Year: 2012

What I Pack In My Travel Backpack

Brian T. Jackett Personal

Disclaimer:, The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely my own and I’m not getting paid or compensated for anything.

 

A number of friends having been posting about what they pack into their work travel backpack lately.  Since I started traveling frequently with Microsoft I’ve been slowly gathering various pieces of equipment for my own backpack.  I’m at a fairly stable point and felt ready to share my list.  Note that my backpack is intended for a heavy amount of week long travel with a somewhat hefty laptop (below) and versatile equipment for numerous scenarios I can’t always predict.  If you travel frequently feel free to borrow any ideas or leave your recommendations in the comments below.

 

Backpack Swiss Gear Legacy Notebook Backpack (up to 15.6” laptop)

I debated between a number of different bags but decided on this one as it is TSA approved (no need to take laptop out, saves me time and hassle in airport security line) and I have a number of other Swiss Gear, made by Wenger, travel cases or luggage.  After months of use this is the best purchase I’ve made in past year.  I would call this a must buy!
Laptop Lenovo w520 Laptop

Company provided.  It sports an i7, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, 15.6” screen, smart card reader, Bluetooth, built-in webcam / microphone, extended battery (5-10 hrs depending on usage),  and keyboard light.  I’ve also replaced the DVD drive with a 2nd hard drive: Momentus XT hybrid drive 1st gen (thanks Dan Usher for recommend).  It packs a good punch for its size but is still heavier than most.
sparq1 ZAGGsparq 2.0

This nifty little device plugs into an outlet and claims to store up to 4 full phone recharges.  It has 2 USB plugs to charge whatever devices you need.  I’ve found it useful a couple of times so far with the only downside being how large it is and the need to remember to plug it in ahead of time.
Headset Plantronics Voyageur Pro UC

One of the best Bluetooth earpieces I’ve used.  It is compatible with Microsoft Lync (which I use regularly) and has an optional USB dongle (shown) in case your laptop doesn’t support Bluetooth.  Lasts a good 6+ hrs of talk time and much longer in standby.
Speakers iHome Rechargeable Mini Speakers

A fellow PFE pointed me to these.  They recharge through a USB cable and pump out great, clear sound despite their small size.  Many times when I need to play video with sound a training room won’t have speakers (or poor quality ones).  These more than make up for that.  Picked mine up at Target for fairly cheap.
Mouse Microsoft Arc Mouse

My trusty Microsoft Arc Mouse is compact (folds up), light, and lasts for months before needing to change batteries.  It’s also one of the few travel mice that fits my larger hands.  I don’t yet have a “presenter” mouse / pointer but this fills that role as necessary.
PrivacyScreen 3M Privacy Filter 15.6”

I’m in airports and public places frequently.  It’s an added feeling of security not having nosey people looking over my shoulder at what I’m working on, especially if it is sensitive internal or customer information.
CableBag Cable Bag

I actually repurposed a neoprene case that a set of headphones came in for my cable bag.  It has a zipper, is compact, and stretches slightly due to the neoprene.  Simple and perfect for the job.
Cables Assorted Cables

I carry a couple different cables to be prepared when customer / conference doesn’t have them.  VGA to VGA, 7ft Cat-5, DisplayPort to HDMI (Lenovo w520 has DisplayPort out), USB to mini-USB (2 of them), USB 3.0, and backup USB smart card reader.
Earphones Skullcandy 2011 Ink’d Green/Black

Best set of in-ear headphones I’ve bought for under $25.  They have decent amount of passive noise cancellation that helps for sleeping on planes, are quite comfortable, and produce great sound.  Even come with 3 sets of rubber tips for different size ears.  Make sure to try out each as you’ll notice big difference between them.
External HD & USB thumb drives

I have a spare USB 3.0 external hard drive that I carry.  It’s for time when I need to transfer large amounts of data from one machine to another locally but that hasn’t been a need recently.  As for the thumb drives these things are so cheap I carry 4 or 5 I’ve collected over the years.  Some are BitLocker-ed and some not.
Snacks, gum, etc..

Too many times I’ve missed meals while in a mad rush during travel or working late.  I carry nutritious snacks like fruit strips, granola bars, and protein bars to tide me over until next meal.

 

I did leave off a couple of things, notably my phone which you can read about here along with my Windows Phone 7 app recommendations.

Thanks for reading.  Safe and enjoyable travels to you as well.

 

-Frog Out

Announcing PowerShell Saturday Columbus

Brian T. Jackett Conference/Tech Event, PowerShell

    The first ever PowerShell Saturday will be taking place at the local Microsoft office in Columbus, OH on March 10, 2012.  This is a little bit of a delayed announcement as the event has already sold out (yes, sold out a month before the event.)  This will be a one day conference with speakers from around Ohio and a few from further away.  The schedule and speaker lineup has not been officially announced but will be soon.  If you were lucky enough to get one of the 100 registrations you’ll be able to attend sessions (pending any last minute changes) covering topics such as PowerShell for beginners, using PowerShell with various server products, and some advanced topics.  There will also be a script club room where you can collaborate on scripts and network with others.

    It’s been great working with the others on the planning committee (Wes Stahler, Ed “The Scripting Guy” Wilson, Teresa “The Scripting Wife” Wilson, Ashley McGlone, and myself) the past few months to pull this together.  The idea started when I was talking with Ed Wilson at a Microsoft internal training event called GeekReady.  I was discussing with Ed how it would be great to have a PowerShell Saturday conference along the lines of SharePoint Saturdays and SQL Saturdays that Ed and I have both planned and spoken at.  Ed jumped at the idea and now roughly 4 months later it has become a reality.

    I look forward to meeting those that will be joining.  For those that were unable to register this year, depending on how this year goes and if we decide to have another next year we may look into expanding our capacity.  For now we’re focused on making this year’s conference the best it can be.

 

      -Frog Out

Goals for 2012

Brian T. Jackett Personal

   For the past two years I have made goals for myself (2010, 2011) and I am once again making a public list of my goals for the upcoming year.  As I mentioned in my retrospective on 2011 last week I have had quite a few major changes over the past year.  Moving forward into 2012 I am taking these into consideration when looking at my goals.  Without further delay here are my goals for 2012.,

 

Professional Goals

  • Blog – I will continue to keep up writing this blog at least 2 posts a month.  I continue to get satisfaction in writing posts when I have the time / inspiration.  I also enjoy answering questions and comments from readers, especially when readers mention how something I wrote about helped save them time and effort in their work.
  • Speaking – With my new travel schedule it is much more difficult to attend / speak at user groups and conferences.  In addition, weekend conferences (which are what I typically speak at) take away from the limited time that I do have at home.  In light of this I intend to speak at 3 users groups or conferences this year.
  • Open Source – I intend to revisit my side project on CodePlex called SavePSToSP and release at least 2 new builds for it.  There are some loose ends that I would like to clean up.  Also I plan to open source a project I’ve been working on with friend and fellow PFE Eric Harlan (blog).  At a high level the tool / script cleans up some issues in SharePoint 2010 Central Admin that I’ve run into a number of times.  More details when that’s closer to completion.
  • Volunteering – I will continue to assist with planning of SharePoint Saturday Columbus and Stir Trek conferences as well as serving on the steering committee for Buckeye SPUG.  There is also another conference I’m helping plan that I’ll go into more depth very soon.

Personal Goals

  • Stay Fit – I know, I know.  This sounds like everyone else’s goal for “lose X number of pounds this year.”  I do mean this one though.  Over the past 10 years or so I’ve put on some weight (especially with the new job and eating out too much).  I’ve got a “losing weight” partner and we’re keeping each other in check.  I plan to lose 15 pounds by the end of the year and maintain that weight.
  • Read Books – I intend to read at least 1 book every two months.  I used to be the type that read maybe 2 books a year and all of that reading was smashed into a week or two while on vacation.  Now that I travel frequently and own a Kindle I’ve begun reading much more frequently.  I find it relaxing and a better use of time than games on a phone or surfing the web.

 

Conclusion

   I’m being a little more conservative with my goals this year to allow room for changes / additions as they may come up.  I thought about making 6 month goals and then doing a mid-year review but decided against that.  Aside from the above goals I have a number of job specific commitments that I will also be fulfilling this year so I didn’t want to overload things.  I have a feeling this is going to be another big year and I’m ready to rise to the challenges and opportunities it brings.

 

      -Frog Out

PowerShell Check for Empty SecureString Entry

Brian T. Jackett PowerShell

A few days ago my friend Todd Klindt (click here for his blog, I get helpful advice there all the time) asked the following question on Twitter: ‘Is there a way to see if someone just his enter with “read-host –assecurestring”? I need to test for no input. #powershell’.

SecureString1

Problem

As you may know, secure strings in PowerShell are not readable (unless using ConvertFrom-SecureString or some alternate process).  If attempt to check equality of a secure string against an empty string or the null variable $null you will return a result of false even if the user didn’t enter anything.  How can you check if the secure string is empty then?

 

Solution

What you do have access to is the Length property of the secure string.  Store the input of your secure string into a variable and check it’s length property equals to 0.  If the length is equals to 0 then the user didn’t enter anything.  If it greater than 0 then they did enter something.  See the screenshot example below.

SecureString2

Example:

$myInput = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Enter phrase"
if($myInput.Length -eq 0){Write-Host "No input detected"}
else{Write-Host "Input detected"}

Conclusion

This is a very short but not entirely intuitive answer to the question of how to check if a secure string is empty.  At first I thought the length value would be obscured, but since the PowerShell host does visibly show the number of asterisk ‘*’ characters I guess someone else would be able to find out that information easily as well.  I haven’t thoroughly tested this solution but it appears to be working thus far.  Let me know if you find any issues with this approach.

-Frog Out

Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” App Recommendations

Brian T. Jackett Personal, Windows Phone

WP7AppRecommend2

Disclaimer:, The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely my own and I’m not getting paid or compensated for anything.  I am also an employee of Microsoft but try not to drink the Kool-Aid too much.

 

[Update 2012-01-02: It appears posting Windows Phone app recommendations is making the rounds on the web today.  My friends Jeff Blankenburg and Sarah Dutkiewicz have also posted recommendations.  Also was referred to a posting on tested.com.  I’ve already downloaded a few apps based on these recommendations.  Enjoy the additional info.]

 

Over a year and a half ago I wrote a post about my Motorola Droid App Recommendations.  I was a very big fan of Android at the time.  I say “at the time” because after owning that phone for a year I soon experienced the Android upgrade / fragmentation issues.  What was once a snappy and very usable phone became a slow and unusable.  Even simple tasks like checking email and replying were bogged down as my phone wasn’t capable of running the latest Android OS version.

I happily switched from my Motorola Droid to my HTC HD7 early in 2011 (see more below) and haven’t looked back since.  Now that I have been using Windows Phone 7 for almost a year I thought I would post my app recommendations (I also got a nudge in the arm from a friend).  I also included links to the apps on the marketplace that you can view, buy, and install to your phone directly through a web browser.  I like that feature and have used it a few times already.

WP7AppRecommend1

 

My Phone

I currently use the Verizon HTC Trophy with an extended battery.  Some people question whether an extended battery is really necessary, but with the amount of travel that I do I love the fact that I can get 2+ days out of my phone with a decent amount of usage.  There’s also a funny (wasn’t funny at the time) story of getting lost in a major city on its metro bus line and my extended battery being the only thing that allowed me to call / use GPS to get back to where I needed to go.

I also have a deactivated T-Mobile HTC HD7 from when I worked at Sogeti.  I haven’t used the phone since it was deactivated about 6 months ago, but in theory I could use it for development or a WiFi only device.  Speaking of which I’m going to update it to Mango while I write this post.

 

Note: The below list does not include any internal Microsoft FTE applications that I also use on a regular basis.  It didn’t make sense to post them here as most won’t have access to them.

 

Productivity

  • GasBuddy – Curious which gas stations are near you and what the prices are?  This is the app for you.  I use this frequently when driving rental cars and needing to fill up just before drop off.
  • Key Ring – Replace all those bulky rewards cards on your key ring with this app.  Granted it may not work for your library card and some small businesses but it can alleviate quite a few you may have added over time.
  • List it! Do it! – This is a fairly simple and intuitive “to do” list app.  Even better it includes deadlines with reminders which was a big need for me.  Doesn’t integrate with calendar but I didn’t want that.
  • Lync 2010 – If your company has provisioned Lync in your environment and also configured it to allow Lync Mobile then this will be a big one.  You can forward Lync IMs and calls to your phone, change status, and check on contacts.  I’ll be using this quite a bit to keep in the loop with others.
  • My Trips – I use TripIt.com to share my travel itineraries with family or friends.  My Trips hooks into that and lets me check trips on the go.  I don’t use it too often but it has helped me on occasion.
  • SkyDrive – Access files stored in your SkyDrive from your phone.  I don’t use this often but I like knowing I can check something quickly if needed.
  • Timer Pack – Functions as both a stopwatch and a timer with audible alerts.  Simple and easy to use.
  • WeatherBug – Track the weather in multiple cities with a live tile update for one of them as well.

 

Social and Entertainment

  • 4th & Mayor – I actually haven’t used the official foursquare app on my phone yet.  When I first looked the best recommended app was this and I haven’t looked back since.  Perhaps I’ll try the official version at some point but for now this suits me fine.
  • Amazon Kindle – I carry my 3rd gen Kindle when I travel, but some times I don’t have it with me and want to read a couple pages.  With the automatic sync of last read page this makes it very handy despite the small screen size.
  • ESPN ScoreCenter – This is a good app for checking scores, upcoming games, and even which channel some games are showing on.  What it isn’t good at though is getting details on an individual game.  For whatever design decision reason the detailed game screen is set to the size of say a 7” tablet screen and you must scroll to all corners to get the pertinent info.  I really think they could’ve done a much better job with that aspect but otherwise a great app.  You can even enter your favorite teams / sports to track as well.
  • Flixster – This is almost identical to the Movies app I used on Android.  Define your favorite theaters, check movie times, and get more info on a movie.  Great for determining which movie to see with friends on short notice.
  • WP7applist – Check out the highest rated apps, recently released apps, current deals, and more.  I use this to keep updated on what is new or people are using.

 

Games

  • Puzzle Quest 2 – As mentioned numerous times I travel quite a bit so this gets frequent play time on airplanes or airports.  This game cost about $7 when I bought it.  This may seem like a big cost, but I can say I’ve been playing it for upwards of 40 hours and still not done with the game.  From a cost to enjoyment ratio that is a huge value.  If you don’t like “match 3” or dungeon crawler games this may not be for you, but I’m definitely getting my money’s worth.
  • Angry Birds – This game is a staple on any mobile device.  My girlfriend really enjoys playing this if we’re on a long car trip or waiting in line for an event.
  • Fruit Ninja – I enjoyed this better on my HTC HD7 due to its larger screen size, but it still works on my HTC Trophy.  Lots of furious swipes and competition for the high score makes this a good “pass back and forth” game.
  • Collapse – I found this game through a recommendation site and was very surprised at home much I enjoyed it.  It is a slight variation on the “match 3” game formula but adds in lots of different game types, bombs, powerups, and other modifications.  Once I beat the story mode I didn’t play the game much, but poured many hours into it to beat it.
  • Flight Control – Another mindless game that passes time in airports or on planes.  Drag and drag lines for planes to land on airstrips.  Worth the few bucks it cost.
  • geoDefense – Stylized tower defense game with lots of hours of gameplay.  Nice retro Tron look to it.
  • Wordament – It’s like Boggle but in real time with hundreds of other people and leaderboards.  My girlfriend and I enjoy playing together and seeing how many words we can get.

 

Out of the Box

These aren’t apps per say, but features or “included in the OS apps” that I use literally every day.  Thought I would at least mention them.

  • Zune – I listen to podcasts, music, and watch videos on my phone quite a bit.  The native Zune player may not track my podcasts after a reboot all the time, but it is a great inclusion.  Especially useful with my Zune Music pass to find, download, and play some mood music on the spot for parties or dinners with friends.
  • Me tile – Being able to get notifications about Twitter replies, FB status updates, and numerous other services directly on my phone without using an app is big.  You can even reply to all of those through the same interface.  The whole “glance and go” mentality is very much tied into this and appreciated.
  • Groups – You can create groups of contacts and then send emails or SMS messages to all of them with just a few simple touches.  Useful for me to keep track of friends / family and get updates from just that subset of people on different social networks.
  • Tellme – The “not so talked about” service where you hold down the Windows / Start button and speak commands to your phone.  I use this frequently to dictate quick text messages or call someone without needing to use my hands.  With my Voyager PRO UC bluetooth headset this is even easier.

 

Conclusion

This is just my quick list of apps I use on a frequent basis.  I may update it in the future after a few months or the next major OS release.  If you have any recommendations for apps that you use please feel free to share.

 

-Frog Out

 

Links

Windows Phone logo

Windows-Phone-Mango-Logo-Official.jpg

 

Jeff Blankenburg – What’s On Your Phone?

http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2012/01/02/whats-on-your-phone/

 

Sarah Dutkiewicz – There’s an App for That!

http://codinggeekette.com/2012/01/02/theres-an-app-for-that

 

Tested.com Windows Phone 7 App Recommendations

http://www.tested.com/forums/phones/4/falcon-fish_face_mcgee-present-our-favorite-wp7-apps-of-2011/12625/#11

Goals for 2011 Retrospective

Brian T. Jackett Personal

   Now that 2011 has come to a close I wanted to take a few minutes to review the year and the goals I had set at the beginning of the year (click here to see those goals).  I’ll follow up with new goals for new 2012 year soon.

 

Year in Review

   2011 was a big year in many ways.  This year included a change in employers, buying a condo, my oldest brother getting married, starting a new relationship with my girlfriend Sarah. helping plan 2 conferences, writing two chapters of a book, and numerous other activities.  Some of my activities from the past year (condo, new job, and book writing) were much more time consuming that originally thought.  I was able to accomplish many of my original goals set at the beginning of the year, but I also had major shifts in available time and focus.  I’m taking this into consideration for this upcoming year.  Perhaps I will only set goals for 6 months at a time or adjust numbers to provide more open time.  Always room for improvement as long as the desire and commitment is there.

 

Professional Goals

  • Blog – In 2011 I intended to blog at least twice a month.  I wasn’t able to keep up the pace that I had hoped (ended with 20 for the year, but many were in the first half).  Surprisingly though my statistics for visitors and site hits have steadily grown over this year.  Despite missing the mark on number of blog posts I consider this a success as I have helped a number of people (via comments or emails) and also met new contacts through my blog.
  • Speaking – I intended to slow down the number of conferences and user groups that I spoke at this past year.  I did accomplish that by “only” speaking at 6 conferences and 1 user group.  This pace was much more manageable.  Also with all of the travel I do for my job now I expect to slow down that pace further this coming year.
  • Open Source – I began a side project on CodePlex called SavePSToSP.  I did support it for a number of months, but not through June as I had planned (mostly due to new job and condo).  I continue to use this project as a demo during classes I teach and may return to develop it further in the future.  Overall this was a mild success.
  • Volunteering – I helped out with planning for the SharePoint Saturday Columbus and Stir Trek conferences as well as serving on the steering committee for Buckeye SPUG.  With my new work travel schedule my involvement with BuckeyeSPUG is not as high as it used to be, but I should have some more flexibility later this coming year.
  • Windows Phone 7 Development – I did receive a corporate Windows Phone 7 (both from Sogeti and Microsoft) but did not have the time to create an application for the platform.  I still have an idea that I would like to turn into an application so it is still a possibility to create that this coming year.  This was a missed goal though for 2011.
  • Portal and Collaboration Lead – At the beginning of the year I was still working at Sogeti as the Portal and Collaboration lead.  I had intended to learn two additional portal and collaboration solutions aside from SharePoint.  Due to switching jobs halfway through the year this goal changed a bit.  I did research into SharePoint alternatives during the first half of the year so I will call this halfway successful.

 

Personal Goals

  • Volunteering – My volunteering with both my parish’s high school youth group and Columbus GIves Back have slowed down due to my travel schedule keeping me out of town during most of the meetings or events.  I still helped out when I could though, so I will call this a partial success.
  • House / Condo – My apartment lease ended this summer and I bought a condo.  Part of the decision to go with a condo vs. house was the included upkeep of lawn, snow removal, etc.  I’m very happy with the added space, owning my own place, and neighborhood that I moved in to.  Now that I work from home when I’m not on the road it’s also nice to have a home office.

 

Conclusion

   Some will be quick to point out that my new job and travel schedule (40-70% on the road throughout year) has caused me to not fulfill many of my goals.  This is partially true, but it has also opened up a number of new opportunities and experiences that otherwise would have been impossible.  I’m getting more of a handle on my travel schedule coming into this new year and also hoping to build up more local customers so that I’m not on the road 3 out of 4 weeks a month.  It’s all about work / life balance and I’m learning the importance of that more and more as I get older.

   A big thanks to so many people who have made this past year successful and filled with happiness and great memories.  I look forward to the coming year continuing to help out SharePoint related communities, publishing of a book I helped write (more details as the release date firms up), and growing my career and personal life.  I hope all you readers have set and tracked your own goals for the year.  If not this is a great time to start.

 

      -Frog Out