The Journey Begins

Hello everyone, my name is Joseph Goldberg, but you can simply call me Joe. I’m glad you stopped by TrueNetLab. For those who don’t know me yet, I’d like to introduce myself and share a bit about my journey and my latest project, TrueNetLab.

Originally, I’m from the United Kingdom, where I trained as a Security Engineer and studied network technology. Early in my career, I was fortunate to gain significant experience by working with some companies now often referred to as the “Magnificent 7,” which gave me invaluable insights before I was recruited to the Netherlands and Ireland to work for a large tech company. The opportunity was simply too good to turn down. This experience shaped me both professionally and personally, but eventually, I longed for something new. The constant gusts and gray skies of Northern Europe motivated me to take a bold step and move to the sun – Dubai. Beyond the weather, a new job offer also played a crucial role in this decision.

In Dubai, I found not only better weather but also fresh professional challenges. I continued my work in network security and as a Security Engineer, but my interests have always included small, smart gadgets designed to make our lives easier. I aim to review not only home products but also network devices that are often considered niche in the review world, as they seldom find their place on large YouTube channels—either due to a lack of necessary expertise or because they’re deemed too niche for the broader audience. Yet these devices have a place in the home networks of tech enthusiasts like myself. Here in Dubai, I also came up with the idea for my current project: TrueNetLab.

TrueNetLab is intended to be a place where tech enthusiasts can find genuine, well-founded, and honest product reviews. What has always bothered me is the superficiality of many so-called “influencer reviews” – beautiful images, a few marketing phrases, and hardly any real testing. Don’t get me wrong, these are absolutely brilliant video producers with deep skills in lighting, editing, color grading, and music. I’m envious of these abilities. But my vision is to dive deep into the substance and, above all, to write long-term reviews. Anyone can test a new device for a few days and say it works well. But what about after a year? How does the hardware perform after hundreds of updates? That’s what really interests me, and that’s what I want to uncover with TrueNetLab.

With my experience as a Security/Network Engineer and developer, I’m able to view devices from a different perspective. It’s not just about what works; it’s about how securely and efficiently these devices can be integrated into our home networks. I may even find the time to create tutorials on how to properly configure these devices. Buying a firewall, unboxing it, clicking through the wizard, and plugging it into the network doesn’t necessarily make things secure. What good are smart plugs or cameras if they leave our networks vulnerable to attacks? At TrueNetLab, I want to explore and critically examine these aspects.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey as we discover together which gadgets truly add value and which ones are better left on the digital shelf.

Yours, Joe