Like many of you, I’ve been spending a lot more time at home lately (for future reference: this blog was started in May 2020, during the Corona virus pandemic) and decided to clean up and organize my “digital environment”, such as previous PC backups, old hard drives, my OneNote and other places I’ve used to store “stuff”.
During this ongoing “digital spring cleaning” (it is, and probably will forever be, a work in progress), I ran into quite a few things (past and present) related to automation, scripting and coding. Some of these are just ideas. But some of the ideas I’ve had are in various stages of completion (why does my Notepad++ have 42 tabs open?).
Additionally, in my current job as a Sales Engineer at ControlUp (read more about my background here), I’ve been spending a lot more time talking about scripting and automation with our customers and as a result of those conversations, testing things out with PowerShell and Automated Actions in the ControlUp Real-time Console.
And it’s not just “Work Automation”. I’m also passionate about Home Automation. Using a mix of Samsung SmartThings, Philips Hue and Google Home, together with various other pieces of hardware and software/platforms, I had plenty of run-ins with scripting and coding in that area as well.
Which leads me to today and to the start of this blog.
But let me first put in a disclaimer: I’m not a programmer. I wouldn’t even call myself an expert. Do I come up with good ideas? Sure. Do I have a healthy amount of logical thinking skills? I believe so. But do I have an educational background in programming/coding? Nope. As I often say to others “I’m good at Googling stuff” and MacGyver-ing things together.
I don’t always adhere to “proper” coding standards. I take shortcuts. My formatting could be better. There’s a lot of trial and error (followed by frustration and more Googling). And most importantly, I ask questions. Undoubtedly including “dumb questions”. I know that people say that there’s no such thing as a dumb question. And I’ve asked questions of which, after hearing the answer, thought to myself “FFS, why didn’t I think of that”, but if the result is progress, I don’t care about it being labeled a dumb question.
With that heads-up out of the way, what can you expect to find on [script based]:
- My ramblings and musings about automation, scripting and coding (both for work and home)
- Cool (sometimes quirky or pointless) things I’ve built, things I’ve “stolen” & modified/enhanced or new things I learned about
- Things I find online from others about scripting and automation
- Memes…you have to have memes
Although I’m not committing to a cadence (I will post when i run into things I believe are worth sharing), I am thinking about some recurring items such as a regular recap of interesting things I found online, reviews of tools I use and maybe even the occasional highlight of other people I work with (who are much smarter than me). Hey, I maybe even start a podcast at some point. Or a vlog. (Are those things still hip?)
I hope you will enjoy my blog!
PS follow me on Twitter: @joelinthecloud (me) and @scriptbased (blog account)