marco.shaw

How about it guys? http://docs.communityserver.org/Administrator_s_Guide/Forums/Managing_Forum_Post_Settings.htm

I'm excited that you have started blogging! I'm really looking forward to fully "consuming" your first entry. I've just skimmed it for now, but will read it carefully soon.

Running the cmdlets won't block the PSH command line until the proper libraries are loaded and calculations are done, which can be just a few seconds. When running one of the graphical cmdlets, a PowerGadgets.Presenter.exe process will start up to handle the graphics and any continuous/refresh requirements will be handled by external processes to PSH. In other words, you get you command-line back withing seconds...

Yeah, valid point about just seeing Notepad open up. That got me when I first got PowerGadgets (and was a novice to PowerShell also). For someone experience enough that's fine. I'm thinking people new to the product may want it to work easily though. I'm not sure if it would be beneficial to have the samples run as .vbs and be able to call PowerShell along with the PG profile so the samples really work straight from the Start menu. Hmmm... Maybe others will weigh in on this... I'm on the fence here, and see the + and - of having it both ways.

I'm pretty new to SVG. From what I understand, Adobe Illustrator can generate an SVG file from an image (but is too pricey for personal use)... Anyone have any recommendations for any good open-source/free SVG tools?

I just installed the new build last night. It seems the new build does not build the same folders, at least it doesn't appear to create a samples directory like the last public build. (The samples directory can be accessed in the default directory of C:\Program Files\PowerGadgets\Samples) Marco

Would be nice to have an RSS feed to these forums.

Check this guy's Nov 4th blog entry (he also has a link to Lee Holmes blog, but not directly to a particular entry): http://abhishek225.spaces.live.com/ JuanC provides a lot of valuable information. Other possibilities are using a read-only account as a final resort. If the account does get compromised, one will be very limited in any damage that might be done.

In an earlier posting, I provided a script to calculate a median of values formatted like this: 10 20 300 In my blog post, I've added a script that can get the medial of values formatted like this: User1,10 User1,20 User2,20 User2,40 The output would be something like this as the median for each user: User1,10.5 User2,30 [Edit Jan 4th, 2007: I've removed the link to my blog. There is a problem with my script that I overlooked.] [Edit Jan 18th, 2007: I think I've fixed my script.]

With out-map and out-chart, you can output to a bmp or png image file and share that. To have the full functionality of the resulting image (shading, mouse-over, etc.), PG must be installed locally. Currently, the download is only the full version. Perhaps once it is out of beta, there may be two installers...

To see 3 maps created from the results of the 2006 Microsoft Scripting Games: http://marcoshaw.blogspot.com/2006/12/powergadgets-out-map-examples.html

Good idea. I checked the send-mail help, and I also checked the PSCX project and they don't mention SMTP auth either... PSCX: http://www.codeplex.com/PowerShellCX I did check nsoftware's netcmdlets and they support authentication... If you're looking for something you need right now. Nsoftware netcmdlets: http://www.nsoftware.com/powershell/default.aspx

OK, these are not really parameter aliases, but just "shortcuts"... Would you rather type this: PS C:\> import-csv country.csv|out-map -mapsource World\WorldCountries -title test -label Country -values Points -conditionalattributes_0_condition_from 0 -conditionalattributes_0_condition_to 10 -conditionalattributes_0_color Red -conditionalattributes_0_text "0 to 10" -conditionalattributes_1_condition_from 11 -conditionalattributes_1_condition_to 20 -conditionalattributes_1_color Blue -conditionalattributes_1_text "11 to 20" -palette "highcontrast" Or this: PS C:\> .\out-map2.ps1 -csv country.csv -map_world -la Country -va Points -from_0 0 -to_0 10 -co_0 Red -te "0 to 10" -from_1 11 -to_1 20 -co_1 Blue -te_1 "11 to 20" -pa "highcontrast" Email me at marcoDOTshawATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you the Powershell script. Posting it here doesn't format it very well.

Just a quick code snippet to check whether the powergadgets snap-in is loaded on a system. One won't get any ugly errors, and the Powershell script will gracefully exit. $err=@() # Check for powergadgets snap-in. $return=get-pssnapin powergadgets -ea silentlycontinue -ev err # Check err array if powergadgets snap-in not found. If not found, exit. if($err.count -gt 0){write-output "Powergadgets.com snap-in does not appear to be loaded. Exiting...";break}

Just a little something from .NET to create a temp file. One is *usually* guaranteed that they can write to this temp directory on any local system. $tmp_file=[iO.Path]::GetTempFileName() Certain actions with out-map can require writing to a temp file. Using this with 'out-map -createlabellinkfile' does cause a minor 'snag' though... -createlabellinkfile will prompt the user if they want to overwrite an existing file. So one can't generate the file above, then use -createlabellinkfile without the end user getting a prompt to accept the over-write.

I just noticed that the 'Home' link at the top, also sections like "Who is Online" are no longer appearing as of the last few hours. Changes made to the forums site?

I'm looking into creating a Windows application that would have something like out-map embedded within. Any ideas on how I could do this? I'm unsure of exactly how the display of cmdlets, like out-map, occurs. I've noticed that when I call my first cmdlet, I see a "PowerGadgets.Presenter.exe" process start running... But that still doesn't give me any ideas on how to proceed. Oh, and I don't want to export to an image, and present that... I want the full functionality. I'm assuming an image would lose the rollover/highlighting functionality...

I haven't actually checked out what is added when one uses the PG profile, but if you just use your regular Powershell command prompt, then run 'add-pssnapin powergadgets', you'll have access to using all of the PG cmdlets.

Maybe add a pin or lock to the reply above to keep it at the top? I kind of understood as much looking through the help file, but it's nice to see it explained clearly like this. Perhaps discussion/support groups could be split out by cmdlet and/or even adding a FAQ forum...

An average are not always the best statistical value when dealing with a set of numbers. Here's a way to determine the median of some values: $array=(gc ($args)|foreach{[int]$_}|sort) if($array.count%2 -eq 0) {write-host median: (($array[($array.count/2)-1]+$array[$array.count/2])/2)} else{write-host median: $array[($array.count/2)-0.5]} The file containing the number to get the median from is provided as an argument when calling the script. The input file should be of the format: 10 20 300 30 etc. (I haven't quite figured out how to handle the line wrapping with posts here.)

Also, when configuring point labels, there is a reference to 'prevent collisions'. I can't find any documentation on this feature, and I can't find any references to "collisions" in the resulting template file.

I'm not so sure I like the usage of the line in Canada that seperates the provinces with the Northern territories (I assume that's why it is there?). I feel Canada should be drawn as one single 'entity'. That line is just distracting, even for me who knows why it is there... ;-)

Build 2508. When using the template creator, there's a "Adjust Data to Map" option in the "Map Wizard" tab. I'm assuming one picks some kind of data source here? The option does not seem to work. Is the use of this particular option documented anywhere or not yet implemented?

Maybe let the support people know what build you have? http://community.softwarefx.com/forums/t/9212.aspx

What default information is used when one calls just 'out-map'? I'm trying to get 'out-map -palette xxx' working with my set of data, and am wondering on the syntax I should be using. When I use -palette, I'm unsure of how to use the -conditionaAttributes also. For example, with "-palette highcontrast", I see my different series of data (1-20, 20-40, etc, for example), but all the series are a single shade of green. Doing a roll-over of the series in the index does properly handle the shading of the other entries though. Need a more specific example?