A bit about me
I’ve been writing software since 1982, starting on a Commodore Vic 20 and working my way through the C64, C128, and eventually the Amiga. By 14, I was writing BBS software and got my first paid programming job through the early online BBS community. I spent the late 80’s and early 90’s working at the California Air Resources Board and later the California EPA as their primary technical support in the Office of the Secretary, going to college part time along the way. After a brief stint at Intel in 1993 during the 486 era, I moved to Seattle and landed a job as a C++ programmer at a cellular fraud interdiction company.
In May 1994, right after the internet opened up for commercial use, I founded Blarg! Online Services, one of Seattle’s first commercial ISPs. We started with a 56K frame relay connection to the Internet and a few 14.4K modems, and over the years we grew into DSL, shared hosting, multiple DS3’s, and hundreds of modems. I built TACC (Total Accountability Customer Care) to manage our entire billing, provisioning, and customer support operations. Blarg! grew to become Washington’s second largest independent Qwest DSL provider. I ran the business for about 13 years before selling it to Isomedia (now IsoFusion), who I later partnered with to build the TrueRing VoIP platform.
After Blarg!, I founded Innovotel, where I built platforms like CallSphere (a VoIP engine powering TrueRing) and the Validox compliance platform, which I designed, developed, and maintained for nearly eight years, helping establish it as a leading provider in the valuation audit space. I co-founded Vueterix and Venntrio, where I continue to lead technology strategy and development for real estate compliance and analytics. I built Vueterix from the ground up, originally in PHP and later completely rewriting it in Go and Quasar.
Today, everything I do runs through Caffeinated Softworks. My primary focus is split between Vueterix and building the Caffeinated apps – simple, private, offline-first apps for everyday life with no AI, no tracking, and no ads. I also built and maintain dittos.io, a community communication platform for schools and nonprofits.
I’m also a husband and father to two rapidly growing boys who also seem to be leaning towards technology related interests. My wife Jessica and I have been married since the early 90’s, and in the early 2000’s, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She’s also got her own site, Jessica Has MS.
I initially started this blog to make notes for myself and to share some interesting tips and tricks with a few associates. More recently, I have found that I truly enjoy writing it, and it’s become the home for my technical writing, industry opinions, and the occasional product review.
Technical Profile
I choose tools based on practicality and fit, not hype. Go is my current backend language of choice, though I spent many years in C++ and PHP. I build frontends in Vue.js and Quasar. PostgreSQL is my go-to database. Everything I deploy is containerized.
- Backend: Go, C++ (historically), PHP/Yii2 (historically). REST APIs, message-driven systems, multi-tenant architectures.
- Frontend: Vue.js, Quasar, Nuxt. Clarity over cleverness.
- Infrastructure: Docker, Caddy, Linode. Kubernetes when warranted. I manage my own monitoring, DNS, backups, and staging environments.
- Databases: PostgreSQL (TSIDs, JSONB, FTS), Redis/Valkey, MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite.
- Legacy Rescue: Stabilizing and migrating legacy PHP systems into maintainable Go/Vue platforms without downtime.
- Security: OpenID Connect, JWT, role-based access control across distributed multi-tenant systems.
I’m not loyal to tools, just to solving problems well. If I can’t run it cleanly in Docker, I won’t consider it.
What I’m Working On
- Vueterix – Co-founded; I lead all technology development. AI-driven QC, bias detection, and appraisal workflow tools for real estate. Built from the ground up in Go and Quasar.
- Caffeinated Apps – Notes, Calendar, Checkbook, Vitals. Simple, private, offline-first apps for everyday life. No ads, no AI, no tracking.
- Venntrio – Co-founded; I built FlexForm UI, the dynamic form framework powering Vueterix’s workflows.
- dittos.io – A community communication platform for schools and nonprofits.
Everything runs through Caffeinated Softworks.
I’ve spent a lifetime solving hard problems and building systems that quietly do their job. If it needs architecting, debugging, migrating, or modernizing, I can help. If it’s fragile and undocumented, I’ll figure it out. And if it needs to be scalable, clean, and reliable, I’ll build it that way.