Let’s get together to commiserate about the state of our bags and the NFT market at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. 🎰 🎉
Where better to drown our losses and question our financial wisdom than a beautiful casino with many bars and restaurants? 🍻🙈
Plus, if we want to gamble more of our hard earned dollars, there are plenty of games to play with better odds of mooning than that rugged project you bought. 💀
I’ll be hanging at the Council Oak Lounge at 7PM with my Alien Frens t-shirt. 🛸🖖💚
I can’t make it, as I already have plans (and it’s my birthday this weekend), but if you’re looking to share tales of rug pulls and regret and enjoy gambling of a different sort, this event might be right up your alley.
CyberX Tampa 2022 takes place next Tuesday, October 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at TheIncLab in Ybor City, and I’ll be there! It’ll be an evening of all things cybersecurity-related with some of Tampa Bay’s largest companies, CISOs, and tech leaders!
Are you free next Tuesday, October 18th from 9:00 a.m. to noon, for an event you can attend either in person or online? If so, perhaps you might want to catch my talk at the upcoming InfraGard Tampa Bay Members Alliance meeting. It’s titled The Secret History of Login!
Here’s the description:
If you’re reading this, the chances are very good that you’ve logged into a system or resumed a session where you logged in earlier. It’s a common enough occurrence that most of us don’t think about it unless we’re in a hurry or if we can’t remember our username/password combination.
Logging in is new enough that there are still many people alive who knew the world before usernames and passwords, yet old enough that it’s developed some problems that will take time and effort to solve. This talk will tell the strange story of how login grew from a last-minute hack to become part of our daily experience. Along the way, you’ll get an overview of some of the ways it’s been implemented, the popular software movement it inspired, how it inspired both a software movement and a whole new category of crime, and some best guesses about its future.
What is InfraGard Tampa Bay Members Alliance?
First of all, they’re affiliated with the FBI! As their About page states:
Our mission is to mitigate criminal and terrorist threats, risks and losses for the purpose of protecting our region’s critical infrastructure and the American people. Founded in 2004, the Tampa Bay chapter has established itself as a leader nationwide, setting the highest standards for programs, training and education. For the last decade, we have proudly contributed to the safety and security of Tampa Bay via an all-threats, all-hazards approach. At the national level, the InfraGard National Members Alliance was founded in 1996 and now comprises over 80 regional chapters, each linked to an FBI Field Office.
InfraGard’s success can be attributed to the unprecedented communication, collaboration and coordination it has forged at the epicenter of America’s most critical resources. Our membership is comprised of individuals that represent private businesses; local, state and federal law enforcement agencies; academic institutions; first responders and more.
All members are vetted by the FBI and pass comprehensive background checks prior to being accepted to InfraGard. The trust inherent in those who have successfully passed these checks is unmatched in any other public-private partnership in the country, making InfraGard a unique and highly successful solution to engaging the private sector in the protection of our nation’s critical infrastructure.
What’s happening at this meeting?
There’s a lot going on at this meeting — in fact, I’m not the only speaker at this one! Here’s the agenda:
Time
Item
9:00 a.m.
Welcome and speaker/topic introductions by Ebony Vaz
9:05 a.m.
Opening remarks by Michael Ritchie, President
9:15 a.m.
Speaker 1: Kate Whitaker, Director of Cyber Outreach, Cyber Florida
10:00 a.m.
Break
10:15 a.m.
Speaker 2: Joey deVilla, Senior Developer Advocate, Okta — The Secret History of Login
11:00 a.m.
Break
11:15 a.m.
Speaker 3: Billy Sasser, Supervisory Protective Security Advisor (SPSA) CISA Region 4 — CISA’s Physical and Cyber Security Resources
12:00 p.m.
Closing remarks by Michael Ritchie, President
You can attend in person or online!
They’re streaming this event, so you have the option of attending online if you can’t make it to the in-person event. Here are the registration details:
Organized by Kate and Greg Leonardo, Tampa Code Camp has been a local tech tradition for years. While it’s been the de facto local conference for people building on Microsoft/.NET/Azure technologies, it goes beyond that to include Open Source, data science, AI/ML, and soft skills sessions. (My own first presentation at Tampa Code Camp was in 2016, when I presented an introduction to React.)
Tampa Code Camp 2022 took place at Keiser University Tampa, who’ve been gracious enough to make their space available a venue for tech events with 100 people or more for the past few years, including Tampa Code Camp and the BarCamp Tampa Bay unconference. They have a spacious lobby that makes for a great reception/registration and sponsor booth hall, a good-sized auditorium for opening keynotes and lunches (made even better by a patio area), and classrooms of all sizes to accommodate all sorts of talks, each one with a reliable audiovisual setup for presenters.
Some of Tampa Code Camp 2022’s presentations
I was so busy either prepping for my presentation, presenting, or just chatting with people that I took all of two photos. Luckily, a number of people who were there took some and posted them on Twitter; I’ve shared them below and they’re linked to their source.
Here’s the opening keynote, given by co-organizer Greg Leonardo, who talked about the unexpected (and often untold) consequences of moving your back end from on-premises to the cloud, often known as the “lift-and-shift.” There are good reasons to move to the cloud, but the rationale (or more accurately, sales pitch) of cost savings has been oversold — in fact, there’s often a cost increase.
Photo by Yours Truly.
Another key message from the opening keynote: running things on the cloud isn’t simply a matter of “our old stuff, but now on someone else’s servers.” It often requires a different approach and some re-thinking about how you do implementation and architecture. Some of the things you did when your servers were on-prem can be much worse when moved to the cloud. Watch out for these “onions in the varnish!”
After Sam’s presentation, I raced to my room to give my talk, Build cross-platform visual novels, simulations, and games with Ren’Py, where I walked the group through the development of a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style infosec training manual and a turn-based “Florida Man” RPG-style combat game:
While I was talking about Ren’Py development, Art Garcia was a couple of rooms over, giving his presentation, Azure DevOps APIs: Things you can do with the APIs, where he covered ways to do things that you can’t do using the Azure DevOps UI, but can if you use PowerShell, the APIs, and some tricks that aren’t well-documented.
I’d like to thank Tampa Code Camp for not just providing a free lunch (and breakfast coffee and donuts — much apprecated!), but for estimating high in order to ensure that everybody could get a free lunch. It’s little touches like these that add to these events.
I don’t have a photo for Russ Fustino’s session, Web3 – Blockchain Myths for Developers, but we attended that one. Russ has been a local fixture on the tech scene ever since I’ve lived here (nearly a decade!) and we definitely want to catch him. His brother Gary (also a tech scene regular) recorded video of the session, so it should be online soon.
After that, Anitra Pavka gave her talk, Manage your manager for fun, profit, and career success, which covered the valuable, vital, yet often-overlooked topic of working with the one person who has control of half your weekday waking life:
Photo by Yours Truly.
At the end of the day came Joey Hernandez’Cyber Incident Response Exercise – From Tech to Exec talk — an excellent topic, because so many companies get this wrong for a multitude of reasons. He talked about TTXs — tabletop exercises, which in cybersecurity are preparedness exercises where you go through the steps of a simulated security incident.
And he came here from Atlanta to give his talks. I think the Azure team should at least send him some of their nicer swag for doing all this work on their behalf.
Events like this don’t happen without sponsors. First, thanks to Keiser University Tampa for providing a venue!
Events like this go even better when the presenters get a chance to catch up beforehand, hence the long-standing tradition of a speaker dinner. Once again, it happened at the always-reliable, always-fun Tampa Joe’s. Thanks for the food and drinks!
Starbucks was the coffee sponsor. Free coffee? Bless you.
Photo via Leah Parrott.
Thanks to Pomeroy for helping make Tampa Code Camp 2022 happen, and for providing one of the raffle prizes: a Meta Quest 2 VR rig!
Photo via Leah Parrott.
Pomeroy also provided some swag that I needed:
Photo via Leah Parrott.
Photo via Leah Parrott.
Algorand also had a table, and when Russ wasn’t giving his Algorand presentation, he was at the Algorand table, and he answered a number of my questions and hooked us up with nice T-shirts. Thanks, Algorand!
And finally, I’d like to thank Webonology — which is also Greg’s company — for being a sponsor and contributing the grand prize, an Xbox Series X!
Photo via Kate Leonardo.
Please check out these sponsors. They do great work, they supported this great event, and they’re helping to build the Tampa Bay tech scene!
Tech scenes don’t happen by themselves — they need YOU!
What makes a tech scene?
In the end, it boils down to a single factor: techies who take part in building a tech community. There are cities out there with sizable populations of techies that aren’t tech hubs — these are places without people who help build a tech community. There are also smaller places with smaller numbers of techies but have a vibrant tech scene, and these are the places with a handful of active organizers and people who show up for tech events.
Among these active organizers are Kate and Greg Leonardo, who’ve been consistently stepping up and doing the (often, but not always) thankless work of putting together events like Tampa Code Camp and upcoming events for 2023. Thank you, Kate and Greg, for everything you do for the Tampa Tech Scene!
StartupBus is no ordinary hackathon. It doesn’t happen in an afternoon in the comfortable surroundings of a coworking space, cafe, or corporate office. It takes THREE DAYS. On a BUS. With all the regular problems posed by a road trip (such as unreliable power and spotty wifi) as well as additional challenges that the organizers have devised. It’s been described as “Navy SEAL training for techies and entrepreneurs.”
While on the bus, the participants — we call them buspreneurs — form teams, come up with an idea for a startup, and build the business and the software that supports it. At the same time, they’re working on a pitch for that business, and practicing the pitch regularly.
After three days when the bus reaches its destination city — Austin, Texas — the real competition begins. StartupBus Florida’s bus will meet up with the other 4 buses coming from different parts of the U.S. and Mexico, and all the teams will pitch in front of judges in the semifinals. A handful of the best teams will go on to the finals, where they’ll pitch to the finals judges. And one will emerge victorious.
StartupBus Florida traditionally departs from Tampa Bay, and we have a solid track record. We had two teams make it to the finals in 2017 and 2019, and our alumni have gone on to start their own companies, build notable careers, and help grow Tampa’s tech scene. This will be the first StartupBus event since 2019, and we’re excited to be back!
StartupBus Florida doesn’t do what it does alone — it’s backed by our favorite hometown heroes: our sponsors! They are…
CoreX Legal, the legal firm built for startups. CoreX know the tech and legal side of all things startup and blockchain.
Hillsborough County’s EDi2, where EDi2 is short for “Economic Development Innovation Initiative.” Edi2 provide grant funding and support for events and opportunities that help Hillsborough County’s entrepreneurs become successful.
Join us at the StartupBus Warm-Up! Come meet StartupBus Florida’s buspreneurs (contestants) and conductors (coaches), sponsors, alumni, and fans at Green Bench Brewing in St. Pete.
Questions you might have about the event
When and where, again? Tuesday, July 19th at 6:30 p.m. at Green Bench Brewing.
When does StartupBus take place? The event starts with a 3-day bus ride that runs from the morning of Wednesday, July 27 to the early evening on Friday, July 29. The final two events happen in the destination city, with the semifinals on Saturday, July 30 and the finals on Sunday, July 31.
Where is the destination city? It’s Austin, Texas.
How many people will be on the bus? It varies from year to year, but typically there are 2 to 3 dozen buspreneurs (participants) on the bus, along with 2 – 4 conductors (coaches).
How many buses will there be? There will be 4 in total. They’ll depart from Cincinnati, Mexico City, Silicon Valley, and Tampa Bay.
I have tech/creative/business skills and want to be a buspreneur. How can I join? Sign up on the StartupBus “Apply” page, select “Florida” and use the code JOEY22.
Hey, techies from Tampa Bay and beyond — are you interested in any of the following:
StartupBus
The Metaverse
Web3
We’re holding an online meetup, Meet Me in the Metaverse, on Thursday, July 14th from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in a web-based virtual reality space to discuss the topics above, and you’re all invited to join us! Register here to attend the event.
This isn’t going to be a Zoom or Teams meeting, but a VR meeting. And don’t worry — you won’t need VR gear — any computer with a browser will do. I took the meetup’s VR environment for a test drive, and it presented itself like a first-person shooter, minus the shooting, where you use the W, A, S, and D keys to move and the mouse to change the direction you’re facing.
Here are a couple of screenshots of what I saw during my quick exploratory run:
My first view of the Metaverse venue. Tap to view at full size.
Walking into the lobby. Tap to view at full size.
The view from the top floor. Tap to view at full size.
I’ll be there — join me! Once again, that’s Thursday, July 14th, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and you can register here.
Last Monday, a good number of the Tampa Bay tech scene got together for a good time for a good cause: the Tampa Bay Tech Golf Classic.
Organized by Tampa Bay Tech — Tampa Bay’s non-profit technology council, whose mission is to make “The Other Bay Area” a flourishing tech hub — it took place at Carrollwood Country Club and the title sponsor was Okta, where I work (remember, Auth0 is now an Okta product unit)!
The proceeds from the tournament went to the recently-founded Tampa Bay Tech Foundation, whose purpose is to radically connect area students and job seekers to opportunities in the technology community. The Foundation’s initiatives include:
Internship development programs
Scholarships
Talent-focused programming
Workforce gap research
I was there as a volunteer and got to see Tampa Bay Tech’s CEO Jill St. Thomas and Member Engagement Manager Karen Popp.
Since Okta was the title sponsor, it was only fitting that Chris St. Thomas, Strategic Account Director at Okta, gave a quick opening address:
I sharpened my credit card-processing skills selling “super tickets”, which entitled the bearer to raffle tickets, extra drink tickets, entry into a couple of contests, and most importantly, a mulligan:
Here’s what Tampa Bay Tech’s Karen Popp posted in LinkedIn about the event:
Thank-you to all who participated in the Tampa Bay Tech Golf Classic presented by title sponsor Okta. We’ve got the best members, sponsors, guests and volunteers! It was a sensational event and raised significant funding for our Foundation. Save the date for next year, 4/17/23. Contact me if you’d like to reserve your sponsorship today! I appreciate the #radicallyconnected community we’re building in Tampa Bay!
