Discover PowerShell - Episode 3

Final post of the training series tonight. I've started giving these presentations at work and I'm starting feel like I know what I'm talking about. Just a feeling, although it could be the dinner I ate.

Discover PowerShell - Episode 2

I found that making these videos at home is far more relaxing than trying to sit in my cube at work. No strange looks, especially when I restart the recording 5 or 6 times and repeat myself.

Discover PowerShell - Episode 1

I started a training series on using Windows PowerShell 3. The videos closely follow the book by Don Jones, Learn Windows PowerShell 3 in Month of Lunches.

I hope you enjoy them. Feedback always welcome.

PowerShell : Downloading with BITS

PowerShell : Downloading with BITS(Background Intelligent Transfer Service)

The background:
Recently I have been learning PowerShell. I thought to myself "Doesn't it make sense for a Software Engineer to research technologies that would make my job easier, better, more efficient?" My goal is to learn PowerShell  and teach others at work how to use it, there by making all of our jobs better.

The meat:
PowerShell has a module called BitsTransfer. Here are a few steps to get you started.

I'm sure many of you have heard of BITS. Microsoft uses it to download their updates. It automatically throttles down based on your internet traffic. Using PowerShell to manage BITS is great because you can transfer files not only from a Url but even a file system.

Here is what I tried today.

Two simple steps.

1. Begin a transfer with Start-BitsTransfer. This cmdlet returns a job so if you want to maintain a reference to it simply assign the results to a variable.  Each job is of type "Microsoft.BackgroundIntelligentTransfer.Management.BitsJob". 
2. Complete the transfer with Complete-BitsTransfer, which accepts an array of jobs.

I chose to use the asynchronous switch because I didn't want it to hold up the console. 

One great feature about BITS is it can be resumed after reboots. 

Corner Bakery Cinnamon Creme Coffee Cake Recipe

I found this delicious recipe for coffee cake. Plan on making this soon.

http://barbarabakes.com/2011/10/corner-bakery-cinnamon-creme-coffee-cake/

Corner Bakery Cinnamon Creme Coffee Cake
Topping and Filling Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I would double this)
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 2/3 cups flour
2 sticks salted butter, melted

Cake Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, room temp, cut into pieces
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract (I substituted vanilla)
2 cups sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour 10 inch/12 cup tube pan very well. (Do not use a smaller pan or a bundt pan.)

Combine first five topping ingredients in a large bowl, add melted butter and combine with a wooden spoon. You want big chunks of the topping and filling so don’t over mix.

Cake: Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl, set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter, shortening, and sugar until very light. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in almond extract. Add the dry cake ingredients alternating with the sour cream. The batter will be very thick.

Spoon half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the topping mixture over the batter, then the remaining cake batter, then remaining topping. Press the final topping layer into the cake layer very gently, just to make sure it “sticks”.

Bake in the center of the oven for 50 –  1 hour and 15 minutes. Cake is done when it starts to pull away from the sides and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Loosen sides of cake with knife and invert onto a wire rack and then invert again on to serving platter. Sprinkle with powder sugar to finish.

(I made the following high altitude changes in the cake batter: 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/4 cup sugar.)

time for something new

It's a new year, and in my attempt to further my understanding in a plethora of areas, I've decided to start a blog.