Daniel Ho is a fairly common name, it seems. So...
Who am I?
This Daniel Ho is a Toronto, Canada based:
- Husband and father
- Management consultant
- Geek -- card-carrying (IEEE) and licensed (ham radio)
- Builder of AI systems, and writer about how they actually work
- Essayist -- the personal essays live on Substack
- Photographer
- Long-distance cyclist
- Motorcyclist
- Cook
- Reader, heavier on theology and philosophy than you'd guess
- Introverted extrovert
What I've done
Things this Daniel Ho is or has been:
- Entrepreneurial whiz kid
- Seasoned business operator
- Science nerd (yes, it all started by winning science fairs)
- Operator in a fat rendering plant (worst job ever!)
- Professional photographer
- Beer lab tech
- Accountant and finance nerd
- Amateur classical musician
- Inventor
- Expert on La Pavoni espresso machines -- the how-to page I wrote decades ago has finally been restored
- Currently: learning Spanish, and taking watches apart slightly faster than I put them back together
- ...
This Daniel Ho is NOT...
- The Grammy-winning Hawaiian slack key guitarist (I'm told his music is lovely)
- The guy on Discovery TV trying to "save you from domestic perfection!"
Rules I Live By
(besides the Golden Rule that your parents taught you as a child)
- GIVE VALUE by helping other people achieve their goals and dreams.
- BE PASSIONATE and LOVE what you do.
- BE THE BEST at what you do.
- ESTABLISH LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS.
- HAVE FUN everyday.
Work
I lead Matrix Meridian Corporation, a boutique consultancy in Toronto that has worked at the point where business meets technology since 1990. I came at it from accounting and finance, then decades of management consulting, and these days much of the work is hands-on technology, including a growing practice building practical AI systems for organizations that want the benefits without the hype.
The client side runs from large financial institutions and government agencies to a growing roster of non-profits and labour unions. The professional detail is on LinkedIn; the firm itself is at matrixmeridian.com. If you think we might work well together, get in touch.
Geeky Interests
Computers and technology, of course. Card-carrying IEEE member, licensed ham radio operator, and lately spending a good part of my working life building AI systems and writing about what these tools genuinely can and cannot do. The gap between those two things keeps me busy.
Photography. I love film but am addicted to digital. The full story is on the Photography page, including the pull back toward the darkroom.
Manual lever espresso machines. It started with the La Pavoni Europiccola, about which I wrote a how-to page a couple of decades ago that still brings owners' emails to my inbox. That page has just been restored and lives at coffee.gurus.net. I am also infatuated with Elektra Microcasa lever machines, which my wife assures me is a different problem, not the same one twice.
Home
I live in Toronto with my wife, the Kid (who is no longer a kid and objects to the title, which is why it stays), a dog who considers himself senior management, and a cat who knows better.