Episode 11: Paola Valiente on Modeling and Coding

Paola talks about modeling, acting, and why she decided to become a technologist. Cecil asks Paola why she decided to investigate WordPress. Paola talks about her desire to be a front end developer and how she’s looking into a formal program. Paola asks the guys how they got started in technology. Richie asks Paola what’s it like to be in a session where you have no background in the topic. Richie talks about the challenges of hiring young developers, his internship with Walt Disney World, and a new hire gone wrong. Paola talks about her desire to continue to model and code.

Links

Juan Night Stand Short Film
Meetup.com
WordCamp Miami
Code Academy

Bio

Paola_Valiente_BioPaola Valiente was born and raised in Corozal, Puerto Rico. As an actress she’s worked in commercials for Minute Maid and Puerto Rican Lottery. She co-starred with Braulio Castillo, Jr. in a short film called Juan Night Stand (2013) which got to the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival in France. Her experience in modeling includes national campaigns, fashion editorials, and runways. Paola now lives in Miami where she has taken a new adventure, learning to code. You can find her on Twitter at @PaoPaoDaily or on the web at https://thepaopao.wordpress.com/

Episode 10: Matt Mawhinney Spreads The Love For Code

Matt introduces himself and how he got started in technology. Matt explains why he get involved with LaunchCode. He explains what LaunchCode is and some of the challenges that LaunchCode faces. Cecil ponders the statistic of one million programming jobs will be unfilled by 2020. Matt talks about LaunchCode getting a mention by President Obama. Cecil shares a story on the LaunchCode website of an individual that went from stocking groceries to writing software. Matt describes the typical LaunchCode student. Cecil asks about how LaunchCode’s partnership with edX works.

Links

LaunchCode
LaunchCode South Florida CS50X
Tested at ChefSteps: How To Cook Amazing Ribs without Smoke or Fire
Sous-Vide

Bio

Matt_Mawhinney_BioA Sunshine State native, Matt Mawhinney is the Community Manager for LaunchCode South Florida, a non-profit that helps people from non-traditional technology education backgrounds start careers in tech. Matt is also an alumni of Wyncode, Florida’s first accredited web development bootcamp and is actively involved in South Florida’s technology, entrepreneurial, and creative communities. In his spare time, Matt likes to cook, travel, and do improv comedy–if people in the audience promise they will laugh. You can follow him on Twitter @TweetsbyMatt and on Instagram @GramsbyMatt.

Episode 9: Rey Bango Fights For The Developers

The group discusses the perception of Microsoft over the years and how it’s changed recently. The panel discusses their history with jQuery. Rey talks about the pitfalls of using libraries without understanding the underlying language. Richie asks Rey how he became so passionate about developer adv..advoc..advocacy. Rey explains the difference between evangelism and advocacy. Rey talks about how he keeps a high level of professionalism in a world where social media is everywhere. Rey tells a story of how he was booed on stage because he was representing Microsoft. Cecil asks Rey what are the more interesting developer communities that he’s visited. Richie asks how communities can be less argumentative. Rey talks about his love for diving and how he got certified.

Links

jQuery
Mozilla Foundation
Microsoft Edge Browser
Charles Petzold – When Worlds Collide
Underwater Unlimited
Pompano Dive Center

Bio

Rey BangoRey is a lover of the web and an advocate for web standards. At Microsoft, he’s focused on helping developers build awesome cross-browser experiences and being a feedback conduit for the community. He’s privileged to be an original member of the jQuery Project Team.

Episode 8: Todd Gardner Tracks Your Errors

Todd gives a quick introduction about himself. Todd talks about what he’s learned about starting a product based business. Todd emphasizes the importance of getting customer feedback early and measuring what people do with your software. Todd describes how his product, TrackJS, was created and how it helps your application track errors. The panel discusses the frustration of monitoring systems via e-mail. Todd shares his vision of what TrackJS could look like in the future. Cecil inquires about the TrackJS stack. Todd talks about moving away from Azure and onto physical hardware and the performance boost his application is seeing. Todd doesn’t really like JavaScript!

This episode was recorded on May 7th, 2015

Links

TrackJS
Lean Startup
Wat

Bio

Todd_Gardner_Bio Todd H Gardner is the president and co-founder of TrackJS (trackjs.com), an error monitoring service for modern JavaScript applications. He also consults with companies to help develop their business and their products for the web. With over a decade of experience building software systems, Todd has built large enterprise systems, complex software products, and launched businesses. He is also at the keyboard when he should not be. He can be found on Twitter at @toddhgardner.

Episode 7: Esteban Garcia Starts It Up

Esteban and Richie talk about their new standing desks. Esteban shares about starting his own company, using a co-location facility and hiring staff. Esteban describes the emotions he had while making the decision to leave his job and start his own company. Esteban talks about how he finds balance with starting a startup and having a family. The panel talks about how they can teach their kids about technology. Esteban talks about organizing the Orlando Code Camp and the challenges around hosting a large community conference.

This episode was recorded on April 22, 2015.

Links

StandDesk
Nebbia Technology
Julie Lerman – Entity Framework Guru
ONETUG
Orlando Code Camp

Bio

Esteban GarciaEsteban Garcia is the founder and Chief Technologist at Nebbia Technology, an ALM consulting and Azure-powered technology company. He is a software developer with a passion for ALM, TFS, Azure, and software development best practices. Estaban is a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP and ALM Ranger, Pluralsight author, and am the president of ONETUG (Orlando .NET User Group). Esteban can be found on twitter at @EstebanFGarcia and the web at http://www.almguide.com

Episode 6: Shayne Boyer On Fitness, Community, and Tech

Cecil has never had a Yoo-hoo! Shane explains how he runs marathons and how obstacle races isn’t for him. Shane talks about how Jiu-Jitsu helps him keeps control. The panel talks about how community is important fitness and in technology. Video games frustrate Shane. The panel discusses fitness trackers. Cecil destroys FitBit bands. The panel discusses how health data could be used in nefarious ways.

Recorded on March 28th, 2015 at the Orlando Code Camp.

Links

Orlando Code Camp
Yoo-hoo!
Kennedy Space Center
FitBit
Microsoft Band

Bio

Shayne_Boyer_BioShayne Boyer is a Solutions Architect with over 15 years experience working with Microsoft based solutions. He is an ASP.NET MVP, INETA community speaker, and Telerik Developer Expert. Over the past 10 years he has lead development teams working on enterprise solutions with a focus on productivity, performance and sustainability. Shayne often publishes content on ASP.NET, TypeScript, Node.js. JavaScript and Web API development and can always be found on twitter @spboyer or on his blog at tattoocoder.com.

Episode 5: It’s All Food and Games With Nik Molnar and Mike Wood

Mike and Nik talk about their presentations at the South Florida Code Camp. The panel discusses how to become a specialist and finding your passion. Nik explains how he became a foodie. Cecil is embarrassed after watching Master Chef Junior. Mike talks about some of the board games he plays with his family. Nik explains how he cooks with a device that was originally designed to preserve organs. Nik mentions that the secret to great barbecue is Excel. Nik and Mike give their tips on how to follow your passion. Nik turns the tables and starts interviewing Cecil and Richie.

Recorded on February 7th, 2015 at the South Florida Code Camp.

Links

PASS Summit
Ticket To Ride
FlashPoint
Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game
Immersion Circulator
Richard Campbell

Bio

Mike_Wood_BioMike Wood is a Technical Evangelist for Red Gate Software on the Cerebrata Team. He describes himself as a problem solving, outdoorsy, user group founding, dog-loving, blog writing, solution creating, event planning, married, technology speaking, father of one kind of guy. When he’s not living up to that title he’s an avid reader, (horrible) violinist and gamer. Michael is a Microsoft MVP in Microsoft Azure, an Azure Insider and the Editor for JustAzure.com. You can follow Mike on twitter under the handle @mikewo.

Nik_Molnar_BioNik Molnar is a New Yorker, Microsoft MVP, ASP & Azure Insider and co-founder of Glimpse, an open source diagnostics and debugging tool. Originally from Homestead Florida, Nik specializes in web development, web performance, web API’s and community management. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and on technical podcasts. In his spare time, Nik can be found cooking up a storm in the kitchen, hanging with his wife and working on other open source projects. Nik can be found online at http://nikcodes.com and on twitter at @nikmd23.

Episode 4: Build 2015 Review With Rich Dudley

Rich talks about how cool HoloLens is. Then he talks about Universal Windows App and how you can write one app that runs on many different form factors. The panel talks about the Window 10 bridges which allows iOS, Android, Web Apps and Windows 32 apps into the Windows 10 Store. Rich then explains .NET going cross-platform. Cecil has been doing some testing with Visual Studio Code, the new cross-platform code editor. Rich gives the low-down on Windows 10. Richie goes over some of his favorite SQL related announcements and how the machine learning scares him. Finally, Rich shares what it’s really like attending Build and if you should go next year.

Recorded On May 5, 2015.

Links

Hands-On with (a Near Final) Microsoft HoloLens
Universal Windows apps
Introducing the Universal Windows Platform Bridges
Introducing ASP.NET 5 – Scott Hanselman @ Build 2015
Deep Dive into ASP.NET 5 – Scott Hanselman @ Build 2015
VSCode: Creating an Application with Yeoman aspnet generators
Shayne Boyer
Windows 10
Azure SQL Database previews major updates for BUILD

Bio

Rich_Dudley_BioRich is a Senior Software Engineer for Quicken Loans, supporting Marketing via the Microsoft stack. Rich has been using Microsoft technologies to build data driven and e-commerce websites since 2001. Rich and his wife are known throughout the floral industry for their adoption and use of technology to expand their florist business. Rich holds an MS in molecular biology, and his work prior to software development includes surviving cholera and purifying radioactive neurotoxins. Rich is also a co-leader of the Pittsburgh .NET User Group, an ASP Insider and a Packt author. You can find him online at http://rjdudley.com/ or on twitter at @rj_dudley.

Episode 3: Learn the Dave Nicolas Way

The panel discusses why some people think that the technology community doesn’t exist. Dave discusses how we can improve our technical skill by creating time and killing our egos. Cecil talks how being involved in the technical community has improved his career. Richie talks about why we should have a learning plan and Dave explains why this doesn’t always work for some people. Dave tells a story of how he got a co-worker to learn code through fantasy football. Dave talks about how becoming a manager doesn’t mean you have to give up writing code. The panel discusses how to delegate. Richie tells how hard it was when he was a manager to be technical and be a manager. Dave talks about his hobbies. Dave tells us how to keep our passion for technology. Rails is slow. Cecil asks Dave what technologies/languages make him excited.

Recorded On January 29, 2015.

Links

Brent Ozar
Jon Skeet
Andy Warren

Bio

Dave_Nicolas_BioDave Nicolas is a senior Software Architect, with an insatiable for technology. He has been developing software for over 10 years and primarily focuses on Microsoft technologies. However, he is open minded to other platforms available in the open source community. Dave is a co-founder of the dotNet Miami user group where he shares his passion with fellow developers. He currently manages the Software Development initiative at Banker’s Healthcare Group and holds a BS in Computer Science from Florida International University. He also runs a SaaS consulting firm where he and his team offer software services in the wild. You can follow Dave on Twitter at @dvee81.

A Podcast Is Born

It started with a simple statement, “We should record this.” I made that statement said during a dotNet Miami after party. The after party always has interesting discussions about programming, projects, and life. The next month I made a recording of the dotNet Miami after party hoping I could get some usable audio. What I got was interesting but not interesting enough to publish and the audio quality was poor. I spent the next few months mulling the idea of a dotNet Miami podcast. I started talking to Cecil Phillip about it and we realized that having a dotNet Miami podcast, although cool, wouldn’t be compelling.

IMG_4793

Richie takes a selfie with Lou at Podcast Florida.

I was still enamored with the idea of starting a podcast and so was Cecil, so we made a day trip to Orlando in December to attend the Podcast Florida conference. The conference was amazing. We met some fantastic people that make phenomenal podcasts. I was able to Meet Lou Mongello, host of WDW Radio, a podcast I’ve been listening to for years. We also met Jared Easley, host of the Starve The Doubts, a great dude that gave us some awesome encouragement. We also met Steve Cherubino, who’s Udemy course was a great help in understanding how to get a podcast up and running. It was a long day but Cecil and I got a lot out of Podcast Florida. We came up with a name, Away From The Keyboard (I registered the domain name in the middle of one of the sessions) and we got a better idea of what we needed to do to execute a podcast technically. We also came up with a concept: “a podcast for technical people that focused on the human side of technology”. Lastly, we got a ton of encouragement and a feeling that “we can do this”.

Two months later we found ourselves at the South Florida Code Camp in the speaker room with a bunch of audio equipment and a slate full of guests. We were able interview five very talented technologists and had some great conversations. It was great to be able to finally sit down and record. A month later we recorded another couple of episodes at the Orlando Code Camp and we set a deadline of April 7th to launch the podcast. We still had two Trello boards worth of tasks to do, the biggest task was to create the Away From The Keyboard website. We’ll, we missed the April 7th date but we were able to unveil the website a week later on April 14th.

It was a long road, taking an idea from concept to reality, but pushing our first episode earlier this week felt so good. We’ve have a bunch of interviews recorded and we have a bunch more planned. We hope you enjoy the stories that the guests going to tell. We hope that these stories entertain, enlighten and inspire you to do great things.

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