If you go to Vanguard’s Personal Investors login page, you’ll see the message above. It’s oddly reassuring that there’s a warning that essentially says “You can log in, but you’re not going to like what you see when you do.”
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The vibe coding-improv connection
Here’s an idea for my next video that I’ve been playing around with: vibe coding is like improv theatre.
Think about it: an improv troupe isn’t all that different from an LLM — it encourages its audience to provide a prompt, and they use that prompt to start generating content. The content they create is based on their training set (in the case of the improv troupe, that training is their life experience and theater training), and to the audience, what they generate seems almost magical.
But an improv troupe is at its best when its work is constrained to short skits. After a couple of minutes, the longer you stretch out the improv process, the worse the results are. Like LLMs, improv troupes have limited context windows.
In my (admittedly limited) experience experimenting with vibe coding, I’ve found it to be great for small tasks, but as I use it to make larger applications, the worse the code got. The LLM started referring to the same variable using different but synonymous names, it started writing code that looked like textbook examples that had increasingly less to do with the intended functionality, and it started creating more bugs.
But just as good playwright can take improvised skits and the ideas they raise and turn that material into a good two-hour play, a good developer can take application snippets generated by an LLM and the idea they raise and turn them into a good application.
I think this might be a great way to use vibe coding.
When I say that manufacturers are trying to put AI into everything, I mean everything. Case in point, here’s an ad for AI condoms by Manforce, a condom brand in India…
…and of course, there’s also an app, which you connect to the condom by scanning a QR code.
And of course the company’s VP in charge of sales wrote about it on Linkedin:
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Saturday picdump for March 29, 2025
Welcome to another really big Global Nerdy Saturday “picdump!” It’s 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. This week’s edition has 125 pics (a lot of which are about vibe coding, the topic of the moment) — share and enjoy!
✳️ Need context? Here’s a quick explainer, and here’s a more detailed article on port 4444, which among other things, is used by one of my favorite tools, Jupyter.
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, March 31 through Sunday, April 6, 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
This week’s events
- Monday, March 31
- Tuesday, April 1
- Wednesday, April 2
- Thursday, April 3
- Friday, April 4
- Saturday, April 5
- Sunday, April 6
Monday, March 31
Tuesday, April 1
Wednesday, April 2
Thursday, April 3
Friday, April 4
Saturday, April 5
Sunday, April 6
About this list
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:
- Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
- Tech project management / agile processes
- Video, board, and role-playing games
- Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
- Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
- Toastmasters and other events related to improving your presentation and public speaking skills, because nerds really need to up their presentation game
- Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
- Self-improvement, especially of the sort that appeals to techies
- Anything I deem geeky
Categories
Saturday picdump for March 22, 2025
Welcome to another really big Global Nerdy Saturday “picdump!” It’s 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. This week’s edition has 108 pics — share and enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, March 24 through Sunday, March 30, 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
This week’s events
- Monday, March 24
- Tuesday, March 25
- Wednesday, March 26
- Thursday, March 27
- Friday, March 28
- Saturday, March 29
- Sunday, March 30
Monday, March 24
Monday at 6:00 p.m. at Embarc Collective: Suncoast Software Skills Meetup presents Making Sense of Git and GitHub, where you’ll learn more about these essential software development tools and what to do when you make a mistake with them!
Find out more and register here.
Tuesday, March 25
The Synapse Summit takes place at Raymond James Stadium all day Tuesday! I’ll be there at the Packfiles booth — drop by and say hi!
Find out more and register here.
Tuesday at 5:30: It’s TampaTech Taps & Taco Tuesday at Hidden Springs Ale Works! Here’s what’ll be there:
Tech – Connect & network with fellow tech industry pros
Taps – Enjoy 15% off your tab as a tech attendee
Tacos – A full taco bar… because who doesn’t love tacos?!
No speakers, no presentations — just great conversations and a Raffle (because that’s way more fun! )
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday, March 26
Wednesday from 4 – 6 p.m. at Rapid7: Comcast Business and Rapid7 invite you to an exclusive Cybersecurity Roundtable & Networking Event designed to help you stay ahead of today’s most sophisticated cyber risks.
What to Expect:
✅ Cybersecurity Roundtable Discussion – Engage with experts and industry peers on security challenges and best practices.
✅ Live Demos – Explore Rapid7’s latest security solutions.
✅ Networking & Cocktails – Connect & Network with Tampa’s top IT and security professionals.
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Bahama Breeze: Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship’s Tampa Branch is holding a casual gathering of high-performing, non-conforming women founders, tech workers, VCs, and hype girls.
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at Coppertail Brewing: The Cyber Ohana Project is hosting a mixer — a chance for cybersecurity and tech professionals to connect! Join them for a casual night of networking, camaraderie, over drinks and great conversations!
Find out more and register here.
Thursday, March 27
Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hays: Tampa Bay AWS User Group presents From Complexity to Clarity: An AWS Security Journey. In this session, Dhiren Zakkam, Manager for Cloud Engineering at World Kinect, will share his real-world experience tackling the challenges of managing identities, permissions, and access in AWS at scale — what worked, what didn’t, and how his team streamlined their AWS security strategy.
Find out more and register here.
Friday, March 28
Friday at 11:15 a.m. at GuidePoint Security: The Tampa Bay chapter of OWASP — Open Worldwide Application Security Project — is having their March “Lunch and Learn.” Speaker Chris Fago will present AI is here for business users. What does that mean for AppSec?
Find out more and register here.
Saturday, March 29
Sunday, March 30
About this list
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:
- Programming, DevOps, systems administration, and testing
- Tech project management / agile processes
- Video, board, and role-playing games
- Book, philosophy, and discussion clubs
- Tech, business, and entrepreneur networking events
- Toastmasters and other events related to improving your presentation and public speaking skills, because nerds really need to up their presentation game
- Sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre fandoms
- Self-improvement, especially of the sort that appeals to techies
- Anything I deem geeky