Micheil Smith
Who is Micheil Smith?
I’m a web developer / programmer. I’m an active open-source contribute, my current focus is with the Node.js project, but I also work on a lot of other projects, which can mainly be found on my github page. Around the web I can be found either by my name “Micheil Smith” or by the nick of “Miksago”.
Where and when did you start programming?
I started programming sometime between 1999 and 2002, although, at the time I didn’t know it was programming, I just thought it was fun to play with the codes I could get my hands on. Yes, I used the word “codes”, at the time, that’s what they were, I was only about 8 or 10 years old at the time. Although, after doing that for a while, I took a break from it, as I became more and more interested in the arts (photograph, illustration, design, etc). It wasn’t until I started working as a designer on a website with a friend from DeviantART.com that I became interested in web development, I picked up HTML & CSS so that I could contribute to the site’s design. From there I got introduced to JavaScript through prototype.js as the lead developer of the site was doing what I thought was some pretty awesome stuff with things like drag & drop, auto-completing forms and stuff (this was around 2006), although, I didn’t quite like prototype, and soon found jQuery and that’s when I started to learn Javascript. From there, I bounced between various opensource projects, such as jQuery UI, Dojo Toolkit, just to name a few. Now I can read pretty much any programming language with some ease, languages that I’ve actually learnt include PHP, JavaScript, Python, Ruby. I’m currently learning C/C++, as I’m finding that contributing to Node.js often requires knowledge of those languages.
You favorite language? and why?
My favourite language is easily JavaScript; Why? It’s the first language I learnt, the one that I always seem to write and the one that I like writing the best.
What does your typical day look like?
To be honest, I don’t really have a typical day. At the moment I’m working from a home office, so, it’s pretty much: get up, check emails & chat to folks on irc / catch up with friends, have some food, start working on stuff that I need to be working on, have a meeting if I’ve got one that day, get distracted lots by twitter, email, talking to people or reading about design, then finally call it a day quite late at night (usually between 11pm and 4am).
What do you do in your free time?
Work on opensource projects, read about design, design things, or go out and find places to go and things to do.
Current favorite apps?
* Play.app from sbooth, everybody needs music in their lives, I prefer mine to be in the Flac format if possible.
* Terminal.app, well it mightn’t be a favourite, but I usually have several windows open for it.
* Kod.app, or, rather, this will be a favourite app soon.
* Safari, for all my web browsing
* Homebrew, for all my extra software that comes from unix origins.
* Hedgewars, I do occasionally enjoy the bit blowing hedgehogs or what ever they are to bits [read: I do sometimes play computer games].
What OS do you prefer?
Mac OS X [latest version]: It’s the perfect combination of linux and design.
Small picture for your Workplace?
Name something that has inspired you recently?
Design and people being frustrated with the way things are.
What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?
After having freelanced most of the way through high-school (2005-2010), I found that
the main issue I had with freelancing was that I had to find jobs to bring money in, I’m
not really an entrepreneur, I’m a programmer. So, I find that full-time employment suits
me better, I don’t need to constantly case jobs and try to sell myself and I can work with
people who I can learn things from, rather than being solo all the time.
In the end, it’s mainly about job security.
What are your personal projects and goals for 2011?
1) See the release of the main product that I’m working on at my current job.
2) Talk at at least one conference.
3) Finish reading Just My Type (a book about fonts)
4) Do something awesome, fun, and interesting. (as to what that is at the moment, I’m not too sure.)
Sorry, but I couldn’t hold to give some tips:
Take a little more care with some statements, like
“Now I can read pretty much any programming language with some ease, languages that I’ve actually learnt include PHP, JavaScript, Python, Ruby.”
You only cited structured/OO imperative laguages.
Try erlang, haskel, lisp…or some weird ones like brainFuck, moo, or even assembly. And you will see that this is a really vague and untruth statement.
“Mac OS X [latest version]: It’s the perfect combination of linux and design.”
please tell me that you wanted to say Unix, not linux, so I can sleep at night.
first is GNU/Linux the operating system (linux is the kernel) , second mac is based on the mach kernel of the *BSD not the linux. it has nothing to do with linux.
For the rest is a nice interview =]. And you look very young. Nice to see some other young developers
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