Michael Mistretta is into social media, he has his own blog, he just recently launched a tech Podcast, and he’s also an extraordinary photographer. But the thing is, he’s only 15 years old!
Below is the interview I got to have with him.
- So Mike, tell me a little bit about yourself.
I’m a 15 year old teenager passionate about God, technology, and photography. When I’m not blogging or taking pictures of missionary work in Africa, I’m usually working on various online projects with my friend, Chris Thomson. I guess you can picture me as the kind of guy that lights up when people start talking about cameras or Macs. I’m also Canadian, eh?
- How, and when, did you first get into technology and the computer?
My dad was always one of those people into Web Design and was fascinated with the Internet and forums like CompuServe back in the 90s. Some of that rubbed off on me, and led me to longing for a beeeautifui HP PC. After awhile of saving, I finally decided to purchase my first Mac—a MacBook Pro—in June of 2007. Since then I have grown to love photography and blogging—which eventually led to my purchase of a Nikon D40x in December of 2007, and the launching of my own blog, MichaelMistretta.com, on January 1st, 2008.
- Okay, so I hear you’re: into social media, a photographer, and a podcaster. And on top of all of that, you’re still a student in high school. How do you manage all your time wisely?
Last year I began to teach myself school from home, due to the lack of interest in the education system in the schools. I am able to learn my material and complete the “homework” in 2-3 hours per day. This gives me time to practice my photography, writing, and work on projects. I also get an extra month of summer break, allowing me to go on missions trips throughout the summer.
- Where do you see the future of your data? (on the web, external hard drives, etc.)
I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating the future of computing, and how we will store our data in the future. There are two products that were recently released, that I think give us a glimpse into the future of our data. MobileMe, from Apple, allows all your vital information—emails, contacts, calendars, small documents—and syncs them, seamlessly, across all you devices. Really, it’s not even sync—it’s pushing the data to the cloud, which then distributes all the data immediately to all your devices. I’ve written about this concept before, and I strongly believe that this system of interacting with data will be the future of living in the cloud. The second product that I believe changes the game for local data is the new Drobo Generation 2. The Drobo is a smart data robot that allows massive, expandable, redundant data. It’s fast. It’s silent. There is no need for additional backups for the data on the Drobo, and you will never run out of space as you can keep expanding the blob of data on the fly. Drobo is what Hard Drives need to make a comeback.
- What are you favourite desktop applications and web services?
Skitch, NetNewsWire, iChat, iTunes, Aperture, iWork, and obviously Twitterrific are some of my favourite applications on my Mac. I use TextMate + Transmit + CSSEdit for web design, and MarsEdit, another amazing app, for blogging. I use MobileMe for my online data, and WordPress for my website. The three big social networks that I’m on are Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.
- Could you name 5 of your favourite blogs?
Hmm, this could be hard. Shawn Blanc’s blog, The Weekly Review, TightWInd, Daring Fireball, and Chris Thomson’s blog are a couple of my favourites.
- Final question, I heard you just traveled on a month long trip to Africa. So, how was it?
This year, I went to Zambia to help with the AIDS orphans. Zambia is known as the cradle of the orphan crisis in Africa. There are 2 million orphans within Zambia’s 10 million people population. Many orphans have to drop out of school, and go into prostitution or drugs in order to provide for their siblings. It’s not normal for an child to eat more than once or twice a week. We went to help provide them with hope, food, clothes, and a place to stay. We built houses, we played with them, and we showed them love—something they had never felt before. You can see some of the photos from the trip on my Flickr account.
