Fifty years of building things that work at the edge of what is possible.
In 1978 Steve Jobs asked me to join Apple. I declined. He sent an engineer anyway — at no cost to me — to help with the 6809E coprocessor board I was building for the Apple II. Wozniak saw it and said it was great.
I mention this not as a credential but as a calibration. I have spent fifty years working at the edge of what is technically possible, on my own terms, and the work has consistently been good enough to attract serious attention. I am looking for the right collaboration — remote, with people smarter than me in at least one dimension, on problems that matter.
A complete ML orchestration system in CoffeeScript/Node.js running on Apple Silicon. The system manages fine-tuning, LoRA adapter training, and a novel Keyword Augmented Generation retrieval architecture for a fine-tuned Qwen model that generates diary entries with directed emotional arcs.
The core architectural insight: each step of a research notebook translates directly into a crash-recoverable, restartable production pipeline step. A reactive DAG scheduler, promise-backed in-memory data store with transparent SQLite and filesystem persistence, and a browser-based control UI make the whole system operable in under five minutes per new narrative configuration.
The creative purpose is deliberate. Every arc moves a reader from sensory experience through social observation to quiet contemplative insight — without announcing that intention. A sample:
Source stories at stjohnsjim.com.
Exploring Phi — the golden ratio — as the basis for a number system where multiplication and division are performed by table lookup. A novel approach to computational arithmetic with potential applications in low-power and specialized hardware.
A construction system using Fibonacci triangles to generate any neo-Platonic solid. Geometry as buildable architecture.
A synthesis of Tarot with ancient Greek philosophy — anima, pathos, logos, ethos — as a coherent system for navigating interior life.
Hyperspectral imaging implementation for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy — a 2.5-meter telescope aboard a modified 747. Also implemented the Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager, which steers to detect and image planetary systems around distant stars.
Hyperspectral imaging analysis for submarine detection applications.
Laboratory-grade system to record patient arm and leg movements for neurological treatment monitoring. Wrote Bluetooth LE firmware boosting sensor data rate five times over specification. Built the iPad application in JavaScript and designed cloud container infrastructure for secure, scalable data storage. Integrated custom and off-the-shelf hardware into a single clinical workflow.
Designed and built a 6809E coprocessor board for the Apple II. Jobs sent an engineer to support the work. Wozniak approved.
Two algorithms created as a graduate student, still referenced in current computer science literature.