Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Dustin Schneider. I’m 24 years old and I’ve been doing primarily web development on Cape Cod for about 6-7 years. I’ve been with Genevate as a web developer for most of that time.

I am very enthusiastic about the web and where it is going. I spend a lot of free time following trends, always looking for better practices or methodologies. The web, especially the Ruby side, moves pretty fast. Right now some of my new main interests are Merb, rSpec, jQuery, Passenger, and git.

What services/products do you offer?

Genevate creates custom designed and hosted Web-based applications. We create mostly web applications for our clients from their own ideas, and also create custom web-based tools for small businesses and web designers to use such as the Protent CMS, DesignFTP, GenevateMail, and some other great applications in the works.

Most of my day is spent working with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. A little PHP and other Ruby frameworks (Merb) isn’t out of the ordinary. I also wear a server administration hat keeping several servers happy.

Who/where is your audience?

We mostly cater to an audience looking for custom web applications for their own use, like if they want to make a social networking Facebook-like site or anything content management and database-driven. We are experts at database work and architecture. We stay on top of all the web has to offer and have always led in development with technologies such as Ruby on Rails. People find us all over the world because of the work we do, and we do quite a bit of work all around the globe. It’s fun. Even with the time zones.

What is the website?

Genevate is at: http://www.genevate.com

I don’t have a personal website–yet. Leslie and Chris keep me too busy.

Well-Funded or Bootstrapped?

Genevate has been successfully bootstrapped for 6 years by the owners, Leslie and Chris. However, big investment is always beckoning. I hear our company outing in Bora Bora is happening soon.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

I’ll probably be doing web development or something related in 5-10 years. I tend to take things as they come and don’t have many concrete goals yet. Can I blame my age?

Where were you born - where do you live now?

I was born in Twin Falls, Idaho. I spent time there and in Utah until moving to Falmouth about 11-12 years ago. I think I’d take mountains over ocean — no offense ocean.

PC or Mac?

I use both almost every day so I’m sort of in the middle. To choose one though, I’ll have to go with my MacBook because it’s just the best work environment. I’d feel lost without Terminal and TextMate.

On the PC side, I enjoy the hardware flexibility and gaming. I hope Microsoft gets a chance to break away from all the legacy baggage that appears to be bogging them down someday and do something new. Vista wasn’t very impressive.

Where did you go to school?

I’m still attending Cape Cod Community College.

What Social Networks are you on?

Just Facebook and Twitter fairly recently to see what all the rage is and start-up cash being thrown around is all about. I’m trying to get into them some more.

Greatest invention ever?

Electric power distribution. I could probably handle losing the tubes for a few days, but electricity? I don’t want to know.

Person you believe has contributed most to the world of technology?

Thomas Edison to (partially) support my greatest invention ever answer. He was a great businessman and was the father of the idea of research institutions. Some of his other notable contributions are the phonograph, incandescent lightbulb, and motion picture camera to name a few.

I would probably choose Nikola Tesla on a different day.

Where have you traveled in your life?

I’ve seen a lot of the United States. I have some family in Denmark and should probably visit there more often. And I’ve been to Mexico. Ok, it was Tijuana for a couple hours, but that still counts? Right?

Why set up shop on Cape Cod?

Because there is no shortage of realtors to help you find you a shop here. Think of the realtors.

I think if you can afford it, enjoy the ocean, seafood, small-town atmosphere and I’m sure many more good qualities then it’s a great place.

Cape Cod is a place I’d probably appreciate more if I didn’t live here year-round. It’s easy to forget how nice some areas are right around the corner and why it is so appealing to tourists and second-home owners. I recently started biking around and I’m trying to take that in more.

5 Websites you go to every day?

1) http://www.gmail.com
2) http://news.google.com
3) http://www.rubyflow.com
4) http://www.planetrubyonrails.com
5) http://www.slashdot.org

What’s on your iPod right now?

An audible audio book of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. I never finished the book and wanted to try out an audio book. I’m getting through it but find that audio books are better suited for long drives or traveling. Definitely won’t replace the real thing for me.

What is on your desktop/screensaver right now?

A high resolution picture of Endeavor on STS-118 docked to the International Space Station.

You are on a deserted island - do you bring a laptop or book?

My first reaction was a laptop with tons of e-books on it, but then you think about it some more..

Does the island have wifi? Because that changes things. You could maybe even join Desertd, the social network for people on deserted islands.

Otherwise, I’d go with the book. You’re going to need some help with that fire.

Phone call or text message?

Instant message. But a phone call is still appropriate for some things.

Thank you for your time, Dustin!

Editor: In my “other” job, as CEO of Genevate, I have had the honor of working with Dustin for the last 5 years and hands down, Dustin is the best developer/programmer/employee you will ever meet. With Chris and I in Hawaii, where the Iron Man triathlon is done, it should be noted that Dustin is our Iron Man and we thank him for always being so detailed, so committed and so valuable to the Genevate team. He also has a great sense of humor. If you can ever pry his hands away from a computer long enough to talk to him… ;-)