Things I've worked on in the past

Here's a list of things I've worked on in the past.

Note that these are generally in chronological order, so more recent items are toward the bottom.
I'll add to this as I remember them and have time to add to it.

Spoken Word Recognizer or Altair 8080

In college, my senior project was a spoken word recognizer. It was supposed to recognize spoken words for each of ten numbers: zero through 9. It didn't work. It was programmed on an Altair 8800
(another post about the Altair 8800 computer). The professor who taught the class was the only one who could pull the paper tape through the paper tape reader (it was pulled manually) without getting an error.

Univac in Fortran using Punchcards and later a Teletype

Used punchcards for a FORTRAN class and later as a help desk for students taking Computer Science classes including FORTRAN programming classes that most engineering students were required to take. Also, took several classes to learn languages: COBOL, and SNOBOL.

I then found out that if I asked a teaching assistant for a class, I could be able to work on a teletype
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33
When he had the class with me (a one-on-one) it malfunctioned and paper started shooting out the back!  Years later, when I was working in the "real world" I bought one from the local Morris County College when they were getting rid of them. I used it with CompuServe (an early online community before the internet and facebook). The whole house shook when I used it!  It had an acoustic coupler that was used over the phone line.

At home, I worked on hobby computers: Kim-1, RCA VIP

While in college, I bought an 8080 kit. I never had a chance to build it, because I quickly sold it to buy a Kim-1 computer that just had six 8-segment digital displays. I started a company to sell software for it http://oldcomputers.net/kim1.html
I traded it in for an RCA COSMAC VIP (based on 1802 processes)
http://oldcomputers.net/rca-cosmac-vip.html
And then later for an Atari 400 and then traded that for an Atari 800 (which I still have)

IBM-PC XT and AT

Later I bought an IBM PC compatible computer which cost in excess of $1500! That was a lot of money back then.

Military Avionics Software - Embedded software and Computer Engineering

At work, I was developing microprocessor-based solutions for a military subcontractor called Conrac (later Smith industries) for the F/A-18 fighter/attack jet and the AV8B Harrier Jump-Jet on a very large intel development system (one of the following, but I'm not certain which one:  MDS-80, or MDS-800) for the intel 8080 microprocessor. At the time I had either the RCA-VIP, or the Atari 400 or 800 and would tell folks at work that while I was taking months to develop programming code for these microprocessors at work, I had more powerful computers at home!

Atari VCS 2600 Video Games

At one point, while out at a local computer store looking at some add-on parts for my computer hobby, I saw an advertisement to work for a company doing video games. I interviewed and got the job to work on video games for the Atari VCS: http://oldcomputers.net/atari-vcs.html
(see my video games page for more info about the games I worked on)

While there, I worked on toys too, like games for the Etch-a-Sketch Animator 2000. Colleagues of mine worked on the Fisher-Price PXL2000 video camera for children and the video camera inside the Lionel Train - I think called "Railscope" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_OBo0JlYt8)

I worked on a multiyear research project for a Vettest Veterinarian Blood Chemistry Analyzer (which was still being used in 2017 and was a 3.2 Billion dollar product family) for which I was awarded 3 patents (see my patent page for more info about patents I have).


I left there to work for a company where we made even more video games: Imagineering which later became Absolute Entertainment (see my "video games" page for more about that). At that time we didn't have the internet and would send files over a bulletin board system and FTP.

UNIX, Oracle SQL, and Java.

 I worked at a mailing/printing/fullment company called DMS (later merged into Vestcom) on Cadol and a HP-UX system where I learned Oracle, PL-SQL, C, C++, shell scripting, and taught myself Java. It was the beginning of the internet and I told the president that I could make an online ordering system which I did. I also led a large CRM program for Wunderman Cato Johnson for its customer Clairol.

Y2K and several industries

I worked as a solutions consultant for several years for a very large telecommunications company on Y2K as a project/program manager. I moved mostly into Project Management at that point and got my PMP certification. Then, I worked on the first legally binding internet election for the Arizona Democrats with election.com, leading a project for a transportation solution for GOD,  , Shaw carpeting in Dalton Georgia, Lebar Friedman publishers, a pension system for the Associated Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund (AFMEPF),  and led a solution for Hartford Insurance livestock insurance.

Mortgage Industry, IOT, and IBM Watson

I then went to a Mortgage Company as an engagement manager. That company was purchased by IBM when they wanted to get into the mortgage business, but that was just before the 2008 collapse. At IBM, I was able to move to the Watson group as a Program manager. Since I was always keeping involved in technology, I was able to help lead a grassroots group of IBMers who shared information about Internet of Things (IOT). While working with IOT, I was able to speak at an IBM conference about a IOT product I created and also led a hands-on lab at the conference. Back at IBM, I participated in a hackathon where I used Watson. And, I built a TJBOT that used IBM Watson to listen to a users voice, figured out what they were asking, and respond in a spoken voice. I lead several major projects in Watson: one for Credit-Mutuel-CIC in France and another for a very large Telecommunications company.

More Artificial Intelligence

I then worked on a contract for a company doing AI for another very large telecommunications company. Then, I recently went to work for a Human Capital Management and Payroll company leading chatbot projects. I've been able to train AI and work with teams to tune the AI. I used IBM Watson.

I also worked with Large Language Models (LLM) for the detection of prompt injection.