Category: tools
Keep Docker Images Updated with Windows Task Scheduler and Windows Subsystem for Linux

Have you ever wished there was an easy, automated way to keep all your commonly-used Docker images up-to-date? If you’re using Docker Desktop on Windows, you can use the built-in Task Scheduler for this purpose. Docker container images are updated frequently, depending on the base image you’re using. Each project …
Automatically Launching Cloud-based Linux Desktops with PowerShell and Amazon WorkSpaces
Introduction Amazon WorkSpaces provides a mechanism to rapidly deploy cloud-based desktop systems that can be used by software developers, call center representatives, knowledge workers, and nearly any other role. They’re great for short-term contractor roles as well, since they don’t require physical procurement of any new hardware. In the rest …
Automate AWS MFA Credential Renewal with OCR and PowerShell
Problem Statement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a relatively easy mechanism to improve the security of your Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment. Instead of logging into the AWS Management Console using a username and password, you also have to provide a time-based one-time password (TOTP). The same concept applies when …
Finding an AWS EC2 AMI with the AWS PowerShell SDK
Problem Statement If you’ve ever launched an Amazon EC2 instance (aka. virtual machine), you’re probably familiar with the concept of an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). AMIs are simply virtual machine images that you can launch your EC2 instance with. Because anyone can publish a custom AMI, and because AWS has …
Control Bluetooth on Apple MacBook Pro from the Command Line
If you’re like me, you try to automate everything, even the small stuff. I have a few Bluetooth devices that I occasionally use with my MacBook Pro: Apple Magic Trackpad 2 Apple Magic Keyboard Bose QuietComfort 35 Sennheiser PXC550 Getting Bluetooth devices powered on and connected isn’t always the easiest …
Enable Intellisense for AWS Boto3 Type Hints in Microsoft Visual Studio Code

If you’re developing with Python and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) boto3 module, you probably wish you had type hints (aka. auto-complete / Intellisense) in Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Even though the boto3 documentation is exceptionally good, it’s annoying to constantly have to switch back and forth between it and …
Rescan SCSI Controller on Linux to Detect New Disks
I am running Ubuntu Linux virtual machines on VMware ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor), and needed a mechanism to add SCSI disks to VMs without having to reboot. After adding the disk in VMware ESXi, the disk still wasn’t visible to the guest operating system. It seemed like I needed some mechanism …
Set up a PowerShell and .NET Development Environment with AWS Cloud9 and Amazon EC2

Background Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud9 provides a cloud-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) where you can author, test, and deploy your .NET Core and PowerShell-based applications. You can connect to your Cloud9 IDE using a web browser. One of my favorite features offered by Cloud9, that enables developers to comfortably …
Designing Command Line Tool User Experience

Introduction Software developers, infrastructure & DevOps engineers, and operational IT staff are heavy users of the command line. The benefits of the command line are clear: Commands are / should be readable Commands are repeatable Commands can be shared amongst a team (eg. via source control / chat / etc.) …