IT in the D: 2015

IT in the D, Episode 73

Holy wow, what a great way to kick off the year.

Huge thanks to our guests Tom Nardone and Ian Sterrett who joined us tonight to talk about everything from the continually evolving Sony hack to bulletproof hats to geeks and conventions around the area.

Yes, it was that random...and it was that much fun...

In our opening segment, we talked about the college football fan who drunkenly took a $900 Uber ride, the continuing Sony hack debacle, whether or not apps are dying, the new advent of individual tv stations launching their own apps, and more.

Then we dove in with Tom Nardone, President of Priveco and a number of other businesses.  Priveco (Prive like "private" and Co) specializes in allowing you to...well, here's how they describe what they do: PriveCo Inc. is the world's most private company. Our strict privacy policy allows you to shop at any of our web stores with the utmost privacy. Every aspect of your visit including the shopping, purchasing, delivery and after-sale experience is kept completely confidential. Our dedication to private service has caused PriveCo to become one of the Internet's most unusual and fastest growing companies.  Check them out at http://www.priveco.com/

In our third segment, we talked about one of his other companies - BulletSafe.  BulletSafe makes a great bulletproof vest at an unbelievable price. It offers NIJ Level IIIA protection for just $299. It's a great vest too, with a large coverage area, plate pockets for ballistic plates, 6 sizes to fit almost everyone, and high-quality materials. Bulletsafe bulletproof vests are the first great, affordable bulletproof vests.  

Check them out at http://www.bulletsafe.com/

They've also got a kickstarter running right now to help develop their line of bulletproof hats.

Yes...hats.

A very cool concept, and there's a whole bunch of science, math, and reasoning as to why this makes sense.  Go check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap

To wrap things up, we chatted with long-time member of our networking group, Ian Sterrett, about his take on our group, what conventions in the area he's looking forward to or has hit recently, and just some good general conversations.  He's a great guy, and we couldn't be happier to have him around tonight or at our events.

That's all for this time, don't forget to tune in next week!

PriveCo can be found at http://www.priveco.com/

BulletSafe can be found at http://www.bulletsafe.com/

Their kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap

Ian can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ianformed

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 



Episode 73: BulletSafe, Priveco, Ian Sterrett

Episode 74, and wow was this a packed one.

Lots of great topics, tons of good conversation, a whole slew of new drops to be isolated for our opening...

...but I digress.  Thanks to our guests Kinsay Mantay and Nicole Johnson for coming out to talk about a cool program that gets you paid while earning your Associate's Degree as well as getting you a job once you're done, a $10,000 Internet of Things contest for young girls, a new group that's starting up that we're looking forward to doing more with in the future, and much, much more.

So let's get to some details...

As we typically do, we dove into the news, stories, events and topics that caught our attention over the past week.

We ranted about the Punch Bowl Social dust-up via social media that we believe got all too ridiculous all too quickly.  We talked about our event coming up this Thursday night (the 15th! Blackfinn! Royal Oak! 5pm! Be there!) for folks in and around the metro Detroit information technology community.  We got into some of the feedback that's been coming in and the original thoughts behind my blog entry recapping my trip to a comic book shop with my kids...and the surprise I got from my daughter while there.

In our second segment, we talked with Kinsay Mantay about the MAT2 program.

Now people...look.  We cannot make this any more clear for you.  This program:

1. Is wide open.

2. Gets you an associates degree.  That you don't pay for.

3. Partners you up with a company that you work at while getting that degree.  That you don't pay for.

4. You have a job at that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you don't pay for.

5. So you're earning money. From that job with that company you're partnered up with.  While still getting that degree.  That you still don't pay for.

6. When the program's over, you move into a full time job.  Probably earning more money than you were earning before from that job with that company that you're partnered up with.  While getting that degree.  That you still aren't paying for.

Did you finish high school?  Do you want a decent job?  Would you like a degree without having to pay for it?  Would you like a more decent job after getting that degree?  CLICK HERE: http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/

I really don't know how much more simple than that we can make it, people.

Our third segment had us chatting with our other in-studio guest, Nicole Johnson.  Nicole's got a lot going on at the moment:  

- She's a systems engineer at Cisco.  

- She's one of the women launching Diva Tech Talk.  From CFOs of corporations to scrappy entrepreneurs, women are making a huge impact in technology today. Yet the numbers of women in tech are still small. We interview these leaders and highlight issues and trends in technology.  If other women can see IT, they can be IT.

- She's working to get the word out about Cisco's Internet of Things competition for girls aged 13-18 where the winner walks away with $20,000 and there are multiple other prizes ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.

In our fourth segment, we doubled back a bit on some earlier topics, dove into a few others, and then called it quits for the night with Bob vowing revenge for my musical selections during our breaks.  Which you can't hear here in syndication, so ha ha, you missed it, you totally need to start listening live.

The MAT2 program can be found at http://www.mitalent.org/mat2/

Diva Tech Talk can be found at http://www.divatechtalk.com/

Cisco's Internet of Things contest can be found at http://iotchallenge-cisco.younoodle.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 


Episode 74: MAT2, Diva Tech Talk, a $10k IoT Contest, Women in Tech, Our Event Thursday and More

Our 75th episode, and this one's full of rants, raves, laughter and great conversations.

Lots of rants.  Lots...and lots...of rants...

Thanks to our guests local entrepreneur Bradley Hoos, as well as Jimi Plouffe and Nick Daniels from Momentum for hanging out, hopping in on the rants, hanging for the laughs, and providing a lot of great information in between the outbursts, and we even had a voice from the past call in...

Our first segment was pretty much wholly occupied by our discussion of what happened when the internet went nuts over one of our posts.

Over the span of three days last week, our blog entry about taking my kids to a comic book shop took just under 250,000 unique page views.  To put that into perspective, we normally get about 100,000 per month...and we had a single day that did more than that.

If you haven't read it yet, you should, just to have the proper context for listening to our first segment if nothing else.  You can find that over at http://www.itinthed.com/16328/what-taking-my-daughter-to-a-comic-book-store-taught-me/

The internet is full of fascinating things and people, the vast majority of whom were outstanding and some really good conversations evolved...

...but then there are...the others.  The people who love to get offended about anything. The ones just looking to pick a fight.  The geniuses who don't have kids but think they know everything about being a parent.  The keyboard courage commandos who think being behind a screen means that they can say whatever they want.

We talked about them all, so enjoy the conversation and venting.

That took up the entire first segment, and so we didn't get a chance to talk about other events or items that caught our eye this past week, so if you're interested, you can catch the topics we were going to get to down at the bottom.

In our second segment, we started things off with a surprise phone call, prior guest Russ Dotson (he was on our first episode, as well as others) back stateside after a tour of duty overseas.

Then we dove in with Brad Hoos, also a repeat offender guest, to talk about the various things he has going on these days. We discussed Hacker Fellows, a program recruiting recent Michigan and national college graduates to participate in a one-year program. The Hacker Fellows lasts one year and you'll get to work at an amazing Michigan tech start-up. You'll start with 6 weeks of training with your cohorts and dive into the start-up world by getting matched with a Michigan start-up. In short, you'll learn with the best and brightest in Michigan as you start your career.   Pretty decent concept, and you can learn more at http://www.hackerfellows.com/

You can also learn more about Brad and his endeavors at http://disciplinedentrepreneur.com/

Our third segment was supposed to be a dive in with our other guests...but turned into a collection of rants about people trying to tell business owners what they can and cannot do with their own companies, and a few other fun topics.

Episode 75: The Good, Bad and Ugly of the Internet, Entrepreneurs in Detroit and More

Episode 76, and yet another episode that's full of a lot of laughter and great conversations.

Thanks to our in-studio guests Anthony Tocco, Kyle Nelson, Andrew Mortemore, and Wade Kean, all from one of our sponsors - Quantum - for joining us...

From the Skymall bankruptcy to the measles outbreak at Disney, our first segment was all about the stories that caught our eye this past week.  How the FBI's trying to say that using a TOR or even a VPN connection constitutes probable cause.  A drone showing up on the White House lawn.  Disney rejecting Lucas' drafts for future Star Wars flicks and more.

After that, we dove right in with Quantum.

Quantum is one of our core sponsors, and so we're obviously more than happy to have them in-studio, but it wasn't a dry, boring commercial as one might expect.  Nope, we had a great and lively series of conversations about what they're doing in the industry with the NHL, GoPro, and several other seriously interesting applications of their technologies.

If you're not familiar with them, Quantum is a leading expert in scale-out storage, archive and data protection, providing intelligent solutions for capturing, sharing and preserving digital assets over the entire data lifecycle. We help customers maximize the value of these assets to achieve their goals, whether it’s top movie studios looking to create the next blockbuster, researchers working to accelerate scientific discovery, or small businesses trying to streamline their operations. With a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class disk, tape and software solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, we enable customers to address their most demanding workflow challenges and opportunities.

In our final segment, we doubled back on a few earlier topics and wrapped things up for the week.

Tune in next week as we're joined by the folks from Caliber Comics talking about their Nain Rouge comic with a Detroit flavor, our friends from Detroit Beer Press discussing their new issue, and Monica Wheat giving us some information about a new program in the city helping women develop and strengthen their skills.

Quantum can be found at http://www.quantum.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ 
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763 
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 
On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/ 

IT In The D - Episode 76: Quantum Storage Solutions

Episode 77: Detroit Beer Press, Pipeline Fellowship Detroit, Daily Detroit

What a fun, fun night.

Thanks to our guests Scott and Nuri from Penguicon, Kelly O'Hara of Bebop Art and Kasey from Kosmic Kasey for joining us for just a great night of conversations, laughs, and we even managed to be a little informative...not to mention running a giveaway that you can still be a part of.

We talked conventions, comics, art, women at cons, and all sorts of really great topics...

As always though, our first segment kicked things off with the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.  Samsung's announcement that their smart televisions are recording everything you say.  Radio Shack filing bankruptcy.  The problems with state income tax returns via Turbo Tax, which actually likely had more to do with the Anthem hack that resulted in 80 million full identities being stolen than anything else.

In our second segment, we chatted with Kelly and Kasey about art, comics, and the female perspective on several of the conversations we've been having lately.  We met Kelly at Motor City Comic Con last year in Artist's Alley (you can catch that earlier conversation with her here: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/motor-city-comic-con-2014-interview-kelly-ohara-bebop-art), and it was great to hear more about what she's got going on, the various shows that she's involved, her art, Kasey's writing, and their take on things.  Kelly is a Detroit-based portrait painter that has sold works internationally and shown work for over a decade from multiple galleries in and around the Detroit area, like the one taking place later this month that hit: https://www.facebook.com/events/922314677780270/.  Catch up with her at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bebop-Art/239939760127  Kasey Pierce is a writer, vidcast-host, and comic-con personality from the Metro Detroit area. She’s written pieces for AllThingsGeeks.com, AlmostNerdy.com, and quoted on the back of Dirk Manning’s graphic novel, Tales of Mr. Rhee (Procreation of the Wicked). Kasey is also in the works on a horror anthology for Rocket Ink Studios to be released early 2015.  Check her out at https://www.facebook.com/kosmickasey

Segment three focused in on Penguicon, a convention taking place at the end of April that's definitely different than a lot of cons in the area.  They describe themselves as a happy place where all geeky interests are represented, explored, and respected. A place with hackers, makers, foodies, open source software junkies, anime buffs, and science fiction fans of all ages and backgrounds come together in a hotel for a weekend and totally blow the roof off.  And nothing we've heard or read so far can dispute any of that - programming tracks for the hardcore geek to the casual cosplay enthusiast, events, panels and fun for just about everyone.  It's a safe bet that you're going to see us there.  Read more about them and get your tickets today at http://www.penguicon.org/

In our fourth segment, we continued learning a little more about Penguicon and then doubled back into our conversation with Kelly and Kasey...and then we made the decision to continue things even on out into a fifth segment, which went pretty much like those usually do.

That's all for this week's episode.

Kelly O'Hara can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bebop-Art/239939760127 or http://www.bebopart.webs.com/

Kasey can be found at https://www.facebook.com/kosmickasey or http://www.kosmickasey.com/

Penguicon can be found at http://www.penguicon.org/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 78: Penguicon, Bebop Art, Kosmic Kasey

Episode 79: Youngsoft, The Military, GEEPS, W3R and More

IT In The D - Episode 80: W3R, Daily Detroit, Pink Slip Party, Sponsors and More

Episode 81: ComiqueCon, Detroit Bus Company, Folkteller

Episode 82 of our weekly live broadcast is in the history books, and we had a lot of fun with our guests.

We were joined by Corey from Midwest Media Expo and Terry from 313Dlove to talk about their respective events coming up in the next month, as well as two of our group's members, Ian and Darshan, to get their take on those events, our own upcoming events and more...

In case you weren't listening live last night, you still have time to win a free lifetime membership to the Detroit Beer Press howler club.  All you have to do is be the first one to post a comment here that identifies all of the movies and TV shows from 1982 that the clips came from during our intro!

Once said intro wrapped up, as always, we dove into quick introductions of everyone, and then hopped right into the news, events and stories that caught our eye from this past week.  We talked about Mt Everest basically being a chemical war zone due to all of the human waste left behind (yes, that means exactly what you think it means), Curt Schilling tracking down the guys who were harassing his daughter on twitter, the Rock Band video game making a comeback onto new platforms, why we're all apparently old and out of it since we don't understand how Snapchat can possibly be a threat to TV and more.

In our second segment, we dove in with Corey from Midwest Media Expo.  For just $45 (and that pricing ends TODAY, people...so if you want it, go get it!) you get access to the entire weekend's events, autographs from the special guests and more.  That's right - no extra charge for autographs, special sessions, or anything else.  What a novel freaking concept.  The World Cosplay Summit will be taking place as a part of that weekend's activities, gaming tournaments and much, much more.  The Midwest Media Expo is a popular culture event similar to most Comic Conventions. Instead of focusing on only comics, the Midwest Media Expo is a celebration of all popular media, including: Animation, Television, Film, Literature, Video Games, Tabletop Gaming, Comics, and Internet Culture. The Midwest Media Expo will bring a unique all-ages blend of interactive events, celebrity guest panels, and live musical performances to Downtown Detroit.  Find them online at http://www.midwestmediaexpo.com/, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MidwestMediaExpo

Segment three has us chatting about an event this Friday as Terry talked about the 313Dlove event.  From a trending topic on Twitter to a movement that will one day see March 13 a city-wide holiday, they focus on positive change.  There's a march taking place in the morning, followed by a programming track at the Charles H Wright Museum of African American History.  Find out more on their site - http://313dlove.com/ - or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/313DLove

Our fourth and final segment doubled back on some earlier topics, covered a few more items that we hadn't gotten to, and then wrapped things up for the night.

Join us next week as we've got Steve from Arrow Strategies and Billy Strawter from Social Coop Media Detroit with us in-studio as we talk about our Pink Slip Party that Thursday night and more.

Midwest Media Expo can be found at at http://www.midwestmediaexpo.com/, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MidwestMediaExp
313Dlove can be found at http://313dlove.com/ - or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/313DLove
As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

IT In The D - Episode 82: Midwest Media Expo, 313Dlove, a Couple Group Members and More

IT In The D - Episode 83: Arrow Strategies, Social Coop Media Detroit, Pink Slip Party

Episode 84: Falling Down Beer Company, Rhino Coders, Startup Weekend Pontiac and More

Isolated segment of episode 84 with Startup Weekend Pontiac.

Full episodes and information about our networking events, blogs and more can be found at http://www.ITintheD.com

IT In The D - Episode 84 - Startup Weekend Pontiac Isolated

Better Off Dead. Breakfast Club. Back to the Future. Commando. European Vacation. Fletch. Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Goonies. Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon. Real Genius. Rocky 4. Desperately Seeking Susan (remember when Madonna was hot?). Teen Wolf. Tuff Turf. Weird Science. Spies Like Us. Just One of the Guys. Moonlighting...yeah, 1985 was a great year, and episode 85 of our weekly broadcast wasn't too shabby either.

With our guests from the Detroit Craftsman Guild and Solstice Consulting Group, we had a whole bunch of good things to talk about...

We started off with the news, stories and events that caught our eye over the past week after our 1985 flavored intro wrapped up. 

We're testing out with a new sponsor again this week, so here's this week's offer to go try out.

Guys, we all shave, and razors and replacement blades can be ridiculously expensive.

So when Harry's reached out and wanted to give things a shot with us, they sent us each a starter kit to check out...and, well, we're talking about them, and you know us, so that says it all right there.  Solid products, great pricing, and we even have a discount code for you to make their prices even better.  Hit https://www.harrys.com/, check out their starter sets - that start at only $15, mind you - and then use code ITintheD at checkout to take $5 off.

After a flashback music break, we hopped in with James York.  He teaches classes over at Grand Circus and does a whole bunch of other stuff, but we specifically had him him to chat about his work with the Detroit Craftsman Guild.  If you're not familiar with them, they're an offshoot of the excellent Craftsman Guild in Ann Arbor, and the goal is creating a technology-agnostic user group for local Detroit software professionals who want to stay current in an industry in which there's no way to stay totally current. The current plan is to have a healthy mix of hard and soft talks (tech vs. dev practices) as well as hands-on coding events from time to time.  They meet up on the third Tuesday of every month over at Detroit Labs, and it sounds like they've definitely got something going on that's worth checking out.  Give them a look at http://www.meetup.com/Detroit-Craftsman-Guild/

We had a "couple skate" music break, and then we dove in with a guy who wears a lot of hats due to his varied interests, Steven Acho.  He's the managing director of Solstice Consulting Group, a recruiting company that takes a different approach than many others.  He's a musician with more than 3,000,000 downloads of his music.  He's an author who's written a book titled Why Technology Recruiting is Broken and What to do about it.  Needless to say, we had a great chat with Steve.  We talked about what Solstice Consulting Group does differently and their views on hiring talent and firing clients.  Lots of great stuff.  Follow up and check him out at http://www.steveacho.com/, grab his book at http://www.amazon.com/Technology-Recruiting-Broken-What-about-ebook/dp/B00U80A7I2/, and click on over to Solstice Consulting Group at http://www.scg360.com/

Detroit Craftsman Guild is at http://www.meetup.com/Detroit-Craftsman-Guild/, on Twitter at @DetCraftsman, and you can find James on Twitter at @kroysemaj

Steve Acho can be found at http://www.steveacho.com/, grab his book at http://www.amazon.com/Technology-Recruiting-Broken-What-about-ebook/dp/B00U80A7I2/, and click on over to Solstice Consulting Group at http://www.scg360.com/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

IT In The D - Episode 85: Detroit Craftsman Guild, Solstice Consulting Group

Episode 86: When Visions Collide 2, Social Media Association of Michigan, Brightwing, Daily Detroit

Another weekly live broadcast has come and gone, and another great time was had by all.

For our 87th episode, we were joined by one of our core sponsors, Quantum Storage, as well as our friends from Motor City Geek.  And of course the intro and breaks were all 1987 themed as the 80s episodes continue.  We talked a little tech, we talked a little geek, we talked a little cosplay, and we laughed a lot while having all of those conversations and more...

As the mics went live at 9pm, our 1987 themed intro kicked things off with some clips from the movies and shows from the year as a good blast from the past.

After that, it was time for the news and stories that caught our eye over the past week.  It was a bad week to be a curious kid with a computer, as there were stories about a high school kid in Monroe who figured out how to run a DDOS against his school system's cloud-based network and a middle school kid who "hacked" (and I use the term very, very loosely) into his teacher's computer and swapped out the background image.  Comcast whining about DirectTV's Rob Lowe ads...and also refusing to stop charging a 66 year old man who had his house burn down.  All kinds of fun stuff, including a reminder about our upcoming event on Thursday night over at Blackfinn.

In segment two, we hopped into what Quantum Storage has going on with guests Andrew Mortemore and Lynn Wenzel.  From storage to disaster recovery to audit and compliance, Quantum has a lot of solutions to a lot of problems facing businesses today.  Really good chat about everything that they've got going on these days, with some good insight into how to handle some of those tougher issues staring a lot of us in the face in today's world.

Check them out at http://www.quantum.com/

For our third segment, Austin Benedict and Rob Lewis came up to the mics to talk about Motor City Geek among other things.  We first met these guys at Motor City Comic Con last year, and we ran into them again at Midwest Media Expo this past weekend and had an absolute blast...so it was perfect to get them into the studio right after the weekend came to a close for a recap of the weekend's events.  From cosplay to Live Action Role Playing (LARP) and all the other facets of the geek world that we saw and experienced this weekend, it was a fun recap and we're definitely going to have them back in soon to talk more.

Check them out at http://motorcitygeek.com/

In the fourth and final segment (no, no segment five this week), we doubled back on some earlier topics and wrapped things up for the night. See you Thursday night in the back room of Blackfinn, and we'll be back Monday night with some more great guests and conversations.

Once again, this week's guests:

Quantum can be found at http://www.quantum.com/

Motor City Geek can be found online at http://motorcitygeek.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/motorcitygeek

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 87: Quantum Storage, Motor City Geek, Weekend Recap and More

1988 was a good year for movies and music, and episode 88 of our live weekly broadcast wasn't too shabby either.

Joined by our guests from The Center for Michigan, as well as our friends from Penguicon and the Agile and Beyond conference, a great time, some fun chats and a whole lot of information about things going on around the area including this weekend and the end of the month and all sorts of good stuff for your career and professional life.

We may or may not survive the weekend, so let's get to some details just in case we need bail money...

Our 1988 themed intro came to a wrap, and the conversations got underway.

Naturally, we had to talk about the insane number of trailers dropping from Hollywood including Star Wars, Mad Max, Batman vs Superman, Fantastic Four, Jurassic Park and the rest.  Bob's binge-watching of Daredevil and a chat about Netflix's original programming in general.  The awkward friend request. All the news, stories and items that caught our eye over the past week that you ought to know about.

Then we dove in with Molly and Amber from The Center for Michigan.  The Center for Michigan is a “think-and-do” tank founded by former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power in early 2006.  A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, The Center’s objective is to make Michigan a better place by by encouraging greater understanding and involvement in policy issues among the state’s citizens and making sure their voices are regularly heard.  We do this by regularly by calling forth citizen views, amplifying those views and projecting them into the halls of power.  You can find out more about them at http://thecenterformichigan.net/

For our third segment, we hopped in with the guys who are likely going to be at least partially responsible for our demise this weekend, Scott and Nuri from Penguicon.  It's going to be a phenomenal time this weekend at The Westin in Southfield, with more than 500 hours of programming crammed into Friday night through Sunday, including a few panels and presentations that we'll be a part of and running ourselves. Imagine your happy place... ...a happy place where all geeky interests are represented, explored, and respected. A place with hackers, makers, foodies, open source software junkies, anime buffs, and science fiction fans of all ages and backgrounds come together in a hotel for a weekend and totally blow the roof off.  We go to panels, get free food and beer in our Hospitality Suite, go to ridiculously awesome room parties, and just hang out.  It's more than a thousand of your new best friends.  Check it out at http://www.penguicon.org/ and come play with us this weekend.

Last but not least, we chatted with Tom and Jason about the Agile and Beyond conference taking place at the end of April.  Agile and Beyond 2015 is a Two-day conference in the heart of innovation in Dearborn, MI. Now in it's 6th year, Agile and Beyond brings together a eclectic mix of engineers, designers, product owners and executives for world-class workshops and talks focused on Agile and Lean processes and beyond.

Get everything you need to know at http://agileandbeyond.com/2015/

And that brought episode 88 of our weekly broadcasts to a close.

Tune in next week as we're joined by the folks from our core sponsor, Pure Storage, and it may or may not be someone's birthday.

Again, our guests for this week's episode can be found at:

The Center for Michigan is at http://thecenterformichigan.net/

Penguicon can be found at http://www.penguicon.org/

Agile and Beyond is at http://agileandbeyond.com/2015/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 88: The Center for Michigan, Penguicon, Agile and Beyond

Well...we've had smoother running episodes, that's for sure.

We were plagued by technical difficulties this time around for some reason, so please excuse some of the rough cuts during conversations.  We did the best we could getting everything cleaned up as best as we could for our guests from Pure Storage and Nuri from Penguicon.  We lost two entire segments, managed to talk Nuri into hanging out to try another run at segment three that came off...mostly okay, but cuts out rather abruptly.  So as a bonus to try and make it a little better, we're including the recording we did live at Penguicon...

Our 1989 intro wrapped and as always we dove into the news, stories and events that caught our eye over the previous week.

The latest social media mafia hit on a restaurant...that involved someone Bob knows.  Cameras around the downtown area and why they may or may not be legally placed.  Facebook's storage of updates that you erase before you post and tons more.  The really, really stupid thing that Starbucks is doing for Mother's Day and more.

For segment two, we focused in with our guests Rich and Jarrod from Pure Storage.  Pure Storage has a simple mission: to enable the widespread adoption of flash in the enterprise data center. They're a team of some of the brightest minds in storage, flash memory and related technical industries. Founded on principles of teamwork and knowledge sharing, they focus on producing an exceptional result while they transform the landscape of the enterprise storage market (and have some fun along the way).  Long story short, they're doing some very cool stuff that can improve your system's response times, dramatically decrease your costs, and make your life a lot easier in general...so you should probably check them out: http://www.purestorage.com/

Then some serious whacky mayhem started, and so we lost a whole lot of our third segment, and Nuri was gracious enough to hang out and record it all over again with us, so you'll have to forgive some of the awkward transitions.   We recapped everything that happened at Penguicon over this past weekend.

You can read more about Penguicon here: http://www.penguicon.org/

You can read Bob's recap of his experiences at http://www.itinthed.com/17044/2015-penguicon-review-part-1-the-sales-guy-learns-something/

You can read Dave's take on it at http://www.itinthed.com/17054/2015-penguicon-review-part-2-the-geek-goes-home/

...and because of all of the chaos that had happened up through that point, we just called it a night.  So, as a little bit of a bonus to help ease the pain a bit, we've included a (heavily edited) live recording we did at Penguicon on Saturday night.  We'd been drinking, we were a little loopy, and we got some audience participation...so it's mostly like our normal shows...but with an audience.

Check out Pure Storage at http://www.purestorage.com/

You can read more about Penguicon here: http://www.penguicon.org/

You can read Bob's recap of his experiences at http://www.itinthed.com/17044/2015-penguicon-review-part-1-the-sales-guy-learns-something/

You can read Dave's take on it at http://www.itinthed.com/17054/2015-penguicon-review-part-2-the-geek-goes-home/

As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 89: Pure Storage, The Penguicon Recap, Recorded Live at Penguicon

With all of the chaos and excitement going on with our new studio, this one took a little bit to get out. Our apologies about that, but episode 90 marks a major milestone for us, and so we hope you enjoy it.  Self.Conference, women in technology, making a career change into I.T. ...all that and more.

Episode 90 was a major milestone because it's the last time we're broadcasting from the Raw Radio X studio...starting this coming Monday night (May 11), we'll be broadcasting out of our own studio, and so how you listen live to us is changing.  It was an epic episode because we were joined by a whole bunch of awesome people who helped us wrap up our time at RRX properly, and covered some awesome topics along the way...

Did I mention great guests?

We had awesome guests.

Nuri Gocay's been on the show a few times recently, and well, we like having him and his insights around.  Erika Carlson's been on our show a number of times over the past two years, and we simply can't get enough of her.  Elyse Lopez Turner is also a repeat offender, but this was her first time joining us after making a career transition from Marketing to Developer.  Kate Catlin has also been on the show with us before, and it's always a blast having her around.  Amber Conville was the only first-timer, but she handled herself awesomely in her debut.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: for those who listen live, this was our last broadcast out of the Raw Radio X studio.  Starting Monday, May 11th (this Monday), we will be broadcasting out of our FREAKING BRAND NEW STUDIO above Activ8 gaming in Ferndale.

You can now listen to us live right here on our site.

If you listen via TuneIn, you'll have to search for "IT in the D" as a station stream, because yes...we have our own station stream now.  We're very excited about this - look for a full announcement shortly.

All of that and more can be found at http://www.itinthed.com/listen/how-to-listen/

Ep90: Self.Conference, Career Transitions, Women in Technology and a Whole Lot of Whacky Mayhem

The first episode of our weekly live broadcast from our new studio is ready to invade your ears.

We talked connected car, mobility, Motor City Comic Con, the latest issue of Detroit Beer Press and more with our guests for this momentous night...

We were joined by our guests from Mobile Comply (Elaina Farnsworth), Detroit Beer Press (Ian Burk), and our friends Nuri Gocay and Katie Marrosso to round things out.

Our 1991 themed intro came to a close, and we went live.

Naturally, we spent most of the opening segment talking about this weekend's event: Motor City Comic Con.  Yes, we're heading to Motor City Comic Con again this year, press passes in hand...and this time we're armed with a fully functional remote broadcasting unit.  Be afraid...be very afraid.  Odds are better than even that, at some point, we'll have had a few drinks and be unable to resist pulling out the gear and going live with whoever happens to be on hand.  Could be great, could be terrible...guess we'll find out as we go.  I can't imagine that you're not already familiar with Motor City Comic Con, but just in case, here's their site with the details: https://www.motorcitycomiccon.com/

For our second segment, we talked with Elaina Farnsworth of Mobile Comply.  Elaina's been on our show several times in the past, and it's always a great conversation.  She also has an event on Thursday night at the Townsend in Birmingham that you should be seriously planning on attending.  Check that out at http://info.mobilecomply.com/connext-may-2015/  From connected cars to mobility training to what challenges and opportunities exist in the mobile space as the tech evolves, she's always got some great insight.  Mobile Comply is an international leader in mobile training and curriculum development. Their training and certifications are recognized worldwide for excellence in mobile connectivity, mobile development, application security and connected vehicle. Mobile Comply specializes in mobile implementation, related policy and regulations, how to deploy mobile devices, mobile applications, and proper security practices. In addition, Mobile Comply partners with organizations to develop customized educational content and business strategies. Check them out at http://mobilecomply.com/, and again, their event Thursday night is at http://info.mobilecomply.com/connext-may-2015/

The randomness of conversations continued as we chatted with Ian from Detroit Beer Press.  They've got a new issue out in bars, breweries and distilleries around the area you should get your hands on...and not just because we have another article in this month's issue...though that's obviously a good reason.  We chatted through booze, beer, and all sorts of random mayhem with Ian.  Definitely a good chat, and check them out at http://www.detroitbeerpress.com/

For our fourth and final segment, we simply doubled back on some earlier topics, kept chatting with our guests, and wrapped up for the night.

Not a bad way to kick things off at the new studio.

Again, check out Mobile Comply at http://mobilecomply.com/, and their event Thursday night is at http://info.mobilecomply.com/connext-may-2015/
Give a look at Detroit Beer Press at http://www.detroitbeerpress.com/
And odds are good we'll see you at Motor City Comic Con this weekend: https://www.motorcitycomiccon.com/
As always, we can be found:
On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com
On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD 
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD 

Episode 91: Live in the New Studio, Elaina Farnsworth of Mobile Comply, Detroit Beer Press

The IT in the D Show

So what do a couple of IT guys from Detroit talk about when they go to the bar?
Welcome to the IT in the D show, brought to you by long-time Detroit IT veterans Bob Waltenspiel (The Sales Guy), and Dave Phillips (The Geek).
The duo has been putting on free networking events for the metro Detroit information technology community for over 10 years, helped more than 1,200 people find new jobs, and been featured in local and national news stories and publications for their efforts.  After taking on speaking engagements starting in 2011 that helped refine their message, in 2013 they took their ramblings to a broadcast format that has proven to be far more popular than anyone expected.
The IT in the D show is more conversational and less instructional – it is far more geared toward entertainment and local goings-on in the metro Detroit area than a deep-dive about specific technical issues.  It’s a bar chat, not technical seminar.  You’ll hear more movie quotes than MySQL queries and more Depeche Mode than development methodologies.  Not that the guys don’t roll up their sleeves and deep dive from time to time, but with guests ranging from local CIOs and CEOs to roller derby girls and pop culture icons from the 80s, don’t let the “IT” in “IT in the D” scare you.
Each weekly two-hour show typically includes current events and stories, guests ranging from local entrepreneurs to local IT rock stars to people with great local stories to tell, rants, raves and everything you’d expect from a couple of guys who have known each other and been drinking together for nearly two decades.

The show has been listened to over five million times to date and has been heard in all 50 states and 41 countries. We appreciate the time spent with us and welcome all feedback.

More information can be found online at http://www.ITintheD.com