About Me

My name is Auston Stewart. I’m a 20th century nerd who has worn and continues to wear many hats. Figurative hats, mind you. I only own a single, literal hat and it’s a deerskin newsie cap I picked up at a peculiar farm in New Zealand. Metaphorical hats include being a translator of Japanese poetry, Engineering Project Manager at Apple, Platform Engineer and Mobile Engineering Team Manager at Twitch.tv, Co-Founder of various tech-y startups, organic farm laborer, product management coach for high school entrepreneurs, repairer iPhones in a seaside shop, and host of various unpopular podcasts and YouTube channels. I’m a husband and father to two exuberant children who are, as I type this, busying themselves rummaging through the many electronic artifacts in my office.

I sometimes describe myself as a technologist as it suggests experience in the field of computing without implying that I’m currently employed in the creation of software or hardware products which, indeed, I am not. The term chafes a bit because, in spite of my close relationship with computing, I do not desire to define myself by its terms. I grew up whispering into the ears of loved ones over analog phonelines, dog-earing the pages of musty books and exploring the thick woods around my house with nothing more than a dented Boy Scouts canteen. The digital world - which I glimpsed through the 9600 baud modem on my 120MHz Gateway 2000 desktop - began merely as a fascinating counterpoint to the physical but it matured rapidly, right alongside me. By the time I was a young adult, the digital world had seemingly consumed the physical, becoming the primary conduit of my interactions and, not unrelatedly, my source of employment. I worry about the legacy of my contributions and do what I can foster positive relationships with technology.

Well, that’s my spiel. Here’s as complete and honest an accounting of my actual work as I can provide from which you can draw your own conclusions.

Curriculum Vitae

Technology

• At Apple, as Software Seed Engineer, processed and coordinated fixes to thousands of user-facing issues in Mac OS X (10.4-10.5), iPhone OS (2), QuickTime and OpenGL.
• At Apple, as Engineering Project Manager, planned C++ support in LLVM/Clang, phased out Apple’s Cocoa-Java bridge and Java runtime, shipped various updates for Java and WebObjects, lobbied for coordinated a major office relocation, etc.
• At Xpert Financial / FinancialOS, as Vice President of Engineering, wrote Dutch auction system and led the team that made the first Automated Trading System approved by the SEC for the exchange of private company shares. Created a rapid web application development platform utilizing my ‘Application Markup Language’.
• At Tropic Mac, Inc., as independent contractor, repaired a variety of Apple products from PowerMacs to iPhones.
• As contract coder for Fire Work Media, developed the Explore Hawai’i Volcanoes iOS app providing a Myst-like VR tour of the eponymous National Park.
• As contract coder for A.S. Design and Services, developed iOS application for Day-Lum Rentals.
• As contract coder for Elemodo Software, wrote iOS apps for archive.vg, Sensaay.
• At QuickEventz, as Co-Founder and Vice President, wrote web and iOS apps for location-based discovery of local events.
• As an independent developer, wrote the Macifom and Macifomlite Nintendo Entertainment System emulators for Mac OS X and iOS, respectively, and apps leveraging that technology to deliver homebrew NES titles like Battle Kid 2 and Zooming Secretary to the App Store.
• At Twitch, as Platform Engineer, rewrote the Twitch iOS app and contributed to the Android app to facilitate the monetization and growth of those platforms. As Mobile Engineering Team Manager, built the teams that continue to develop Twitch’s mobile apps.
• Created the Shedbuilt Linux distribution for low-cost ARM single-board computers and its shedmake recursive package manager.
• Created Shedbuilt Shareware Palooza, a mini-console operating system for playing MS-DOS games based on Shedbuilt.

Arts & Culture

• Contributed the poem, shita no shigusa to Alice Iris Red Horse, an English anthology of the work of Japanese poet, Yoshimasu Gozo.
• Produced an English translation of Japanese poet, Tamura Ryuichi’s volume ‘Kotoba no nai sekai’ as ‘The World Without Words’.
• Co-hosted the original Old Game Plus podcast. There’s another podcast by the same name that’s still putting out episodes that I have no involvement in.
• Co-hosted the extremely short-lived Legend of the Hidden Podcast 90s pop culture show.
• Currently co-hosting the Smug & Play show on YouTube (previously a podcast) exploring Windows 9X-era PC games, technology and culture.

Volunteer Work

• At Kahumana organic farm, planted and harvested a variety of fruits and vegetables.
• At Nalukai Foundation, as Board Member and Curriculum Director, developed a comprehensive entrepreneurship curriculum for high school students and have instructed and mentored over one hundred students.
• As pro-bono consultant, have advised a handful of youth startups including Student Corner and Magnify Wellness.

Contact Me

I may one day set up a proper contact form on this site but, until then, you’re welcome to send me an e-mail. My address is my first and last name, joined by a period, at gmail.com.