Mark Watson: Ruby and Java Consultant and Author

I am the author of 16 published books on Artificial Intelligence, Java, Ruby, Common LISP, C++, Linux, Scheme, and Windows.

I provide software development consulting services.

I specialize in using the following technologies:

• Ruby: general Ruby development, Ruby on Rails development and deployment
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): data mining, data analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, text mining, business intelligence, entity extraction, and expert systems
• Cloud computing: Google App Engine (Java version), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), S3, and Amazon SimpleDB.
• Alternative JVM languages: Clojure, Scala, and JRuby.
• Large scale text analytics using Hadoop, Elastic MapReduce, and Mahout
• Search technologies: Lucene, Solr, Nutch, spelling suggestions, and search suggestions
• Semantic Web and Linked Data: RDF/RDFS/RDF++/OWL modeling and ontology development. Tools: Sesame, AllegroGraph, Redland, and Protégé.
• Common Lisp and Scheme: In addition to writing Common Lisp and Scheme books for Springer-Verlag, I have used Lisp for many customer projects.

I also have working knowledge of these technologies:

• Google Wave platform: Robot development (hosted on AppEngine) and Gadget user interface components
• Server Side Java: JSP, writing custom tag libraires, etc. I use "J2EE light."
• Javascript: general browser side Javascript development using Dojo, Prototype, and jQuery libraries
• Java J2EE JMX, JMS, UDDI, REST, SOAP, LDAP, Tomcat, JBoss, and Glassfish.
• Java: Google Web Toolkit (GWT), GUI development using JFC, and Android (emulated) cellphone development
• PostGIS: GIS PostgreSQL extensions and the use of other geo location web services
• Small Device Java: Java Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME)
• Squeak Smalltalk and Seaside: I use Squeak for NLP research and have working knowledge of the Seaside continuation based web application framework
• Prolog: I have used Prolog on customer projects for NLP and planning systems
• Python and the Plone platform: I have a working knowledge of Python and have developed a custom Plone product for a customer project
• C++: Architect and developer for a real-time fraud detection expert system for the telecommunications industry, and entertainment development for Angel Studios, Disney, and Nintendo

I have been involved in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for over 20 years developing both commercial tool products and AI applications.

Take advantage of new data standards. I encourage and support the use of open data standards. I am a member of the ODF Alliance and have experience using the Semantic Web RDF, RDFS, RDFS++ and OWL standards. Using data standards is important to avoiding lock-in with specific vendors.

Demo Java web applications: please check out a few of my Java web applications:

• CJsKitchen.com - a healthy recipes web portal that my wife and I did together back in 2005. We no longer maintain this site but leave it in place to access the recipes.
• KnowledgeBooks Consortium - hosted on the Java version of Google App Engine. Web site for sharing technologies for AI technologies for Knowledge Management and the Semantic Web for the Java Platform. This web app also implements a Google Wave robot extension that you can use by adding knowledge-books@appspot.com as a participant to any of your waves.

My cooking and recipe Ruby on Rails application: CookingSpace.com - something new in recipe and healthy eating web sites: approximate nutritional information is provided for individual recipes, complete meals, and complete daily plans. I wrote this for my own use but you may enjoy it.

My "getting stuff done" Ruby on Rails application: my-foc.us. I use this application while I work and write to focus on todos and action items, one focused task at a time. Open source with a github link on the login page.

Enjoy my Open Content Free Web Books and Open Source Software

In addition to my published books, I put real effort in writing my Free Web Books. I also hope that you find my Open Source software projects useful.

This "free stuff" is my way to give something back to the world, in appreciation for the blessings in my life.

Other content: Twitter Facebook

Announcements

May 4, 2010: I have started a new blog dedicated to Clojure: ClojurePla.net

March 25, 2010: I have started a new blog dedicated to Ruby: RubyPlanet.net

June 30, 2009: My APress book "Scripting Intelligence: Web 3.0 Information, Gathering and Processing" is now available. My first published Ruby book!

November 10, 2008: My book "Practical Artificial Intelligence Programming in Java, third edition" is available in print and PDF download:


July 11, 2008: New version 2 of my Java FastTag parser. See my Open Source page.

October 10, 2007: Added to my open source page: my JRuby bindings for the PowerLoom AI reasoning and knowledge representation system

October 8, 2007: Check out my Open Content Incubator Projects. There is a new version of my "Artificial Intelligence Programming in Ruby" writing project.

June 29, 2007: My open source projects are now released under either the LGPL version 3, or the GPL version 3 licenses. Now available.

April 2, 2007: Java NLP utility to identify proper nouns (human names and places) in text is now licensed under the LGPL. Now available.

December 19, 2005: I created RubyPlanet.NET - a Ruby programming blog site aggregator. Also contains news and useful links.

August 29, 2005: Carol Jean's Kitchen - a free knowledge based cooking and healthy lifestyle web portal. My wife and I enjoy cooking and this web portal is both a hobby and a testbed for technology (AI expert system and case based reasoning).

April 4, 2005: I released version 0.1 of my Ruby libraries for part of speech tagging and text categorization. Please see my Open Source page.