dentures

I took the family out last night to watch the new Indy film (that is my photoshop handywork by the way... it occured to me though that I could have just left Harrison Ford's face in there to get the same effect). As you can see I did have a problem or two with the movie but I also enjoyed it quite a bit. The main and obvious problem was getting used to the idea of an "old" Indiana Jones. The movie takes place in 1957, so Indy is supposedly 21 years older than he was in Raiders. I will admit that after the first scene Harrison really got back into part and you mostly forget that he's an old fart. Marrion Ravenwood on the other hand really failed to come close to the younger, tougher Marrion of Raiders. It isn't that she looks older (which she very much does), she just didn't act the part as well... and there were a couple scenes where they are both just acting goofy (the scene where they first meet... hhhhhhhhhhh... ) and not at all in character. You could say that people change as they get older, but Indiana Jones as do most icons has certain character traits that define him and should really NEVER change.

The premise of the movie is no more far fetched than any of the other three films so you won't hear me once complain about the plot. It was actually about on par with the first three movies and from a plot perspective I was very pleased and indeed entertained. The effects were well done but hard to get used to... I had the same trouble with watching the Starwars prequels because it is obviously a completely new world when it comes to movie effects and when the originals were made, stop motion capture was the device inspired directors used to bring fantasy to life. This movie was (aside from the afore mentioned stumbling blocks) pure Indiana Jones though. Exhilarating chase scenes, exaggerated natural dangers and of course lots of BAD guys are all incorporated into every Indy movie and this one does not lack. The supernatural/religious theme which features in the previous three films though is now replaced with an alien theme, but it works the same and just as effectively. Again the biggest thing that feels different with this one is that it takes place in a newer more modern world, but it still works I think.

So 4 out of 5 stars for me. It is worth seeing in theaters, but you might try catching it on a week night at AMC since you only have to pay $5 a ticket.

Old wounds have been opened... ranting proceeds forth...

With the release of a new Narnia film, discussions of screenwriters' license arise with it and the bitterness of past releases inspires me to look back.

Return of the King... Just one example but a sad one. An example of arrogance. The arrogance of one Kiwi who felt that he was a great enough director to literally rewrite a great book in his own image. This blog could take days to write if I were to cover every travesty of dialog so I will force myself to post only one example.

Here is Peter Jackson's version of one memorable scene in the story... the gaps are filled in with CGI:

- WITCH-KING: "Feast on his flesh!"
- EOWYN: "I will kill you if you touch him!"
- WITCH-KING: "Do not come between the Nazgul and his prey!"
- WITCH KING: "No man can kill me . . . Die!"
- EOWYN: "I am no man!"





Here is J.R.R. Tolkien's lovingly crafted prose from the same scene in the book:


'Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!'
A cold voice answered: 'Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.'
A sword rang as it was drawn. 'Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may.'
'Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!'
Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. 'But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.'

You be the judge.