In the third of our on-going series of interviews from coders from the internet, Here we have Jake Picton a Software Engineer from Australia. So, without further a do, here it is, just like last time, please leave your comments and we'll email Jake back in a few weeks with any questions you have.

1. First of all, Could you lead us through a brief history of you’re life? Where you live, what you do?

I'm a 21 year old Undergraduate Software Engineer studying at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I live just a half hour
away from campus in a quiet suburb called Medowie, where I have spent my entire life. I graduated secondary school with a 96.7 University Admissions Index (100 being the highest), and for the past three years have maintained an 87% mark average in my University courses. I have two brothers - one starting university this year and one nearing the end of primary school - a cat and a dog.

2. How did you get started out on the web and what inspired you to get into coding?

It was simple really. In the days before social networking sites became popular, my mates and I decided to create a forum where all of our friends could sign up and chat. The forum was to be appended to a website with jokes, anecdotes and news from our lives in Newcastle. Although we had grand ideas, none of us actually knew how to create a website past using site builders available at places like Geocities (I feel dirty just remembering it). So I volunteered to learn whatever was necessary to ensure our site was a success. So I began my foray into the elegant and sometimes frustrating world of web markup and styling. Over the years our site fell apart due to lessening interest from its creators and the rise of MySpace and Facebook, but I was already hooked on the intricacies of coding.

3. What languages do you code and which one do you think is more 1. powerful, 2. simple and 3. you enjoy more?

There's a fairly standard set of languages that all web engineers should be familiar with. XHTML, CSS and Javascript are the fundamentals, although any good web engineer should be very familiar with at least one server-side language. PHP is common and simple to use, but I prefer working with Java. It's more complex, but vastly more powerful, and adheres closely to the object-oriented coding paradigm that I'm comfortable with. Given a choice, I love to write applications in C++ purely because it's a more interesting and enjoyable language than Java, but C++ plays a very minor role on the Internet.

4. What sites you use for inspiration and do you recommend any to our readers?

I've never used websites for coding inspiration. Often I'll stumble across a problem that requires a very in-depth search to find a solution, but I find web engineering has a solid process and thus the only area in which you can let your creativity run free is the elegance of your code. I do dabble in the design side of websites though, and there are plenty of resources for inspiration there. I suggest taking a look at the following URL, which has a set of inspiring websites broken into categories: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design-inspiration/

5. Do you have any other hobbies? if so what are they and why do you enjoy them?

When I'm not coding, my four main activities are reading novels, playing computer games, watching movies and playing cricket (Sport of Kings). I especially enjoy my novels. At a young age I read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and since then I've had a voracious appetite for fantasy series, although I do enjoy a good crime mystery. In regards to the computer games, I tend to keep returning to the classics and don't get as excited about new releases as I once did. The exception being the development of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for those games.

6. Do you run a PC, or a Mac, why?

I use a PC, mainly because I'm comfortable with the user interface of Windows. I find it ridiculous that operating systems have such an avid fanbase. In the end it's just two different user interfaces, and you use the one you like best. Neither OS has any further advantage over the other.

7. What software couldn’t you live without and could you name 3 reasons?

Adobe Photoshop. Hands down. Even though I am primarily a coder, most jobs I'm contracted to do involve taking a .psd and developing a coded template for the design. The slicing and structuring is my responsibility, and without Photoshop I would be up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.

8. What’s the program you use to code in? What is so good about it?

For simple jobs I tend to use Notepad++ because of its clean interface and good syntax highlighting. However, when I'm in need of a proper IDE I lean towards Eclipse. I have used Netbeans in the past, but I'm more comfortable with Eclipse.

9. When you first started out, how did you promote yourself? If at all?

Word of mouth. I have no interest in starting a business until I've graduated from my degree, so the amount of work I get through word of mouth is sufficient. There's also plenty of forums out there where people go to request coding jobs, and if you have the ability you can throw your hat in the ring and make the client an estimate. Many of those clients will become recurring customers if you do a good job.

10. What was the first coding job you ever got?

It wa simply to take a .psd design and create a web template for the client. In fact a good deal of my jobs are simply that. There are many more people looking for markup and styling than there are looking for custom content management systems. You may consider markup and styling to be easy, but it's also easy money.

11. Finally, Where can we find you on the web, Be that you're twitter, portfolio or other?

In short, you can't. My portfolio has been offline for a few months now, and I don't currently have plans to find new hosting. I am, however, a moderator at the MickM.com forums, so if you have any enquiries, or just wish to chat, you can find me there.