Joel – Joel Cochran

Nice to get noticed sometimes

Last year I had the privilege of working on a project for Johns Hopkins University. It was a suite of web applications that provides hospitals with tools for performing predictive analysis in a variety of disaster scenarios. The project was grant funded and as such was very limited in the time and resources available. It was an exciting project with a real sense of purpose, and I was very proud of what we were able to achieve in a short amount of time. My contact at the client emailed me recently to let me know that the response to the applications … Continue reading Nice to get noticed sometimes

A new adventure

By Joel

I should have posted this a few weeks ago, but as of January 20th, I became a Wintellectual! I am working with Wintellect as the Lead Developer for WintellectNOW, focusing primarily on the site itself. WintellectNOW is an on-demand video training service brought to you by the renowned world wide trainers at Wintellect. We have a host of great authors and content you simply won’t find anywhere else. Use the promo code COCHRAN-13 for a free 14 day trial. The best news for me personally is that I will be working at home again. I’m hoping that being home will … Continue reading A new adventure

New video at WintellectNOW

By Joel

I’m pleased as can be to announce that my first video has been published by WintellectNOW.com! WintellectNOW is a fairly new player in the on demand video training business, but as a division of Wintellect, a very well known and high ended software training and consulting firm, it has serious training credentials. You can read more about WintellectNOW at http://www.wintellectnow.com/Home/About. Spicing up your ASP.NET MVC apps with KnockoutJS In this video I cover numerous ways to integrate your server side MVC code with KnockoutJS on the client side. The course includes a full working solution with all 11 demos from the … Continue reading New video at WintellectNOW

The stand up desk rises to the occasion

By Joel

Like most Americans, I lead a largely sedentary lifestyle. I’ve never been particularly athletic. The closest I’ve ever been was 5 years of forced physical training courtesy of the United States Army. That experience drilled in me a particular distaste for exercise, so with the exception of some fair weather golf, I don’t get much exercise. Between my disdain for exercise and my hectic schedule, carving out time to go to the gym just ain’t happening. Naturally, this creates a vicious cycle: I’m too sedentary, so I get heavier, which only makes me more sedentary, so I get heavier still, … Continue reading The stand up desk rises to the occasion

The Wheel in the Sky Keeps Turning

By Joel

Time marches, the seasons change, and so do our lives. And so, once again, my life is changing. Today is my final day with Lotic Factor, Inc. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the team at LFI: they are intelligent, dedicated, and a whole lot of fun, both on and off the job. Unfortunate financial realities may have brought our partnership to an end, but the friendships will certainly endure. I wish them all the best, they deserve it. As for my next chapter, on Monday I begin working as a consultant at Sogeti (pronounced “sew-JET-ee”), an international consulting firm. Sogeti … Continue reading The Wheel in the Sky Keeps Turning

A Sudden Move: one developer’s journey from C# to JavaScript

By Joel

I was very fortunate recently to have my first article for Simple Talk published. Simple Talk is an online magazine operated by redgate. The article is titled “A Sudden Move: one developer’s journey from C# to JavaScript“. In it, I discuss the reasons that JavaScript is so compelling and try to dispel some of the unfair treatment JavaScript get from developers. Please pop over and give it a read, feel free to leave comments there or here.

CORS, AJAX, and POST data in Web API

By Joel

Last week was quite possibly the most frustrating week of my 15+ year software career. Stuff that was working stopped and stuff that should work didn’t. Hours of research on the Internet and miles of code trying anything and everything to get over this one small hurdle, but all to no avail. The good news, if you can call it that, is that I wasn’t alone. As my Grandmother always said “misery loves company”, so I shared the problem with my co-workers at Lotic Factor Inc, Brian Lanham and Chris Atienza, and we all suffered together. And then we suffered … Continue reading CORS, AJAX, and POST data in Web API

Weekly roundup 10/12/12

By Joel

Since I started at Lotic Factor I’ve been sharing a list of links with my coworkers we call “The Weekly Roundup”. There is no set schedule but typically I send out a list about once a week. The links mostly come from Twitter and various newsletters. The concept is nothing new, but it saves them from needing to spend as much time on twitter as I do! I’m sharing them in the hopes that some readers may find them interesting as well, and also as an archive of past links. DISCLAIMER: The only qualification for inclusion is that I found them interesting. In … Continue reading Weekly roundup 10/12/12

Weekly roundup 10/3/2012

By Joel

Weekly roundup 9/28/12

By Joel