The PowerShell Podcast

In this episode, we revisit AutomatedLab with the other primary maintainer, Raimund Andrée. Raimund teaches us about DSC and shares details of the DSCWorkshop project, which is a great way to go about learning more about DSC in a hands-on manner. We also learned about Cattle vs. Pets and how that applies to your servers. You can hear all of this, plus more in this companion episode to our first AutomatedLab episode. 

Guest Bio and links: Raimund Andrée is a Cloud Solution Architect and Microsoft with over 20 years of experience. Raimund has been involved in Open Source and the PowerShell community for a long time. Raimund works on several projects that have a large reach and has helped thousands of PowerShell users. You can find him tweeting on Twitter, contributing to projects on GitHub, speaking at conferences, and more.  

https://twitter.com/raimundandree 

https://github.com/raandree 

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/NTFSSecurity/4.2.6 

The PowerShell module toolbox and templates for Continuous Delivery - Raimund Andrée - PSConfE... 

The DSC project blueprint or how to start a DSC project the right way by Raimund Andrée 

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/tag/raimund-andree/ 

https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/4/A/C4A14099-FEA4-4CB3-8A8F-A0C2BE5A1219/The%20Release%20Pipeline%20Model.pdf 

https://automatedlab.org/en/latest/ 

View the Podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMALY186tdk

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we get an initial introduction to AutomatedLab by one of the primary maintainers, Jan-Hendrik Peters. We learned about what AutomatedLab is used for and how you can benefit from it. We also got to hear about his observations from teaching PowerShell over the years. All this, plus our usual foolishness, is included. We also talk about how tech is always changing. See it on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sPqoxqFgaY

Guest Bio and links:

Jan-Hendrik Peters is a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft. Jan-Hendrik has been helping others take advantage of PowerShell and Microsoft technologies for a long time. He enjoys brewery, blacksmithing, and closing issues on AutomatedLab.

https://www.janhendrikpeters.de/

https://github.com/nyanhp

https://twitter.com/NyanHP

http://github.com/automatedlab

https://automatedlab.org/en/latest/

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=don+jones+writing+workshop

In this episode, we chat with Cory Knox. We talked all about the PowerShell discord and how it’s grown over the years and is a great resource to connect with the community and have your questions answered. Cory and Jordan find common ground in their experiences with Toastmasters. Cory also talks to us about Git, how to get started using Git for PowerShell projects, an awesome PowerShell module to enhance your Git console experience, and more. 

Guest Bio and links:

Cory is a Chocolatey Software Engineer with a background in End User Computing who enjoys working with PowerShell and C# while dabbling in whatever language a project that needs a fix might be using. Constantly looking for ways to streamline processes and improve developer experiences. You can see Cory in the PowerShell community Discord, on Twitter, speaking at conferences, active on GitHub, and occasionally streams on twitch. 

https://twitter.com/coryknox 

https://github.com/corbob 

https://coryknox.dev/ 

https://www.twitch.tv/corbob/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77StDvV_aOM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZY4QACsvJE 

https://aka.ms/psdiscord 

https://aka.ms/psslack 

https://dangitgit.com/ 

View the webcast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjjFbTa_ffs

In this episode, we hear from someone whose career has grown alongside PowerShell’s. Adam shares some of the challenges that he’s experienced when automating business processes with PowerShell. Starting in the early days of PowerShell, Adam talks about that first experience where he saw the potential of PowerShell. We also spent some time talking about creating GUI applications in PowerShell. We talk about all this, and much more, in this episode.  

Guest Bio and links:

Adam Bacon has over 23 years of IT experience, spending 12 of those with PowerShell. You can find him writing on one of his blogs, adding code to one of his 80+ projects on GitHub, speaking about PowerShell, and more.  

https://twitter.com/psdevuk 

https://adam-bacon.netlify.app/ 

https://psdevuk.github.io/ 

https://github.com/psDevUK 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-bacon-993009100/ 

https://powershellmagazine.com/2012/01/16/why-did-i-start-learning-powershell/ 

https://psdevuk.github.io/ud-flix/ 

In this episode, we explore different ways that the upper-bound limits of PowerShell have been pushed. We get to hear from one of the most advanced PowerShellers that we’ve met yet. He shares insight into what it was like working on the PowerShell team and how PowerShell has grown massively over time. James has been advocating for PowerShell for a long time, and he shares some details about leading the first internal PowerShell group at Microsoft and some things that came from it. We also learn about some of the awesome projects James has worked on, from RegeX, UIs, formatting, Git, and markdown. James shares details about his latest project, an extensible transpiler, PipeScript.  

Guest Bio and links:

James Brundage has been heavily involved in PowerShell for over 15 years. He is a former member of the PowerShell team, working there during v2 and v3. He now works as a consultant with Start-Automating, applying his PowerShell expertise to organizations to help solve large-scale problems all around the world. He also has a lot of great projects on GitHub and regularly shares his knowledge at user groups and conferences. 

See the Youtube version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns29mpdcwoU

https://github.com/StartAutomating 

https://twitter.com/jamesbru 

https://github.com/StartAutomating/PowerArcade 

Start-Automating 

https://github.com/StartAutomating/Irregular 

GitHub - StartAutomating/PipeScript: An Extensible Transpiler for PowerShell (and anything else) 

StartAutomating/ugit: Updated Git: A powerful PowerShell wrapper for git that lets you extend git, automate multiple repos, and output git as objects. (github.com) 

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground. We cover how PowerShell has helped our careers, from the beginning roots to the current day. David covers how he got his start, the challenges he faced along the way, and how each opportunity to teach came up. We explore the origins of PSAffirmations and the role that affirmations had when dealing with Imposter Syndrome. Security is David’s specialty, so we spent some time picking David’s brain about the current state of security and where attention is needed. We discuss whether passion can be taught or if it already must be there. Last, Jordan lets slip that he hates Christmas.  

Guest Bio and links:

David Hall, also known as CyberAutomate, has spent over 20 years in cyber security for the Department of Defense, and now applies his skills as a Customer Engineer at Microsoft. David is an avid fan of learning and pays that forward by teaching where he can: whether that be by teaching others as a warrant officer or as a professor. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hall10/recent-activity/ 

https://www.cyberautomate.io/ 

https://www.youtube.com/c/CyberAutomate/featured 

GitHub - cyberautomate/PubPowerShell: All my PowerShell Code 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/passion-its-important-cant-taught-david-hall-ms-itm-cissp-mcsa/ 

In this episode, we get to hear the journey of someone who was a Microsoft MVP that ended up turning in their MVP and joining the mothership. Mike details his journey and shares some of the secrets to his success, including the importance of blogging, having a personal brand, and more. 

Guest Bio and links:

Mike F. Robbins is the Lead writer for Azure PowerShell at Microsoft. He is a regular speaker at PowerShell conferences and has an active blog, which is successful enough to make him a 6 time MVP. He is an Author, Editor of the PowerShell Conference Book: Volume 1, and an overall swell guy. 

Mike F. Robbins (mikefrobbins.com) 

https://leanpub.com/powershell101 

https://github.com/mikefrobbins

Mike F. Robbins (@mikefrobbins) / Twitter 

https://mikefrobbins.com/2019/08/01/whats-in-your-powershell-psdefaultparametervalues-preference-variable/ 

https://mikefrobbins.com/2022/06/09/using-the-conditional-ternary-operator-for-simplified-if-else-syntax-in-powershell-7/ 

Planet PowerShell: Community Blog Feed 

Contribute to Docs Like A Microsoft Insider by Sean Wheeler and Mike Robbins 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/learn/ps101/00-introduction?view=powershell-7.2 

We talked about Adam’s journey into PowerShell, how he started creating tools for PowerShell, and how his experience as a developer. He shared insights into the challenges of growing a business while developing new features and how he manages all the tasks on his plate. We also learn more about his personal life, including his numerous travel mishaps, Iron Man competitions, and even building your own cryptocurrency. We covered all that and much, much more. 

Bio and links:

Adam Driscoll is the owner of Ironman Software, LLC and a 10x Cloud and Datacenter MVP. He develops popular tools for PowerShell and is active in the PowerShell community in pretty much every way you can think of. Adam is an avid blogger, published author, has recorded several high scores on the golf course, and is a triathlete. 

Adam Driscoll (@adamdriscoll) / Twitter 

adamdriscoll (Adam Driscoll) · GitHub 

Ironman Software: Powerful tools for DevOps and IT professionals - Ironman Software 

Adam Driscoll (microsoft.com) 

https://mcpmag.com/articles/2019/11/13/bloodhound-active-directory-domain-admin.aspx 

View the video recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oki225FVVNQ

In this episode, we get to hear the perspective of someone who has been in the trenches of Incident Response. Fernando shared his experiences and methods for leveraging PowerShell during incidents. We talk about how the general perception of PowerShell Security has changed over the years and how PowerShell is now being publicly embraced by security organizations. Fernando told us about dealing with obfuscation and some of the most annoying techniques that he’s encountered.  All this and more is covered in this episode jam-packed with security goodness. 

Check out the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-AJGGIVaM

Guest Bio and links:

Fernando Tomlinson is a Principal Incident Response Consultant at Mandiant. He is active in the PowerShell community, speaking at conferences, and creating interactive PowerShell training platforms: Under the Wire and PoSh-Hunter. He is Retired U.S Army of 20 years and is a Purple Heart recipient. He teaches others as a Cybersecurity Adjunct Professor, Co-Authored the PowerShell Conference Book Volume 2, and blogs at cyberfibers.com. 

https://twitter.com/Wired_Pulse

https://github.com/wiredpulse 

https://underthewire.tech/ 

http://cyberfibers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/PS-Cheat-Sheet.pdf 

Cyber Fibers - My Location of Thoughts During a Buffer Overflow 

Defensive and Offensive PowerShell security tactics (Fernando Tomlinson) 

New Shell in Town: Adventures in using PowerShell on Linux by Fernando Tomlinson 

Gaining 20/20 vision during an incident with PowerShell 

New Shell in Town: Adventures in using PowerShell on Linux by Fernando Tomlinson 

PoSh-Hunter 

In this episode, Jaap tells us how he got into speaking at conferences. We talk about examples of how his support has helped people on their own speaking journey. We discuss a few of the recent talks he has given, from abstracting code to bettering your home automation. We get to discuss his Microsoft MVP being renewed a few hours before we recorded. Last, and probably most important, we learned that he submitted the slap with a fish function into Poshbot. A function that gets extensive use in our office. 

Guest Bio and links:

Jaap Brasser is a Senior Developer Advocate at Harness as well as a 7-time Microsoft MVP. If you are attending a PowerShell convention anywhere in the world, chances are pretty good that he will be there speaking about something new.  

https://twitter.com/jaap_brasser 

https://www.jaapbrasser.com/about/ 

https://github.com/jaapbrasser 

MVP Profile 

Think Abstract, abstracting your PowerShell code by Jaap Brasser