External New Posts – 04/2019

Notice: The below links originally led to content on an external website. The links are no longer valid; therefore, work is being put in to restore this externally published content, on tommymaynard.com.

April 2019
Build In Measure-Command – April 3, 2019
It’s Official Contributing Writer – April 8, 2019
Get-History Modified – April 10, 2019
Switch-Prompt 1.2.0 – April 29, 2019

External New Posts – 01/2019

Notice: The below links originally led to content on an external website. The links are no longer valid; therefore, work is being put in to restore this externally published content, on tommymaynard.com.

January 2019
Longtime Writer’s New Home – January 2, 2019
Top of the Next Hour – January 7, 2019
CIDR Notation Host Count – January 15, 2019
Return Only the Fixed Disks – January 15, 2019
Clear-Host Deconstructed – January 31, 2019

This Site’s Goodbye, Again

The last post was supposed to be the last one ever. Nope, this is it.

That “final” post indicated that I’ll be writing at PowerShell.org beginning in 2019. That’s still 100% true. Instead of having to read all of that post to learn the news, however, I’ve added a final, final post right here — same gist, just quicker.

Head over PowerShell.org to continue reading my writings about PowerShell. Maybe I can do another 315 posts like I did here!

Make that 316, if we count this “post.”

This Site’s Goodbye

Today is a day like no other for me, and for tommymaynard.com.

As best I can tell, this will be the last blog post written for this website. I’ve known it was coming, and still it’s tough to write this. The content will remain for now, but my time here, will not.

I started this website in the summer of 2014 as a way to give back to the PowerShell community; as a way to share my success and failure with PowerShell over the years. It’s been a huge part of my recent life and as best I can tell, a success. I’ve averaged nearly six posts per month and of recent, close to 200 visits per weekday. For some reason, people don’t PowerShell over the weekend. Weird.

So yes, it’s a sad day. But, it’s not all sad.

I’m still going to PowerShell, and work, and PowerShell, and play with my kids, and PowerShell, and hang out with my wife, and PowerShell. I’ll probably also PowerShell. Not much is really going to change, other than I’m not going to be adding any new content to tommymaynard.com. I’m not out of new content; I’m just out of time to write about it here.

You see, I’m moving upward. That’s how I’m thinking about this change. I’m adding myself to the all-volunteer staff at PowerShell.org. That means I’m giving this place up, for a move where my writing and ramblings will be seen by a wider audience. I’m getting an opportunity to help share ideas and experiences, all related to PowerShell, with a group larger than what I was able to do on my own. I like that I’ve become a success here, but my next goal is to become a success over there.

I would like to formally invite everyone to visit PowerShell.org — the center of our community — if you’ve not already been there, or if you have. I’m still writing to teach; I’m still honored to be a part of our community. I’m just not writing it here anymore. Join me for my newest content at PowerShell.org, and if you want to write too, then let’s talk. If you’re passionate about PowerShell, then you have ideas and you’ve built things you should share. PowerShell.org isn’t a lecture hall, where the voices come from a few. It’s a platform for everyone in this community; it’s a place open for you to make an impact. It’s a line on your resume, if you want to think about it that way. That one little thing you did that one time, can be that one little thing for someone else too, when they need it most. All we have to do is share it.

Write, and tell a story.
Share, no matter how big or small.
Teach, to prove your knowledge.
As a group, we all have something that the others among us are missing.

Tommy Maynard [December 5, 2018]
tommymaynard.com [June 2014 – December 2018]

AWS re:Invent – AWS Tools for PowerShell

Earlier this week at the AWS re:Invent conference, I was able to sit alongside another PowerShell enthusiast in a workshop-based PowerShell session. That’s a laptop-open-work-through-a-scenario-with-your-table type of session. Today’s a little different.

Because of a session, I took yesterday (on Lambda and Step Functions), I know a little about today’s format. If all goes well for me getting in there, the session I’ll sit through in the next hour is called, “AWS Tools for PowerShell.”

In this event, a small group of maybe five or six people will each sit with an instructor and work through an example on whatever topic that table covers. While yesterday I was looking for a lecture (after another hands-on event), I simply didn’t get that. I choose incorrectly and did the whole small table hands-on thing. There was no traditional lecture.

Wish me luck, as again there’s no guarantee I’m getting into this session. That’s really starting to potentially come clear for me… ugh. I did pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam, so at least I’ve got that, I suppose.

Update: Well, I got a chair at the PowerShell table. We created a VPC, etc., etc. all using the PowerShell Core AWS PowerShell module. It has a rather interesting name and it’s escaping me at the moment. It was a good walk though and it did provide me with something I haven’t actually done in AWS with PowerShell.

AWS re:Invent (and PowerShell, of Course)

It’s 11:30 p.m. where I’m from, so just perhaps that’s why I’m showered, in my hotel room, and ready to study for an AWS certification I’ll be taking in a couple of days. It’s 10:30 p.m. here in Las Vegas. Or maybe, while there’s a bunch of people set to do some sort of chicken wing eating contest a hotel or two over, I’m in my room and preparing to go to sleep, just before I quickly write out a new blog post, because I’m getting old. That’s probably it. There are a couple of things, I wanted to quickly mention.

One, it’s been a few years since I’ve been to one of these gigantic conferences. I’ve forgotten what it’s like, and honestly, I’m not even sure if those Microsoft TechEd conferences of the past, match up to the 45,000-person event this is set to be.

While I won’t be at the PowerShell and DevOps Global Summit 2019, I’ve been to a couple and after returning to something this big, I have something to say. The smaller ones have something these don’t. Or at least, don’t seem to have at the moment. I get it; it’s early still; chicken wings or not, the thing hasn’t really begun. But anyway, for those on the fence about going to the PowerShell conference, if that’s even possible for you, do it! Well, unless you want to ruin the ones with a billion people.

Two, a PowerShell community member contacted me on Twitter today and we’re meeting up for lunch tomorrow. How great is that!? And after that, we’re off to a PowerShell session. You read that right. Just because I’m at an AWS conference doesn’t mean I haven’t found some PowerShell content to devour. It’s called “Hands-On: Automating AWS Infrastructure with PowerShell.” To me, there’s no question that AWS has long accepted PowerShell. There are 4,499 PowerShell cmdlets in their AWSPowerShell module, and PowerShell was recently added to Lambda. There’s some commitment there. Oh! And one time, they were highly responsive and even created the Remove-EC2Instance cmdlet on my suggestion: https://tommymaynard.com/more-aws-powershell-changes-due-to-twitter-and-me-2016.

Looking forward to tomorrow and that sweet combination of AWS, PowerShell, and PowerShell community member meetups. Now to bed, and maybe I’ll still study.

The PowerShell Conference Book, Printed

If somehow you haven’t heard, The PowerShell Conference Book, has been published! Like, printed published.

That’s right. If you’d prefer a physical copy of the 30+ author PowerShell collaboration — a first volume, as I understand there may be more — then you can purchase it in that format today. Head over to Amazon, if you’d rather have the printed version of the publication, otherwise head over to Leanpub.com to purchase the e-Book. There’s two ways, to get the same great content.

In closing, (this super short post), it’s still an honor to have been included. Thanks goes out to Mike F. Robbins for bringing me along.