This week, GTS sat down with the Threadless Engineer - Chris. We discuss how he got into the web field, the future of indoor gardening and long distance beer runs.

GTS: Ladies and gentleman, welcome back to another beautiful installment of Gettin' The Skinny. Today's guest is Chris. What's up Chris?

Chris: chillin, codin... you?

GTS: Another day, another sandwich. Please tell the GTS readers what you do at Threadless.

Chris: Well, I'm the newest engineer for threadless/skinnycorp. Right now I'm working on the new Iplai (iparklikeanidiot.com) which is also being used as a test ground for some code enhancements for new versions of threadless and other new stuff
so in a nut shell... writing lots of code.

GTS: Sounds awesome! What were you doing before you came on board at Threadless?

Chris: More of the same, coding. I worked for a small web dev company. Cool company we all telecommuted. Got to work from home for 3 years, which spoiled me a bit but if you have to start coming into an office, this is definitely where you'd want to do it

GTS: What got you into coding?

Chris: Funny enough, Flash. I was really into design, photography, video and printing in high school. Also always liked science and math. When Flash was blowing up in the late 90's I started seeing design that could move. I was in love. Hillman Curtis was my idol. So I grew up with flash, as the coding environment evolved I evolved with it. Eventually I started working for a small ad company making flash brochureware, which again continued to evolve into more and more complex applications, this eventually led to finding better ways to deal with data. Php and MySQL was the next logical step. To a certain extent it was always about being kind of lazy and making the code do as much of the work as possible. Flash has become a very Object Oriented coding environment, which i think helps me a lot on the backend side of things, which is definitely where i spend most of my time now a days.

GTS: In your opinion, what's next for the web?

Chris: It's hard to say. I think it's really all about communication. Social Data is great, for advertisers, for humanity it's all about pushing the global consciousness to the next level, when everyone everywhere has access to all information and is free to exchange it we'll start to see some really amazing things. In the states we get to concentrate on the next big site, but really there's so much to do in the basic infrastructure world wide. I would say ubiquitous access is the next big thing, even if it is in the states, I think your already seeing it with the proliferation of iPhone/Gphone devices. I really think threadless' model is strong, crowd sourcing. I would expect to see some great projects around that idea.

GTS: Aside from your work at threadless, what keeps you busy?

Chris: well, I've got a beagle, Max. We like to go for long walks. I also play a lot of soccer and love my bike. I've been working with the Make Controller and building a computerized indoor garden system. Just went a 90 mile ride this weekend to 3 Floyds Brewery in Munster, I

GTS: Aww, Max looks like an awesome dog. I'm intrigued about this indoor gardening system. What's that all about?

Chris: It's a gravity fed drip irrigation system and a small ebb and flow hydroponics system. I've built some soil moisture sensors and plan on hooking up humidity/temp/solar sensors all controlled via the make controller and a mac mini. The backend is all python. Love Python! Basically a low budget green house system, it's really all an experiment right now. Not trying to produce my whole food supply or anything...yet. Ideally very efficient, with the coming water wars and all.

GTS: Ah yes, I'm stockpiling freshly filled Brita pitchers as we speak.

Chris: Haha, good call! Remember you can always drink the water out of the tank on the toilet.

GTS: Let me know how that works out for ya.

Chris: So fresh and clean!

GTS: You said you love to ride your bike. What kind of motorcycle do you own?

Chris: Not a motorcycle, a bicycle. It's a highly modified SE draft. Cheapy cheap, but i've had 2 bikes stolen and just had my back wheel stolen.

GTS: You rode 90 miles on a bicycle to a brewery??

Chris: Yup!

GTS: You are a MADMAN!!!

Chris: Haha, indeed. Doing a 200 miler this summer, to Michigan.

GTS: That's incredible. Do you have a basket or sidecar for Max?

Chris: No, in the early planing stages for some sort of trailer though. I think he might fit in a back pack, but he's a wiley one, I think he'd jump out. He has ridden on a scooter though, he seemed to like it actually.

GTS: Nice! I've got some blogger questions for you. Ready?

Chris: Sure thing.

GTS: Chipmnk asked: What is your favorite Internet handle to use and what's the background behind it?

Chris: well, i definitely go by entone the most. It's based on the name I do my personal projects under, entropealab. entone is really just ent - one. so number one in entropealab. if that makes sense. i'll also go by entropealab as well

GTS: TheInfamousBaka asked: If you had a pet Rhinoceros, where would you want to take him?

Chris: Hmm, thats a tough one. On the one hand i don't really like caging wild animals so i'd like to bring him back home, but on the other if his home had been destroyed and I was his last hope I would definitely want to ride that sucker down Michigan Ave and smash some cars up. i'm sure he'd like it too, he'd peobably hate the humans, bringing him to Chicago and all. Not a good place for a rhino. I can't wait for genetic engineering to really take off, I'm totally getting a mini elephant.

GTS: littlem wants to know: do you like spam, the mystery meat?

Chris: Never had it that i know of.

GTS: Believe me, you wouldn't want to know.

Chris: I can imagine. I usually get my meat from the butcher down the street.

GTS: One last question from Chipmnk: What is your favorite pair of shoes at the moment?

Chris: Hmm, this is a problem of mine, hats and shoes. It really depends on the activity. I've got a great pair of Nike 6.0's that are great for riding, nice stiff soles. I've got my classic woven IPath's that never fail and my new running shoes rock, Nike Free's. I'd say i wear the 6.0's the most. Oh and my 2 pairs of soccer shoes, which area pretty rad too. I could go on. my new years resolution was to cut down on clothing in general. Less is more.

GTS: Alright Chris, it's time to play Pick One™. Are you familiar with this segment?

Chris: I think so, I read a few of the older interviews to prepare myself.

GTS: #1 Tree Hugger: Maple or Oak?

Chris: Oak

GTS: #2 Medieval Times: Wizard or Knight?

Chris: Wizard

GTS: #3 80's Ladies: Molly Ringwald or Demi Moore?

Chris: Demi Moore

GTS: #4 Alien Invasion: Welcome with open arms or blast them back into another galaxy?

Chris: open arms

GTS: #5 Grab a Guitar: Acoustic or Electric?

Chris: Acoustic

GTS: #6 Outdoor Gaming: Shuffleboard or Bocce Ball?

Chris: bocce ball

GTS: #7 Candy Is Dandy: Twizzlers or Swedish Fish?

Chris: twizzlers

GTS: #8 Pump Up The Volume: Old school hip-hop or Classic Rock?

Chris: hip hop!

GTS: #9 On The Side: Cole Slaw or Fries?

Chris: fries, hate cole slaw

GTS: #10 Ice Cream Trucks: Awesome or Creepy?

Chris: awesome

GTS: Chris, unfortunately, our GTS chat has come to end. Just two more questions: first, which Threadless staffer should I interview next?

Chris: I'll go with Cam. He's the new marketing guy.

GTS: Cam it is! And secondly, please share any parting words of wisdom.

Chris: Less is more.