It’s that time of the week again — when I post the technology- and work-related memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share and enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, December 9 through Sunday, December 15, 2024! 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, December 9
- Tuesday, December 10
- Wednesday, December 11
- Thursday, December 12
- Friday, December 13
- Saturday, December 14
- Sunday, December 15
Monday, December 9
Tuesday, December 10
Tuesday evening, starting at 5:30 at Hays: Tampa Bay AI Meetup and Tampa Java User Group are jointly presenting Red Hat’s Kevin Dubois and his presentation, Welcome to the AI Jungle! Now what?
Here’s a quick writeup of Kevin’s talk:
The AI revolution is transforming business landscapes, but many developers find themselves overwhelmed by this paradigm shift. How do we navigate this “Wild West” of tools, models, and platforms?
Kevin will demonstrate how open source technologies can standardize AI development and deployment in enterprise environments. Learn how to leverage familiar tools like containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and GitOps to build AI-powered applications in a secure, repeatable manner.
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday, December 11
Wednesday evening, starting at 5:30 at Embarc Collective: It’s a collective meetup of Tampa Bay’s tech meetups celebrating the holidays! Come meet the people who make up the Tampa Bay tech scene at a party hosted by those pillars of the tech community, Computer Coach and High Tech Connect!
There will be plenty of raffle prizes to win! You can enter the raffle by bringing an unwrapped gift or gift card (valued at $10 or more) for donation, or purchase a raffle ticket at the door.
All gifts and funds raised will go to Joshua’s House. Last year, we raised over $1000, and this year, we’re aiming even higher! Help us make an even greater impact by reaching our new goal and supporting children in need across our community.
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday evening, starting at 6:00 at the Entrepreneur Collaborative Center: This meetup will feature part one of a two-part series titled Mastering LLM Integrations: Anything LLM, Ollama, and the Path to AI Agents.
Here’s the description of part one:
Anything LLM and Ollama In Part 1, we will explore the foundational concepts and technical steps for creating a private instance of Anything LLM and integrating it with Ollama. The discussion will include supporting technologies such as vector databases and the RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architecture. Real-world scenarios will be presented to demonstrate practical applications and showcase the value of these solutions in actionable contexts.
Here’s the bio of the speaker, Stacey Smith:
Stacey Smith brings a rich background with over 25 years of experience in computer science to his role as Lead Data Scientist at USCENTCOM. Prior to his current position, Stacey honed his skills at USSOCOM as a Cloud Engineer and previously held the role as a Computer Scientist at a US Army research laboratory. He holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Computer Science, followed by a Master’s in Data Science from Southern Methodist University in 2020. His journey to Tampa was initially sparked by an interest in the local cigar culture, but he quickly developed a passion for High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Krav Maga martial arts. Stacey’s enthusiasm for the cutting-edge advancements behind LLMs has been a driving force behind his latest presentation.
Find out more and register here.
Thursday, December 12
Thursday evening, starting at 6:00 at Golden Isles Brewing: Tampa Bay UX is inviting everyone to celebrate 2024 and the holidays with your TBUX friends!
There will be benefits for those of you who like to arrive early: the first 50 people will get a free drink and some swag. They’ll also provide some food, and you’ll be able to buy food at the Liberty Smokehouse food truck.
Find out more and register here.
Thursday evening, starting at 6:30 at Sorry Not Public: Tampa Bay Techies are holding a Holiday Social & Donation Drive – a social networking event for aspiring and current tech professionals and tech enthusiasts! It’ll be a fantastic opportunity to connect, celebrate the season, and support a meaningful cause.
They’re partnering with the Ronald McDonald House Charities to bring joy to children in need. Please bring a new, unwrapped toy to contribute to the drive.
Find out more and register here.
Friday, December 13
Friday morning, starting at 11:00, online: Here’s a workshop where you can reflect on your career journey in 2024 and set new goals for the year ahead. You will:
- Reflect on your career achievements and challenges in 2024
- Set new goals for the year ahead or adjust your existing ones
- Celebrate your successes and learn from your setbacks
- Leave feeling motivated and ready to tackle your career goals in the new year
Find out more and register here.
Saturday, December 14
Saturday afternoon, starting at 3:00 at Feeding Tampa Bay’s offices: TBTLA — Tampa Bay Technology Leadership Association — is holding their Tech Day event with a growing list of guest speakers presenting topics on the latest technology trends.
Find out more and register here.
Sunday, December 15
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
I’ll admit it; I laughed
Some context:
- DW: Finland: Outage reported after fiber optic cable damaged
- EuroNews: Finnish authorities probe damage to internet cable between Finland and Sweden
- AP News: Finnish police don’t suspect criminal activity regarding damaged data cables in south of country
- The Local: Finland confirms cables to Sweden were accidentally damaged
The image above only looks like a poster for a “buddy” film featuring the hard-working protagonist and his troublemaking friend, but it’s actually a promo for a meetup featuring Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, where he’ll deliver his presentation, Twelve Essential Practices to be Effective in Continuous Delivery!
The meetup takes place tomorrow at Vaco Tampa Skycenter (near Tampa International Airport), and is organized by Tampa Java User Group, Tampa QA Meetup, and Tampa Devs! Here are the details:
- What: Twelve Essential Practices to be Effective in Continuous Delivery
- When: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
- 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.: Networking and food
- 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.: Partner intro, presentation, raffle
- Where: Vaco Tampa Skycenter (5411 Skycenter Drive, Suite 675, Tampa)
- Find out more and register here
I’ve been writing for Kodeco (formerly RayWenderlich.com) on and off for the past seven years, and my latest work for them — the Python for AI course, part of their Artificial Intelligence APIs with Python program — is just one of several training programs available to you with a Kodeco subscription. And until Monday, December 2nd, they’re selling annual subscriptions for only $299, which is half price!
In addition to the courses pictured above, a subscription gives you access to all these books:
A subscription also gives you access to all 4000+ screencasts and video courses in their library!
Want to find out more? Check out their promotion: Black Friday Sale: Huge Discounts on Subscriptions, Bootcamps, and Books!
It’s that time of the week again — when I post the technology- and work-related memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant this week. Share and enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, December 2 through Sunday, December 8, 2024! 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, December 2
- Tuesday, December 3
- Wednesday, December 4
- Thursday, December 5
- Friday, December 6
- Saturday, December 7
- Sunday, December 8
Monday, December 2
Tuesday, December 3
Wednesday, December 4
Wednesday at noon, online: Join Computer Coach’s 30-minute LinkedIn Live session, Building Community in Tech, dedicated to exploring the power of building a professional community that supports growth, learning, and collaboration.
Find out more and register here.
On Wednesday evening, Tampa Java user Group, Tampa QA Meetup, and Tampa Devs are jointly hosting a talk by none other than Dr. Venkat Subramaniam: Twelve Essential Practices to be Effective in Continuous Delivery. It will take place starting at 5 p.m. at the Vaco office.
Dr. Subramaniam is one of the brightest lights in the Java scene today, and it’s a rare treat to be able to get him here in Tampa Bay, so you might not want to miss this one!
Want details about his last talk here? I have photos and notes!
Find out more and register here.
Thursday, December 5
Friday, December 6
Saturday, December 7
Sunday, December 8
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