Welcome to another Global Nerdy Saturday “picdump!” It’s the weekly article where 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, February 24 through Sunday, March 2, 2025! There’s a lot going on; find the event that appeals to you…and go!
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
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:
Here’s a quick little post that’s here to let you know a couple of things. For starters, Packfiles’ site now includes company headshots, which include Yours Truly:
To recap, Packfiles makes a SaaS called Warp, which migrates source code repositories from other, lesser source control systems (Azure DevOps right now, but BitBucket and GitLab soon) to GitHub.
Migration is a tedious manual process that’s like this:
But with Warp, it’s more like this:
My title, Technical Experience Lead, is something I made up on the spot, but it pretty much covers what I do. I make sure that the people who use the SaaS have the best experience possible, from the moment they visit our site and try our service, to the actual migration process.
I’ve been recording how-to videos in my nice, quiet, and conevnient home studio, but yesterday, internet service went out in our neighborhood. Luckily, Embarc Collective — where I do my non-recording work — has a content studio and they were kind enough to let me book it for all afternoon yesterday on very short notice.
Here’s the booking screen outside the studio…
…and here’s what it was like inside:
It’s a busy time for me, and I’ll write more about it here — watch this space!
Welcome to the another Global Nerdy Saturday “picdump!” I know, it’s a day late. Between some extra work and Valentine’s Day, I wasn’t able to assemble it until today.
Anyhow, here’s the weekly article where 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!
At the time of writing, if you go to this URL at the (incredibly unserious) DOGE.GOV site…
https://doge.gov/workforce?orgId=7cd300eb-cf3f-47f5-90f1-9e66a8bc8d07
…you’ll see this:
The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media. One coder added at least two database entries that are visible on the live site and say “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro.”
Not only do the DOGEbags lack forensic accountants, it seems that they’re short on people with even the most basic cybersecurity chops.
Here’s what’s happening in the thriving tech scene in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for the week of Monday, February 17 through Sunday, February 23, 2025! There’s a lot going on; find the event that appeals to you…and go!
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
Tuesday morning at 10, online: Computer Coach presents Cracking the ATS Code, where ATS is short for “applicant tracking system,” the software that recruiters use to process job applications. They’ll share insider tips on how to optimize your resume to get past the ATS and strategies for tailoring your job applications to increase your chances of getting noticed by recruiters.
Find out more and register here.
Tuesday evening at 6 at the Jimmie B. Keel library in Carrollwood: TFAB, the Tampa Bay Microsoft Fabric Analytics User Group — formerly the Tampa Bay SQL Server User Group — will be holding their monthly meeting.
Find out more and register here.
Wednesday at noon, online: Computer Coach will feature The Strategic Professional: Leveraging Personal Branding for Career Growth, with guest speaker Chik Quintans, a trusted expert in managing and marketing reputations for hundreds of mortgage professionals and small service businesses with over 15 years’ experience.
You’ll learn:
Find out more and register here.
Thursday, February 20 at 5:30 at Thrive DTSP in St. Pete: Tampa Bay Techies, Tampa Bay AI Meetup, Computer Coach, and Masterminds Tampa Bay are hosting Guardians of the Digital Age: A CISO Panel. It’s an exclusive fireside chat featuring three top local Chief Information Security Officers as they share insights on the evolving cybersecurity landscape, emerging threats, and best practices for resilience in 2025 and beyond.
Following the discussion, we’ll commemorate a major milestone with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the official opening of No Limit Technology’s new space. Network with industry leaders, gain valuable perspectives, and celebrate this exciting new chapter!
Find out more and register here.
Thursday at 6:30 at Wild Rover Brewery in Tampa: Lean Beer is all about promoting knowledge sharing and networking among professionals with a passion for Agile Product Development. It’s a great place to ask questions and share your stories of using Agile and Lean software approaches, over an adult beverage, if you choose. We discuss any topics on Agile and Lean that are of interest to whomever is gathered. You suggest the topics, then we prioritize that list democratically, through a good ol’-fashioned vote. We manage our discussions via time boxes, and a Roman vote (drinks up/drinks down). Vegas rules apply!
Find out more and register here.
Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. at Lala’s Sangria in Tampa: The Tampa branch of the US Tech Network meetup is holding a gathering this Friday and the next two Fridays for startup founders, business leaders, industry experts, investors, and developers!
Find out more and register here.
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:
At last night’s meetup held by the Tampa Bay Product Group, presenter Jamel Canty put up a slide with a phrase I’ve always liked, but haven’t seen in a while:
“Resume-generating events.”
He was using it in the same sense as a similar phrase: career-limiting move: an action, behavior, or colossal screw-up that leads to your dismissal, which in turn necessitates your generating revised resumes as you start a new job search.
“Resume-generating event” also has another meaning: a major warning sign at a company (examples: an ominous all-hands meeting, a merger or acquisition, a Boeing-style product failure) that causes employees of a company to start looking for work elsewhere.
Given the current work environment, assisted by the culture’s general slouch towards authoritarianism and the balance of power favors management, expect to see this phrase used more often.
