Category: Tampa Bay

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Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, December 14, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, December 14 through Sunday, December 20, 2020.

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

This week’s events

Monday, December 14

Tuesday, December 15

Wednesday, December 16

Thursday, December 17

Friday, December 18

Saturday, December 19

Sunday, December 20

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
Security Tampa Bay What I’m Up To

The Undercroft and their cybersecurity course, UC Baseline

Photo: The Undercroft sign, featuring the Undercroft’s “mascot” — a stag standing upright in a suit, leaning jauntily against an umbrella, walking stick-style.One of the silver linings of my job evaporating due to the pandemic is that I suddenly had a lot of free time to try some new things. The best of those new things by far was my five weeks in The Undercroft’s inaugural UC Baseline cybersecurity course.

What is The Undercroft?

The Undercroft was recently featured in the Tampa Magazine article, The Latest on Tampa’s Tech Scene. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

Over the past year, a number of notable out-of-state tech companies have chosen to open offices in or relocate to Tampa. Last December, Tampa beat out other up-and-coming tech hubs like Denver and Atlanta as the new home of Boston-based Drift, a marketing technology platform. Information technology training franchiser New Horizons moved its headquarters from Pennsylvania to Tampa in January. And that same month, D.C.-based technology company TheIncLab expanded to Ybor City. TheIncLab opened an “Artificial Intelligence Experience Lab” in The Undercroft, a cybersecurity incubator that launched last summer with the hopes of turning the historic Ybor into a tech industry hotspot.

“At The Undercroft, we’re focusing on the supply side of cybersecurity,” says CEO Adam Sheffield. “How do we support more talent in this community and more people who have passion for the field?”

Initially conceived as a co-working type space where startups and members could connect, The Undercroft launched a training program, UC Baseline, in response to layoffs during the coronavirus shutdown. The UC Baseline program is designed to help educate people moving into the cybersecurity workforce or transitioning from traditional IT roles. Ten participants have signed up for the six-week program that offers courses in networking, software, and hardware, according to Sheffield Incubators and accelerators are behind much of Tampa’s recent tech growth, as nonprofits like the Tampa Bay Wave and Embarc Collective offer resources and networking opportunities for local startups, including two recent programs that focus on boosting the  representation of women and diversity in the tech industry.

To describe The Undercroft as Tampa Bay’s security guild and cybersecurity coworking space is fair, but that description doesn’t capture the spirit of the place.

A better way to paint the picture would be to call it the 21st-century cybersecurity counterpart of coffeehouses in 17th- and 18th-century England. Like those coffeehouses of old, The Undercroft is a place in a beautiful old building that functions as the home for the (often boisterous) exchange of ideas, the advancement of specialized fields of knowledge, a little deal-making, and if you pay attention, a great place to learn.

(Thankfully, The Undercroft departs from those old coffeehouses in one important way: Women are welcome in The Undercroft.)

How I ended up in UC Baseline

Back in mid-July, I’d heard about scholarships for The Undercoft’s then-upcoming cybersecurity class. I posted an article about it, which ended with this quip:

(I’ll admit it: Although I’m not likely to qualify, I applied.)

I applied, and to my surprise, I qualified, which meant that I was in this classroom a couple of weeks later:

What I did in UC Baseline

And thus began five intense weeks, which comprised the following…

Hardware 101 — Gain a thorough understanding about the devices on which all our software runs and through which all our information flows:

Networking 101 — Learn how our systems are connected and the ways in which they communicate through these connections:

Tap to view at full size.

Linux 101 — Covers the foundations of security in Linux environments, the OS on which the internet runs:

Tap to view at full size.

Windows 101 — Here’s a big challenge — learn the foundations of security for Windows environments:

Tap to view at full size.

Information Security 101 — Covers everything from core IT concepts, to cybersecurity principles, methods, and practices:

Tap to view my set of links from Infosec Week at UC Baseline.

Python 101 — If you’re doing security, you should have some coding skills to automate your work and build tooling, and Python’s an excellent language for that task:

Tap to view at full size.

 

This is not for someone who’s casually curious about cybersecurity. It’s a lot of work. As I wrote midway through the course:

If you take The Undercroft’s five-week cybersecurity course, UC Baseline, you will have to absorb a lot of material.

After one particular day, I felt like the cat in this video:

The course was taught by a team of instructors who work in the security industry when they’re not teaching. They’re also a personable bunch, and all of them went above and beyond in their efforts to ensure that we students were getting the most out of our classes.

The course ended with a career fair featuring presenters and recruiters from local and national cybersecurity organizations…

and then a Capture the Flag competition and socially-distanced barbecue:

The payoff

Did it pay off to devote 5 weeks, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, to attend UC Baseline? I think it did.

I’m really a programmer and developer evangelist by training and experience. There’s a tendency in both these lines of work to think of security as an afterthought. Attending UC Baseline, learning from actual security professionals, getting my hands on the actual hardware and software used by the pros, and even just being in The Undercroft helped me refine my security mindset.

That in turn helped me bring my A-game when it was time to apply for a job at Auth0 and then go through their rigorous interview process (which I wrote about here).

I’m not alone — 8 out of 10 of the inaugural UC Baseline class got work around a month or so after completing the program.

My thanks to the instructors for the excellent courses:  , Koby Bryan , Michael Dorsey , George Bilbrey , Jon B , Zoran Jovic, as well as my fellow students, who made the classes more enjoyable: Hawley , Danielle True ,  , Melissa Bloomer , Alyssa Kennedy , Nicolas Claude,  , Ryan Butler, and Anthony Davis!

And of course, special thanks to Team Undercroft, for making such a special place — the Tampa tech scene just wouldn’t be same without you: Joy Randels, Adam Sheffield, and Chris Machowski!

Another UC Baseline in 2021!

If UC Baseline sounds interesting to you, and if you think you’re up to the challenge, there’s another one taking place in early 2021. Visit the UC Baseline page to find out more!

Find out more

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, December 7, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, December 7 through Sunday, December 13, 2020.

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

This week’s events

Monday, December 7

Tuesday, December 8

Wednesday, December 9

Thursday, December 10

Friday, December 11

Saturday, December 12

Sunday, December 13

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, November 30, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, November 30 through Sunday, December 6, 2020. Yup, we’ll be in December by the end of the week!

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

Why this list doesn’t feature any in-person events

It’s because I’m trying to promote responsible behavior in the face of news stories like the ones below:

With a good number of people still having Thanksgiving-as-usual, we may see a spike just like the one Canada had (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October). You may want to take some extra precautions over the next couple of weeks.

This week’s events

Monday, November 30

Tuesday, December 1

Wednesday, December 2

Thursday, December 3

Friday, December 4

Saturday, December 5

Sunday, December 6

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, November 23, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, November 23 through Sunday, November 29, 2020.

I’ve opted to list only those events that I can confirm are happening online. I’m not yet listing in-person events, as we’re still in the middle of a pandemic in one of the hardest-hit states (875,000 cases, which is an increase of 31,000 since last week, and 17,488 deaths, which is up 1,572 from last week) in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world (11 million cases, which is an increase of 1 million from last week, and 245,000 deaths, which is up 7,000 from last week).

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

It’s the week of Thanksgiving, which is one of the least productive weeks of the year. You might want to double-check with event organizers that events that appear on the schedule are actually happening this week!

This week’s events

Monday, November 23

Tuesday, November 24

Wednesday, November 25

Thursday, November 26

It’s Thanksgiving day! You might want to double-check with the event organizers that these events — which were listed on Meetup and EventBrite — are actually happening on this day.

Friday, November 27

It’s Black Friday! You might want to double-check with the event organizers that these events — which were listed on Meetup and EventBrite — are actually happening on this day.

Saturday, November 28

There aren’t any scheduled tech, entrepreneur, or nerd online events…YET!

Sunday, November 29

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, November 16, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, November 16 through Sunday, November 22, 2020.

I’ve opted to list only those events that I can confirm are happening online. I’m not yet listing in-person events, as we’re still in the middle of a pandemic in one of the hardest-hit states (875,000 cases, which is an increase of 31,000 since last week, and 17,488 deaths, which is up 1,572 from last week) in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world (11 million cases, which is an increase of 1 million from last week, and 245,000 deaths, which is up 7,000 from last week).

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

This week’s events

Monday, November 16

Tuesday, November 17

Wednesday, November 18

Thursday, November 19

Friday, November 20

Saturday, November 21

Sunday, November 22

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
Conferences Current Events Programming Tampa Bay

Suncoast Developers Guild’s Fall 2020 Conference is THIS SATURDAY!

Suncoast Developers Conference this Saturday!

Hey, Tampa Bay! We’ve got another Suncoast Developers Conference happening this Saturday, and you can attend for FREE, from the comfort of your own computer or phone.

Once again, it’s this Saturday, it’s online, and it’s free-as-in-beer to attend. REGISTER HERE.

The conference will be made of bite-size (15 minutes or shorter!) presentations by Tampa Bay techies and demos of capstone projects by Suncoast Developers Guild alums.

I’ll be presenting on PyGame!

I’ll be doing a presentation in the afternoon, on the topic of…

…PyGame! I try to keep my topics both technical and fun, and what’s more technical and fun than Python and game development?

There will be coding, and I’ll also provide source code and a free book.

What was the last Suncoast Developers Conference like?

The last conference took place in the summer, and was also free and online. You can watch the entire thing below…

…and if you want to jump to a specific presentation, use these links:

  1. 00:00:00 Reticulating Splines…
  2. 00:00:58 Welcome & Introductions
  3. 00:08:15 Jason L Perry: Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!
  4. 00:22:11 Robert Bieber: Will it Scale?
  5. 00:58:13 Kento Kawakami – Demo: Smash Bros Combo
  6. 01:28:30 Cody Banks & Abtahee Ali – Demo: Evolution X
  7. 01:54:54 Daniel Demerin – The Rubber Duck Pal Program
  8. 02:11:12 Colter Lena – Demo: Furry Friends
  9. 02:24:50 Trent Costa – Demo: Tailgate
  10. 02:41:54 Dylan Attal – Don’t Crash! CSS-Modules in React
  11. 02:59:42 Vincent Tang – How to start your own Coding Podcast 101
  12. 03:30:31 Michele Cynowicz – Pull Requests and the Developers Who Love Them
  13. 03:52:11 Abe Eveland – Demo: Rollerblade Buyers Guide
  14. 04:04:45 Liz Tiller – Post-Bootcamp Reflections
  15. 04:23:20 Joey deVilla – Ren’py
  16. 04:41:20 Michael Traverso – You Do Belong Here
  17. 05:01:46 Rob Mack – Demo: What’s for Dinner?
  18. 05:15:38 Kat Batuigas – A Taste Of Docs As Code

How do you register for the conference?

REGISTER HERE. Once again, it’s this Saturday, it’s online, and it’s free-as-in-beer to attend.

I’ll see you on Saturday!

One more thing: What is Suncoast Developers Guild?

Since opening their doors in the summer of 2018, Suncoast Developers Guild’s coding school has graduated over 100 students, and before that, they taught people to code in their previous incarnation as the Tampa Bay branch of The Iron Yard.

In another life, I was a developer evangelist who travelled across North America and I saw tech scenes from Palo Alto to Peoria. I can tell you that one of the signs of a healthy tech community in a small- to medium-sized city is a coding school that acts as a social/technical/gathering place. If your city had one, things were looking up for local techies. If not, it was a safe bet that the place was experiencing a brain drain.

Here in Tampa Bay, Suncoast Developers Guild fills that vital role, and it does so spectacularly. They’re a key part of the heart and soul of tech in the area, and it shows in their efforts, such as events like this.