James Ruskin

Looks good! I'll have to have a play when I'm back at my machine!

One thing I really appreciate learning #PowerShell is how it demystified so much for me.

Actually being able to poke and query things gave me the closure my brain needed to really understand the tech I was using

What accelerated that learning? Asking questions


1/2

Working on one of my hobbies over the weekend. Ignore the smeared paint on my fingers; choosing to paint red with red varnish on my nails might not have been the best idea.

Hobbies are good for you, crafting ones in particular. It boosts overall well-being and increases life satisfaction.
Your boss should let you spend some time at work doing them - it boosts creativity and even engagement with the job. 🧪

link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Get ready, because the PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit is just around the corner!

📅 April 13, 2026
🎟️ Tickets are available now
📍 Bellevue, WA

For more information, visit:
🔗 www.powershellsummit.org

#PSHSummit26 #PowerShell #DevOps #Automation #TechConference #Community #CareerGrowth

Terminal suggest doesn't get content from the actual terminal session. · Issue #285640 · microsoft/vscode Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes/No Yes Terminal auto suggest entries are not based on actual terminal functions, and suggestions are therefore not correct. If I create ...

Hey #PowerShell peeps! The new auto complete thing in VSCode is messing up our terminals. It doesn't auto complete actual functions. Give this an upvote to get a fix in to the backlog and (hopefully) improve it!
github.com/microsoft/vs...

(And share onwards for visibly. Can't have a bad terminal)

What I read in 2025 I saw someone talking about what they'd read so far in 2025, and though I've re-read a lot of my comfort series this year (as I seem to keep doing) it was interesting to revisit what I had read throug...

So, managed [71-and-a-bit books](blog.justpowerdown.com/what-i-read-...) this year (with a fair few re-reads) - I'm pretty happy with that! Binged Dresden, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and Sandman Slim (amongst other series), and found some new authors and books that I'm itching to explore! Here's to 2026!

Here’s how a bridal photo captured a single person in three poses at once What is a photo? In this case, it’s a stitched panoramic shot.

Apologies, it looks like one instance I was thinking of was the panorama mode and not face manipulation specifically! www.theverge.com/2023/12/2/23...

There's a few stories out about "bride to be surprised by reflection staring at her" and similar where iPhones seamlessly (or "without prompting or permission") stitch together multiple frames to have all detected faces looking at the camera - fine, until some of them are reflections that look odd!

That's super cool! What are you using for it?

Screenshot of VSCode showing 46 changes in a repo. Except I didn't make any changes. All I did was a build. Cloning main and performing a build should never result in 46 changes to the repo. If it does, it means you are either not using .gitignore properly and/or your build artifacts aren't targetting a proper "output" directory. When you perform a build, any files created or modified during that build should be considered "artifacts" and those artifacts should never be committed to the repo IMO. There are always exceptions such as when a build also generates or updates documentation that you commit and maintain as a part of the repo rather than an artifact. There are mixed opinions on that practice.

A plea to junior and senior developers alike - when someone does a build from main, please ensure that git doesn't report 46 changed files.

Generally speaking, any files created or updated during a build should be considered "artifacts" and artifacts should be .gitignored.

Well, that's intriguing - I feel like I should have known this!

AdventureX 2025 — Day 1 01:20 Jon Ingold — Always Trade Up: From Inspiration to Storyline 30:31 Kathryn Vinclaire — Casting Actors For Indie Games - How to Get AAA Results on an Indie Budget 1:31:10 Najmah Salam — How to Position Your Game Like A Pro 2:01:32 Dominic Armato (Keynote) — Defeating Impostor Syndrome: The Threepwood Method 3:42:58 Mairi Nolan — The Diegetic Lock: Designing Puzzles that Belong in Your World 4:20:05 Husban Siddiqi and Adam Riches — From Jam to Launch: A Fireside Chat About Loco Motive 5:13:27 Steph Rennick and Séan Roberts — What’s Going Wrong with Women’s Dialogue in Video Games? 5:48:32 Thomas Regin, Mark Benis, Jade Leamcharaskul & Paul Zimmermann (Panel hosted by Seoirse Dunbar) — Storytelling Through Audio: The Hidden Narrative 7:01:11 John Robertson (Show) — The Dark Room AdventureX is the UK's only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming. Since 2011, AdventureX has been bringing together developers & gamers with a passion for interactive storytelling.

The full stream of #AdventureX talks is up now - below is a link to mine, on story generation from first principles, in twenty minutes, with jokes.

Come for the Muppet Treasure Island, stay for Bob Eurypides.

Screenshot from the MilestonePSTools home page with the text: Manage XProtect at ANY scale Configure. Automate. Report. You decide what is possible on the Open Platform. Compatible with all supported versions of XProtect.

I had the absolute joy and indescribable terror of emailing 1200 of my closest coworkers to announce we would be making the GitHub repo for our PowerShell module public tomorrow. I set my alarm for 11pm to flip the switch at 8am CET. It is done!

Link to GitHub in the docs: www.milestonepstools.com

Qing-UP in the Age of Tilt As anyone who has played 5 seconds of League of Legends knows, competitive multiplayer games have a tilt problem.

Inspired by some great discussion on Q-UP from @austinwalker.bsky.social, @notquitereal.bsky.social, @sylvibullet.bsky.social, @molleindustria.org and other folks, I wrote a short piece on the design inspiration for Q-UP and what developing the game meant to me

stiknork.substack.com/p/qing-up-in...

nuzzle 1. to touch, rub, or press something or someone gently and/or in a way that…

Fwiw, though I'm loving that definition, nuzzle is an actual word not just a blend-ish of nose and cuddle.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/e...

Automate user onboarding like a pro
→ Write a PowerShell script that: creates users, assigns groups, sets passwords
→ Add automatic email notifications
→ Log every action to a CSV
This is the kind of thing managers notice. You’re not just repeating steps you’re building trust in your reliability.

The PowerShell Manifesto Radicalized Me This article contains swearing (Quoted, from Bill Gates).

I enjoyed seeing @jsnover.com talk, last year, and was reminded of it by [this article](medium.com/@sebastianca...) today. Roll on @psconf.eu next year!

I'll say that my general take isn't that it's always _wrong_ as much as I can _never trust it_ - so this last part hits far closer to home than the first, for me.

I'm not saying I walked in to see @stevenjudd.bsky.social flashing this message buuut... (Great to see you!)

🚀 The wait is over! Tickets are officially live for PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2026 — April 13–16.

🎟️ Secure your spot now before early-bird tickets sell out!

🔗 www.powershellsummit.org/tickets/

#PSHSummit2026

If you fly a plane while maintaining a constant compass heading, you'll trace a STRAIGHT line on a Mercator projection map, but your actual trajectory on the planet will SPIRAL into one of the poles.

#indiedev #gamedev #computergraphics #computationalgeometry #topology

A picture of a foggy street

Edinburgh castle failing to render, likely thanks to the AWS outage

I’m excited to share that I’ll be speaking at @powershellsummit.org 2026!

1. From Burnout to Built-to-Last: The Open Source Org Advantage
2. Markdown Madness: Static Sites for Fun & Profit

Two topics I'm super passionate about!

If you’re headed to #PSHSummit, let’s connect!

Humble Comic Bundle: Roll for Initiative with Kieron Gillen by Image Comics Dive into one of comics’ most creative minds with our Kieron Gillen bundle, featuring The Wicked + The Divine, and more! Pay what you want and support BINC!

This went live last night - a big PDF bundle of the books I've written at Image. Includes The Wicked + the Divine, DIE, Phonogram, Ludocrats, the first Power Fantasy, We called them giants, etc. Basically, this is the stuff I got into comics to do, and a great chance to grab it.

Striatoncitytoilet: (repeated like a mantra while rubbing my temples) "i Will Stay Silly and not allow the world to make me bitter and cruel. i Will Stay Silly and not allow the world to make me bitter and cruel. i Wi"

You can also use Chiaki and other bits of software to remote-play PS5 on your Steamdeck (or PC). It's neat! (but as Josh says, more expensive)

Your passwords don't need so many fiddly characters, NIST says There are new rules for your password—and the passwords of your employees. Read NIST's latest guidance on password security.

3#\NOW.?}THEY82^_TELL@[}-ME*/}
Your passwords don’t need so many fiddly characters, NIST says
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

The Struggles of Module Development What you might not have thought about when starting a new module - from naming conventions to build scripts

Starting today off with a new blogpost!

Here's some tips to think about when you're thinking about creating new #PowerShell modules.

powershellpr0mpt.com/2025-10-07-t...

I'm really curious to see if there are specific topics you would want me to dive deeper into!

Haven't read that in ages! Good reminder, I'll have to pick it up! Have fun narrating!