Preventing boredom with numbers (and PowerShell) #3: Maths magic…

I recently read an article in the paper version (how old fashioned!) of Wired that told how you could impress friends and colleagues with a simple number trick:

Get someone to think of a number, ask them to double it, add 12, halve it, then subtract the number that they started with.  You can then amaze them by telling them that the answer is 6!

Obviously I wanted to prove this theory so I knocked up a PowerShell script that does the same calculation for each number between 1-100000 (it was originally a one-liner but I added line breaks here for readability)…

$y=1;

do{$x=((($y*2)+12)/2)-$y;"Start with $y, end up with $x";$y++}

while ($y -le 100000)

Okay, so it’s not the most useful bit of PS but at least you’ve got a bit of mathematical magic to impress people with…

 

TechEd 2009: Day 4

So I was wandering around the exhibitors hall and was passing the Microsoft shop and sat outside looking decidedly bored was none other than Mark Russinovich who was patiently waiting to sign copies of his co-authored book Windows Internals 5 should anyone have decided to purchase a copy (the shop were offering a whole 25% of the list price, can’t think why there wasn’t a bigger uptake…).  Anyway I went up to him, said ‘hi’ and told him how good I thought the book was and that I wish I’d brought my copy with me was (I’d already bought mine not long after it was released).  What made me smile was that here was someone with Technical Fellow status, probably on a pretty good salary from MS, sitting there waiting to sign copies of his book.

Today has been another pretty geeky day: started off by warming up with a level 300 Group Policy/Windows 7 session, turned it up a notch with some deep-dive Windows Performance Troubleshooting & Analysis, then a level 400 Group Policy Troubleshooting session….and break for caffeine…level 400 on fixing application compatibility problems and then to wind down at the end of an intensive day…’Pushing the Limits of Windows’ presented by Mark Russinovich, again a level 400.   My brain hurts…..but I soon forgot about that as soon as they started serving food and drink the Community Drinks event.  Mmmm, beer and currywurst.

Unfortunately due to Father Ted Airlines bringing the flight time forward I’ll miss pretty much all of the last day of the conference except maybe having time for a hands-on lab first thing (although the conference does close at 14:15 so maybe it’s not that bad).  A real pity as just like the last two years I’ve been lucky enough to attend it’s been brilliant as it’s such a unique event that offers the kind of deep-dive training you just would never get attending a typical course in the UK plus you get direct access to the MS Product managers who are responsible for the products you work with day-to-day.

Downsides?  Well, we had to share the event with developers ;-)  Small price to pay I suppose…

TechEd 2009: Day 3

Yet more tech-fuelled sessions today: App-V, Desktop Optimisation, previews of the next version of Configuration Manager, volume licence activation for Win7 and Svr 2008R2, IE8  and then wrapped up in a couple of hands-on labs (Config Manager client health reporting and building troubleshooting packages for Win7)

Another highlight today is that my tally of freebies has gone up.  I was beginning to get a bit worried that the recession was really going to have an impact but no such fears!  Items of crap memorabilia from TechEd include pens, t-shirts, a magic 8-ball on a key-ring, small cuddly toy, travel adapter plug, drinks bottles, stickers, a SQL 2008 shopping bag, a System Center mini toolkit, and a temporary tattoo (!).  Credit crunch?  What credit crunch….

This evening I took the opportunity to see at least a few of the sites that Berlin has to offer including the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag and the very impressive Sony Centre.

TechEd 2009: Day 2

Definitely been able to get my geek on today: sessions on VHDs in Win7, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, Windows Crash Dump Analysis and then ending ending with another Mark Minasi presentation entitled ‘Cracking Open Kerberos’.  I was even able to squeeze in a Hands-On Lab on App-V and also get to talk to some Microsoft staff in the Technology Learning Centre about some App-V issues and Forefront Client Security, with the only sacrifice being that I ended up not having anytime to grab any lunch.

The session on Crash Dump Analysis was really good.  Served as a refresher in some areas for me but I learnt a whole load of new stuff like how to debug a hung but (but not crashed) system.  Coolest thing of all was how to turn a BSOD into a RSOD.  This is the kind of stuff that I really enjoy, trouble is Windows is getting too reliable these days…

With the last session finishing at 18:15 it was time for the TechEd Welcome Reception in the exhibitors hall which means free beer & food, magicians(!) and the chance to blag some freebies…

TechEd 2009: Day 1

So how was the first day of TechEd 2009?  First two sessions of the day were really good, one on some tech issues with WDS and the second on using hacker-like techniques to become a better sysadmin.  That took us up to lunch which was okay (mmm, veal) given the scale of the catering operation.  Apparently over 31000 meals will be served over the course of the event!.  After a lunch was a session on desktop virtualisation which wasn’t anywhere near as deep-dive tech as it was advertised as, and then the keynote.  Biggest announcement was the launch today of Exchange 2010 which looks pretty good from both for both infrastructure and an end-user perspective, but other than that it was a big old marketing presentation that didn’t really tell me anything new.  Day ended with a hand-on lab on Advanced PowerShell just to relax and wind down….

Anyway, today is the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down but it looks like the it was going to be mad crowded plus its raining so I’ll watch on the German news channel in my hotel.

Oh, one other item of note: Mark Minasi has shaved his beard off!

TechEd 2009: Day -1

So here I am in Berlin ready for the start of the week proper tomorrow morning.  Apart from the early start flight was okay (for a no frills, budget airline anyway.  Wipe-clean vinyl seat coverings and £3 for a bottle of water probably mean that they save/make money elsewhere.  That said it left on time, arrived earlier than scheduled and my case made it to Schonfeld Airport so I should really can’t complain.  Myself & my colleague caught the train to the hotel and it was as expected: clean and on-time, downside was the amount of maintenance work which meant it took six changes instead of the expected two but it meant that I got to see a bit more of Berlin than I would have normally.  After checking-in it was yet another short train ride to the Messe Berlin, the venue for TechEd, to register.  It is a massive venue, a bit like a having the NEC in a city centre but looks like the event organisation this year is as good as ever.  Got the obligatory conference bag (just as well as the one from last year wouldn’t have lasted much longer) and inside was a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate!

Having gone through the list of sessions it is definitely going to be a case of not having enough time to do everything I want to so I’m in for a pretty intense week trying to cram in as much as possible.  Will keep you posted…