Categories
Humor

Frightening, but true

Luckily for me, my Stack Overflow profile puts me in the top 5% for Python and Ruby, and top 30% for Swift:

Thanks to @CodingBourbon for the find!

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

Next week is Startup Week Tampa Bay!

It’s virtual, and it’s happening next week! Techstars Startup Week Tampa Bay happens Monday, October 5th through Friday, October 9th, and it’s for you, the Tampa Bay area techie and entrepreneur!

Here’s the highlight video from last year’s Startup Week:

As I mentioned earlier, this year’s Startup Week will be virtual, enabled by Lunchpool’s “virtual table” system, which does a pretty good job of emulating a conference hall with individual tables where you can gather into groups and converse.

This video explains how it’ll work:

Here are some links that you might want to check out:

Registration is free — do it today, and I’ll see you there!

Categories
What I’m Up To

New month, new job!

I’m pretty short on time today — and will be for the next couple of weeks — so I’ll just get to the point:

I signed an offer letter with Auth0.

My start date is scheduled for Monday, October 19th, and my new role will be on Auth0’s Developer Marketing team as Senior R&D Content Engineer.

Categories
Hardware What I’m Up To

My new remote tech interview / teaching setup is unstoppable!

Tap to view the lighting setup at full size. For the really curious, the screen’s showing IntelliJ IDEA displaying a tech interview exercise in which I built an API of hot sauces using Spring Boot, Kotlin, and one other thing that I’ll name later.

Between the gig I’ve got teaching JavaScript and then Python a couple of evenings a week until the end of the year and a whole lot of technical interviews, I decided it was time to up my webcam lighting game. The result is pictured above and below.

Actual screen shot from last week’s technical interview. I’ll write more about how it went soon.

I had an Amazon credit and a coupon code, so I got this thing for “cheaper than free”: A set of two 5600K USB-powered LED lights with tripods and filters…

It works quite well — and better than I expected. While it’s light and takes up little space once collapsed, it’s a little too flimsy for someone who needs on-the-go lighting.

However, if you plan on keeping the rig in just one place and not travel with it, it’s a good setup for your video chats, meetings, interviews, classes, and so on. Check it out on Amazon.

The lights worked well for last night’s class and the previous week’s tech interview. I’ll write more about how the interview went soon.

 

Categories
Humor

T-shirt of the day

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

If you don’t get it, ask a friend who knows computer networking. Alternately, you could do a little Googling…

Categories
Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, September 28, 2020)

Once again, here’s the weekly list of events for events for Tampa Bay techies, entrepreneurs, and nerds. Every week, on GlobalNerdy.com and on the mailing list, I scour the announcements for events that are interesting to or useful for those of you who are building the future here in “The Other Bay Area, on The Other West Coast”.

This list covers events from Monday, September 28 through Sunday, October 4, 2020. That’s right, October happens this week!

I’ve opted to list only those events that I can confirm are happening online. I’m not yet listing in-person events, as we’re still in the middle of a pandemic in one of the hardest-hit states (nearly 700,000 cases and 14,000 deaths) in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world (7.1 million cases, 204,000 deaths).

Events — especially virtual, online ones — can pop up at the last minute. I add them to the list as I find out about them. Come back and check this article from time to time, as you might find a new listing that wasn’t there before!

This week’s events

Monday, September 28

Tuesday, September 29

Wednesday, September 30

Thursday, October 1

Friday, October 2

Saturday, October 3

Sunday, October 4

Do you have any events or announcements that you’d like to see on this list?

Let me know at joey@joeydevilla.com!

Join the mailing list!

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!


Categories
Programming Reading Material What I’m Up To

JavaScript books that you can read online for FREE

My actual setup at my old office (February 3, 2020), where I coded in JavaScript all day.

If…

  1. You’ve decided to learn JavaScript (or just need a refresher), and
  2. you’re short on cash due to the current economic situation

…you’re in luck! There are a couple of good books on JavaScript whose contents are available to read online, free of charge!

The first of these books is Eloquent JavaScript, Third Edition, written by Marijn Haverbeke and published by No Starch Press. It’s not just an introduction to JavaScript, but an introduction to programming in general. It’s beginner-friendly, which is one of the reasons why it’s the main book for the first part of the JavaScript/React course that I’m teaching.

You can Eloquent JavaScript, Third Edition online here.

The second book is JavaScript for Impatient Programmers, ECMAScript 2020 edition, written by Dr. Alex Rauschmeyer. Its coverage of JavaScript is more complete, but it’s a little less beginner-friendly, which is why it’s the backup book for my course. I’m going to incorporate some of its content into the course, and point students to the online edition if they’d like some additional reading material.

You can read JavaScript for Impatient Programmers, ECMAScript 2020 edition online here.