Category: Current Events

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Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, April 13, 2020)

Hello, Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds — here’s this week’s list of area events with your expertise and interests in mind! I hope things for you are going as well as possible given our current situation. As I write this, we’re a dozen days into the Florida general stay-at-home order, and five weeks since I’ve been doing the social distancing thing (following the recommendations of the best damn public health official I personally know). For the foreseeable future, I’m listing only online events. I’m looking forward to the day when we’ll all be able to meet up in person, but in the meantime, go online and #MakeItTampaBay!

The power of community is what will see us through this crisis. It’s the spirit of cooperation, camaraderie, and community that helped build the tech scene in my old home town of Toronto, and it can do the same here in Tampa Bay. Let’s take what we can from the current situation and use it to rebuild and move forward. I’m happy to do my part and help out with my reach and resources, or even to lend an ear. Feel free to contact me at joey@joeydevilla.com!

This week’s events

Monday, April 13

Tuesday, April 14

Wednesday, April 15

Thursday, April 16

Friday, April 17

Saturday, April 18

Sunday, April 19

No events are listed for Sunday.

Do you have any events or announcements that you’d like to see on this list?

Let me know at joey@joeydevilla.com!

Join the mailing list!

If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles.

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!


Categories
Current Events Programming Reading Material

Did I mention that I’m revising a book that I co-wrote last year?

Cover of “iOS Apprentice, 8th edition”

I may be out of a job, but from now until the end of next week, I do have work: finishing the revision of iOS Apprentice, Eighth Edition, a book that teaches you how to write iPhone and iPad apps, even if you have no prior programming experience.

In its 1200+ pages, the book walks you through building 4 apps:

  1. Bullseye, a simple game where you learn the basics of iOS programming,
  2. Checklists, a “to-do” lists app that teaches you how to make use of table views, one of the most common and useful interface elements,
  3. My Locations, which introduces maps and geolocation in apps,
  4. Store Search, a project that introduces iPad development and which uses networking to search the iTunes Store.

iOS Apprentice is a special book for me, because I learned iOS programming back in 2012 (when the iPhone 4S was the newest model) from an earlier edition. The book launched me into the world of iPhone development, and as a result of that, into the world of mobile and IoT development in general. Since then, I’ve always wanted to repay the book by writing a later edition. Last year, I got my chance when I interviewed to become one of its authors and was chosen.

For a taste of what iOS Apprentice is like, check out this video series below, which is based on the first 8 chapters of the book, which I wrote. It shows you how to get started as an iOS developer by walking you through the process of making Bullseye, a simple game:

You can get your hands on this book in a couple of ways. If you want the paperback edition, you can get it at Amazon.com…

Screen capture of the Amazon.com page for “iOS Apprentice 8th edition”

…and if you want the ebook edition (which comes with free updates, including the one I’m working on right now), you can get it at the RayWenderlich.com site:

I’m also bringing back the Tampa iOS Meetup in the next couple of weeks, where I’ll use the programming exercises in iOS Apprentice as a starting point. If you’ve been meaning to learn iOS programming, keep an eye on Tampa iOS Meetup — it’s coming back!

Are you looking for someone with both strong development and “soft” skills? Someone who’s comfortable either being in a team of developers or leading one? Someone who can handle code, coders, and customers? Someone who can clearly communicate with both humans and technology? The first step in finding this person is to check out my LinkedIn profile.

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, April 6, 2020)

Hello, Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds — welcome to another week’s list of area events with your expertise and interests in mind! I hope things for you are going as well as possible given our current situation. As recommended by public health experts and mandated by the mayor and governor, I’m listing only online events for the time being. I’m looking forward to the day when we’ll all be able to meet up in person, but in the meantime, go online and #MakeItTampaBay!

Monday, April 6

Tuesday, April 7

Wednesday, April 8

Thursday, April 9

Friday, April 10

Saturday, April 11

Sunday, April 12

No local online events are listed. This might be a good time to check out Pluralsight’s courses, which are free for the month of April.

Do you have any events or announcements that you’d like to see on this list?

Let me know at joey@joeydevilla.com!

Join the mailing list!

If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles.

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!


Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, March 30, 2020)

Photo: A very still river on a sunny day, with the water reflecting the oak and willow trees on its banks. Text: Tampa Bay tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events / Monday, March 30 — Sunday April 5, 2020.

Hello, fellow Suncoast techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds! I hope you’re staying safe and sane while spending most of your time at home. Here’s this week’s list of online-only events for techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds based in an around the Tampa Bay area. I’m restricting this list to online-only events until public health officials have stated that it’s safe for public gatherings again.

(In case you were wondering about the photo above, that’s the Hillsborough River as seen from the park on Patterson Street in Seminole Heights.)

Some words of wisdom from the Tenth Doctor

David Tennant giving his “It’s going to be okay” speech on the BBC TV show “The Last Leg”, January 2017.

It’s always a good time for some words of reassurance, so are some from a trusted geek icon: David Tennant, a.k.a. The Tenth Doctor, giving his “It’s going to be okay” speech from January 2017 on the BBC TV show The Last Leg. It was for a different issue from a different time, but it’s still applicable right now:

It’s all gonna be okay. Trust me, I’m a Doctor. But it’s up to us to make it okay. It’s time to be positively rebellious, and rebelliously positive. As long as we stand up for what we believe in. Don’t give in to anger or violence. Look out for the little guy. Keep an eye on the big guys. Refuse to keep our mouths shut. And just generally, try not to be dicks. Every little thing is gonna be alright.

News Items and other links

This week’s events

Monday, March 30

Tuesday, March 31

Wednesday, April 1

Thursday, April 2

Friday, April 3

Saturday, April 4

Sunday, April 5

Do you have any events or announcements that you’d like to see on this list?

Let me know at joey@joeydevilla.com!

Join the mailing list!

If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles.

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!


Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

Next Tuesday is Tential Tuesday!

Banner: “Digital Transformation — The Driving Need” / Speaker Siddarth Rao, CIO of Axogen / 5:15 p.m.

Tential have been good to the Tampa tech community and me personally (during my own personal job crisis last year, which I’ll write about later), and they continue to be good, even when we’re all staying at home, and hopefully working remotely. Their goodness continues with the upcoming Tential Tuesday, which takes place online next Tuesday, March 31st, at 5:15 p.m.!

The topic will be Digital Transformation — The Driving Need, and the speaker will be Siddarth Rao, CIO, Head of IT and Digital Transformation of Axogen, a company focused specifically on the science, development and commercialization of technologies for peripheral nerve regeneration and repair. I assume that “Axogen” gets its name from axon (a nerve fiber) and regeneration.

Sign up for the online event; they’ll post the Zoom link soon.

I’ll see you there! In the meantime, here’s the Tential Tuesday jingle, which I performed at BarCamp Tampa Bay:

 

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, March 23, 2020)

Hello, Tampa Bay techie, entrepreneur, and nerd friends! I hope that you’re safe, symptom-free, and social distancing!

Pictured above is my front porch, where I’ve decided to take advantage of the current good weather, comfortable temperatures, and Seminole Heights views. Lilypad, my place of work, has been really good about giving people the choice of working remotely for the past couple of weeks, and in the past few days, they’ve told everyone to work from home.

This will probably be the first of a few weeks’ of very interesting, very different weekly lists. I’m going to include only online/webinar/web-chat events in the list as my part in helping combat the spread of COVID-19.

This week’s online events

Monday, March 23

Tuesday, March 24

Wednesday, March 25

Thursday, March 26

Friday, March 27

Saturday, March 28

Sunday, March 29

(No events listed)

Additional news

A “stay at home” order this week?

Mayor Jane Castor has told WTSP 10 News that it was extremely likely that a “stay at home” order for all of Hillsborough County will be issued this week — and from the look of things, it will happen early this week. Earlier this weekend, she said that she expected that a state- or area-wide “stay at home” order would go out, and failing that, the Hillsborough Emergency Policy Group will discuss issuing a local order during a meeting Monday afternoon at 1:30 p.m..

Simply put: Expect a Hillsborough County “stay at home” order as early as Monday afternoon and plan accordingly. The order would still allow essential trips, such as going to the grocery store, solitary exercise, or even to “get fresh air”, as long as you maintained a safe distance from other people. Non-essential trips would not be allowed.

Got an online event?

Expect lots of last-minute online events to happen for the next little while. If you’ve got one that you’d like announced on the mailing list and on GlobalNerdy.com, let me know!

Want to participate in a COVID-19-related software project, or start one?

HelpWithCovid.com is an online listing of COVID-19-related projects looking for talent, including remote software talent. If you’ve got the time and the skill, you might want to find a project and lend a hand, or start one yourself.

 

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What I’ve been up to this week

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Hello, Global Nerdy readers! I hope you’re staying safe, and perhaps even productive, as much of the world socially distances themselves in order to help slow down the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

I normally do my work in the Lilypad office, and while we do have one of the bedrooms in our house set up as a home office, it’s Anitra’s office these days, as most of her work is done from there. She‘s a ScrumMaster, which means that a lot of her work involves teleconferencing and requires her to have the office to herself.

I decided that with Tampa being quite temperate in late winter — it’s 87° F / 31° C as I write this at 2 in the afternoon — I should set up my temporary home office on our screened-in front porch. Here’s the wide view of my setup:

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Here’s a closer look:

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Many parts of the working world may be grinding to a halt, but that’s not the case where I am. Here’s what’s keeping me busy…

First, there’s my day job: Lilypad. It’s a CRM for brewers, distillers, and other makers of beverage alcohol, which allows their salespeople and their managers to manage their sales activities, track who they’ve talked to, and maintain relationships with their customers — namely, the bars, restaurants, hotels, and stores that sell their booze. The app has both web and mobile components, and I work on the mobile app. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on making some fixes to the Android version of the app.

I’m also working on a revision of iOS Apprentice, a beginner-friendly book that teaches you how to write apps for the iPhone. I’m one of the authors, along with Eli Ganem, and the book is published by raywenderlich.com, the premier site for tutorials on developing mobile apps. We’re updating the book to cover some changes in iOS and Xcode, the developer tool for building iOS apps.

I’ve got a couple of extra mobile projects currently under wraps, but I’m sure I’ll write about them soon enough.

As long as we’re practicing social distancing to slow down the spread of COVID-19, I won’t be holding any in-person meetups. However, thanks to modern technology, we might still be able to have Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer as well as the return of Tampa iOS Meetup — at least in online videoconference form! Watch this space — I’m looking to get these started next week.