Howard Pearlmutter


Professional Services
(covering HTML5, Cloud, and what's important in between)


Specializing in
creative, advisory, architecture, design, prototyping, development, and lifecycle projects
for
~ Interactive Interfaces ~
via
web application development (since 1994)
digital animation (since 1982)
computer graphics programming (since 1974)



(direct email contact)

I tune my professional services to your goals, your constraints, your priorities, and your people.

My development and consulting clients have included NASA, Xerox, Disney, HP, Apple, EPA, D&B, CBS, Kodak, Epson, Fujitsu, Valtech, DBR, Elixir, InterBit, CSC, Stereographics, SGI, Cable & Wireless, Unisys, SoftwareAG, Conexant, Symantec, SunGard, CapitalOne, Apax Partners, Bankers Trust, and The Financial Times.

I have also been paid to present (trainings, seminars, workshops, keynotes, briefings) to professionals from JPMorgan, GoldmanSachs, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, EDS, CSC, Barclays, One2One, Orange, Reach, Amdocs, Nokia, Comverse, Earth Island Institute, Friends of the Earth, NASA, Xerox, SGI, Compaq, Motorola, and hundreds of other organizations ranging from large energy, environmental, financial, media, telecom, government, and industrial enterprises to entrepreneurs, startups, consultancies, and R&D organizations across 5 continents.


During the past half decade, my focus has been on the evolution of Web2.0 to Web3.0 technologies, including the latest AJAX, GWT, HTML5 / XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Canvas, SVG, WebGL, and portal/dashboard approaches. Prior to 2005, I served internationally as an expert in XML, Java, Web, UI, enterprise architecture, and internet-centric integration technologies. During the 1980-1995 period, I was active in the revolution to bring computer graphics, digital media, and improved human interface to the personalization and humanization of computing. The "Graphics Gatherings" that I organized in Palo Alto and Santa Cruz catalyzed the embryonic silicon valley computer graphics community -- leading to extensive professional and personal involvement with the people, companies, and technologies driving the revolution -- including those of Apple, Adobe, Amiga, Atari, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Pixar, and Dreamworks Animation. I began those events as a byproduct of my researching and authoring a 700 page 1981 NASA Ames Research Center study entitled "Interactive Computer Graphics: The Human Interface to Dynamic Simulation" (which had its origins in my 1978 work on computational fluid dynamics supercomputer architecture (to be 20x faster than the Cray, the world's fastest), to further NASA's atmospheric modeling, weather prediction and climate simulation initiatives.)

Along the way, I've worked with many of the most important UI and computer graphics technologies: HTML5/AJAX/DHTML/JavaScript/GWT; WebGL/OpenGL/GL/SGI, Java3D/VRML/X3D; Java/AWT/JFC/Swing; J2ME/MIDP/PDA/Palm; JavaMedia; Adobe Postscript/EPS/PDF/Flash; Legacy (Windows, Unix/X, Mac, and previous); Web standards & Markup Languages (HTML/XHTML/HTML5, CSS, DOM, XML, XMLSchema/XSD, RDF, XSL, SVG, SMIL, and other emerging XML-based standards); Servlet, JSP, Struts, Tiles, JSF, Facelets, Taglibs, JSR-168 Portlets & Portals, Seam, Errai, and other Java web-oriented MVC).


2014 May update: Open Java, Web, and Internet Standards continue to be the common denominators for the full range of my activities, from GWT/HTML5 frontends to JBoss/Wildfly backends, from deep analysis of mission-critical legacy Java enterprise systems to architecting cutting-edge renewable-energy-as-a-service ventures to my global teleconsulting services advising executives on thorny technology platform decisions. 3 Major 2013-2014 tracks: For a $3B client in the ecommerce & distribution sector, I led the solution of an enterprise infrastructure challenge that had plagued them for 9 months prior to my arrival: intermittent, non-deterministic degradation and eventual crashing of a mission-critical distributed clustered caching grid that when properly functioning processed tens of millions of complex pricing tasks per hour – and then I charted their next-generation architectural vision and performed hands-on feasibility R&D. For a client in the Healthcare SaaS/EMR/EHR sector I served 2 separate divisions: strategy and tactics for migrating multi-million-line legacy codebase towards future target platform architecture for one division; integration strategy and architecture and hands-on prototyping for other division managing integration with standards, gateways, hospitals, partners. My third simultaneous track involved serving in a leadership role in technology & integration planning for a solar-oriented development initiative. In the above activities, I had strategic architectural-level and/or hands-on coding-level (and even some circuit breadboarding-level) involvement with a diverse range of technology areas, including: Service Oriented Architecture. Enterprise Service Bus. Strategic Management of Legacy Technology. IT Governance Repositories. Secure data interchange standards. High Availability. Cache management. Fault Tolerance. In-Memory Data Grid. Complexity Management. “Big Data.” Distributed Execution. HyperScale Computing. Embedded Software. “Internet of Things.” Physical Infrastructure Interop. Optical Fiber. Electricity Grid. DataCenter Strategy, Architecture, Operation, Migration. Switching Fabrics. Blade servers. Virtualization. DevOps. Application Server standards. JavaEE. JBossAS. JGroups. Infinispan. OGM. Cassandra. JCR. JPA. ModeShape. HTML5 LocalStorage. HTML5 WebSockets. Switchyard. Apache Camel. Mule. JBossESB. Spring Integration. Fuse Enterprise. ServiceMix. AMQP. Low-latency. ActiveMQ. HornetMQ. jBPM. Drools. Errai. GWT. AngularJS. Dart. JQueryMobile. GQuery. Oauth. LinkedIn, Twitter, social network integration. Mobile security. Samba. VMWare. IaaS/PaaS/SaaS Clouds. OpenStack. OpenShift. OnApp. CentOS. RHEL. Debian. Ubuntu. ChromeOS. Google Chromebook Pixel. Android. ARM. Mali. OpenGL ES. GPGPU. SoC. MPPT. Charge controllers. Li-Ion storage. Photovoltaics. RaspberryPi. Arduino. IOIO. JavaSE Embedded. OpenJDK. Javascript. CSS3. Eclipse. Git. Maven. Java8. Lambda. Attended: Homebrew Computer Club Reunion, Siggraph, InterSolar, JavaOne/OracleOpenWorld. 2013-2014 marks a milestone, wherein during a single 12 month period I had both strategic and hands-on involvement in all 4 major modern digital industry sectors: Enterprise, Web, Mobile, Embedded.

2013 January update: Integration Architect for a $1B+ company about to merge with another $1B+ company. Preparing and delivering strategic high level briefings. Interviewing stakeholders to learn perspectives, goals, preferences, constraints. Crafting our medium- and long-term Integration Architecture. Research of upcoming SOA & ESB market dynamics and maturing platform alternatives. (Coverage includes topics, categories, standards, interfaces, products and modules including ESB, SOA, Governance, WebServices, WSDL, SOAP, REST, JCA, JMS, SCA, EIP, BPMN2, jBPM, Drools, TIBCO, webMethods, Mule, Apache CXF, RESTeasy, IronJacamar, Infinispan, ActiveMQ, HornetQ, Spring Integration, ServiceMix, JBossESB, FuseESB, Apache Camel, Switchyard.) Hands-on ESB qualification and prototyping working toward demonstration (demo based upon selection of several of the foregoing plus JMS, JPA, EJB3, CDI, Ajax/Comet, GWT), proof of concept, and pilot stages. Planning leading to parallel and phased buildouts and rollouts.

2012 August update: My work continues to center on HTML5, GWT, JBoss, and Cloud. For a multinational client who is a global player in internet infrastructure, content hosting, and media delivery, I architected and implemented the first generation of CDN-class video streaming network diagnostic framework and initial toolset. Included clientside java network diagnostic agents, html5/gwt/browser admin console, JavaEE6 serverside service suite, JPA2 relational persistence, CDI injection & events, COMET, REST, JSON, Maven, Git. For a startup consumer products client I implemented a prototype image-centric rich-media HTML5 cloud-based showroom for display of designer products. During telephone sales conversations with potential distribution channel partners or buyers at major retailers, my web application will support tactical marketing goals of presentation and promotion, and as public website will support strategic marketing goals of brand positioning and style leadership (while in both cases gathering market data). Substantial work this year has been with SVG in the HTML5 context, along with HTML5 video output (and cutting edge video input), Canvas, DnD, and HTML5 browser-to-native Filesystem APIs. The foregoing involved architectural-level and hands-on development and administrative work with JBoss AS7 and over a dozen JBoss subprojects. I managed multiple PaaS cloud accounts from multiple cloud service providers (as fractional-CIO for 2 startup clients, as consultant providing a collaboration and demonstration space for a corporate client, and as researcher doing cloud technology development.)

2011 October update: I've been creating webapps for Sustainability (tracking/tracing environmental impacts throughout the supply chain and product lifecycle) for one client and for Solar Energy (accelerating legal and business processes for electric utility renewable energy generation adoption and grid connection) for another. My webapps are graphically-rich, open-standards-based, state-of-the-art: JPA2 (Object Relational) & RDF (Semantic Web) backends... my own topology & geometry processors.... my own GWT2 layout & HTML5 Canvas & SVG diagrammatic frontends. As I pass my 40th anniversary of first cutting computer code (FORTRAN in Sept 1971), I am grateful for the open-source tools and open-standard platforms that are making my life so much fun: HTML5, GWT, Errai, JBoss7, and the Java-centric clouds I deploy to..... allowing me to develop full public interactive webapp slices including rich frontend and solid backend and everything in between in record time – yep, we're now hitting on all cylinders!

2011 March update: My primary work over the past 2 years has been architecting/designing/prototyping/developing web applications for healthcare IT, plus for advertising media and solar energy vertical markets. 2 recent successful national launches: my Fortune 50 healthcare IT client (see 2010, below) has achieved full certification, including "meaningful use" requirements for federal stimulus funds under the Recovery Act; our team at my other healthcare IT client completed and demonstrated several weeks ago a breakthrough advance of being the first ever to implement and harmonize both the Direct Protocol and the Connect Protocol of the new US Nationwide Health Information Network. Some of the interesting technical aspects of my work over the past 9 months include: advanced asynchronous (push) messaging among collections of web browsers and/or cloud servers; Google cloud (GAE) Datastore graph persistence tools; advanced tabular reporting capabilities based on the GWT2.1 widget set; demonstrating a range of my GWT/HTML5/GAE/JavaEE apps running successfully on iPad/iPhone/iPod/iOS devices; further deepening JavaEE-interoperating HTML5 capabilities via GWT, including integrating dynamic 2D graphics via Canvas and SVG into the GWT2 LayoutPanel UI model; JBoss async messaging clustering / high availability; GWT-cloud end-to-end integration test architecture; strategizing Android-GWT synergies; extending the HTML5 media envelope into 3D via WebGL, solidifying the cloud platform via JavaEE6, JBAS6, and CDI (and assembling the next-generation tooling to support the foregoing).

2010 September update: In preparation for October overseas, I am now wrapping up deliverables on several GwtGuru prototyping and teleconsulting projects, which include: architecture review and verification ("second-opinion" services), and architecting/prototyping web applications for healthcare vertical, media vertical, and solar energy vertical market customers. Some of the interesting technical aspects of these current projects include: advanced tabular reporting capabilities based on the upcoming GWT2.1 widget set; advanced asynchronous (push) messaging among collections of web browsers and/or cloud servers; Google cloud (GAE) Datastore graph persistence tools; optimizing division of labor and smoothing interoperability between GWT2.x, SmartGWT, GXT, and other GWT and Javascript widget libraries; demonstrating a range of my GWT/HTML5/GAE/JavaEE apps running successfully on iPad/iPhone/iPod/iOS devices; and further deepening JavaEE-interoperating HTML5 capabilities via GWT, including integrating dynamic 2D graphics via Canvas and SVG into the GWT2 LayoutPanel UI model.

2010 June update: Finishing up my primary project with an intra-preneurial team within a Fortune 50 company. The domain is Healthcare IT, with direct relevance to what has been in the headlines nationally, and specifically targets strategic opportunities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "Stimulus"). I was one of the 4 foundational Architect-Developers who began the project from scratch, our progress demos have garnered highly positive feedback, the team has since grown larger and continues to grow. I provided the platform strategy, including the JBoss + GWT architecture. As a GWT / AJAX web application, all navigation among hundreds of dynamic screens is provided within a single webpage. I have collaborated with other team members across a wide range of issues, and I personally have written multiple chunks of the codebase. Based on my substantial background with computer graphics, human interface, web/cloud architecture, content management, and portal systems (including JBoss Nukes and its successor JBoss Portal), I designed and implemented an entire GWT / AJAX dynamic Portal/Portlet system to serve as dashboard and provide user-configurable high-level summary views onto the substantial complexity of the overall system. All code for our app is in Java: the backend is Cloud/JBoss/EJB3/JPA/Oracle; and the frontend is pure web standard (HTML/CSS/Javascript) with no plugins, all generated from our GWT Java code (including numerous subcomponents using GXT (Ext GWT)). Nevertheless, my portal/dashboard provides realtime interactive features such as drag and drop instantiation and rearrangement of portlets (widgets, gadgets), maximization and minimization of portlets, ondemand entity-based creation and persistence of portlets and portal layout, and other animated context-preserving navigation effects.

2009 mid-year status report: Currently working with JBoss/Seam, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Google Application Engine / Java (GAE), and Nuxeo 5.2 Enterprise Content Management System. Current application domain focus: SmartGrid, Solar Energy, CleanTech, legal/regulatory document management, energy models, geospatial integration, and content-rich web applications. Current platform focus: Linux+JavaEE config, deployment, monitoring, tuning, scaling, admin; building on 31 years of high-performance (ranging from parallel supercomputing grids down to realtime gaming) computing involvement. As of June 2009, 14 years hands-on with Web/Javascript/Java-based human-facing technologies (including HTML, CSS, AWT, Swing, JSP, Java3D, Struts, JSF, JOGL, AJAX (many), GWT), 12 years hands-on with a wide range of Java development tools (including 9 with Ant and 7 with Eclipse), 12 years hands-on with Java-based object & relational backend and mapping, caching, and cloud solutions (Oracle, MySQL, MSSQLServer, multiple other DBMSs; JDBC; ObjectStore; EJB 1, 2.1, 3; Spring; Hibernate; JBoss Cache, JCache, Infinispan, IMDG; GAE/J; JDO; JPA), 10 years J2EE/JavaEE (WebLogic, WebSphere, Tomcat, JBoss), 5 years with open source Java-based content management systems (JBoss Nukes, JBoss Portal, Jackrabbit, Nuxeo), 4 years of with EJB3 (JPA), 3.5 years with SEAM/Facelets, 3 years AJAX, 2.5 years GWT. From 1997 to 2009, well over 10000 hours of hands-on experience using implementations of JavaEE open standards (>70% of which has been with Open Source implementations); complemented by well over 10000 hours of providing professional IT service at the strategic, architectural, managerial, consulting, advising, mentoring, training, analysis, research, and design levels.


2008: Architected SaaS initiative for a major CleanTech industry venture. Full systems analysis and architecture, including requirements, strategy, platform recommendation, project phasing, resourcing and budgeting. Then implemented proof-of-concept and first generation atop JBoss/Seam. Authored FreeMarker JavaEE code generation templates and meta-data management tools. Created and migrated ~100 EJB3 entities in sync with MySQL schema, through multiple rounds of schema evolution, in collaboration with an international team responsible for realtime global data collection from mobile and fixed sources, satellite and internet transmission, and feeding the MySQL repository shared with my SaaS system. Evaluated AJAX alternatives (incl RichFaces, GWT, Seam Remoting, IceFaces, OracleADF / Apache Trinidad), and then used appropriate components from these, together with Google Maps. Created a charting and data reporting dashboard subpackage, utilizing AJAX, JSF, SEAM, serverside-Java2D graphics, EJB3, JPQL. Then provided custom training and technology transfer to offshore team.

2007: For a multinational client in the (non-GMO) food crop genetics sector, performed a range of strategic services across the IT spectrum directly working with the CIO. Analyzed existing legacy applications and planned future migration path for core proprietary genetics R&D-support app suite. Created IT standardization strategy and JavaEE-based enterprise EAI architechture, bridging Oracle ERP and other proprietary JavaEE packages and scattered MS silos, with JBoss/RedHat open JavaEE + AJAX / GWT platform for future development initiatives. Designed interim initiative to support scanned paper image management, document management, content management, and evolutionary collaboration and knowledge management. Researched and evaluated JCR standard, Apache JackRabbit, Lucene, JBoss Portal, Alfresco (Spring-based), Nuxeo (SEAM-based). Exhaustively tracked (roadmap, mailing lists, JIRA, SVN commits, sourcecode), tested, and qualified over 2 dozen versions and interim builds of Nuxeo to arrive at JBoss/SEAM/OSGi-based ECM solution. Distilled requirements matrix, implemented proof-of-concept against all matrix features (including coding OSGi plugins), trained client sys admin staff, transferred technology, and launched operational pilot. Evaluated and recommended 3rd party service providers for operational, support, and maintenance roles. To add specialized document management/scan/OCR capabilities: identified, negotiated licensing, managed, and co-developed the necessary C & Java code to integrate (via JNI and GlueGen) this multilingual OCR engine written in C.

2006: Using JBoss IDE & Hibernate Tools. Active with AJAX & front-end integration with JBoss Portal, SEAM, and EJB3. JBoss5.x tracking; JIRA voting. JBossWorld 2006. Expertise in Declarative-Configuration/Dependency-Injection/Inversion-of-Control containers (SEAM, Spring). Based on a combination of all of the aforementioned JBoss4.x/EJB3/SEAM/pre-certification-JavaEE5 technologies and associated toolsets, singlehandedly managed, needs-assessed, architected, designed, coded, tested, hosted, solidified, and maintained a complete enterprise-class web application for a client in the international logistics industry, including EJB3-based ETL functionality for database migration from MS SQLServer to MySQL, custom JSF componentry, and with performance exceeding some Fortune 50 intranet sites.

2005: Participated in the inaugural JBossWorld conference; coded one of the first JBossPortal-compatible (pre-SEAM) EJB3-JSF/Portlets; one of the very first adopters to intensively use SEAM. Trained and mentored a COBOL-era Fortune-50 team to leapfrog into the leading edge of JBoss/EJB3/JavaEE -- a 5-generation skills transformation within 1 calendar year -- from COBOL & ISAM/VSAM files, thru hierarchical and network databases and structured programming... thru relational databases, object orientation, markup languages, internet protocols.... thru Java programming syntax & semantics, J2SE, JDK, JRE, JVM.... object-relational mapping, extensibility, and the web paradigm..... thru Servlets, JSP, XML, EJB 1 & 2, J2EE, JNDI, JCA, JMS, JTA, JAAS, Hibernate... to the cutting edge of JBoss4.x, EJB3, JSF, and the other emerging elements of JavaEE5.

2004: Giving back to Open Source. Contributing to JBoss Nukes -- author of main installation docs wiki; frequent helpful forums postings; advised primary committers on architecture; wrote and committed code to CVS for "CMR proof-of-concept for pure-CMP backend architecture for JbossNukes" plus several plugins. Multiple client projects involving JBoss, J2EE, portals, CMS (Content Management Systems). Telephony software research (Java Media Framework; VOIP, SIP, RTP; JAIN low level JCC/JCAT call control APIs and SLEE & SCE telco standards; proprietary (Dialogic, etc)) and development (prototype built on Voxeo VoiceXML SaaS, and another prototype built on GJTAPI open source implementation of the open standard Java Telephony API; + limited Text-to-Speech(speech synthesis) integration); formulated architecture for repurposing end-of-life modembanks to provide super-cheap web voice services for a client serving the cost-sensitive public school market.

2003: Helped client organizations adopt JBoss for general development and deployment. Coding focus: J2EE-EJB-XML-XSL. 2003 Mid-Atlantic MasterSeries (digital business strategy and architecture in the context of Open Standards & Open Source). By 2003, had delivered management briefings, multimedia events, hands-on workshops, strategic seminars and keynote speeches to professionals from JPMorgan, GoldmanSachs, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, EDS, CSC, Barclays, One2One, Orange, Reach, Amdocs, Nokia, Comverse, Earth Island Institute, Friends of the Earth, NASA Ames Research Center, Xerox PARC, SGI, Compaq, Motorola, PSA (Port of Singapore Authority), and hundreds of other organizations ranging from large financial, telecom, media, environmental, healthcare, government, logistics, and industrial enterprises to entrepreneurs, start-ups, consultancies, and R&D organizations across 5 continents.

2002: Designed & delivered "IT Architecture MasterSeries" in Perth, Australia covering Java, XML, J2EE, and WebServices architectures -- highlighting the strategic importance of open standards, open source, and JBoss. First person to integrate headless Java3D with JBoss; then used it to design and generate a finished animation for an environmental video. Began using Eclipse heavily. Advised Apple decision makers to adopt JBoss as Mac OSX's bundled J2EE app server.

2001: 11 months in Singapore: First person ever to integrate IBM MQSeries with JBoss (deep JMS and JCA); integrated Oracle backend; then tripled transactional message performance via 2 weeks of tuning (yet still keeping within J2EE standards, MDBs & pure-CMP entity EJBs!).... resulted in better than 50% reduction in HW cost for this Korean banking (mainframe + Oracle CRM) EAI project. (Other major projects while in Singapore included: Advising one of the world's largest telco consortia on data center market strategy, how to host java-based web apps, and where to add value to avoid competing with their wholesale customers. Training domain-name internationalization venture on traditional and Agile Java development methodologies. Training the Java team of the organization that runs the world's busiest shipping port. Training a major wireless carrier's development group how to process XML via Java. Designed and delivered a summit conference (Enterprise Application Integration, and the Strategic Importance of XML) for 50 IT executives impacted by the merger of their employers -- 2 of the 5 largest financial institutions in Singapore. Served on the Board of Directors for an Australian Java-based portal startup, and represented them to the Singaporean VC community. Delivered a number of specialized XML and Java seminars and workshops under the auspices of the largest university in Singapore, and also of the largest European system software vendor.)

2000: When the head of a Sun Microsystems Java R&D lab was hired as CEO of the development arm of a $30M VC-funded online ad/music delivery startup, who did he bring in as his top J2EE guru? Who did he pick to train his team in strategy and architecture? Plus, to give his team a further boost: Architected the entire backend. Developed 4-tier architectural prototype, 200-class UML functional prototype, and human interface prototype -- all based on JBoss2.0 + Tomcat, with tooling from that era including Visual Cafe, Together UML, and early versions of Ant automated build tools. (Additional 2000 engagements (referred to on the testimonials page): "Java Enterprise Architecture" and XML trainings for Capital One, executive briefing on IT Strategy for Goldman Sachs, "What Every IT Manager Must Know About Enterprise Java" for Compaq/Tandem's top-tier clients, plus several more including 2-day JavaOne "Fast Track to Java".)

1998-1999: Leading seminars in Java Enterprise Architecture since 1998; developing and delivering EJB & J2EE trainings since 1999. Close tracking of open source java, especially Tomcat and JBoss since their inception. Open source EJB since EJBHome 1998 (I personally knew the EJBHome authors in London, so I was hot on the lookout for a replacement open source EJB container after they sold out to Iona in 1999); EJBoss/JBoss hands-on since 1999. Evaluated JBoss from adopter perspective since 1999; introducing JBoss to CXO-level clients for increasing range of projects since 2000.

1997-1998: Java focus since 1997. Example of one of my pre-J2EE projects.... For a major player in the Digital Factory market (and #1 Computer Aided Production Engineering vendor): Developed a visual, web-enabled Executive Information System / Decision Support System for production-chain oversight. In response to demand from GM, Ford, and other automotive and aerospace customers worldwide, this product allows users to present their robot-automated factory designs for executive sign-off by making animated, 3D, interactive management reports/presentations via web (Netscape browser, Java applet, and VRML (VirtualRealityMarkupLanguage) plugin) to any authorized persons in their company (intranet) and in partner companies (extranet). Managed, designed and implemented from start to finish in only 19 weeks. Authored 100% of all Java application code; personally performed all object-oriented analysis, design, coding, testing, and integration.


Additional information available on request:

** Testimonials and references.

** Experience with Java (since 1996) and XML (since 1998); and their precursors (extensible languages) since the 1970's.

** Experience with Web UI (since 1994); digital animation (since 1982); computer graphics programming (since 1974).

** Background with OpenSource (including Free Software back to early 80's and Public Domain back to the 70's), Unix (since 1975; RedHatLinux since 2000), and programming (since 1971).



(high priority direct email contact)