About

This site is designed and run by M.Joel Dubinko.

Contact: mjoel -at- dubinko -dot- consulting.

If I have any openings for free consultation, they will be listed at https://calendly.com/dubinko/

In my career I’ve worked on all kinds of different projects, roughly in chronological order:

• In the 3rd grade, saved up paper route money to get my first computer, a Timex Sinclair 1000, upon which I learned programming
• (With permission!) took over all the menu systems on my college library
• Implementing one of the first electronic delivery notification systems (this was way before package tracking or sign-on-this-screen as you’ve probably seen from UPS and the like)
• Implemented cooperative multitasking on MS-DOS to handle 16 simultaneous ZMODEM transfers.
• Using embedded C, coded the pixel fonts (and was the on-site engineer for electromagnetic interference testing–ask me about that some time!) for the first USB-enabled continuous cardiac monitor
• Edited an international W3C specification for electronic forms, and wrote an O’Reilly Media book about it
• Designed and rolled out the first web-scale semantic application
• At an XML Database company, became the first engineer in the Application Services group, building tools and toolkits needed to build customer-specific apps
• Wrote a popular column on XML.com
• Built and deployed the first customer-facing cloud app at VMware (also the first public use of AWS “bare metal” instances)
• Later at VMware, took a voluntary “tour of duty” in the Machine Learning group, working on nuts-and-bolts issues. I liked it and made a note to look at other parts of the vast field of AI.

See the common thread here? Trick question! There isn’t really any, other than being a “generalist”. I’m constantly on the lookout for new ideas and new ways to combine existing ideas.

So, the above list revolves around paying gigs (if you count the 3rd grade paper route as ‘paying’). I’ve also embarked on a number of interesting side projects.

• Designed and built a 1.2kW battery storage unit–with ample safety features–for camping trips
• Low-level design, printed circuit board layout, production, and assembly of a 16-segment LED driver suitable for a name badge
• A reverse-engineering project for an Amateur Radio controller (prominently featured on the reseller’s web site!)
• Designed and implemented phonetic a replacement for GUIDs, those oddly-dashed identifiers like 30dd879c-ee2f-11db-8314-0800200c9a66 that are inhumane when they appear in any place like a web URL, where an end-user needs to read, or worse, type them.
• I developed a system for exploring unknown datasets and presented it an an international conference in 2012. In 2023, I presented the successor to that project, using AI for data analysis.

But more often than not, my side projects are quite different than my day projects.

I thrive on seeing old things in new ways. In 2004, as one that year’s InfoWorld Innovators awardees, my face was on the cover of InfoWorld Magazine, along with Miguel de Icaza, Chad Dickerson, and others. Postage-stamp-sized, sure, but definitely there.

Today I help executives and business owners understand and profit from AI and Large Language Models, among other interesting things that come my way. I’m flexible and work the way that works for you.

Contact: mjoel -at- dubinko -dot- consulting

If I have any openings for free consultation, they will be listed at https://calendly.com/dubinko/

BETA: Or try the new contact form, and I’ll get back to you: