Who is the genius Livecoding.tv user with the name Topaz2078? We know that he is a Software Architect  at Synacor and the creative genius of adventofcode.com, vanilla-js.com, was.tl/projects, phpsadness.com, and hexatlas.com but here are a few things you might not know:

Real name: Eric Wastl

Alter ego: Topaz

Location: The Internet

Powers/abilities:  Perl, JavaScript, regex, PHP, Lua, C, C++, Shell, Color-Grapheme Synesthesia

Questions

Q: Who is the creative genius that’s Eric Wastl and which city are you from?

A: I’m a Software Architect currently living in Buffalo, NY.  I’m originally from Minnesota, but I moved to New York to go to the Rochester Institute of Technology.  I like making things, especially making things that help other people make things.  I also like helping others learn new things, especially related to making software.

Q: What is Advent of Code? What inspired you to launch it?

A: Advent of Code is an Advent calendar full of programming puzzles.  I came up with the idea in October, figured a few people might try it (my original traffic estimate was seventy users), and got to work.  I like making programming puzzles, but it was still a lot more work than I expected.  I was hanging out with some friends and the topic of Advent calendars came up; a little sketching proved it was feasible.

Q: How do you run AdventofCode? How many AdventofCode events have you hosted so far?

A: Nominally, Advent of Code runs itself.  The site unlocks puzzles automatically.  I’m still up every time a puzzle unlocks to watch load on the server, and I have a lot of friends helping by beta testing the puzzles, moderating the subreddit, watching social media, watching the server when I’m not around, or even just making sure I’m eating and sleeping.  This is especially important because I was at 30,000 feet in an airplane during one unlock, and had the Flu for a few more.  This is the first Advent of Code.

Q: What is your funniest AdventofCode moment so far?

A: Tie between these:

A comment thread made on day 3 Solutions of Advent of Code

This conversation shared and continued on Twitter

Q: How many participants do you have this  year? What do the people code?

A: We’re up to about 50,000 participants.  People write solutions to the puzzles in almost any language you can imagine, including Prolog, QBasic, and even a real embedded circuit simulator.

Q: Where are the participants from? Do the participants share their code?

A: The participants are from everywhere, as far as I can tell.  There are many in the USA and Europe, but the rest of the world is certainly well-represented.

Q: Can people watch participants live and support them?

A: If the participants choose to stream their work, sure.  Some of them have been using Twitch.tv or Livecoding.tv for this.  Some people record themselves and post later on YouTube, and some people even create whole video tutorials on the puzzles.

Q: When did you first hear about Livecoding.tv? What is behind your Livecoding.tv username ‘Topaz2078’?

A: I heard about Livecoding.tv through the AoC participants – many of them announced their streams on Twitter or Reddit, and Livecoding.tv was one service they were using. My username is a cross between my birthstone and a number to make it unique.

Q: How could Livecoding.tv help make AdventofCode more exciting?

A: Letting people live-stream their code is already pretty exciting!

Q: What code will Santa Claus write on December 25 when AdventofCode ends?

A: I’ll never tell!

You gave us your time, the most thoughtful of all gifts; so we thank you for granting us this interview and wish you a Happy Holiday and a prosperous new year.

Livecoding.tv