Arc
When I think? Systems.
Not strategy decks. Not frameworks. The shape of things: edges, connections, voids. Where constraints intersect and nothing fits. That’s where I build.
The Early Web
Around 1995, I registered illuminati.org. One of the earliest domains. Just seeing what was available.
Same brainstorm: clinton96.org, dole96.org, powell96.org, gates96.org. Created spoof campaign sites before the actual campaigns had any web presence. Time magazine credited the fake Dole site with inspiring the real campaign to get online. Atlas Obscura and Fast Company documented the story years later.
The Chain Reaction
Same process, different question: what about adult domains? Found one unregistered. Built it.
What emerged was arguably the first searchable image database by photo characteristics. Many indexable attributes per image, absurd levels of detail on profiles. Social networking by preference matching, years before Facebook, before dating apps had the idea. Virtualized the infrastructure around 2003. Using containers.
Then a spam problem. Someone else using our payment processor was spamming, which got the processor blacklisted, which took our payment processing down with them. Dave Rand, co-creator of the RBL, snidely challenged us to invent something better than his blocklist approach.
We did.
Patent US6460050B1: Distributed Content Identification. Filed 1999, issued 2002. Now foundational to email spam filtering. 845+ citations. Found in every major email provider.
Eventually sold the site to Penthouse.
One brainstorm led to domains, led to a site, led to a spam problem, led to a patent, led to an exit. Chain reaction.
InfoWorld
Late 90s. Senior analyst at InfoWorld during the trade rag era. Wrote many columns, a few still indexed on Google Scholar. First real encounter with office politics. Failed at it. But opportunities were pulling anyway.
HD Video
Co-founded Jolokia. Built the first corporate focused online video platform doing HD when competitors were still serving postage stamps with JavaScript slide sync. Deployed Kubernetes early, before it was cool. When it was just painful.
Architected Polycom RealAccess, their first cloud product. Onsite agent for data collection, on premise version architecture. Eventually sold to Nextech AR Solutions.
Low Latency Streaming
Red5, 2021–2025. CTO. Ultra low latency video streaming for applications where milliseconds matter: sports betting, live gambling, security feeds. Built the foundations: support systems, development process, documentation, technical progression. Co-authored patents pending.
Left to join 14 Technology Holdings.
Now
Director of AI at 14 Technology Holdings, parent company of BlueLabs. Data science environment. Teaching AI methodologies, infusing AI into workflows. Not replacing humans. Using tools properly.
See what I’m doing now.
The Thread
I still own pace.org. I still own illuminati.org, though it gets DDoS’d enough that nothing runs there. Also whitehouse.org.
There’s a Mastodon instance running on 23.illuminati.org. Open for registrations if you can answer the questions.
The curious can find the pattern.