It’s Saturday — the first Saturday of May 2025! And since it’s Saturday, it’s time for another “picdump!”
This is the weekly article where I post the technology- and work-related memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. There are 108 of them — share and enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, May 5 through Sunday, May 11, 2025!
This list includes both in-person and online events. Note that each item in the list includes:
✅ When the event will take place
✅ What the event is
✅ Where the event will take place
✅ Who is holding the event
How do I put this list together?
It’s largely automated. I have a collection of Python scripts in a Jupyter Notebook that scrapes Meetup and Eventbrite for events in categories that I consider to be “tech,” “entrepreneur,” and “nerd.” The result is a checklist that I review. I make judgment calls and uncheck any items that I don’t think fit on this list.
In addition to events that my scripts find, I also manually add events when their organizers contact me with their details.
What goes into this list?
I prefer to cast a wide net, so the list includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under any of these categories:
I’m working on some new videos for the Global Nerdy YouTube channel, and one of them is on answering questions in the dreaded “behavioral interview.” That’s the interview where you’re asked questions like “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a conflict on your team. How did you handle it?”
To help come up with ideas for the video about behavioral interviews, I posed some questions to LLMs. As I like to say, no matter how creative or clever you are, it is by definition impossible to make a list of ideas that you’d never come up with yourself.
So I posed this question to Claude, which for some reason, seems to know stuff about me:
How would you describe a behavioral interview, if you had to describe it in the style of Joey deVilla?
And wow, was the response snark-tastic:
Here’s the text of the response:
Joey deVilla’s Guide to Behavioral Interviews
Imagine me adjusting my accordion straps and coffee mug before dropping this knowledge bomb…
So you wanna know about behavioral interviews? Those corporate rituals where they ask you to “Tell me about a time when…” instead of just asking if you can do the damn job?
Behavioral interviews are the tech industry’s version of “Show, don’t tell” – except instead of showing your actual skills, you’re telling stories about when you supposedly used them! It’s like your professional life as fan fiction, where the hiring manager is desperately hoping you’re not writing in the genre of fantasy.
These interviews operate on the radical premise that past behavior predicts future performance. Revolutionary, I know! It’s like assuming that because I once played “Lady of Spain” on my accordion at a Tampa dev meetup, I’ll do it again given the chance and sufficient sangria.
The formula they want is STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. But what they’re REALLY looking for is STARBS: Situation, Task, Action, Result, Bull$#!t – that special sauce where you frame yourself as the hero who saved the project while maintaining perfect diplomatic relations with that passive-aggressive PM who kept moving the goalposts.
The trick isn’t just recounting what happened – it’s storytelling with a corporate-friendly narrative arc. You need conflict (but not TOO much conflict), challenges (that showcase your skills), and resolution (where you emerge victorious but humble).
Remember: in behavioral interviews, there are no failures – only “growth opportunities” and “valuable lessons” that conveniently transformed you into exactly the employee they’re looking for!
Adjusts glasses, takes dramatic sip of coffee
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go practice my own STAR stories for when someone inevitably asks me about “a time I demonstrated adaptability in a challenging situation” – which is code for “that time I coded for 36 hours straight because someone in management promised an impossible deadline.”
My questions, after reading Claude’s output:
So I did some web searches using terms like starbs star situation task action result bullshit, and couldn’t find any instance of STARBS. It seems to be one of those effectively new creations that an autocomplete-on-steroids can generate.
I’m not gonna lie: I kind of like STARBS, and wish that I’d come up with it myself.
(If you’re interested, see if you can do some searches to find other instances of the term STARBS.)
I’ve just been informed that I’ll be one of the speakers at the 2025 edition of KCDC — Kansas City Developer Conference — which takes place August 13 through 15!
This will be the 16th KCDC, and it’ll take place at the Kansas City Convention Center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
KCDC draws 2000+ attendees each year and features tracks for the following topics:
My talk, titled The Best, Most Fun Python Platform You’ve Never Heard Of, is a programmer’s introduction to the powerful, fun, and all-too-often-ignored Ren’Py. While Ren’Py is called a “visual novel engine,” I prefer to think of it as the fastest, most fun way to create Python applications.
Here’s the description for my talk:
Python’s occupied the number one spot on the TIOBE Programming Community Index for the past couple of years, and it’s the preferred programming language in for AI and data science. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about learning it, but the thought of having to do another set of “Hello World” style exercises is filling you with dread. Is there a more fun way to get up to speed with Python?
Yes, there is, and it’s called Ren’Py. It’s billed as a visual novel engine and often used for writing dating simulation games, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a platform that lets you code in Python (and more) and deploy to desktop, web, and even mobile platforms, and with a fraction of the effort required by React, Vue, or Angular. It’s a fun framework that’s been used to produce games you can find on Steam, but it’s got applications well beyond amusement.
In this session, we’ll look not just at the basics of Ren’Py development, but the building of a dating game based on KFC’s official game, “I Love You Colonel Sanders,” a simple turn-based combat game starring Florida Man, and building mobile apps in a way that’s less frustrating than usual.
Better still, I won’t be the only Tampa Bay geek speaking — Chris Ayers will be there too, and he’ll be delivering his talk, The Power of Dev Containers and GitHub Codespaces:
Dive into the future of software development with our session on Dev Containers and GitHub Codespaces. Dev Containers bring reproducibility and consistency across any platform with Docker, simplifying project onboarding and setup. GitHub Codespaces takes this a step further, offering scalable, cloud-hosted development environments, accessible from anywhere.
In this session, you’ll gain insights into:
- Dev Containers Fundamentals: Understand their role in creating consistent development environments.
- GitHub Codespaces Integration: Explore how Codespaces enhances Dev Containers, providing flexible, cloud-based development.
- Practical Implementation: Learn to configure Dev Containers for your projects, including tool installation, VS Code extensions, port forwarding, and software setup.
- Maximizing Codespaces: Discover how to customize Codespaces for remote development efficiency.
If you were at the March Tampa Bay Java User Group meetup, you saw François Martin deliver a presentation with a not-at-all-controversial title: Why Software Testing is a Waste of Time.
Anitra and I had the pleasure of taking him around Tampa while he was in town, and I even lucked out by being able to catch up with him for dinner while we were in Greece earlier this month!
He’ll deliver two talks at KCDC:
It’s been a while since we’ve had a “meetup of meetups” for Tampa Bay — let’s fix that. Join us this Wednesday, April 30th for Tech Groups of Tampa Bay’s Happy Hour Networking + AI Lightning Talk!
The event will be an opportunity to mingle with fellow and aspiring technologists, enjoy refreshments and an engaging lightning talk on the latest in Artificial Intelligence.
Connect with Tampa Bay professionals, share ideas, and explore the future of AI in the vibrant community setting of the coworking space known as Thrive DTSP!
In addition to networking, there’ll also be a quick talk on AI, delivered by James Gress, Director at Accenture for Leading Emerging Technologies!
This will be a meetup of meetups, and the participating meetups will be:
…and more groups will be participating!
It’ll be an opportunity-rich environment for to network ing with like-minded individuals and connecting with recruiters and professionals who can help advance your career or support your transition into a new field!
Thanks to these sponsors…
…there’ll be food provided for free. The beverage sponsor will be announced shortly!
Is it really a Tampa Bay tech event without it?
Meet up with your peers, make new friends and catch up with old ones, and create some opportunities this Wednesday at the Tech Groups of Tampa Bay’s Happy Hour Networking + AI Lightning Talk!
It’s Saturday, so it’s time for another “picdump!”
This is the weekly article where I post the technology- and work-related memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share and enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, April 28 through Sunday, May 4, 2025!
This list includes both in-person and online events. Note that each item in the list includes:
✅ When the event will take place
✅ What the event is
✅ Where the event will take place
✅ Who is holding the event
Wednesday evening at Thrive DTSP (St. Pete): Join Tampa Bay’s tech meetup groups in a much-needed social gathering at Thrive DTSP with networking, a quick AI talk by Accenture’s James Gress, all your favorite meetup groups including Tampa Devs and Tampa Bay Techies, and of course, the accordion. In addition to good company and good discussions, there’ll also be complimentary food and drink.
Find out more and register here.
How do I put this list together?
It’s largely automated. I have a collection of Python scripts in a Jupyter Notebook that scrapes Meetup and Eventbrite for events in categories that I consider to be “tech,” “entrepreneur,” and “nerd.” The result is a checklist that I review. I make judgment calls and uncheck any items that I don’t think fit on this list.
In addition to events that my scripts find, I also manually add events when their organizers contact me with their details.
What goes into this list?
I prefer to cast a wide net, so the list includes events that would be of interest to techies, nerds, and entrepreneurs. It includes (but isn’t limited to) events that fall under any of these categories: