He says in the comments that he's supposed to release the source today.

The source is apparently C# using .NET 3.5, so might take a bit of work to get running under e.g. Mono, should you be on a non-Windows platform.

I'm not saying that I don't agree with you to a certain point, and I do lack a formal degree as well and still work as a programmer to some extent, but I think Joel Spolsky has a point worth considering his article "The Law of Leaky Abstractions" [1].

In short; the point is that the shit will inevitably hit the fan at one point or another. The abstractions you are using will leak. And at that point, your ability to roll up your sleeves and dig into the details -- some of which will put those "CS-y" skills you claim not to have any interest in learning to the test -- can be what separates you from the pack.

That said, I also agree that there's a good amount of common sense to being a successful programmer or sysadmin in the real world.

[1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.html