This month, our spotlight goes to @Vanderdecken who is currently building an app that anonymously sends tips. Learn more about him and congratulate him as our top user with a kudo below!
Q: Tell us a little bit about who you are, where are you from and what are you currently working on?
I am from several places. I have lived on three continents and worked on a fourth. Right now, I live in Western North Carolina. I am mostly a software architect who creates and invents new types of systems. That differs from most software system architects who just take existing parts and puts them together.
I am currently working on TipiT, which is an app used to anonymously send tips using QR Codes, M-Visa, and Visa Direct payments.
Q: What interested you in Visa Developer?
I was searching for a way to familiarize myself with the credit card processing world. My app needs to use systems such as ACH, Visa Direct or M-Visa to be workable. Now I am researching new ways to use payment processors to do micropayments.
Q: If you were an API, what would you be? Why? J
I would be an advice API about manners and being a gentleman while dating. Think of something that responds to queries with how to correctly act as a gentleman for any occasion. It is one of those APIs/Books I have been trying to write for twenty years.
Q: What do you love most about coding?
The storytelling parts. For me writing code is just like writing a movie screenplay in that there are several acts and subplots, introductions, setups, journeys, conflict resolution and many actors that come together to make great code.
Q: What was the first thing you built with code?
I used a Commodore 64 to create patterns for sweaters as a student. Professionally I wrote Ethernet network drivers for Windows 1.1
Q: What’s the most exciting thing about being a developer in the payments industry for you?
Being able to create something that will change people’s/ customer’s lives in a good way. Our TipiT app is about being able to anonymously tip people.
Q: Any tips for developers exploring payments?
Same advice I give all developers, keep a proper engineering journal in a bound notebook. The notebook won’t crash, and it will come in handy when you are asked by your boss if there is anything you have been working on that might be patentable. Being able to show your daily work on paper beats trying to remember what you did six months ago come review time. My notebooks date back to the 1980s.
Q: What has it been like working with Visa Developer so far? What have you learned?
For me it has been a tough road. My coding skills are in older languages so having to learn and understand new ones is driving me a bit crazy. Personally, I would rather just find someone else to write the interface code while I work on the systems levels.
Q: Anything else to add?
I have a degree in Brewing, Distillation and Fermentation. I took some time off from programming to see what the world of manufacturing was all about. But then people kept asking me to program and not so much make beer.
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Every month we will feature Visa Dev Community members who are active on our forums and blogs. Want to be featured? Start by giving this blog a kudo or comment. The more you are active, the better your chances of being the next user of the month!
