The Geek Talk

Who is Chris Pederick?

I am a developer originally from England, but now living in San Francisco. I moved out here with work and originally worked with clients at an agency mainly as a back-end developer focused primarily on Java. I am now a front-end developer at a sports startup called Bleacher Report.

The idea behind Web Developer addon? and what’s the next?

I actually started on my other extension User Agent Switcher first as I was bored with what I was doing at work and wanted to try out writing an extension for what was then called Phoenix (soon to become Firebird and eventually Firefox). I then started doing more front-end work for my job and thought it would be great to get some tools to help me in the browser. There was a previous extension that was no longer being updated and so I picked up where it left off and Web Developer was born.

As for what’s next…I honestly have no idea and that’s what makes life interesting!

How do you find design inspiration and colours for a new project?

I am not a designer at all so I try to borrow ideas from better people than myself as much as possible! I follow a number of prominent designers online through their blogs, Twitter and most recently Dribbble. To keep things simple for myself I keep my “designs” as minimal as possible and rely on the fact I can’t make things look too ugly if I keep them clean.

What does your typical day look like?

A typical day involves getting up and going to work. There I work on whatever front-end tasks the Bleacher Report site requires be it helping to design/build new features or fix any bugs. Returning home from work I watch a fair amount of television and often find myself coding on the couch while doing so – typically on personal projects.

What do you do in your free time?

When I’m not developing I watch television and movies and I’m a big sports fan – but I’m better at watching than playing typically! I also play video games and I’m reading more now that I have an iPad.

Current favorite apps?

I spend a lot of my time in my browser so I don’t have a lot of favorite apps. I’m usually either in Firefox or Chrome and use Coda for all of my development.

What OS do you prefer?

I switched to Mac OS X five years ago or so now and use nothing else.

Small picture for your Workplace?

Favorite: Color, Font, Language, JS Framework?

I don’t have any particular favorites, but right now I’m doing a lot of JavaScript work and my preferred framework is jQuery.

What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?

I’ve never been a freelancer so I’d have to go with full-time employment. Working for an agency for years enabled me to work on many different projects, but right now I’m enjoying the change of pace of working for one company and refining one web site continuously over time.

What are your personnel projects and goals for 2010?

Nothing too crazy on the horizon at the moment – I continue to work on Web Developer and User Agent Switcher and I am focused particularly on porting Web Developer to Google Chrome right now. I also have a couple of personal web sites I am running in addition to chrispederick.com:

• Random, yes. Useful, no. : a largely unfiltered list of the links that I send and receive each day
• Stuff I’m Reading : see the stuff I’m reading both online and offline