Matt Zaske Online Blog

Collection Variables in SCCM Task Sequences

• August 26, 2019
• 4 minutes
• powershell, automation, tech

As I've mentioned a number of times in previous posts, on our campus we perform a roughly-annual refresh of multi-user workstations across the institution. This 'multi-user' scope includes machines in classrooms, computer labs, open learning spaces, conference rooms, and so forth.

A Brief Respite

• August 19, 2019
• 3 minutes
• personal

Ahh, August: that "season" of all things chaotic, crazy, busy, and otherwise rushed. See also: back-to-school season.

A time when the rush of all the things that haven't yet been accomplished through the summer converge and, like it or not, must be completed before the new school year(s) begin.

Environment Context Troubleshooting

• August 12, 2019
• 5 minutes
• powershell, automation, mistakes

Broken Context(s). The story of my weekend project.

Due to a number of reasons, mostly well outside my direct control, I spent part of this weekend working through the application and task sequence refresh process for our multi-user workstations...which will need to be finished by August 27.

Knit Your Best Life

• August 05, 2019
• 2 minutes
• personal

On Saturday, we made the short trip to [West] Fargo, ND for the Fiber Arts Festival, something we'd not previously visited before. For a small-sized gathering, at first sight I certainly didn't expect to spend half the day at the venue. But it's a good little fest, and we well might go again in the future. Saw lots of folks spinning fiber into yarns, working with said product, and using some neat little machines to do it all.

Dynamically Created Anchor HREFs

• July 29, 2019
• 3 minutes
• tech, website, automation, inspiration

Back in the day, namely before Javascript and jQuery were really a thing, the idea of dynamically creating an anchor's HREF attribute required some serious magic and behind-the-scenes wizardry. Or something like Flash. Those were not the days...

A Bit of Background

Several years ago, during a client's web app rebuild/refresh, I decided to clean up some of the gnarly baggage behind their reporting mechanism.

To The Moon!

• July 22, 2019
• 2 minutes
• personal, theatre

We spent the weekend away from home taking in a production of Guys and Dolls at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, along with a visit to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.

What's That Join Again?

• July 15, 2019
• 2 minutes
• tech, sql

In the interest of hopefully saving Future Me some time, I'm writing this little bit so as not to have to stumble to remember a simple premise:

How do I LEFT JOIN the same table more than once in a query?

For as many times as I've had to join a table more than once (effectively as a certain type of generic lookup table), you'd think I'd have this memorized. But I always get caught forgetting to proper alias both joins.

That's A Wrap, and Happy Summer

• July 08, 2019
• 1 minute
• personal, theatre

As I wrote about two weeks ago (while in mid-run), we just had our early summer theatre production. It was, in my opinion, a very successful run...though bittersweet to see it end after two weekends (and six shows). We had a great and consistent audience, which speaks well to the attempt at doing a show over two weekends in June. Our next board meeting will reveal the "final" financial result of our activities.

Auto-Determine Primary IP Address

• June 30, 2019
• 3 minutes
• automation, tech, powershell

One of the things I've baked into our production task sequence for "multi-user devices" is a secondary way to automatically determine a device's use case while in the WinPE stage. The primary, preferred way to determine use case is by the use of SCCM collection variables, but those require a known object (in the proper collection) to function as designed. Thus, for all rebuilds of known devices, the use case is figured out by collection variable.

It's A Half-Wrap!

• June 24, 2019
• 2 minutes
• personal, theatre

If we've ever met in person, you'll likely know that I'm a theatre (yes, theatre) nerd, and I have been for a long time. I should write about my theatre history at some point in time.

Batch Ship Data to Google Team Drive

• June 17, 2019
• 5 minutes
• automation, inspiration, php, tech

A few weeks ago, I wrote a brief bit about capturing webcam images. This post expands on the initial process: specifically, what to do with the images once procured.

With Summertime Comes Summer...Projects

• June 10, 2019
• 2 minutes
• personal, lifestyle

This was going to be a real post, with some real substance (or at least something).

But then it happened:

Yard Work and Summer Projects

We had a reasonably nice weekend to do some outdoor work. While it's never complete, and always seems to be some sort of re-envisioning, the need to get some stuff done around the house has consumed my time these past few days.

Capturing Your Internet-Connected Webcam Images

• June 02, 2019
• 3 minutes
• automation, inspiration, php, tech

Over the years, we've had a few public Internet-connected cameras pointing at various places around campus. We've used them for publicity and other purposes since the mid-1990's, and starting in around 2010 would sometimes be called upon to create a sort of time-lapse video of activity from one of said cameras.

Running On Empty

• May 27, 2019
• 6 minutes
• lifestyle, personal, reading

I have known this for many years, but I reaffirmed my assessment this past week.

I am a creative. I seriously enjoy making things.

Windows Scheduled Tasks with Powershell

• May 20, 2019
• 5 minutes
• automation, inspiration, powershell, tech

As I struggled to find looked for inspiration for this week's post, I wound up looking within...oddly enough as I was reconfiguring my email out of office response (the below is what I had for my time at MMS):

MMS: Drinking From the Fire Hose

• May 13, 2019
• 7 minutes
• tech, automation, inspiration, security, powershell

I spent last week at MMSMOA, a conference I cannot recommend enough for anyone working in the Microsoft/Windows/Systems Management space. The main event, held at the Radisson Blu Mall of America, is a solid four-and-a-half days of deep technical material, networking, sharing, and more!

Hey, Let's Re-Encrypt!

• May 06, 2019
• 3 minutes
• tech, security, website

The time has come...to renew some Let's Encrypt SSL certificates! Doesn't seem like 90 days has passed since I originally wrote about trying out Let's Encrypt as a service to generate free, trusted SSL certificates with a limited lifespan (90 days versus the more commercially-focused 1-3 years).

What's In Your Lunch Bag?

• April 22, 2019
• 5 minutes
• personal, lifestyle, inspiration

Many of those I work and associate closely with know that I'm pretty often a routine machine. I'll be writing more about the various things I've turned into simple routines, automatic processes, and so forth.

Performance Can Matter

• April 15, 2019
• 5 minutes
• tech, automation, inspiration

I've had this written down as a topic suggestion for some time, and to balance/counter my post a couple weeks ago regarding performance, there's absolutely another side to that coin.

Thoughts? I've had [more than] a few

• April 08, 2019
• 2 minutes
• lifestyle, personal, theatre

I survived!

Yup, three (very different) presentations in as many months. All a resounding success!

Does the Performance Matter?

• April 01, 2019
• 4 minutes
• powershell, tech, automation, mistakes, inspiration

Back around 2015 or so, I wrote a simple Powershell script which basically re-populates Active Directory (AD) group membership based on data procured from our central systems. Two primary AD groups in particular are synchronized to our print management system, PaperCut, which pre-provisions accounts and access so folks handling monetary transactions don't have to create accounts, etc.

It's Presentation Season!

• March 25, 2019
• 4 minutes
• tech, inspiration, automation

As I mentioned a month ago, I've taken the opportunity to commit to more speaking/presentation engagements than ever before, in an attempt to better inspire folks and do more technical evangelism. It just happens to be that I have three things lined up in as many months!

Auto-Transpose Data

• March 18, 2019
• 4 minutes
• tech, php, automation

Many years ago, an individual in our office retired and the position was not replaced. For several reasons, this was an appropriate decision: the landscape of IT and our localized service portfolio had, for lack of a better phrase, stabilized. Our team was more often innovating in ways involving or prioritizing partnerships over custom builds or infrastructure requirements. We were appropriately consuming centralized services made available as a commodity.

I Own You, Drupal View!

• March 11, 2019
• 6 minutes
• drupal, website, tech, mistakes

As I tweeted about in victory a week ago, I managed to finally get my Drupal taxonomy term view(s) to do what I wanted:

Auto-Generate OSD Computer Name

• March 04, 2019
• 5 minutes
• tech, powershell, automation

Last summer while re-designing and upgrading our primary task sequence for the "multi-user devices" in our fleet (computer labs, learning spaces, etc.), I decided to tackle what had become a bit of a perennial problem: device naming.