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Volume Number: 26
Issue Number: 01
Column Tag: MacTech Spotlight
The MacTech Spotlight: Aaron Smith, MacEndeavor.com
What do you do?
By day I'm a Senior Open Standards Developer working for an advertising shop in San Francisco. By night, I'm a software ninja writing software at Mac Endeavor; working to become an independent Mac developer.
How long have you been doing what you do?
I started programming at a young age; my dad hired a local computer science student to tutor me when I was around 12. I would tinker around with a Borland C compiler and make random stuff. That was about thirteen years ago so I've been programming for a while.
What was your first computer?
I don't remember a lot about my first computer, it was something with a black screen and green text. The first one I vividly remember was a Gateway 2000. I learned a lot about Windows 95 - every other week I'd be on the phone with tech support; until I got to the point where I needed real help and had to just figure it out myself.
Are you Mac-only, or a multi-platform person?
I've had a ton of experience on Windows, but for all of my day work and programming I stick with Mac. For server needs I stick with CentOS Linux.
What attracts you to working on the Mac?
The thoughtfulness and passion that clearly radiates from the OS. The history of what's on these machines is amazing - the Unix kernel which has been around for so long. It's like having the entire history of computing as we know it on this machine. The developer tools and API's are the best I've had the pleasure of working with; Apple clearly puts a lot of work into improving existing code and API's.
What is the advice you'd give to someone trying to get into this line of work today?
The most important thing is liking what you're doing. If you like and believe in what you're doing you'll be willing to make ten times the effort that anyone else would. You have to be very patient and persistent. Don't worry about technology or programming languages; come up with ideas first, then figure out how it's going to work.
Where can we see a sample of your work?
I write and sell software at www.macendeavor.com. I also have codeendeavor.com where I blog and release open source projects, and anything I feel may be of some help to someone else.
The next way I'm going to impact IT/OS X/the Mac universe is:
That's really hard to say; I guess I just like it when people like my software, so I'll continue to write software people like.
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