About
My story
My name is Josh Einstein and I’m a geek. I’m not particularly new to this web site thing, but I’m not particularly good at it either. I was “blogging” before there was even a word for it. And before that, I was quite involved in BBS’es.
I’ve always been attracted to technology, particularly when it comes to communications and mobile computing. So it’s no surprise that I’ve worked with phone and internet companies for most of my adult life and I’m constantly searching for ways to incorporate Tablet PC’s and smartphones into our day to day work.
Einstein Technologies
In 2003, I created a handful of applications for the Microsoft Windows Tablet PC platform and earned my first independent paycheck. It was only for about $20 but it inspired me to keep going. I kept my day job, but on nights and weekends I cranked out more versions and built more and more of a customer base. Eventually I was able to leave my day job and live off the sales of a product called Tablet Enhancements for Outlook.
It wasn’t much, and in fact now that I have a house and a family, it wouldn’t have supported me. But at the time it worked and I am proud to say I lived independently for several years.
Once I got married and started planning our family, it was time to throw in the towel and jump back into the rat race.
Hello Josh, I found your ConvertTo-Dictionary function, found it very smart, it works perfectly. I can think of a thousand useful ways to use it. That is why I wanted to put the function in a module of very useful functions. But then….(after importing the module) the function doesn’t work anymore… What a pity. If the function is ‘declared’ in the same session, or if it is part of the same script as where it is used, everything is nice; but if it lives in the module definition it cannot be ‘called’ intact so it seems. The ‘$_’ does not keep its contents or so it seems. 1. Do you understand why? 2. Is there anything we can do? I would hate it if I would have to dot-source it every time, or copy it into every script, isn’t that what modules are about (among other reasons). In the meantime: Thanks for you interesting blogs.
Jacques Willemen, Breda, Netherlands
Yes I know exactly what you are talking about. Modules have different scoping rules than global functions. I do have a workaround that I use in my LINQ.psm1 module for all of my “selectors” and “predicates”. I will try to post it tonight. It unfortunately involves reflection but it’s wrapped up in a nice cmdlet that can inject variables into the scope of any scriptblock.
Okay Jacques, check out the LINQ.psm1 module in my SkyDrive at the following URL:
http://cid-89e05724af67a39e.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/PowerShell/Modules/LINQ?uc=2
There’s lots of useful stuff in there but pay particular attention to the Invoke-ScriptBlock function. Notice how it captures the current “underbar” variable, sets a new one, invokes the scriptblock, then restores the old underbar.
Invoke-ScriptBlock is used by practically every other function in that module and they all use the $_ (dollar underbar) syntax to refer to the current item.
I’d be thrilled if this winds up helping you because I literally scanned through thousands of lines of code in Reflector when PowerShell was in CTP just to figure out how to do this! It was extremely frustrating.
Hi Josh, First & short reaction (because it is very late already): You solved my problem, if I use Linq-ToDictionary instead of ConvertTo-Dictionary the results are perfect (as far as I tested until now). I will write you more tomorrow.
Hi Josh, me again, I was a bit overwhelmed by your massive response to my seemingly simple question. Although of course I understand you did not create that Linq module just because of me. Interesting to find that one of the Powershell Big Guys is struggling with same obstacles as an amateur like me. Difference is, you are the one to find the most elegant kinds of solutions; and I am the one that has to try to understand what can be achieved with them. I get the impression that Linq (never heard of…) is something I will find of interest (raised mathematician/logician, earning a living as a Windows SysAdmin). Let’s google for linq. I see that incidentally you published your LINQ module today, I hope I did not rush you. Again, thanks a lot, and success further on….
Hello Josh,
Josh, are you the same Josh Einstein that was a Tablet PC MVP back in 2007 ???? Could you comment on the following. If you don’t have the time, do you know who might be able to comment on this?
http://www.tabletpcquestions.com/showthread.php?189984-portrait-screen-calibration-180-degrees-off-%28Gateway-M280E%29
Thanks much
Hi Josh! Just wondering if there is any chance you will update TEO for Windows 7 and Outlook 2010? I’ve upgraded and I miss TEO.
Hey Kevin. I was just thinking about TEO this morning. The problem is all the API’s have improved since then. Outlook, WPF, .NET etc all have evolved significantly and I’d basically have to rewrite it. I would totally do it but the problem is that I’m swamped at work and to do it right would require a substantial amount of time. Before it was easy. All I had to give up time with the girlfriend. But now I’m married, my son has a claim on at least 2 hours of my day. And of course there’s the 8 hour work day + 3 hours of commuting. Trust me I’m really trying to find a way to make it work. Since I “dropped off the face of the earth” I’ve lost 2 good friends, a ton of credibility, and not least of which, a lot of self-confidence. But in any event, what kind of ideas were you thinking for a new TEO? One thing I’ve always thought about (but never really worked well) was dictating appointments and contacts by speech using a context-sensitive grammar.
Good to hear back from you Josh. Family comes first so it sounds to me as if you have your priorities straight even if that means no further updates to TEO. MSFT should have latched on to you when you were in meetings with them several years back. As for your self-confidence, TEO is but one example of your programming abilities let alone the nice family you have so gain that self-confidence back. I bet pretty much anyone that has used your programs wouldn’t want you to put TEO ahead of family and other responsibilities so don’t be hard on yourself.
In terms of TEO, I was simply hoping to get TEO 3 to run with Outlook 2010. I attempted to install it but the installer tells me I don’t have a compatible version of Outlook installed and stops there. I wasn’t sure if TEO 3 was truly incompatible with Outlook 2010 or if it was just a matter of a programming change needed to allow the installer to proceed if Outlook 2010 was installed. Several of my Outlook add-ins seem to work with the 32 bit version of Outlook 2010 so I was just hoping TEO would also.
Thank you for getting back to me and please take care of yourself and family. You’ll find your son grows up so fast it is important to enjoy the moments while you have them. It was great to hear back from you.
FWIW
This is in reply to a thread you replied to on EggHeadCafe regarding implementing PSHostUserInterface. The person asking the question got their program to work by implementing PSHostRawUserInterface. Your reply was that that was odd. (I am replying here because I didn’t want to sign up on EggHeadCafe).
I was having the same problem, and the same fix worked – implement PSHostRawUserInterface.
But it bugged me because looking at the source code to WriteHost and InternalHostUserInterface I couldn’t see any reference to the rawui. I finally learned how to use sos.dll, stepped through Write-Host, and determined that the WriteHostCommand class uses ForegroundColor and BackgroundColor, which are properties implemented in the base class ConsoleColorCmdlet and which eventually use the raw ui.
Mystery solved.