Category: What I’m Up To

I’m going to PyCon US 2023!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date February 12, 2023

The US edition of the Python Conference — better known an PyCon US — takes place in Salt Lake City in April, and I’m going to be there minding Okta’s Auth0 booth!

I was at PyCon’s grand return to in-person conferencing last year, where I got to learn a little more about Python, meet a lot of the Python community’s nice folks, catch up with old friends and make new ones, and even jam onstage at Anaconda’s opening night party!

This is going to be a special PyCon, as it’ll be the conference’s 20th anniversary. It’s something worth celebrating, as Python has faced some challenges in that time. When PyCon started in 2003, it had been overshadowed by Perl and PHP. Soon afterward, it was eclipsed by Ruby, thanks to Ruby on Rails. But over the past 10 years, thanks to its simplicity, power, and vast collections of libraries — especially those for data science and machine learning — Python has experienced a renaissance. This gathering of the Python community should be a celebration of Python’s journey, and an interesting future ahead with ChatGPT and other upcoming AIs of its ilk.

Drop by the Auth0/Okta booth and say “hi,” or just simply start a conversation with me wherever you see me at PyCon. As always, I’ll be very easy to find. I’m the one with the accordion!

When does PyCon US 2023 happen? It depends on which parts you want to attend:

The main conference, which has the keynotes, general sessions, talk tracks, expo hall (where I’ll be spending most of my time), and so on, takes place from Friday, April 21 through Sunday, April 23 inclusive.
The opening reception happens on the evening before the main conference: Thursday, April 20.
The sponsor presentations and summits take place before the main conference, on Wednesday, April 19 and Thursday, April 20.
The job fair happens on Sunday, April 23.
And finally, the sprints — where you can contribute to Python itself or one of its libraries — happen from Monday, April 24 through Thursday, April 27.

How much does it code to attend PyCon? It depends on how you plan to attend.

As an individual — that is, on your own, with your own money, and without the support of a corporation: US$400.
As a corporate attendee — that is, your cost is being covered by a corporation: US$750.
As a student — that is, you’re currently in high school, college, university, or some other educational institution where you spend the majority of your time, as opposed to full-time work: US$100.
As an online attendee: US$100.

You can find out more at PyCon’s Registration Information page.

Tags PyCon, Python

Conferences Hardware Players Tampa Bay What I’m Up To

Achievement unlocked: Woz autographed my original Apple ][ Reference Manual!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date February 10, 2023
4 Comments on Achievement unlocked: Woz autographed my original Apple ][ Reference Manual!

**Woz and me**!
Tap to view at full size.

One of the highlights of the Civo Navigate conference that took place here in Tampa earlier this week was opening keynote speaker Steve “Woz” Wozniak, hardware genius, technical founder of Apple, and the creator of Apple’s first computers, including my first computer, the Apple //e.

After a quick “welcome” speech, Civo co-founder and CEO Mark Boost sat down to have what was probably going to be a Q&A-style chat with Woz.

However, Woz loves to talk, and he’ll happily do so for hours. I’m sure Mark had a list of questions for his guest, but he wisely put them aside and just let Woz be Woz. He went a little longer than scheduled, but that was all right with the audience, who were glad to be in the same room and listening to stories and opinions from one of the pioneers of our industry.

Mark kindly gave me a VIP pass for helping spread the word about Civo Navigate, which entitled me to attend the special VIP brunch at Oak and Ola, where we could get a moment’s one-on-one time with the Wizard of Woz. I had the pleasure of sharing breakfast with social media and technology author Shel Israel, who recently moved to St. Pete while listening to Woz, who delivered a short continuation of his keynote to the VIPs.

**I’ve had this manual since the 1980s!**
Tap to view at full size.

As I mentioned earlier, my first computer, which my parents bought when I was 15, was the Apple //e (pictured on the right). It’s how I learned programming in BASIC, Pascal, and 6502 assembler. I put in my “10,000 hours” on that computer, which set me on the path to an interesting career in tech.

The computer went to a relative when I went off to university and graduated to my second machine, a 640K IBM clone made by a long-forgotten company, but I kept my Apple manuals, pictured above, as mementos.

In my move from Toronto to Tampa in 2014, I had to be really picky about which books I kept. I sold or gave away the lion’s share, holding only on to those with some personal, academic, or historical significance, and the Apple manuals made the cut.

I figured that I’d maybe get 30 seconds with him at the VIP brunch, which would be just enough time to get him to autograph just one of the books. I decided to bring the Apple ][ Reference Manual (which you can read on the Internet Archive), a manual that’s far more technical than anything that comes with today’s machines. Not only did it provide detailed instructions on how to get started programming it, but it also had sections on the reading the computer’s memory directly via the system monitor, using the built-in mini-assembler, full listings of the system ROM, and even a fold-out schematic diagram of the motherboard!

There was an opportunity for the VIPs to have quick individual meet-and-greets with Woz after his speech. I figured that I’d get his attention by placing the manual on the table in front of him, opening it to the back cover, and unfolding the schematic of the Apple ][ motherboard that was bound into the book as its last page.

He caught a glimpse of it, and a look of familiarity came over his face.

**“Is that a…?” “Yes, it is!”**
Photo by Suzanne Ricci. Tap to view at full size.

“Is that a…?” he asked.

“Yes, it is,” I replied. “Came with my very first computer — the //e. Could you please autograph your handiwork?” I asked, pointing to the schematic.

**Autograph acquired!**
Photo by Suzanne Ricci. Tap to view at full size.

I handed him an orange magic marker and he signed the schematic with his traditional “Woz”:

We chatted really quickly about how transparent they were back in those days. The Apple ][ Reference Manual had not just the schematic for the entire motherboard, but a complete listing of the system ROMs. That sort of openness doesn’t exist anymore with commercially-available computers, with the notable exception being platforms like the Raspberry Pi.

Setting up for the selfie.
Photo by Suzanne Ricci. Tap to view at full size.

My turn soon ended, and I returned to our table, where Shel kindly took some victory photos:

**Mission accomplished!**
Tap to view at full size.

Here’s a closer look at the schematic:

My inner 15-year-old is high-fiving me so hard right now.

Meetups Tampa Bay What I’m Up To

Last night’s “Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer” meetup

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date February 1, 2023

Last night’s Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer meetup was the first one of 2023, and I had such a great time that I never managed to pull out the camera and take photos! With nearly two dozen attendees taking over the west end of Southern Brewing and Winemaking, it was a great way to kick off a whole new year’s worth of meetups, catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Anitra and I are planning on having these meetups monthly, so if you missed this one, don’t fret — we’ll hold another one soon. Thanks to everyone who came last night, and we’ll see you again!

Meetups Tampa Bay What I’m Up To

I’ll be at the Tampa Bay UX Group (TBUX) Revival Social!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 11, 2023

2023 will be a rebuilding year for Tampa Bay’s in-person technology scene, and one of the first events of that rebuilding happens tomorrow: the return of Tampa Bay UX Group’s get-togethers! Tomorrow night at 7venth Sun Brewery in Seminole Heights, TBUX is holding their first meetup of the year. I’ll be there!

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and is scheduled to run until 8:30 — you can register on the event’s Meetup page.

7venth Sun’s Tampa branch is one of the craft breweries in my neighborhood, Seminole Heights, and it’s a great gathering place. I myself have held tech events there, most notably the Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer meetups (which are also coming back this year):

7venth Sun serves beers and ciders, and you can bring food. There’s a food truck stationed outside, and if you prefer, there’s great Korean food at Gangchu across the street (in fact, 7venth Sun makes one of their beers, K-Hop).

I’ll see you there!

Reading Material What I’m Up To

How I know I’ve made it as an author

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 6, 2023

Screenshot of the pirate site page featuring “iOS Apprentice, Eighth Edition.” — A screenshot of the pirate site’s page for the book I co-wrote, *iOS Apprentice, Eighth Edition*.

Cover of “iOS Apprentice, 8th edition” — iOS Apprentice, Eighth Edition, written by me, Eli Ganim, and Matthijs Hollemans.

Years ago, I used to joke that if I ever wrote a book, I’d know that it was well-received if it ever got pirated. I’d forgotten about that joke until today. I was Googling for an image of the cover of the book I co-wrote — iOS Apprentice, Eighth Edition (and the first edition to cover SwiftUI) — when I found it available for download on a ~~pirate ebook~~, er, I mean extralegal evaluation site! I’ve made it as an author — the free-as-in-piracy market has declared it so!

It would be a violation of my agreement with the publisher (and also in very poor taste) to link to the site, so I’ve simply posted a screenshot of the page that features the book.

Here’s what their summary says. They seem to like it:

If you’re new to Swift or programming in general, learning how to write apps can seem like an incredibly difficult task. In that case, you may need this book. It is divided into five parts, each of which describes a separate project. By the end of the book, you will have enough information to be able to implement your ideas in code.
Dignity:
➕ Absence of errors and typos;
➕ Quality Exercises.
Weaknesses:
➖ Not Noticed.

The book has been liked by 58 registered users and shared by 74 registered users on the pirate site. I’m left wondering who registers on a pirate site that doesn’t require registration to download.

“Anchorman” meme: “Actually, I’m not even mad. That’s amazing!”

The payment model at RayWenderlich.com (the publisher’s name at the time; they’re now Kodeco) isn’t royalty-based, and the edition is pretty out of date now, so I’m not mad at all. In fact, I’m pleased — it means my work was good enough that people wanted to pirate it!

Artificial Intelligence What I’m Up To

Could ChatGPT do my job?

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 2, 2023

It’s been just over five weeks since the launch of ChatGPT (it happened on November 30, 2022). Since then, from casual conversations over the holidays to New York Times think pieces, people have been asking if ChatGPT could do their jobs.

Want to know how I landed my job at Auth0? I wrote about it back in 2020.

In case you’re wondering, I’m a Senior Developer Advocate at Okta for the Auth0 product. If that sounds confusing, it’s because Okta acquired Auth0 in May 2021, and while we’re one company, that company has two products named “Okta” and “Auth0”. It’s my job to show mobile developers how they can use the Auth0 product to authenticate and authorize users.

In the video above, I “had a conversation” with ChatGPT where I asked it some basic questions about OAuth2, OIDC, and Auth0, and it answered them correctly. However, when it got to questions about writing iOS and Android apps that used Auth0 for login, it got some details wrong — and in programming, it’s the details that get you. Watch the video to find out what happened!