The PowerShell Podcast

In this episode, we talk about how unique your career path can be, how common it is to end up doing things you never imagined, and how PowerShell plays a role in getting you there. Josh talks about streamlining his day-to-day life to maximize his ability to learn new things. We talk about leaving your work on a high note and how leaving linkage can help you get to a cleaner start when you return to a project.

Josh shared lessons that he’s learned in trying to become a better writer and how he uses systems to his advantage. This episode is full of useful lessons, so get ready to take notes. Jordan and Andrew were left feeling inspired and left with actionable things to work on.

Guest Bio and links:

Josh Duffney is a senior content developer at Microsoft and author. He is an avid learner, who is always looking to streamline his life. He once battled batman in a test of wits and won handily. He likes the color purple and rubber ducks. Unverified reports claim that the movie Doctor Strange is loosely based on his life. - Duffney Approved

Duffney (Josh Duffney) · GitHub

:: — duffney.io

Josh Duffney (@joshduffney) / Twitter

https://open.spotify.com/show/1qKpSAa8hOg6KfnGY7nJeP

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCV1T7JbfzbE2O7P3kydmKw

https://joshduffney.gumroad.com/

Becoming a Craftsman :: — duffney.io

https://www.tinkeredthinking.com/

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we learned all about repositories and how to use them in a PowerShell context. We briefly discussed the challenges of working from Home. We learned how Adil got started in the PowerShell community including getting involved in the PowerShell Slack/Discord, attending PowerShell Summit, and even stepping up and helping put on an event: BridgeConf. Adil convinces Jordan to submit to speak at Summit 2023, and Jordan agrees. The crowd goes wild! We tried to capture the code that we ran on this episode in a transcript file, which can be found below. 

Guest Bio and links:

Adil Leghari is a 15-year Sysadmin-turned-Solutions Engineer, who is super-passionate about PowerShell and automation. He’s active in the PowerShell community Slack and Discord servers. When not working, he enjoys designing stickers, traveling, and giving back to the tech community. 

Adil Blog – adilio.io

Adil Twitter - https://twitter.com/adilio 

PowerShell Community Call - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYCQArCXEiI 

Working with Repos - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/gallery/how-to/working-with-local-psrepositories?view=powershell-7.2 

Get-PSRepository - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/PowerShellGet/Get-PSRepository?view=powershell-7.2 

PowerShell Gallery - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/gallery/overview?view=powershell-7.2 

Is it Down Again? - Is it Down Again? PowerShell Gallery Outage Mitigation Strategies by Adil Leghari - YouTube 

Show Notes Repo - show-notes/episodes at main · PowerShellPod/show-notes (github.com) 

This episode taught us about Microsoft Sentinel, a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and SOAR (Security, Orchestration, Automation, and Response) product. Security is a constantly changing landscape, and Sabrina gives some tips on a successful test/deployment of Microsoft Sentinel to that you can get robots (AI) to help you think! Then we discuss Sabrina’s journey through IT, and how she ended up as a consultant standing up security AI, we learn that Jordan does speak a second language after all. Not to spoil it, but it is food.  

Guest Bio and links:

Sabrina Kay is a Microsoft Enterprise Administrator Expert and a Microsoft Enterprise Mobility MVP. She has a passion for learning and shares her knowledge with the community through her blog, speaking at conferences, making YouTube videos, and more. She speaks 5 languages (6 if you include PowerShell) and has an awesome and positive mindset. 

Sabrina Website - https://sabrinaksy.com/ 

Sabrina Twitter - https://twitter.com/oh_is_sabrina 

Sabrina YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss1-VZuw8Kk 

Jaap Twitter - https://twitter.com/jaap_brasser 

Abstracting code - Think Abstract, abstracting your PowerShell code by Jaap Brasser 

Sentinel Docs - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sentinel/ 

Rod Trent Twitter - https://twitter.com/rodtrent 

Get-ConditionalAccessPolicyExclusions - https://github.com/jostuffl/AzureSentinel_Stuff/blob/main/Scripts/GetConditionalAccessPolicyExclusions-Runbook.ps1 

Link to Show Notes: 

https://github.com/PowerShellPod/show-notes/blob/main/episodes/17-securing-and-setting-up-microsoft-sentinel-with-sabrina-kay.md 

After 5,000 downloads, Andrew and Jordan stop to say thank you for all of the support from the community. We also cover some of the very nice messages we have received and have a special community highlight for Drew McClellan. Then we cover some file system management information and discover that one of us is a little too attached to default settings. Finally, Jordan gets downright giddy to learn something new about PowerShell providers.

Guest Bio and links:

Jordan loves PowerShell and took home the gold medal for curling in the Utah Olympic Oval Haunted House/Curling Tournament. Shameless plug for his Twitter: https://twitter.com/DevOpsJordan

Andrew ALSO loves PowerShell and has several illustrious acting roles in plays, including his star turn as Timon in the Lion King. Continued Shameless Twitter plug: https://twitter.com/AndrewPlaTech

Drew's Blog Home | My Site (chefsitcompendium.wixsite.com)

Drew's Git XXLMandalorian013 (Drew McClellan) · GitHub

Drew Twitter https://twitter.com/mcclellandrew?s=21&t=UJsIrmfPVZwdFX367zz7gw

Gainsville PowerShell Meetup Gainesville PowerShell User Group (GNVPSUG)

Weekly Roundup Dowst.Dev | PowerShell Weekly – June 10, 2022

Jeff Hicks blog Using PowerShell Your Way • The Lonely Administrator (jdhitsolutions.com)

Patrick Gruenauer Blog PowerShell: Changing the Look of the Prompt – SID-500.COM

Summit Videos The State of the Shell by Jeffery Snover, Jason Helmick, Sydney Smith and Dave Martins - YouTube

April Edwards as Summit Putting the Ops in DevOps by April Edwards - YouTube

Working with files Working with Files and Folders - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs

About Profiles about Profiles - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we cover the value of templating and how Stucco can be used to improve our module development, both inside an organization and for personal projects. Gilbert shares his experience using Stucco on a personal project, a dice rolling module, and Jordan gets lost in the nerdery as the conversation moves to Tabletop RPG games. Once he is back on track we discuss the value of PowerShell meetups, and Gilbert gets the ball rolling for a bay area meetup. 

Guest Bio and links:

Gilbert Sanchez is a Señor Systems Engineer at meta, spreading the love of PowerShell at scale. A lover of RPGs, you can check out his RPG-oriented modules,  RPGDice, and BeneatTheCanals, on the PowerShell Gallery. He is active in the PowerShell community, engaged on Twitter, and has a voice so silky smooth you will wonder why he did not become a musician.

Gilbert Twitter - https://twitter.com/HeyItsGilbertS 

Gilbert Git - HeyItsGilbert (Gilbert Sanchez) (github.com) 

Stucco - devblackops/Stucco: An opinionated Plaster template for high-quality PowerShell modules (github.com) 

Plaster - PowerShellOrg/Plaster: Plaster is a template-based file and project generator written in PowerShell. (github.com) 

This episode features several conversations we captured while at the Global Summit. Ryan Richter talked to us about his experiences attending the OnRamp. Steven Judd talked about helping to run the remote summit, dad jokes, and music. Lastly, we talk with Harjit and Mick from the PowerShell news podcast, where we talk about how our podcasts came about and things we have learned and improved on since we started.

Guest Bio and links:

Ryan Twitter - https://twitter.com/ryanrichter94

Ryan Git - https://github.com/ryanrichter94

Steven Twitter - https://twitter.com/stevenjudd

Steven Git - https://github.com/stevenjudd

PowerShell News Podcast - https://powershellnews.podbean.com/

Mick Twitter - https://twitter.com/mick_pletcher

Mick Blog - https://mickitblog.blogspot.com/

Harjit Twitter - https://twitter.com/Hoorge

Harjit Blog - http://harjit.us/

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we got to become familiar with a couple of Justin's favorite things: deep dives into subjects and axioms. Justin has a lot of experience and insight into the "why" behind things, and he doesn't hold back from sharing his wisdom with others. We covered human topics, like how Justin has dealt with imposter syndrome and developed his social skills over the years. We also covered technical topics like VS Code, the latest PowerShell extension release, PowerShell's sacred promise, and more. For each subject, he has a surprising depth of knowledge. This is an episode worth taking notes on.

Guest Bio and links:

Justin Grote has a passion for PowerShell. More than that, he has a passion for making sure everyone gets the best experience possible with PowerShell. He is happy to share what he has learned and how he has improved his life with it. From speaking at Summits and User Groups to creating the PowerShell Extension Pack in VS Code. His fingerprints are all over PowerShell, and the community is better for it.

Blog - https://justingrote.github.io/posts/

Git - https://github.com/JustinGrote

Twitter - https://twitter.com/JustinWGrote

MVP Profile - https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5003933?fullName=Justin%20Grote

PowerShell Extension Pack - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=justin-grote.powershell-extension-pack

Edit Excel in vscode - https://twitter.com/JustinWGrote/status/1502374413596909568

Patrick Meinecke twitter - https://twitter.com/SeeminglyScienc

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we talk about Crescendo, a development accelerator that can help rapidly build PowerShell cmdlets around existing command-line tools. We also discuss coding on twitch, writing with the customer in mind, and proper documentation practices.

Guest Bio and links:

Steve Valdinger is a Support Manager at Chocolatey Software with a passion for PowerShell and automation. He has given several talks at User Groups and The PowerShell Summit that have helped people elevate their scripts. His talk about writing for user experience is a must-watch. You can also catch him coding live on twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/steviecoaster.

Steve Website: https://steviecoaster.dev/

Steve Twitter: https://twitter.com/steviecoaster

Steve Github: https://github.com/steviecoaster

Steve UX talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XnBFpdYcX8

Stevie Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/steviecoaster

Crescendo Github Repo: https://github.com/PowerShell/Crescendo

Community Blog: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell-community/tag/crescendo/

Crescendo GA Release:https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/announcing-powershell-crescendo-general-availability-ga/

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/utility-modules/crescendo/overview?view=ps-modules

Episode Summary:

We caught up with Jeff Hicks at the PowerShell and Global DevOps summit. He talks about how he always wanted to be a teacher and how PowerShell has helped him achieve that. We also discuss the holy trinity of PowerShell Cmdlet: Get-Help, Get-Command, and Get-Member, which will help you find the command you need, learn how to use it, and give you everything you would want to know about the objects it returns. Those commands can help you move through almost any roadblock while learning PowerShell. We end with a general discussion about PowerShell, and what we love most about it.

Guest Bio and links:

Jeffery Hicks is an IT veteran with over 30 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT infrastructure consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis on automation and efficiency. He is a multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award. He works today as an independent author, teacher, and consultant. Jeff has taught and presented on PowerShell and the benefits of automation to IT Pros worldwide. Jeff has authored and co-authored a number of books, writes for numerous online sites and print publications, a Pluralsight author, and a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups. You can keep up with Jeff on Twitter (https://twitter.com/JeffHicks) and on his blog (https://blog.jdhitsolutions.com).

Links to resources mentioned:

Twitter: @JeffHicks

Blog: https://jdhitsolutions.com/blog

GitHub: https://github.com/jdhitsolutions

Behind the PowerShell Pipeline: https://jeffhicks.substack.com

The PowerShell Practice Primer: https://leanpub.com/psprimer

The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book: https://leanpub.com/powershell-scripting-toolmaking

We caught up with Sean Wheeler at the PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit to discuss all things documentation. We discuss why open source is an open discussion and how documentation moving to open source makes for a lot of opportunities to help contribute to the PowerShell community. We discuss the value of the PowerShell blog, and how contributing to the blog can help you practice and improve your writing skills, get your blogs published, and provides an opportunity to plug your own site at the same time.

Guest Bio and links:

Sean has spent over 22 years at Microsoft and is now the Lead technical writer for PowerShell. He is extremely active in the PowerShell community, helping those looking to contribute with their writing. He also created the Microsoft Product Support Reporting, which collects valuable data to help troubleshoot issues in complex systems.

Resource links:

https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/scripting/community/contributing/overview

Blog https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell-community/

Blog repo https://github.com/PowerShell/Community-Blog

How to contribute https://github.com/PowerShell/Community-Blog/wiki