We all know VSCode is super powerful and going forwward the new standard for PowerShell (and other things) development as it’s light weight, open source and works across pretty much all platforms.

The base feature set is already amazing, but there are extensions that make VS Code even more powerful. I’m going to list here a few of the extensions I use

You can easily see what you have installed by either

• In VSCode go to the Extension Tab and enter @installed
• or run code --list-extensions

1. ms-vscode.powershell or just PowerShell
   This is the official Microsoft PowerShell extensions, that enable VS Code to do all sorts PowerShell
2. CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer or just Bracket Pair Colorizer
   As the name implies, it colorizes brackets and thus makes it easier tofind the corresponding open / closed / missing bracket
3. DavidAnson.vscode-markdownlint or just markdownlint
   I write a lot of documentation and readme files in MarkDown, so this liter is super helpful in writing MarkDown. Also the build in MarkDown preview in VS Code helps seeing issues quickly with the formatting, or the lack there of.
4. yzane.markdown-pdf or just Markdown PDF
   This goes along with the MarkDown documentation and creates a pretty PDF out of your MarkDown file. Pretty handy!
5. eamodio.gitlens or just GitLens - Git supercharged
   This fantastic extension add a bunch of Git support and capability, very handy if you work a lot with Git.
6. johnpapa.vscode-peacock or just Peacock
   Ever accidentally entered the wrong Workspace, let’s say PROD instead of Dev? With Peacock you can assign a color to your Workspaces (e.g. red for PROD and green for DEV), so you’ll notice immediately that you are in the wrong workspace.
7. Shan.code-settings-sync or just Settings Sync
   Settings Sync creates a GIST that syncs your settings.json file. So if you run VS Code on multiple machines, your settings can always stay the same.

Ever found yourself writing a lot of papers? You turned into a Word ninja because, well, you had to? While Word is fantastic and super powerful, especially for research papers and if you frequently use a certain template, LaTeX might be a better option. LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is available as free software.

I shared my APA TEMPLATE template here, it saves me a ton of time having to format things in Word over and over again.

Pretty cool, I’ve been working as Technical Reviewer helping out Thomas Lee (aka TFL) in writing this book. It holds a lot of knowledge and a fantastic intro by Jeffrey Snover. It finally released! Get a copy here

A cool little trick. Sometimes GitHub/Jekyll does not like to rebuild, just ‘force’ a rebuild by pushing an empty commit.

git commit -m 'rebuild pages' --allow-empty
git push origin <branch-name>