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What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur scene (Week of Monday, October 2, 2017)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 2, 2017

Every week, I compile a list of events for developers, technologists, nerds, and tech entrepreneurs in and around the Tampa Bay area. We’ve got a lot of events going on this week, and here they are!

Do you have an tech or entrepreneurial event in or around the Tampa Bay area that you’d like to see listed here? Drop me a line about it at joey@globalnerdy.com!

Monday, October 2, 2017

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Friday, October 6, 2017

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Sunday, October 8, 2017

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3 things that were unexpected: Ikea buys TaskRabbit, Bill Gates ditches his Windows Phone, Microsoft joins OSI

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 28, 2017

Hand holding up 3 fingers.

Here’s another installment of a new regular feature on Global Nerdy: 3 things, in which I take a programming or technology topic and post three things that I found of interest on that topic. Today’s topic: three recent developments in the tech world that you might not have expected.

Ikea gets into the software business, buys TaskRabbit

After decades of being the official unofficial furniture vendor for software companies (upon reflection, my desks at home and at the Sourcetoad office are from Ikea), Ikea now is a software company. First, there was the Ikea Place app, which harnesses Apple’s ARKit augmented reality framework to see what their furniture would look like in your living room…

Now, they’ve just announced that they’ve acquired TaskRabbit, which can be summarized as “Uber for odd jobs”.

Ikea already had a relationship with TaskRabbit where people in the U.K. and U.S. could use the app to help them find local people who could help with assembling their Ikea furniture.

Bill Gates ditches his Windows Phone, switches to Android

Let me remind you of some predictions about Windows Phone that were made by respected tech pundits no more than six years ago. Here’s what IDC had to say about the future of Windows Phone back in 2011:

To quote their press release:

“The new alliance brings together Nokia’s hardware capabilities and Windows Phone’s differentiated platform. We expect the first devices to launch in 2012. By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android.”

And here’s how Gartner thought the mobile OS market would be in 2015:

However, the prize for the most tragicomically-wrong prediction about the 2015 smartphone market has to go to Pyramid Research, who predicted that Windows Phone would take over the number one spot:

What happened instead? This:

Actually what would’ve been surprising would’ve been his getting an iPhone. He’s publicly stated that he and Melinda keep an Apple-free house.

Microsoft joins the Open Source Initiative as a Premium Sponsor

And how times have changed, from Microsoft’s CEO deriding Linux and the GPL as “a cancer” in 2001 to becoming a Premium Sponsor of the Open Source Initiative in 2017.

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Build an augmented reality painting app at tomorrow’s Tampa iOS Meetup!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 25, 2017

Perhaps you’ve seen videos of Google’s Tilt Brush VR-painting rig and software in action:

How would you like to code a simple version that lets you do something similar, on an iPhone 6S or later, in about 15 minutes? Here’s what it would look like:

I used the app that I’ll show you how to write at Tampa iOS Meetup to draw “AR rules” in the middle of the Sourcetoad boardroom. Then, I walked to the right of my artwork:

And then its left:

And then behind it:

Do you want to learn the basics of ARKit so that you can start coding your own augmented reality apps for iOS? Come to Tampa iOS Meetup tomorrow, Tuesday, September 26th at 6:30 p.m. at the Sourcetoad office, bring your Mac, and I’ll show you how!

Want to know more? The details are here.

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The New York Times left lots of empty space in James Damore’s glamor shots. Use them well.

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 24, 2017
5 Comments on The New York Times left lots of empty space in James Damore’s glamor shots. Use them well.

James Damore, writer of bigoted screeds, The Google ManifestBRO”, “Darth Chad”, defender of straight white male mediocrity, and first and hopefully last of his name.

The attempted glamor shots of James Damore in the New York Times article Push for Gender Equality in Tech? Some Men Say It’s Gone Too Far are wasted on a permanently rumpled guy who’s not enough of a goddamned grown-up to put on a pressed shirt for an appearance in one of the world’s most-read publications. At least they had the decency to leave lots of room in the shots to add insightful commentary, as I did in the examples above and below.

The article is packed with stories of male nerds bereft of all common sense. One of the bits that made me laugh out loud is this quote from Nvidia engineer James Alitzer, who somehow both agreed to be named in the article and said this (the emphasis on the stupid bits is mine):

“I’m sitting in a soundproof booth right now because I’m afraid someone will hear me. When you’re discussing gender issues, it’s almost religious, the response. It’s almost zealotry.”

If you really want to learn something about the controversy of which Damore is the slovenly, unkempt center, you’re far better served by taking a look at Jez Humble’s presentation at the recent Agile2017 conference in Orlando. Go to this video of his presentation, skip to the 49:25 mark, and hear some of the best rebuttals to the whiny claims of James Damore and his “women and coloreds ruin everything” ilk.

Current Events Tampa Bay Uncategorized

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur scene (Week of Monday, September 25, 2017)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 24, 2017

Do you have an tech or entrepreneurial event in or around the Tampa Bay area that you’d like to see listed here? Drop me a line about it at joey@globalnerdy.com!

Monday, September 25

Digital Photo Artists — DPA Monthly Dinner at Bogey’s Sports Pub (5:00 p.m.)
Game Club Tampa — Play D&D5e (Grand Arena, 5:30 p.m.)
Board Game Night (Armada Games, 6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.)
Eat, Drink, Cryptocurrency (7770 52nd St N, Pinellas Park, 6:30 p.m.)
Digital Photo Artists — DPA Monthly Meeting – DRONES with Jack Elka (7:00 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Cool ‘n Confident Toastmasters (SPC – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, 6:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.)

Tuesday, September 26

Entrepreneurs & Startups – Bradenton Networking & Education— Souper Tuesday, Top 3 Lessons of Entrepreneur Success – Stephen Supe (Station 2 Innovation Center, Bradenton, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Westshore Toastmasters (FIVE Labs, 1:00 p.m.)
Brandon Boardgamers — Tuesday Night Gaming (Cool Stuff Games, 5:00 p.m.)
Clearwater FL How To Make Money In Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency — How To Make Money Passively From Home Using Bitcoin & Crypto (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)
ADVANCED – Education on Financial Technologies — AI, Machine Learning and Data Analytics at The University of South Florida (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Weekly Open Make Night (Tampa Hackerspace, 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.)
Tampa iOS Meetup — A special last-minute meetup with a special topic: Intro to Augmented Reality! (Sourcetoad, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Functional Ybor — September Meeting – Functional Hack (Tre Amici At the Bunker, 6:30 p.m.)
Code Katas — Let’s get together and do some more advanced code challenges! (The Iron Yard, 7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Young Professionals — Taco Tuesday at BarTaco! (BarTaco, 7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Hackerspace Woodshop Safety (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:15 p.m.)
Star Wars: Destiny Organized Play (Armada Games, 7:30 p.m.)

Wednesday, September 27

Tampa Toastmasters Meetup — September Meeting (Quest Diagnostics, 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.)
Tampa Bay Area – Bootstrappers Breakfast (Oxford Exchange, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)
Tampa Bay WaVE OPEN/Women’s Networking Event – 1 Million Cups (Entrepreneur Collaborative Center, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)
One Million Cups Tampa — On the Go and Yummi Empanadas (Mark Sharpe Entrepreneur Collaborative Center, 9:00 a.m.)
Nerdbrew Trivia — Council of Ricks Meetup: Rickmobile @ the Parcade! (The Lowry Parcade and Tavern, 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)

Smart and Sustainable Cities Panel (Patel College of Global Sustainability, USF, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
(Monthly) Azure User Group: Fun with Azure Search by John Calloway — (Wolters Kluwer, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Data Science Group — Project Night: TBDSG HACK ZIKA 2017 PREP! (SOFWERX, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Young Professionals — Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Awards Party 2017 (6:00 p.m.)
Tampa DevOps Leadership — Hashi, Containers and Kubernetes (6:00 p.m.)
Guild Ball Open Play / Demo Night (Armada Games, 6:00 p.m.)
Tampa Test Automation — RSVP (81Bay Brewing Company, 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Grand Gamers of St. Petersburg Board Game Night — (Critical Hit Games, 6:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.)
Gulfport Toastmasters (Gulfport Library, 6:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
Bradenton Toastmasters – Let’s Go!!!!!!!!!!!! (Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 6:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
ReactJS Tampa Bay Meetup at The Iron Yard (The Iron Yard, 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Bitcoineers — Bitcoin Meetup (Coastal Cantina & Grill, 7:00 p.m.)
Opportunities and Threats with Connected Cars (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:00 p.m.)
Carrollwood Toastmasters (Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Women in Linux — Linux? Understanding Infrastructure (7:00 p.m.)
The Next Female Entrepreneur of Tampa — How To Use LinkedIn For Work or Business (Online, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)

Thursday, September 28

Geek Breakfast (Jimbo’s Pit Bar-B-Q, 7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.)
September 2017 StartUp Xchange (Green Bench Brewing Co., 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
One More Customer, Tampa FL — Learn the 7 Digital Hacks that will help drive revenue… (Glory Days Grill, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
Brandon Boardgamers — Let’s Game on Thursdays (Panera, 5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay AWS User Group — September Meetup: Avoiding Cloud Jail and Controlling AWS Spend (Concerto Cloud Services, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Agile — DevOps: A Catalyst for Enterprise Agility (Heidi Araya & Esteban Garcia) (Nielsen, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Code Lakeland — Tech Entrepreneurship with Todd Baylis (Catapult, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Nerd Night Out — NerdBrew meetup- boards & booze (Peabody’s — Palms Lounge, 6:00 p.m.)
The Tampa Chapter of the Society for the Exploration of Play — Playing Games at Perkins (Perkins, 6:00 p.m.)
St. Pete Makers — Open Make Night / Open House (St. Pete Makers – new location, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Suncoast.js Workshop Meetup at The Iron Yard (The Iron Yard, 6:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Python — Hack Zika 2017 jump start! (Tampa Bay WaVE, 6:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Area Software Craftsmanship Meetup — Craftsmanship Group Discussion – TBD (Panera, 6:30 p.m.)
Suncoast iOS — Use Promises to simplify asynchronous code (VACO LLC, 7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Social Media Meetup — WordPress (Tampa Bay Technology Center, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
THS Woodworkers Guild (Members Only) (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:00 p.m.)

Friday, September 29

Café con Tampa — Harry Cohen, Tampa City Council Member (Oxford Exchange, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)
Learn CyberSecurity Tampa/Tampa Cybersecurity Meetup — SecureSet Tampa Open House (SecureSet, 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
FileMaker Developers Meetup — FileMaker Design Review (PK Information, 5:30 p.m.)
Tampa Networking Social at The Fly Bar Rooftop (Fly Bar & Restaurant, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Hack Zika 2017: A Mosquito Control Hackathon (Tampa Bay WaVE, Friday 7:00 p.m. – Sunday 12:00 p.m.)
Homebrew Computing (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Young Professionals — Howl-O-Scream 2017 at Busch Gardens! (7:00 p.m.)
Anime, Nerds & Geeks — KICK ASS FRIDAY NIGHT! (7:00 p.m.)

Saturday, September 30

Kakkoii-Otaku Clan — MEGACON TAMPA 2017 (10:30 a.m.)
MR103 Aerial Drone Workshop (Tampa Hackerspace, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Tampa Drones — Meet and Tweak (Barbara S. Ponce Public Library, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Joomla! User Group Tampa — E-Commerce for everyone with J2 Store (John F. Germany Public Library, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
Tampa Gaming and Streaming Fall Meetup (Lowry Parcade & Tavern, 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)

Sunday, October 1

Tampa Drones — Open Fly Day – Fly what you have! (Sheffield Disc Golf Park, 11:00 a.m.)
Largo Board Games Meetup — Small World (1:00 p.m.)

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3 things about data science and Python: The best data science course on the internet, Donald Trump sentiment analysis, and Python podcasts

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 19, 2017

Here’s a new regular feature on Global Nerdy: 3 things, in which I’ll take a programming or technology topic and post three things that I found of interest on that topic. Today’s topic is a hot one: data science, which often goes hand in hand with Python.

The best data science course on the internet, according to someone who’s created an online master’s in data science

In the process of creating his own data science master’s program based on online resources, Udacity content developer David Venturi created a review-driven guide that recommends the best courses for each subject within data science, including:

And now, he’s got an article with a near-irresistible title (well, it’s near-irresistible if you’re the sort of person who reads this blog): I ranked every Intro to Data Science course on the internet, based on thousands of data points.

I’ll spare you the suspense: the top-ranked course in his list is Kirill Eremenko’s Udemy course, Data Science A-Z™: Real-Life Data Science Exercises Included.

I like to think of Eremenko as the Tim Ferriss of data science; both bill themselves as lifestyle entrepreneurs and have an empirical approach. If his name sounds familiar, you may have heard of his site, SuperDataScience, or his podcast, SuperDataScience Careers Podcast, or his set of Udemy courses related to data and statistics.

Gauge Donald Trump’s mood by using Python to do sentiment analysis on his tweets

If you’ve been meaning to get started with Python and text analysis, here’s a fun way to do it: performing textual analysis on the tweets of the world’s first internet-troll-turned-head-of-state, as shown in this article, Sentiment analysis on Trump’s tweets using Python.

You’ll use:

Tweepy to access the Twitter API and fetch Donald Trump’s tweets
pandas to perform data analysis on those tweets
NumPy, matplotlib, and seaborn to perform statistical analysis and create visualizations
TextBlob to do sentiment analysis

To do this exercise, it’s strongly recommended that you use the Anaconda distribution of Python, as it comes will all sorts of useful tools specifically for data science.

Python podcasts

And finally, if you want to immerse yourself in Python while driving, walking, at the gym, or while away from the computer, you’ll want to check out Dan Bader’s Ultimate List of Python Podcasts.

Current Events Tampa Bay Uncategorized

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur scene (Week of Monday, September 18, 2017)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date September 17, 2017

Every week (okay, with the exception of last week, thanks to one Hurricane Irma), I compile a list of events for developers, technologists, and tech entrepreneurs in and around the Tampa Bay area. We’ve got a lot of events going on this week, and here they are!

Do you have an tech or entrepreneurial event in or around the Tampa Bay area that you’d like to see listed here? Drop me a line about it at joey@globalnerdy.com!

Monday, September 18

Tampa Bay DevOps September Meetup (Salesforce Tampa, 6:00 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Cool ‘n Confident Toastmasters (SPC – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, 6:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.)

Tuesday, September 19

Valpak Agile Tour (Valpak, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Westshore Toastmasters (FIVE Labs, 1:00 p.m.)
Brandon Boardgamers — Tuesday Night Gaming (Cool Stuff Games, 5:00 p.m.)
Entrepreneurs & Startups – Bradenton Networking & Education — Network & Learn, Greg DeCarlo, What is Dynamics 365? (Station 2 Innovation Center, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
Pinellas SQL User Group — Topic TBD (6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)

Tampa Bay WaVE — 1776 Challenge Cup Tampa (Tampa Theatre, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Weekly Open Make Night (Tampa Hackerspace, 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.)

Ybor |> Elixir — September Meeting – Intro to Dialyzer (KForce Tampa, 6:30 p.m.)
Florida Podcasters Association General Meeting (IHOP, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Anime, Nerds & Geeks — Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro (6:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Laravel — Discuss What’s New in Laravel 5.5! (DirectMail2.0, 7:00 p.m.)
Code Katas — Let’s get together and do some fun code challenges! (The Iron Yard, 7:00 p.m.)
St Pete .NET Meetup — DevOps and ALM with Chris Hudson (The Iron Yard, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)

Wednesday, September 20

1 Million Cups St. Pete — Advomate and A Better Life, LLC (St. Petersburg Greenhouse, 9:00 a.m.)
1 Million Cups Tampa — Operation Startup, WeGo kids, and Hillsborough Community College Dance Program (Mark Sharpe Entrepreneur Collaborative Center, 9:00 a.m.)
Tampa Bay WaVE — OPEN/FREE Coworking for Veteran Entrepreneurs (9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
The Suncoast Linux Users Group — Pinellas meetup (Pinellas Park Public Library, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Harry Potter-themed murder mystery (Jack’s London Grill, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Grand Gamers of St. Petersburg Board Game Night (Critical Hit Games, 6:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Gulfport Toastmasters (Gulfport Library, 6:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Young Professionals — Food, Drink, & Idea Discussion (rescheduled from hurricane, 6:30 p.m.)

Central Florida CitySec — CigarCitySec Meetup (Cigar City Brewing, 7:00 p.m.)
Girl Develop It — Volunteer + Instructor Kickoff Meeting (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Tampa Hackerspace — 3D Printer Orientation (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
St. Pete Makers — 3D Printer Maker Night hosted by FreeFab 3D (NEW FreeFab 3D location, 7:00 p.m.)
Women in Linux — Linux? Understanding Infrastructure. (Intro) (7:00 p.m.)
NerdBrew Trivia: Doctor Who! (Palms Lounge, 7:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.)

Thursday, September 21

IAMCP(International Association of Microsoft) Tampa Chapter — What’s your #Truth? Perception, Brand, and Bringing it all Together (Microsoft Offices, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Young Professionals — Volunteer for charity at The 26th Annual Gourmet Feastival! (5:00 p.m.)
Brandon Boardgamers — Let’s Game on Thursdays (Panera Bread, 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Agile — Lean Beer for All Things Agile (Bad Monkey, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
Tampa Bay UAS and Drone University — Saint Petersburg College UAS Meetup- September Meeting (St. Petersburg College EpiCenter, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
Tampa SEO and Internet Marketing Monthly Meetup with Steve Scott (Peabody’s Billiards and Games, 6:00 p.m.)
Learn Cybersecurity Tampa — Careers and Trends Talk: A Conversation with Nielsen (SecureSet, 6:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Internet of Things Developer Group — Securing the Connected Car with Drew Moseley and TankBot – Catchup Meeting (Microsoft Office, 6:30 p.m.)
Functional Suncoast — Let’s Build An SPA with Elixir/Phoenix and Elm (The Iron Yard, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
The Tampa Ruby Brigade — Live Coding: Dual… or Duel? (The Iron Yard, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
Amazon Sellers in the Tampa Bay Area — Grab Dinner and Talk! (7:00 p.m.)
Wesley Chapel WordPress Meetup — Introduction to WordPress (7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Bay Cocoaheads — Build a SQLite Framework in Swift (ActSoft, Inc., 7:00 p.m.)
Tampa Hackerspace Woodworkers Guild (Tampa Hackerspace, 7:00 p.m.)

Friday, September 22

Lean Coffee for All Things Agile (Westshore) (Panera, 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.)
Café con Tampa — Steve Seibert, Florida Humanities Council (Oxford Exchange, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)
Virtual Assistants & Entrepreneurs Meetup of Tampa Bay (6:00 p.m.)
Tampa Networking Social (Fly Bar Rooftop, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.)
LFP – (Super) H.E.R.O.S – Champion RPG game (Grand Arena, 6:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.)
Hack Zika 2017: A Mosquito Control Hackathon (Accusoft, 7:00 p.m.)

Saturday, September 23

Ixlan Prerelease Weekend (Critical Hit Games, Saturday 12:00 a.m. – Sunday 7:00 p.m.)
Girl Develop It — Intro to App Building with Salesforce (Microsoft Store – International Plaza, 10:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.)
Toastmasters District 48 — Advanced Articulators Toastmasters (North Tampa Branch Library, 1:00 p.m.)
Sarasota Game Design & Development — Monthly Demos and Design (Ringling College – Academic Center, Room 120, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Tampa Hackerspace Monthly Board Game Night (Tampa Hackerspace, 4:30 p.m.)

Sunday, September 24

Kids’ Open Make Day (Tampa Hackerspace, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
YouTuber’s meetup in Tampa (Q-Zar Lazer Tag, 2:00 p.m.)
Sew What? (Textile Arts & Crafts) (Tampa Hackerspace, 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)