January 2012 Member of the Month

[ScallioXTX]

var interview = {
__"interviewee": "AussieJohn",
__"interviewer": "ScallioXTX",
__"intro": "The first of Member of the Month for the year 2012 is AussieJohn. In honor of his signature and his love for Javascript I thought we do something a bit different this time and do the whole interview in JSON ",
__"questions": [
____{
______"question": "Most of your posts are in the Javascript forum, and your blog shows you have other interest in web development as well, like CSS. What is it that you do for a living?",
______"answer": "I'm a Team Lead Developer for an advertising agency. Though most of my work is all front-end related. I also run my own (web development) business at home, which is mostly front-end work, though I do some Wordpress dev as well."
____},
____{
______"question": "How did you come to do this? Was it a deliberate choice, or did you roll into it?",
______"answer": [
________"A bit of both really. I've had an interest in technology and computers from an early age, but never considered it for a career. I kind of literally fell in to it about 10 years ago though after I suffered a knee injury. Whilst I was recovering at home, I got in to programming and web development, shortly after I began studying and four years later I had a Diploma.",
________"After working as a junior PHP dev for a little while, I decided the server-side stuff wasn't for me and rolled right into client-side magic, which I've been doing ever since. I call the client-side stuff magic, it's a term I use often when Project Managers ask me how something works, it usually saves me a lot of time ;)."
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "How do you feel about google Dart? Have you used it yet, or are you planning to use it?",
______"answer": [
________"Every time someone mentions Dart at our local JavaScript user group (SydJS), everybody usually laughs ;)",
________"In all seriousness though, I see what Dart is trying to do. The structure and thinking behind the language is all pretty sound. Of course for the moment you have to take Dart for what it is, a new language that's currently at version 0.06. It a shiny new toy that generates pretty crappy JavaScript (though they _do_ have an optimiser now, so instead of generating 2MB of JS for a small application, it now generates 100KB, optimised is a relative term of course...)",
________"Once Dart runs native in the browser (it already does in Chromium dev channel I believe), and once it gets a little more mature it will be worth taking a look at.",
________"I could probably rant about it for a while, but I don't want everyone to start throwing poison darts at me."
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "I see you like walking and photography. What attracts you about these things, and how often do you do them?",
______"answer": "I grew up in Holland and moved to Australia when I was a teenager, I've always loved the surrounds, so bush walking is a great way to explore the beautiful country all around here. Getting in to photography was a natural extension of loving nature and wildlife, I tend to do a lot of wildlife photography. I don't do either nearly as much as I would like."
____},
____{
______"question": "Do you have any other hobbies?",
______"answer": [
________"Reading is right at the top of my favourite things to do list, I love a good fantasy book.",
________"Programming seems to be a bit of a hobby as well as my job. I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing, but I enjoy doing it even in my time off.",
________"Making what I call 'Single Message Sites' - suggesting people they use the latest version of a browser, for example. "
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "If there was one thing -anything- you could change about the internet, what would it be?",
______"answer": [
________"I would probably delete IE9 and below from the face of the earth and mysteriously* replace them with Chrome",
________"* Magic may be involved**",
________"** Unicorns also."
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "How did you find the SitePoint forums and what made you stay?",
______"answer": [
________"I think it may have been the first edition of 'Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL' that initially got me here.",
________"I've been hanging around here since about 2002-2003, but changed to a new username in 2005. I keep coming back and hanging out because this is a solid community with some excellent guru-fu behind it. I do also enjoy the teaching / helping people aspect of the forums.",
________"Not to mention that I have a growing collection of Sitepoint books. I think I'm up to 15 now."
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "As you know we have a policy against promotion, but it is customary to make an exception for the Member of Month in the interview. In that light, is there anything at all you'd like to promote?",
______"answer": [
________"This interview prompted me to finally put *something* online for my portfolio at <a href='http://afterlight.com.au'>Afterlight.com.au</a>.",
________"Recently I've also been going through some of my (mostly wildlife) photographs and putting some of the nice ones up on <a href='http://jvdl.id.au'>my photo gallery</a>."
______]
____},
____{
______"question": "Any last words of wisdom?",
______"answer": "Double quote your JSON strings. It's the law. ;)"
____}
__],
__"outro": "Give it up for AussieJohn, our well deserved Member of the Month!"
};

[Paul O'B]

alert('Congratulations, you are the first MOTM for 2012 - click here to continue ')

Interesting interview technique Remon

[ralph.m]

Congratulations, John! You are a great asset to the forums, so thanks for all you've done. And great interview, Remon. I now feel like I understand JSON. It's a nice coincidence that you both stem from the Netherlands.

John, those pictures are fantastic. Nice to see your shots of Sydney earlier today. Quite spectacular.

[TechnoBear]

Congratulations, John!

Your photographs really are quite stunning. I'm especially impressed with the wildlife - and surprised to spot a couple of my relatives in there.

[kohoutek]

A JSON interview! Great idea, Remon! And wonderful interview, John! Well deserved indeed.

[cydewaze]

Congrats!!

[AussieJohn]

Thanks all! It as a bit of a surprise, and most definitely a great way to start the new year!

John, those pictures are fantastic. Nice to see your shots of Sydney earlier today. Quite spectacular.

Thanks for the praise, I pushed that site live at about 3 am on the 1st and thought that while I was at it, I ought to put some photos of the fireworks in there too

Your photographs really are quite stunning. I'm especially impressed with the wildlife - and surprised to spot a couple of my relatives in there.

Thanks ! Unfortunately none of them were quite as techno as you, I tried asking the Grizzly if he had an email address and he just sat down and looked at me like he didn't know what Gmail was. I hear brown bears are smarter though.

[ralph.m]

I hear brown bears are smarter though.

Seems white bears are even smarter.

How did you get so close to them thar bears? They can be dangerous, I hear. (Mind you, the key is to make sure you are with someone else who is a slower runner than you. Then you're safe.)

[AussieJohn]

How did you get so close to them thar bears? They can be dangerous, I hear. (Mind you, the key is to make sure you are with someone else who is a slower runner than you. Then you're safe.)

zoom zoom zoom

I did at some point carry some "Bear Spray" with me while hiking in Canada, I hear you don't want to breathe that stuff in

[chris.upjohn]

Congrats John and quite an interesting interview :P

[Immerse]

Congratumalations!

Next month an interview in BSON format?

[guido2004]

Congratulations John
Great interview.

[jennyatson]

Good idea haa haa haa...Congratulations John

[molona]

Congratulations to both AussieJohn (not so aussie after all ) and ScallioXTX.

The interview was great and the JSON format really original. Ah, and happy new year, of course

[Mittineague]

Congratulations AussieJohn!

I too like walking, but I photograph plants not bears. Much safer.

[guido2004]

I too like walking, but I photograph plants not bears. Much safer.

And they don't move, that's another plus

[xhtmlcoder]

It's quite interesting that a lot of people accidently endup in web design roles through physical 'accidents' like yours John. Yes, I have heard the term "magic" and "internet wizard" before when people have referred to my coding skills so I know what you mean... it's just simpler. >;-)

Congratulations John of the MOTM and the JavaScript Guru 2011 too you'll just have to wait to next month for your badge to change.

[TheRaptor]

Congratulations John! It was well deserved!

[ParkinT]

Congratulations JSON MOTM

John @ Sitepoint Our Newest Member Of The Month