Interview with Curt Christianson

Interview with Curt Christianson

 

 

Hi Today I got this opportunity to do an interview with current Microsoft MVP and one of the moderators of ASP.Net Forums Mr. Curt Christiason.

Mr. Curt Christiason is from Plover, WI - USA. He is an 10 time Microsoft  MVP award recipient having more than 20 years of Experience in the IT industry.

You can visit him @ his website http://darkfalz.com/

Here are the glimpses of the Interview:

Q1.Tell Something  About Yourself?

A)     I’ve been around in the IT world, professionally for almost 20 years now. I’m a 10 time Microsoft MVP recipient, focusing mostly on the Web development side of things. I’m a published author on the subject as well as formerly hosting a number of websites dedicated to the subject.

Q2.What do you do?

A)     I’m a professional developer working in the Insurance Industry.

Q3.What is your Development Environment?

A)     My primary environment would be Visual Studio 2010 focusing on ASP.NET using VB.NET. I also run Visual Studio 2012.

Q4.What is your Area of Interest?

A)     Of late my interests have been more around the UI and the interesting things that can be done with jQuery and related technologies. Before this my primary focus was around core frameworks and reusable architectures.

Q5.How did you get started Programming?

A)     I previously worked in the IT Industry as a hardware/networking support person where I worked myself up to be a Corporate Systems Administrator working for a software company that spanned a number of states. Eventually I found myself being bored with this path and started to “tinker” around with some HTML and vbScript (classis ASP). This new opportunity lead me to an opening as a developer and I have been with this ever since. I’m completely self-taught but believe this has been beneficial to my career path.

Q6.How has the developer Community Influenced your coding?

A)     From day 1 (being self-taught) I relied heavily on the community. Newsgroups, and later Forums were where I got almost all of my assistance. It’s safe to say that without a strong community in my early days I would likely not be a developer today.

Q7. Your Role Model/Programmer?

A)     I don’t think I would have any single role model when it comes to programming. There have been a number of people throughout the years that have been influential but nearly all of them are from the online world. For me I would have to say it’s the “Community” as a whole that I would list as my biggest influence and therefore my “role model”.

Q8.Your Favourite Websites and Blogs?

A)     I spend time, nearly every day on the http://forums.asp.net website so this would have to be the foremost entry. After that my focus comes and goes depending on what’s happening. People like Scott Guthrie host some interesting blogs of course but depending on the subject of the posting and it’s pertinence to what I’m currently working on I’m not always reading it.

Q9.Your Hobbies?

A)     As it related to development, I spend a good deal of time working on Open Source projects (like the iTracker project I developed on CodePlex). Outside of that I’m an avid gamer but mostly spend my time with my Family.

Q10.Apart from Programming what do you  do?

A)     Computer gaming, wood working, fishing, hunting and spending time with my wife and children.

Q11. If you were not a programmer  what would be you?

A)     A Chef. I love to cook, always have.

Q12.Your Favourite Holiday Spot?

A)     Las Vegas if I’m with friends, Wisconsin Dells if I’m with my family.

Q13.Advice to New Programmers ?

A)     Keep at it. Nearly every aspect of existing development has already had it’s major hurdles overcome so rely on the Community for support when it comes to ways to best utilize these. Instead, focus on the things that haven’t been done. Find ways to better development as a concept, not just develop better.