Matt Zaske Online Blog
Quick Tests of WQL Queries
- September 21, 2020
- 3 minutes
- automation, inspiration, powershell, tech
Recently I was working on a clean-up/improvement project in the MEMCM (SCCM) console which required some WQL query work and updates. In particular, I was fiddling with some collection queries to segment some areas for a process improvement project coming up. That's intentionally vague, because the 'why' in this case doesn't really matter. What does matter is that I needed WQL to give me proper results.
Read MoreA Good, Long Conversation
Throughout the pandemic I've tried to keep in contact with friends via different mechanisms. One of those venues is Slack, where one friend and I have gotten into this "habit" of sorts where we do some sort of video call (Slack, Zoom, etc.) that ends up lasting several hours. These come up every six weeks or so (in addition to more regular banter via Slack); not often enough to be burdensome, but often enough to be meaningful.
Read MoreQuickly Extracting Icons with Powershell
- September 08, 2020
- 2 minutes
- inspiration, powershell, tech
One of the things I both love and loathe is adding the little icon to an advertised deployment in the Software Center console of SCCM/MEMCM. As many have said it in the past, "Pretty Counts" and I wholeheartedly agree.
Read MoreAuto-Power On Dell Workstation
![Cartoon characters join together with "Let's Power Up!" as a caption.](/sites/default/files/2020-08/giphy%5B1%5D.gif)
- August 24, 2020
- 3 minutes
- automation, inspiration, powershell, tech
As we begin another academic year, this time in a pandemic, we're providing more virtual/remote desktop access to computer lab and public-access workstations for those in need. We're starting by using the machines taken out of general service due to physical distancing requirements.
Read MoreFormulas in CSV Files
![Bad Magic Trick with a ladle for cooking](/sites/default/files/2021-01/giphy-downsized%5B1%5D_1.gif)
- August 10, 2020
- 4 minutes
- automation, inspiration, tech
A while back I received a call for assistance in helping to streamline an inherited process. In this particular case, an individual had created a complex (but necessary) process to essentially transform and move data between disparate systems. The employee(s) responsible for creating this process had since left, but the process remained and needed to be manually done often enough that it was painful enough for the person now responsible for the process to ask for assistance.
Read MoreAll Sealed Up!
![Injection foam insulation breaches an electrical outlet.](/sites/default/files/2020-08/spraythrough.jpg)
It's been a wild couple of weeks since I last posted anything here. I'd exhausted most of pre-written content and with a bunch of these improvement and scope creep projects on the horizon it was not feasible to get more material churned out in the short term, so a break it was!
Read MoreImprovement Project Scope Creep
As I've written about before, there have been plenty of random projects to work on during the pandemic and additional time spent around home. Due to a pretty significant hailstorm last summer, we're going to be replacing every roof on the property and also re-siding the house.
That's not where the scope creep comes into play.
Read MoreSetting Up Key Authentication
![Hands playing with a set of keys on a ring.](/sites/default/files/2020-06/giphy-downsized%5B1%5D.gif)
- July 06, 2020
- 4 minutes
- automation, inspiration, security, tech
While I was preparing to write an upcoming post about moving directly to certbot from SSLForFree now that they've merged with ZeroSSL, I realized that I'd not actually ever written a post about one of the components I use all the time, including for my new certbot process: public key authentication.
Read MorePollinators on the Prairie
![Large bumble bee resting in a shady spot.](/sites/default/files/2020-06/BigOldBumbleBee.jpg)
One of the things I've always enjoyed about our little home on the prairie is the fact we've always a selection of various critters or insects beneficial to the larger environment. Part of this is bolstered by the fact we live across the road from several hundred acres of waterfowl production area owned and managed by the US Fish and Wildlife service.
Read MorePushing Data Into Google Sheets Sheets (Yes, Multiples)
![Screenshot of basic sheet including multiple tabs/sheets (Excel)](/sites/default/files/2020-06/TestDataCSVSheetsSnip.png)
- June 22, 2020
- 4 minutes
- automation, inspiration, php, tech
If you recall from the last tech post about pushing data directly into Google Sheets, I promised a follow-up regarding the process of adding multiple sheets worth of data to a given parent sheet.
Read MoreInteresting Pandemic Electric Usage Pattern
![Stock bar graph with trend arrow ending downward](/sites/default/files/2020-06/trendgraph.png)
- June 15, 2020
- 3 minutes
- finance, inspiration, lifestyle, personal
This is a relatively short post, but as I entered our May electric usage into my tracking spreadsheet (see the Energy Use Analysis post from a while back), I noticed something peculiar about this last few months since the pandemic really hit (and we started staying at home all the time).
Read MoreProgrammatically Push Data to Google Sheets
![Screenshot of a very basic CSV file of gibberish test data](/sites/default/files/2020-06/TestDataCSVSnip.png)
- June 08, 2020
- 3 minutes
- automation, inspiration, php, tech
I've written in the past about the ability to ship files to Google Drive via its REST API and PHP, which is a super-cool process in and of itself. In the last few months, I've been moving more and more of our internal data shipping processes to Google Shared Drives for ease of end user access.
Read MorePandemic Projects Aplenty
![Tim Allen from Home Improvement showing off sledgehammer](/sites/default/files/2020-05/giphy%5B1%5D_0.gif)
It is no surprise to me that retail outlets catering to home improvement projects have been doing well during the pandemic and various iterations of stay-at-home orders. The sudden 'found' time of folks who might normally spend time on other endeavors is suddenly focused into projects around the house. To some degree this is the same here...
Read MoreCharacter-Perfect Fixed Width Import Files
![Flintstones Cartoon Sewing Machine](/sites/default/files/2020-05/giphy%5B1%5D.gif)
- May 25, 2020
- 4 minutes
- automation, php, tech
One of my springtime projects at work was to button up a recently-refreshed process to transmit some billing data between systems. By 'recently-refreshed,' I mean 'finally made a process whereby a human doesn't have to manually generate a file which had been the de-facto process for the better part of twelve years. Due to the cascading effects of some staff turnover in the unit in question, IT was brought into the loop to help find a better way to work this process.
Read MoreShaking The GnuCash Account Tree
![Man shaking tree of money](/sites/default/files/2020-05/shaketree.jpg)
- May 18, 2020
- 5 minutes
- finance, inspiration, personal
Over the years I've developed a habit where a short part (~30 minutes on average) of most weekends are dedicated to entering the week's receipts, reconciling (or balancing) accounts, updating investment fund values, and so forth. Once familiar with GnuCash, this process is pretty straightforward and easy to do.
Read MoreSimple, Yet Powerful Excel/Sheets Functions
![Cartoon about functional programming](/sites/default/files/2020-05/1_Uqm22oIfuUKYuG4qovigNw.png)
- May 11, 2020
- 3 minutes
- inspiration, tech
As a reflection exercise for a project I wrapped up a bit ago, combined as an exercise to make Future Me's life a Better Place, I pulled together a simple Google Sheets workbook to make a quick 'calculator' and balancing mechanism to help keep track of a couple datasets. And in so doing, I again befriended a couple of super simple, and super powerful functions:
Read MoreGnuCash For The Win
![Parks and Rec "They call me the Swiss Army accountant" gif](/sites/default/files/2020-02/source%5B1%5D_2.gif)
- May 04, 2020
- 6 minutes
- finance, inspiration, personal
As I wrote about a couple months back, GnuCash is my accounting software of choice since ~2010. I wasn't exactly "sold" on it from the start, but it was a free and open-source solution that seemed robust enough to handle pretty much anything I could throw at it, from managing business finances and whatnot to a whole mess of personal accounts.
Read MoreCount of AD Groups Ranked by Members
![A cartoon/drawn group of random people](/sites/default/files/2021-01/GroupMembers.jpg)
- April 27, 2020
- 3 minutes
- inspiration, powershell, tech
A week ago, someone on one of our more generalized Slack channels asked if anyone knew how to make AD Users and Computers (ADUC) filter mechanism rank output based on a group membership count. Now, I don't necessarily understand (or honestly, care) about the particular use case, but I knew the answer was going to be 'no, that can't be done by way of the GUI.' Which was the first part of my answer.
Read MoreEnergy Use Analysis
![Animation of a chart from The Simpsons](/sites/default/files/2020-04/giphy%5B1%5D_0.gif)
A little over a decade ago we had a ground-source heat pump installed for our home heating and cooling. Commonly called a 'geothermal' system, the basic function is that it uses the earth's relative/stable temperature (well below the frost line) to act as a heatsink for air conditioning and heating.
Read MorePowershell Exports AD Computers to CSV
![Road sign reading "Export"](/sites/default/files/2020-04/export-970x650%5B1%5D.jpg)
- April 13, 2020
- 2 minutes
- powershell, tech
A couple months ago I wrote about using Powershell to find and export AD records for the purposes of our Windows 7 End-of-Life project. This post is effectively a second in a series of 'exporting computer records from AD with Powershell' if you will.
Read MoreWell, It's Been A Ride These Last Weeks
![News anchors flail about](/sites/default/files/2020-04/giphy%5B1%5D.gif)
- April 06, 2020
- 3 minutes
- personal
So I wound up putting a bit of a pause on posting this last month or so. Certainly not for a lack of things to say...but certainly for lack of time to nuance them. I've had to schedule and reschedule the various posts I had in progress (but not fully finished) a couple of times now. Hopefully I can get to the point of starting to regularly crank out new stuff on the normal schedule.
But first, this bit of a reset.
Read MoreTRIM-ming up for Summer
![Trimming a hedge with lawnmower attached to tractor loader](/sites/default/files/2021-01/giphy-downsized%5B1%5D_0.gif)
- March 09, 2020
- 3 minutes
- automation, inspiration, php, tech
Not really TRIM-ming for summer, but taking the opportunity to briefly write about Rule #1 when dealing with unknown (or incoming) data.
Sanitize. Thy. Inputs.
Without going into great detail (as it doesn't matter at the end of the day), last week I encountered a vendor that apparently doesn't know how to do this very well. Or at all. What ultimately transpired is the complete failure of a reasonably-routine change process to capture a critical failure in production.
Read MoreThe Financial Automation Account
![Mechanical slide coin sorting machine](/sites/default/files/2020-03/source%5B1%5D.gif)
- March 02, 2020
- 6 minutes
- finance, inspiration, personal
A couple weeks ago, I made brief mention of my financial automation account and how I've come to consider it my "free money" account. I wanted to dig into that topic just a bit more, since it's become a key component of my own regular financial well-being.
Why an Automation Account?
Simple: it's thoughtless, once set up.
Read MoreInteresting Log Entries (or, Why To Patch Thy Systems)
![Random text scrolling from within a terminal window](/sites/default/files/2020-02/source%5B1%5D_1.gif)
- February 24, 2020
- 3 minutes
- tech, website, drupal, inspiration
So far in 2020, I've been keeping a closer eye on the logs of this Drupal site. Back in the day, I used to pore over logs in a sort of 'bender' fashion, presumably as I was bored or something similar. Rarely was something particularly interesting, but it was a good way to figure out and correct some random things. Still is...but it's 2020 and nobody manually looks at logs anymore.
Read MoreFinancial Literacy Matters
![Machine counting $20 bills](/sites/default/files/2020-02/source%5B1%5D_0.gif)
As we enter the thick of tax season (I just filed ours this past week), I thought I'd write a short bit about my own take on financial literacy. This idea was originally sparked when I read an article last year about Why Financial Literacy Matters from a more education-based perspective. I suggest giving it a quick read.
Read More