With 279 episodes so far, The Thunder Nerds have been at this for a long time. I’ll chat with hosts Frederick Philip von Weiss and Brian Hinton about all sorts of things, not the least of which is how their podcast was a key part of the research I did to land my job at Auth0.
I’m sure that a good chunk of our conversation will be about what working at Auth0 is like, authentication and authorization, and possibly the hardware and electronic music dabbling that I’ve been doing lately.
The Thunder Nerds record their podcasts in such a way that you can watch the recording process LIVE on YouTube, and can even type in questions or comments as it’s happening! If you’d like to see how the sausage is made, follow this link tonight at 7:30 p.m. EDT and watch the fun!
Of the podcasts in this roundup, Thunder Nerds — “A conversation with the people behind the technology, that love what they do… and do tech good” — has been around the longest, with 279 episodes over five seasons to date. You’ve probably seen the hosts at local meetups and conferences; they’re Frederick Philip Von Weiss and Brian Hinton.
279 – 💡 Super Friendly Design Systems with Dan Mall — In this episode, we get to speak with Dan Mall : Co-founder and CEO of Arcade, and Founder & CEO of SuperFriendly. We discuss the origins of SuperFriendly, Arcade, the “Get It Out of Your System” podcast, and more.
I’ll be recording an episode with the Thunder Nerds this Thursday!
This Thursday, I’ll chat with Brian and Frederick about all sorts of developments since the last time I chatted with them, not the least of which is how their podcast was a key part of the research I did to land my job at Auth0.
I’m sure that a good chunk of our conversation will be about what working at Auth0 is like, authentication and authorization, the hardware and electronic music dabbling that I’ve been doing lately, and maybe even what my ideas for a post-lockdown world are.
…a show dedicated to helping developers to grow their career. Topics include Test Driven Development, Clean Code, Professionalism, Entrepreneurship, as well as the latest and greatest programming languages and concepts.
Episode 193 — Software Coaching with GeePaw Hill — GeePaw Hill is a coach – a professional harvester of the value of change — in the software development industry. A geek for forty years, he’s spent the last two decades helping individuals, teams, and organizations take steps to become closer to who or how they wish to be.
Episode 192 — Blazor with Carl Franklin — Carl Franklin is Executive Vice President of App vNext, a software development firm focused on modern methodologies and technologies. Carl is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry, co-host and founder of .NET Rocks!, the first and most widely listened to podcast for .NET developers, a Microsoft MVP for Developer Technologies, and Senior Executive of Pwop Studios, a full-service audio and video production/post production studio located in Southeastern Connecticut.
Episode 191 — Scrum with Dr. Jeff Sutherland — After 11 years in the military he became a doctor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Sutherland contributed to the creation of the Agile Manifesto in 2001. Along with Ken Schwaber, he wrote and maintains The Scrum Guide, which contains the official definition of the framework.
Episode 189 — Reactive DDD with Vaughn Vernon — Vaughn Vernon is an entrepreneur, software developer, and architect with more than 35 years of experience in a broad range of business domains. Vaughn is a leading expert in Domain-Driven Design and Reactive, and champions simplicity. He consults and teaches around Domain-Driven Design and Reactive software development, helping teams and organizations realize the potential of business-driven and reactive systems as they transform from technology-driven legacy web implementation approaches. Vaughn is the author of three books: Implementing Domain-Driven Design, Reactive Messaging Patterns with the Actor Model, and Domain-Driven Design Distilled, all published by Addison-Wesley.
Episode 188 — Designing for Scale with James Avery — James is the Founder and CEO of Kevel, previously known as Adzerk. Kevel is the next generation of publisher ad serving; offering the infrastructure APIs needed to quickly build custom ad platforms for sponsored listings, internal promotions, native ads, and more. It’s built to be faster, easier to use, and more comprehensive than anything on the market today.
The Mike Dominick Show is the second-newest of the podcasts in this list, and it has an open source focus.
His most recent podcasts:
40 – Monica Ayhens-Madon
Mike sits down with Monica Ayhens-Madon to discuss the People Powered Book Club, fostering open-source and their eclectic educational backgrounds. This is an amazingly varied and fun chat!
Friends That Code is hosted by Mike Traverso, whom locals may know from the Tampa Bay Google Developers Group meetup and other Google-y events. In this podcast, he showcases…
…some amazing people I know that just happen to write code for a living. Whether they started off intending to code or just happened into it, we get to hear about the types of people you’ll meet, things you’ll get to do, jobs you’ll have along the way, and advice from some awesome coders along the way!
Space and Things is the newest podcast on this list, and it has the distinction of being the only one here that isn’t about software development. Instead, it’s about…well, you get three guesses. Just read its name.
Space and Things features two hosts:
Emily Carney: A veteran of the United States Navy, Carney became a freelance writer back in 2008 and started a blog called This Space Available, which is hosted by the National Space Society.In 2011, Carney founded a facebook group Space Hipsters, of which I am a member. Originally intended to be a place to share news and insights amongst friends, this community has now grown to close to 20,000 members including astronauts, engineers, scientists, historians and space flight enthusiasts from around the globe.
Dave Giles: Giles is a singer/songwriter from London, England who has always had a passion for space flight. Since his early years he’s been looking skyward and though he ended up wielding a guitar for a living, space exploration is alway on his mind and one of his most popular songs is about astronaut Gene Cernan, ‘The Last Man On The Moon’.In 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Giles visited all of the crewed space vehicles flown by NASA from Freedom 7 to the Space Shuttle Orbiters.
Remembering Michael Collins — We decided we needed to record an extra podcast to celebrate the life of Michael Collins, who died on Wednesday 28th April at the age of 90.
STP 35 — This week we talk about a true unsung hero. Gerard K. O’Neill. His work about space colonies was truly ground breaking and his book ‘The High Frontier’ is one of the most inspiring there is. O’Neill is the subject of a new movie, ‘The High Frontier – The Untold Story Of Gerard K. O’Neill’ and we’re joined by three members of the production team to discuss O’Neill and the movie: Director Ryan Stuit; writer and producer Will Henry; and executive producer Dylan Taylor.
STP 34 — April 22nd is Earth Day, so today we are joined by BluShift Aerospace CEO Sascha Deri and communications director Seth Lockman to talk to us about what they’re doing to try and kickstart the conversations in the aerospace industry about sustainability and using non toxic biofuels.
STP 33 — This week we take a look at the very first Space Shuttle mission which took place on April 12th 1981. To do this we’re joined by the wonderful author David Hitt who wrote the book ‘Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years’.
STP 32 — On April 12th it’s the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight, so we asked author Stephen Walker to join us. He has just released a wonderful book called ‘Beyond’ all about Gagarin and it’s a belter.
STP 31 — Today Lego release a brand new Space Shuttle Discovery set which also includes the Hubble Space Telescope, so we thought it was a great time to talk Lego and space with Charlie Nangle who runs one of our favourite instagram accounts: The Brick Space.
STP 30 — On Friday, the news broke that legendary NASA flight director Glynn Lunney had passed away aged 84. We spend some time talking about his finest moments and do our best to pay tribute to one of our heroes. To do this we’re joined by author of “Go, Flight! The Unsung Heroes of Mission Control” – Rick Houston.
Happy first week of May! Here’s your list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, May 3 through Sunday, May 9, 2021.
This is a weekly service from Tampa Bay’s tech blog, Global Nerdy! For the past four years, I’ve been compiling a list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events happening in Tampa Bat and surrounding areas. There’s a lot going on in our scene here in “The Other Bay Area, on the Other West Coast”!
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
Yes, many of us have had their first (and even second!) vaccines, but we’re not at the point where it’s advisable to return to pre-pandemic-style in-person events. It will happen soon, but in the meantime, I’m restricting this list to online events. In the age of broadband internet, smartphones, and social media, it’s not that hard. Stay home, stay safe, stay connected, and #MakeItTampaBay!
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!
With 279 episodes so far, The Thunder Nerds have been at this for a long time. I’ll chat with hosts Frederick Philip von Weiss and Brian Hinton about all sorts of things, not the least of which is how their podcast was a key part of the research I did to land my job at Auth0.
I’m sure that a good chunk of our conversation will be about what working at Auth0 is like, authentication and authorization, and possibly the hardware and electronic music dabbling that I’ve been doing lately.
If you’re like most people, you probably have a collection of old power adapters and chargers that you’ve held onto, even though the devices they used to power are long gone. You probably thought that someday, one of them might come in handy:
This article will help you figure out if an adapter is compatible with a given device.
A little terminology
Before we begin, let’s make sure we’re using the same words to refer to the different “plugs” on an adapter or charger…
By plug, I mean the part of the adapter or charger that you plug into the wall.
By connector, I mean the part of the adapter or charger that you plug into the device.
With that out of the way, let’s begin!
How to tell if a power adapter or charger is right for your device
Step 1: Is the adapter’s polarity correct for your device?
Although you could do steps 1 and 2 in either order, I prefer to get the “device killer” question out of the way first. That question is: Does the connector’s polarity match the device’s polarity? Simply put, you want to find out which part of the connector is positive and which part is negative.
In DC current, which is the kind of current that an adapter provides, the polarity determines the direction in which current will flow through the device. You do not want current to flow into your device in the reverse direction.
Here’s a connector and its parts. The sleeve is the outer metal part, while the tip is the inner metal part:
Both your adapter and device should have some kind of label or tag that indicates their polarity. It should be either negative sleeve/positive tip, which is indicated by this symbol…
…or positive sleeve/negative tip, which is indicated by this symbol:
Are the polarity markings on both the adapter and the device are the same?
Yes: If the polarity markings on both are the same, you can proceed to the next step.
No: If the polarity markings are different, DO NOT proceed to the next step, and definitely DO NOT plug the connector into the device.
If the are no polarity markings on the adapter: See the SPECIAL BONUS SECTION at the end of this article.
Step 2: Does the adapter’s connector fit into your device?
With the adapter’s plug NOT plugged into an outlet, can you plug the connector into the device?
Yes: If the connector fits, you can proceed to the next step.
No: If the connector doesn’t even fit, you can be pretty certain that this adapter isn’t going to work for the device.
Step 3: Do the voltage and current coming from the adapter match the voltage and current required by the device?
If you’ve reached this step, you’ve now taken care of the simple matches: The adapter will push current into your device in the right direction, and the connector fits.
Now it’s time to look at the numbers, namely voltage and current.
Look at the voltage (measured in volts, or V for short) and current (measured in amperes, or amps or A for short) marked on the adapter.
Look at the same values marked on the device.
Do the voltage and current values on the adapter and device match?
Yes: If the numbers match, you’re good! You can use the adapter to power the device.
No, both numbers don’t match: Don’t use the adapter to power the device.
No, one of the numbers matches, and one doesn’t:If only one of the numbers doesn’t match, don’t write off the adapter as incompatible yet. Consult the table below:
…and it’s LOWER than what your device needs
…and it’s HIGHER than what your device needs
If the voltage (V) doesn’t match…
MMMMAYBE.
Your device might work, but it also might work unreliably.
Simpler devices, where electricity is converted directly into some kind of result (such as a light, or a speaker) are more likely to work than more complex ones (such as a hard drive, or anything with a processor).
NO! WILL PROBABLY RUIN YOUR DEVICE.
Your device might work. The additional voltage may overheat and damage your device.
If the current (A) doesn’t match…
NO! WILL PROBABLY RUIN YOUR ADAPTER.
Your device might work. Your device will attempt to draw more current than the adapter is rated for, which may overheat and damage the adapter.
GO FOR IT!
The adapter’s current rating states the maximum that it’s capable of delivering.
Your device will work. It will draw only the current it needs from the adapter.
SPECIAL BONUS SECTION:
What if the adapter doesn’t have polarity markings?
Believe it or not, it happens. In fact, I have one such adapter, pictured below:
No polarity markings. Not helpful at all. Tap to view at full size.
As you can see, its label section lists a lot of information, but not the polarity. This means you’ll have to determine the polarity yourself, or you can take a leap of faith.
If you want to determine the adapter’s polarity yourself
If you want to determine the polarity yourself, you’ll need a voltmeter. Set it up to read DC voltage in the range of the adapter. In the case of the adapter above, it’s rated to output 12 volts (V), so I set my meter to read a maximum of 20 V. I put the positive probe inside the connector so that it made contact with the tip, and touched the negative probe to the sleeve. A positive number appeared on the display:
With the positive probe touching the tip and the negative probe touching the sleeve, a positive voltage means that current is flowing from the tip to the sleeve, which in turn means that the tip is positive and the sleeve is negative.
If the number were negative, it would means that current was flowing from the sleeve to the tip, which in turn means that the sleeve is positive and the tip is negative.
In fact, when I put the positive probe on the sleeve and the negative probe on the tip of the same adapter, this is what happened:
Note that the voltage reported is negative. In other words, the current appears to be flowing backwards — from the negative probe to the positive probe —because I had the probes backwards. Once again, this indicates that current is flowing from the tip to the sleeve, which means that the tip is positive and the sleeve is negative.
If you want to take a leap of faith
If you don’t have a multimeter handy, you can always take a leap of faith and assume that your adapter has a positive tip and a negative sleeve, which is how most adapters are designed. The tip is well-protected and difficult to touch by accident. Since current flows from positive to negative, you prevent accidental shorts and electrocution by making the hard-to-reach tip positive and the easy-to-reach sleeve negative.
Here’s your list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events for Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, April 26 through Sunday, May 2, 2021.
This is a weekly service from Tampa Bay’s tech blog, Global Nerdy! For the past four years, I’ve been compiling a list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events happening in Tampa Bat and surrounding areas. There’s a lot going on in our scene here in “The Other Bay Area, on the Other West Coast”!
By “Tampa Bay and surrounding areas”, this list covers events that originate or are aimed at the area within 100 miles of the Port of Tampa. At the very least, that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, but as far north as Ocala, as far south as Fort Myers, and includes Orlando and its surrounding cities.
Yes, many of us have had their first (and even second!) vaccines, but we’re not at the point where it’s advisable to return to pre-pandemic-style in-person events. It will happen soon, but in the meantime, I’m restricting this list to online events. In the age of broadband internet, smartphones, and social media, it’s not that hard. Stay home, stay safe, stay connected, and #MakeItTampaBay!
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!
The Mike Dominick Show
