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Hillsborough County (FL) Hackathon is a Sign of Increasing Tech Awareness (Video
The idea of the Hackathon was to develop either Web or mobile applications that would dovetail with county services and be useful for county workers, county residents or both. The winners got cash prizes, but many people on the nine competing teams weren't aware of them until the closing awards ceremony when the three winners were announced. But then, this is a helpful part of the country where, if an old person falls down on the sidewalk, strangers will rush to her side, whip out cell phones in case a 911 call is needed, and help her to her feet. A hackathon to benefit your neighbors is nothing but an extension of that spirit. One note: Several county employees said this was the first-ever government-organized hackathon around here, but there was a Tampa Mayor's Hackathon last June, and Tampa is the biggest city in Hillsborough County. But this is all good, and Hillsborough hopes to hold a bigger (and hopefully better-publicized) hackathon next year. Meanwhile, there are more home-grown tech events around here every year. April 25 saw the 3rd annual Ignite Tampa event, which brought together people involved in "technology, arts, communications, education, non-profits, the government sector and more" to meet with "the community" -- and local venture capitalists. And the inaugural Sarasota-Bradenton BarCamp is scheduled for May 2 - 5. And so on. Lots of events, many of which combine technology and the arts, which is always a delightful mix -- and one we look forward to seeing even more of in coming years, not only in Florida but everywhere in the world.
They're also holding a Hack-for-Change hackathon in June ( http://hackforchange.org/hack-change-tampa ) -- Tampa and Hillsborough are definitely working to push growth of the technology center and open data within the tri-county area.
if an old person falls down on the sidewalk, strangers will rush to her side, whip out cell phones, in case a 911 call is needed, take photos and video to be used later for the lawsuit and help her to her feet
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
WTF is up with TFT? A missing close paren on an article about programming? Are they trying to send a million slashdaughters into cardiac arrest?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
"the Tampa Florida Hackathon: rise of the GNU Geriatrics"
Good people go to bed earlier.
Tampa was not aware of technology prior to 2013?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
...where you don't go to the aid of an old person when they fall in the street..?
If there are then I'm glad I don't live there. Everyone there sounds like complete assholes.
As the latest, greatest new tech advance. I almost threw up. I dont think working all night or long days in a row is going to solve a lot of problems. Just Because Zuckerberg does it and Zuckerberg is rich doesnt mean its a good business model.
But then, this is a helpful part of the country where, if an old person falls down on the sidewalk, strangers will rush to her side, whip out cell phones in case a 911 call is needed, and help her to her feet.
Unless you're black, in which case they whip out a gun to make sure you're still not a threat.
But then, this is a helpful part of the country where, if an old person falls down on the sidewalk, strangers will rush to her side, whip out cell phones in case a 911 call is needed, and help her to her feet.
The fact that this very basic behavior that I would expect any human being to do (and do regardless of the age or gender of the person who was injured) is exemplary of a "helpful" part of the country is just sort of sad. It really says something about the rest of the country, if true.
Glad they didn't get sucked into a sinkhole...
And you wonder why Slashdot editors & other staff don't respond to anonymous losers?
Wow. What an asshole.
^ haha, parent is referring to self. Tool.
captcha: incest
get out much?
He reminds me of Mr. Plinkett from RedLetterMedia.
I totally see him following that girl after the event, kidnapping here and holding in his mums basement (mum is dead obviously, buried in same basement behind the washing machine)
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
I hope the next one is better publicized, I only live an hour away and I never once heard about this despite loving any excuse I can get to go to Tampa
...they could fix the traffic problem here, Tampa wouldn't suck so bad.
Source: 26 years experience driving in hell (also, voted 5th worse in North America).
Meow
This is all about the county getting some free development/consulting labor.
The county gets a new webpage, to include amongst a vast array of mostly unuseful and disparate pages, with marginally useful information gleaned from public records.
The winner gets a cookie.
Yay! It's all techie and stuff.
Source: 26 years experience driving in hell (also, voted 5th worse in North America).
Voted 5th worst by people who don't get out much. Try, in no particular order, traffic in Boston, DC, LA, Dallas / FW, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, New York, Seattle (fucking sunshine delays! traffic backs up because the fucking sun comes out!), Atlanta, Toronto, Mexico City...
There are LOTS worse traffic cities than Tampa. Many of them already have advanced , extensive, and progressive public transportation systems including light rail, subway, buses, etc. Some of them have dense urban areas while others have Tampa's derided "urban sprawl".
This rather more in depth and scientific study lists Tampa at 19.
This, unsurprisingly, closely coincides with the relative populations of the various metropolitan areas. See theprimary statistical areas column for metropolitan populations rather than city core populations. This shows the Tampa Bay region as the 21st most populace metropolitan area.