Author Archives: Jason

PowerShell: solid password generator

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Jason

I needed a PowerShell script to generate a random alpha-numeric string. Here were my goals: The randomness needs to be cryptographically strong. Having at least some characters of different types is not a concern here. Small-ish, readable code is a … Continue reading →

Posted in PowerShell, Programming | 7 Comments

Stunning Possibilities with The Growth Mindset

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Jason

The main message so far* in the book, Mindset (by Carol Dweck) is that your intelligence and mental ability is like a muscle: it’s not a fixed thing that you’re dealt at birth. Like a muscle, if you work hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership | Leave a comment

My own measuring stick

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Jason

We have a tendency to think that what we’re good at is intrinsically more important or valuable than things others are good at. This alienates the very ones who would be the most help to us (and us to them). … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Trust | Leave a comment

Sending Email with the Gmail API in .NET / C#

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Jason

I’ve a .NET web application with several Google API integrations and wanted to send Gmail as well. It took me all day, and I found precious little (useful) documentation, so it seemed worth a blog post. At the start of … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming, REST | 34 Comments

CodeRush Template for INotifyPropertyChanged

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Jason

Updated 6/6/14: @MarkMiller found my tweet the referred to this blog post and kindly pointed out that I had reinvented the wheel. If your class implements INotifyPropertyChanged, you could use the standard “p(type)” expansion and it’ll put in the property … Continue reading →

Posted in CodeRush, Programming | 2 Comments

Something anyone trying out NodeJS should know up front

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Jason

TL;DR – scroll down till you see the heading you’re looking for. I really love JavaScript as a language, and there were lots of things about NodeJS that appealed to me. So when I had the opportunity to use NodeJS on … Continue reading →

Posted in JavaScript, Programming | Leave a comment

Fueling Creative Effort

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Jason

This is something I wrote around 2009. It’s a realization that I’ve kept reflecting on from time to time these past few years, and has influenced the way I encourage my kids in some positive activity. It’s a bit rambling … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming for Kids | Leave a comment

Inventing Worlds

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Jason

I know there are some things about Software Development I really like, while there are other parts that I really don’t like. I’ve often wondered, mostly as fleeting thoughts lost in the bustle of a work day, what causes the … Continue reading →

Posted in General PC Usage, Programming | Leave a comment

Securely accessing RavenDB / RavenHQ over HTTP

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Jason

I want to use a RavenDB database hosted in the cloud by RavenHQ from a NodeJS app. I didn’t find a JavaScript client or NPM package that looked very mature, so I looked into straight HTTP API access. This took … Continue reading →

Posted in JavaScript, JSON, RavenDB, REST | 3 Comments

Theodore Roosevelt – amazing story

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Jason

My family heard a local historian, Steve Stark, talk about Theodore Roosevelt this past Sunday. Mr. Stark seemed to really like the guy, and from listening I found myself liking him as well. Steve briefly mentioned how TR had marched … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Leave a comment