Aaron Powell

Aaron is a Web Technical Specialist with Readify living in Sydney. As a passionate web developer he believes there’s nothing that can’t be solved with JavaScript and semicolons.

10 questions for Aaron Powell:

• What did you do before becoming a designer/developer?

  I studied computer science at university so I always planned to do something related to software development. After graduation I found myself working in tech support and quickly realised that that wasn't for me. After a short job search I got offered a junior developer role at a digital agency doing web development. I was completely green when it came to web development but quickly found my feet and couldn't imagine working on any platform but on the web.

• Which developers do you follow or are an inspiration to you?

  I find that people who try and push the boundaries to be the most inspiring to me. I often see people posting demos of things that they have done which serve little real-world purpose on their own, but instead they force you to think differently. I recently saw a demo of how to use device orientation combined with web audio to change sound as a device was moved, tilted and rotated. On its own this demo didn't solve any problem, but it showed something that's possible, making you think "what if".

• Which programming languages do you use on a daily basis?

  I'm a bit of a 'jack of all trades' so most days will see me writing anything from SQL to C# to HTML, JavaScript and CSS, but my preference is front-end technologies, especially JavaScript.

• Who do you side with: Team Mac or Team PC?

  Team PC. Windows 8.1 + a touch screen can't be beaten.

• Do you usually go to conferences? Which ones do you prefer?

  People joke that I always seem to be at a conference! Each year I try and get to around half a dozen conferences in Australia and around the world, either to speak at or just to attend. My preference conferences that really make you think, either through big-picture style talks or through showing you really wild and out-there possibilities in code.

• Which technologies are you excited about?

  I'm really excited about the way Microsoft has adopted touch and driving forward with it. Having been using Windows on a touch device for over a year now I constantly get frustrated when I'm on a non-touch device, I've even found myself poking at screens and then wondering why they don't do anything! Touch combined with gestures has made browsing the web such an immersive experience and it's entirely different under Windows to the iPad touch experience.

• How many hours do you work each week?

  It depends what is classed as work! I've got my "9 - 5" job but pretty much every night and on the weekend I'll be online reading blogs, writing blogs or playing around with code. If I'm sitting on the couch watching TV there's a good chance I'll have my laptop out and splitting my attention between the two.

• Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.

  I go through phases on listening to music while working, some days it's headphones one, but then I might go weeks without. Same goes for my music tastes, some days I'll spin up some electronic music like Daft Punk, DeadMau5, etc. Other days it can be anything from Ska (Area 7, Less Than Jake) to Punk (Green Day, The Offspring) to Alternative (Garbage, Stabbing Westward, A Perfect Circle) or even HipHop (Bliss N Eso, 28 Days). I seem to have quite a broad taste in music.

• Which books would you recommend as a must-read?

  I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is a book I recommend to a lot of people. Most people have seen the movie and either weren't a fan or found it to be nothing special but I still recommend that they read the book, it is really different to the movie.

  Ubik by Philip K Dick is one of my all-time favourite books and no matter how many times you read it it's still just as crazy as the last time.

  Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Dune are also both books that I think everyone should read, even if they aren't into sci-fi.

  Lastly, Alice in Wonderland is a really interesting read.

• What is your favorite sport?

  I grew up playing field hockey and still enjoy playing it some 20-odd years later.