Interview - Kevin Yank of SitePoint.com

Getting Personal

SP: Is Kevin Yank really one person or a super-team of writers all working together under a fictitious writer's ghost name?

That is incorrect. Kevin Yank is actually the designation of a highly sophisticated, symmetrical multiprocessing AI running on a box in the corner of SitePoint HQ (right next to the MP3 server). I also make coffee.

SP: Let's talk about some personal things, if you don't mind. What's a typical day look like for you?

A typical day used to begin with me rolling out of bed around 10:30AM and checking my email in my housecoat. Working remotely from home had its perks!

But now that I'm at the SitePoint offices it's a 7:30AM start for me every day. After typical morning stuff, a 15 minute stroll up blustery Hoddle St. sees me at work shortly after 9AM.

I'll usually lunch at the office, but I like to meet my friend Archie (of Sausage Software fame) for lunch downtown about once a week. I'm also planning on starting a drawing course at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) in Melbourne on Wednesday mornings. Got to get those extracurriculars in!

After a long day of tweaking Java code and answering interview questions, I walk home around 6PM. My evenings are usually filled with movies (I'm putting together a sweet DVD setup at home), company, or quiet reading.

SP: What are some of your interests apart from Web development and SitePoint?

As mentioned above I've always been a bit of an artiste. I used to spend countless hours in class drawing comic books instead of paying attention. In the past few years I've let my skills in that area stagnate somewhat, and I look forward to picking it up again soon.

I've also got quite a nice kitchen in my new apartment, which I (perhaps over-ambitiously) hope will bring out the cook in me. I've already had a few people over for dinner to try some of my (admittedly simple) creations, which was a lot of fun!

SP: Where do you see the Internet in 3 years?

I think the Web on the desktop will change relatively little except to continue to migrate towards higher bandwidth applications as home Internet connections move in the same direction.

Where the real progress will be is in the ways the Internet will begin to slowly insinuate itself into our everyday lives away from our desks. Internet-connected handhelds and mobile phones are still wrestling to be something other than portable desktops with really small screens, but I think over the coming years we'll see them start to become truly useful, helpful devices.

I'm thinking of an in-dash display that shows available parking spaces in the neighbourhood; a store with no checkout counter, where the shelves are stocked with samples of the products you can order and have delivered to your door that same day; and a personal music player that lets you play any song at any time for a reasonable monthly subscription fee.

SP: Do you have any favorite movies?

Many. My DVD collection grows by an average of 4 titles a month. Particular favourites include the Back to the Future series, Shrek, Jerry Maguire, Waking Ned Devine, and Groundhog Day. Oh and yes, I am a Star Trek fan.

SP: The women in our group want to know if you're single and if you are, are you available?

I am very much both.

SP: What would you like to see yourself accomplish, I.T. or otherwise?

Assuming my cooking skills improve with practice, I'd like to run an online comic book, go skydiving, see more of Europe, and go camping at least once a year.

SP: Do you think that marveling at the term "PHP god" could be considered blasphemy and lower your chances of admittance into a preferable afterlife?

Nah, I think everyone knows that God is the l33test PHP coder there is.