Butcher Block Iron Pipe Desk

Recently I built a butcher block and iron pipe desk for my home office. Within this post i’ll try and list out how I approached it as best as possible: I purchased 2 8ft butcher block countertops from Lumber Liquidators while they were on sale. I paid $150 for each. Next, I researched quite a bit about how to finish them. Here’s what I did: Sanded using 80 grit sandpaper Sanded using 120 grit sandpaper Sanded using 200 grit sandpaper Sanded using 320 grit sandpaper Sanded using 400 grit sandpaper Once that was done, I used cheese cloth to wipe away all the debris. Continue reading

Using Docker Compose on Windows

Docker Compose “is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. With Compose, you use a YAML file to configure your application’s services.” In this post, I will show how you can work with Docker Compose. Docker on Windows is now commonplace, and it comes with additional features you may not be familiar with. In my previous posts Install Docker and run containers on Windowsand Create a Docker container on Windows with a Dockerfile, I showed you how to create a single container. Continue reading

Verifying a Datetime Format String Is Valid or Not With Confirm Datetimeformatpattern

Early this evening I sent this tweet out regarding a #PowerShell Function I wrote called Confirm-DateTimeFormatPattern and Dan Franciscus (@dan_franciscus) recommend that I should blog about it, so here it goes! To elaborate on that tweet, this Function spawned from a larger initiative that I am working on for a presentation I’m giving at PowerShell Summit 2018 in April. That presentation will be about a PowerShell Module I have built called PSLogging, which is a logging framework built using PowerShell Classes. Continue reading

Create Group Policy Adm and Admx Templates

The easiest way to create an ADMX template is to build an ADM template first and then convert the latter with the help of Microsoft’s free ADMX Migrator tool. Administrative templates let us create custom Group Policy settings. Administrative template files have two different versions. Windows Vista introduced templates with the .ADMX extension. These templates use an XML syntax and can be a lot more difficult to decipher and create by hand. Continue reading

Using Powershell to Manage Amazon Ec2 Instances

With the AWS Tools for PowerShell, you can manage Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), the service for virtual machines (EC2 instances) in Amazon’s cloud. Using Amazon’s PowerShell tools and the AWS API, we can create, manage, and deploy EC2 instances (VMs) from our console. Please read my post about the AWS Tools for PowerShell where I talk about the minimum requirements to access AWS. To install the AWS Tools for PowerShell, open up a PowerShell console and run: Continue reading

Manage Amazon Aws S3 With Powershell

You can manage Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) cloud storage solution with help of the Amazon Web Services AWS Tools for PowerShell. In this post, I will introduce you to the cmdlets that allow you access S3. To follow this guide, you will need an AWS account and access keys. The AWS Tools for PowerShell run on Windows XP or later and PowerShell 2.0 or later. If you want to try the AWS Tools for PowerShell Core, you must have PowerShell 5. Continue reading

Create a Docker Container on Windows With a Dockerfile

In my last post, I explained how to install docker and how to run containers. Today, we will walk through creating a Docker container using a Dockerfile. A Dockerfile (no file extension) is a definition file that will build and run a container. That container can be a simple Microsoft IIS web application or Python/Flask application or a simple build/reporting service. A definition file helps us with our operational tasks, especially when we are building services or scripts for the repeatable tasks we face on a daily basis. Continue reading