Month: February 2016

It’s that time of year again: Tampa Bay Startup Week! The tech/entrepreneurial event, which this year runs from today, Monday February 8th, through Friday, February 12th, is focused on bringing techies, creatives, and entrepreneurs together to bring them together, provide ideas and inspiration, and help grow the city’s self-starter business scene.

You may not think of Tampa as an entrepreneurial hotspot, but according to the 2015 report of the Kauffman Index of Startup Activity for Metropolitan Areas, the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area’s in top 25 (ranked #20), and ranked ahead of places you’re more likely to associate with entrepreneurship, including:

• the Chicago area (#21)
• the Boston/Cambridge area (#22)
• “Portlandia” (#26)
• and even our neighbor, Orlando (#33), which people say has a more active startup scene

Chase doesn’t sponsor just any city’s Startup Week. To qualify, it’s got to meet the criteria of density, government regulations, culture, talent, and access to said talent. In Money’s 2015 roundup of the 5 best big cities, they named Tampa the best city in the southeast. It’s got great weather, an airport that punches above its weight class, low cost of living (moving here was like getting a big raise, there’s no state income tax, the median house price is $122K), and as I’ve posited before, the “Florida Man” factor is actually a blessing in disguise:

There will be all sorts of activities this week worth checking out, from presentations on technologies such as the Internet of Things, cryptocurrency, and mobile design, to business mentoring, networking, and even an opportunity to get a new headshot for your LinkedIn profile, to fun “intro to programming” events for kids, to mingling, networking, and enjoying the city’s excellent craft beer. Be sure to check out the Tampa Bay Startup Week page, follow the Tampa Bay Startup Week and organizer @thatgirlallie’s Twitter feeds, and come on down and take part!

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

Click the image to see the source.

Chinese New Year begins tomorrow, Monday February 8th, and it’s already poised to start with bang, if the posted above is any indication.

All artist Lehu Zhang meant to do was take a minimalist approach when he created his 2016: Year of the Monkey poster. Using basic shapes and negative space, he created the image above, which does evoke the image of a monkey…and something else as well.

@gveks “That’s no Monkey” pic.twitter.com/rfTjgQpLFF

— Scott E. Severs (@ScottESevers) February 6, 2016

@gveks @advocaatvduivel I see things but a monkey ain’t one of them 😱

— Wendy (@troetje) February 6, 2016

@troetje @gveks It’s more of a “The Year Of Spanking The Monkey” kinda image.

— Advocaat vd Duivel (@advocaatvduivel) February 6, 2016

Here’s the (ahem) money shot from a Buzzfeed interview with Zhang:

Zhang acknowledged that he can now see “some sexual things” in the work, but swears he didn’t intend that. “I’m not angry,” he told BuzzFeed News. “I’m just a little bit surprised, a little bit worried.”

I suppose that like the Twitter developer who’s too busy making the Twitter app to actually use it, Zhang’s a little too close to his art to see the image that other people see.

Found on Edwin de Jongh’s Twitter feed. Click to see the source.

Between the carpentry work and the disciples, I think Jesus would be more of the Honda CR-V, Element, or Odyssey guy, what with the extra passenger and cargo room.

He’s still a few CrossFit sessions away from fitting into Grandma’s dress from Episode II:

“Yes, Anakin, I always wear this dress and tiara when I’m at the cottage. Why do you ask?”

@ch000ch on Twitter is right: the theme from The Office works perfectly with the title sequence from Cops.

Cops and The Office theme feels kinda right tbh pic.twitter.com/vZOyCzs3dL

— chuuch (@ch000ch) January 10, 2016

I really need to add this ’80s classic to my accordion repertoire.

My friend Dayv Mattt grew up in Toronto, but these days, he lives in Seoul. For a couple of years, he lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, thanks to his wife’s foreign service work. She had the work permit, he didn’t, so he did the sensible, creative thing and explored his bustling new city, the commercial and cultural heart of the country formerly known as Ceylon, on trishaw and on his own two feet (well, I assume he still has both his feet; it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen him).

In his explorations, he ended up taking over 35,000 photos. These pictures are captured in a new book called High Street Low Street Colombo, a book that will see the light of day if his Kickstarter is successful.

The money raised will help cover the costs of printing and help Dayv pay back some friends who helped him out during some lean times. Both are very good causes.

Rather than go with the photos of the “places you must see”, he took photos of everyday life in Colombo. They’re of everyday life in Colombo, going about their day-to-day tasks, and they’re captured beautifully. Dayv’s pictures capture what I call the “Jetsons-Flintstones coexistence” — that hodgepodge mix of the very old and the very new — which seems a little more pronounced in big cities in Asia.

Twenty bucks (US) will get you a copy of High Street Low Street Colombo, help bring a beautiful project to life, and help get Dayv out of debt. Check out Dayv’s site, visit his Kickstarter, and get your hands on this book!

I decided to spend a little more money and in return get both High Street Low Street Colombo and his earlier book, High Street Low Street Seoul, which captures slices of everyday life in his present home, Seoul: