I think a hacker is defined as someone that has a passion for a particular topic or a particular subject field. Whether it's computers or electronics, whether it's history or art, we can all consider ourselves hackers of our own passions.

Hosts Karin Thorne and Kelly Corey chat with Mo Morsi about founding the Syracuse Innovators Guild and his journey from working at Red Hat to starting his own XRP blockchain company. We also pitch a couple of new ideas for Syracuse tech community Meetups and Mo shares why Ruby is still his favorite programming language.

Connect with Mo

mo.morsi.org | Presentations | GitHub | Syracuse Hackers

Dev Null Productions

devnull.network | NYC XRP Meetup | XRP1ntel.com

Episode References

NetHack | iogames | Sonic Pi

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

Follow Karin

kethorne.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

JSWebb Development, LLC

jswebbdevelopment.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Kelly

kell.dev | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Special Guest: Mo Morsi.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Syracuse CoWorks: We'd like to thank Syracuse CoWorks for supporting Salt City Code! Their recording booth is perfect for all your podcast needs. Visit syracusecoworks.com for more information and apply for a membership now!
• Hack Upstate: Hack Upstate is proud to announce the first annual Hack Rochester event! It takes place April 18-19, 2020 at First Federal Plaza in Rochester, NY. Go to hackroc.com for more information on this brand new hackathon and register now!
• Hack Upstate: Are you ready to put your tech skills to the test? Hackers can form teams, build projects, and win prizes all within 24 hours at Hack Upstate XV on April 4-5, 2020 at The Tech Garden in Syracuse, NY. Click here to learn more about the event and sign up now!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

I would say go for it. ... Learning any of anything is gonna help you more than wondering what to learn or trying to pick the perfect thing. Spoiler alert: there is no perfect thing. Everything has huge problems with it that are gonna cause you a lot of frustration. But if you just have perspective, well, you're able to do some really amazing things that you couldn't without it.

Hosts Karin Thorne and Kelly Corey chat with Gus Cost, programmer at Density and Careers in Code instructor, about using hardware to win a hackathon, lessons learned from teaching at a tech bootcamp for the first time, and his surprising recommendation on where to start your own programming journey. This is our most technical episode so far and features mentions of QBasic, Logo, Lisp, and PyTorch.

This episode is part II of our new series: Catching Up with Careers in Code! We chat with founders, instructors/TAs, and students of the first CiC cohort about their experience and where they'd like to see the program go in the future.

Connect with Gus

GusCost.com | Density | Hack Upstate VIII Grand Prize: Red Light Bell

Episode References

Learn C the Hard Way by Zed Shaw

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold

Spongebob Meme

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

Follow Karin

kethorne.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

JSWebb Development, LLC

jswebbdevelopment.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Kelly

kell.dev | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Special Guest: Augustine (Gus) Cost.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Hack Upstate is proud to announce the first annual Hack Rochester event! It takes place April 18-19, 2020 at First Federal Plaza in Rochester, NY. Go to hackroc.com for more information on this brand new hackathon and register now!
• Syracuse CoWorks: We'd like to thank Syracuse CoWorks for supporting Salt City Code! Their recording booth is perfect for all your podcast needs. Visit syracusecoworks.com for more information and apply for a membership now!
• Hack Upstate: Are you ready to put your tech skills to the test? Hackers can form teams, build projects, and win prizes all within 24 hours at Hack Upstate XV on April 4-5, 2020 at The Tech Garden in Syracuse, NY. Click here to learn more about the event and sign up now!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

If we risk messing with things too much...I think we could risk reducing some of that community building side, right? And I think if we wanna get more of these outcomes, we need to really value and do whatever we can to amplify the network effects that come from the community we're building.

Kelly and Karin chat with Doug Crescenzi, co-founder of Hack Upstate and Upstate Interactive, about his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, how he helped launch the Careers in Code program, and the importance of connecting with your local tech community. We also talk about making opportunities available for people to advance in their tech journeys and suggest a couple of ideas for future Syracuse tech meetups.

This episode is part I of our new series: Catching Up with Careers in Code! We chat with founders, instructors/TAs, and students of the first CiC cohort about their experience and where they'd like to see the program go in the future.

Audio Note

This is our first episode recorded remotely, and Kelly didn't realize until editing the episode that she was recording with the wrong microphone. Our apologies for the audio quality on her end. It will be fixed for next time!

Connect with Doug

LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Upstate Interactive

Interested in custom software development and working with blockchain? Click here to read the latest from Upstate Interactive and follow them on Medium for more!

LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

Follow Karin

kethorne.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

JSWebb Development, LLC

jswebbdevelopment.com | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Kelly

kell.dev | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Special Guest: Doug Crescenzi.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Hack Upstate is proud to announce the first annual Hack Rochester event! It takes place April 18-19, 2020 at First Federal Plaza in Rochester, NY. Go to hackroc.com for more information on this brand new hackathon and register now!
• Hack Upstate: Are you ready to put your tech skills to the test? Hackers can form teams, build projects, and win prizes all within 24 hours at Hack Upstate XV on April 4-5, 2020 at The Tech Garden in Syracuse, NY. Click here to learn more about the event and sign up now!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

I was looking for a change, and on the way to a change, and then when I got involved with the bootcamp, everything changed!

It's been about six months since hosts Kelly Corey and Karin Thorne graduated from Careers in Code. We catch up on adjusting to life after class, getting more involved in the tech community, and what it's like to start a podcast. We also talk about Kelly joining the leadership team of Women in Coding and describe what it's like to be a guest on Salt City Code.

Salt City Code Guarantee: "You'll probably have at least one laugh, if not more."

Interested in being a guest on the show? Visit calendly.com/saltcitycode, fill out the Google form here, and sign up for a time!

Not in the Syracuse, NY area? Don't let that stop you! We can also record episodes via Zoom.

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

Follow Karin

kethorne.com | Instagram | Twitter | E-mail

JSWebb Development LLC

Instagram | Twitter | E-mail

Follow Kelly

kell.dev | Instagram | Twitter | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Instagram | Twitter | E-mail

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

With Surge Syracuse and all of these initiatives, the idea is to keep tech local and tech resources local, and we can't do that if people can't find jobs here. We know the jobs are out there, but people need to be able to find them.

Karin and Kelly chat with Amanda Darcangelo, leader of the Syracuse chapter of Women in Machine Learning and Data Science, about her group's upcoming career fair, the importance of collaboration in the tech community, and what it means to be a tech resource in 2020. We also talk about what to bring to a career fair and speculate on the future of cover letters.

Connect with Amanda

LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Salt City Analytics

Follow Syracuse WiMLDS on Twitter and join the group on Meetup for the latest news and events!

Upcoming WiMLDS Events

Sign up for the data science and machine learning career fair on Saturday, March 7 at Syracuse CoWorks here!

Interested in Martha Grabowski's Unmanned Aerial Systems presentation on February 4? Register here!

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

Follow Karin

Personal Site | Twitter | Instagram | Email

JSWebb Development, LLC

Business Site | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Kelly

Personal Site | [Twitter] | [Instagram] | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Special Guest: Amanda Darcangelo.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

I commend people who are stuck in their ways because they're gonna be the ones that are going to be protected the most in the terrible event that something tragic does happen to us here.

Karin and Kelly continue the conversation with Ashley Oliver and discuss cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and potential changes to consumer banking in the coming decade. We also talk about a fun emanation experiment, and Ashley teaches us about Faraday cages and Van Eck phreaking.

Connect with Ashley

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Blog

Want to learn more about 5G? Sign up for Ashley's webinar here

Ready to land any job you want in cybersecurity? Ashley can help! Sign up for her webinar on how to become a cybersecurity expert here

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Follow Karin

Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Email

Follow JSWebb Development

Site | Twitter | Instagram | Email

Follow Kelly

Site | Instagram | Twitter | Email

Follow Salt City Code

Instagram | Twitter | Email

Special Guest: Ashley Oliver.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"People come to these events from all over, and so they'll be able to also see that we have a tech community, that we have awesome people here, and be able to see all the really cool natural features that the upstate region has..."

Kelly and Karin sit down with Mike DeMaria, founder of the Syracuse Developers Community Group/co-founder of Upstate Dreamin', and discuss working with Salesforce, what it's like to run a community Meetup, and launching a brand new conference in upstate New York. We also chat about retro video game systems and offer suggestions for presenting to local dev groups.

Connect with Mike: Twitter | Linked In

Follow Upstate Dreamin': Mailing List | Twitter

Visit Syracuse Developers Salesforce Community Group for upcoming events and the latest information on Mike's Meetup!

Curious about Salesforce?

Go to trailhead.salesforce.com and get started for free!

Check out Trailblazer Community Groups for other Salesforce events!

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Follow Karin

Personal Site | Twitter | Instagram | Email

JSWebb Development, LLC

Business Site | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Kelly

Personal Site | Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Follow Salt City Code

Twitter | Instagram | E-mail

Special Guest: Mike DeMaria.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"If we want to be a podcast that's by the Syracuse tech community for the Syracuse tech community, then we better include all the Syracuse tech community."

Kelly and Karin discuss their New Year's resolutions for their personal coding journeys and for Salt City Code. These include completing #100DaysofCode, publishing projects, and learning more about the science of computers.

Want to be a guest or guest host on our podcast? Visit calendly.com/saltcitycode and schedule a time with us for the new year. We look forward to hearing from you!

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Follow Karin

Blog: Learning Curve
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business:
JS Web Development, LLC.
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

kell.dev
Instagram: @kellytoearth
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

https://www.saltcitycode.com/
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: @saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"I would say that's one of the fundamentals of web development...there's never one correct answer."

Kelly and Karin share some of their favorite coding resources in this special 2019 holiday episode feat. lots of JavaScript, a handful of online courses, a sprinkle of social media, and a pinch of other podcasts. 🎄

Master Resource List

Extensions

• OneTab

Books

• A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript by Mark Myers
• JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide by Kirupa Chinnathambi
• You Don't Know JS by Kyle Simpson
• Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke

YouTubers

• Traversy Media
• Jesse Showalter
• Jason Lengstorf (Learn with Jason)

Online Courses

• Wes Bos
• Front End Masters
• freeCodeCamp
• Egghead.io
• Teach Yourself Computer Science

Game

• Flexbox Froggy

Podcasts

• Command Line Heroes
• Greater than Code

Social Media

• Dev.to
• Stack Overflow
• Syracuse.io Slack channel
• Hack Upstate Slack channel
• Women in Machine Learning and Data Science Meetup
• OpenHack Meetup
• SyrJS Meetup
• Code for Syracuse Meetup
• Women in Coding Meetup

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Follow Karin

Personal:

[kethorne.com](kethorne.com)
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business:

[JS Webb Development LLC](jswebbdevelopment.com)
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

kell.dev
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

https://www.saltcitycode.com/
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: @saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"I think that part of the reason that I got my job, or at least that they looked at my resume, was because I had a hackathon project that was an augmented reality game..."

Kelly and Karin sit down again with Melissa Schmitz as she shares more stories and advice about hackathons, her experience in a data science bootcamp, and how she leveraged her hackathon wins into a full-time career in tech.

Connect with Melissa: LinkedIn | Medium

Click here to learn more about The Mighty Ducks, an augmented reality game Melissa worked on, at Hack Upstate XII!

Music

This episode features "Brain Power" by Mela from the album Mela two.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Follow Karin

Personal Site: kethorne.com
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business: [JS Webb Development LLC](jswebbdevelopment.com)
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
Business E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

Personal Site: kell.dev
Instagram: kellytoearth
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

Site: https://www.saltcitycode.com/
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: @saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Special Guest: Melissa Schmitz.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"The point of it is not always to make a business, of course. It's to have that experience."

Karin and Kelly chat with Melissa Schmitz about what it's like to win a hackathon, her experience working with virtual reality, and her decision to pivot from natural science to data science.

Topics discussed include: using virtual reality to train people on heavy equipment, how to succeed at your first hackathon, and building blocks of programming

Follow Melissa on LinkedIn and Medium for more!

Click here to watch a video about Raymond's Virtual Reality simulator.

Melissa's team, MMA, won Hack Upstate X! Read about their project here.

Our theme is "Enthusiast" by Tours. Listen to the full song here!

Follow Karin

Personal Site: kethorne.com
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business: [JS Webb Development LLC](jswebbdevelopment.com)
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
Business E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

Personal Site: kell.dev
Instagram: kellytoearth
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

Site: www.saltcitycode.com
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Special Guest: Melissa Schmitz.

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"It's wild what you'll see once you've walked away and taken a break from it."

Karin interviews Kelly Corey, co-founder of Salt City Code, about her journey into tech as a recent graduate of a coding bootcamp.
Topics discussed include: restoring old tech, finding a sense of community, and encouraging creative types to get into code.

This episode does feature ambient sniffling and construction noise in the background. Our apologies.

Our theme is "Enthusiast" by Tours. Listen to the full song here!

Follow Karin

Personal Site: kethorne.com
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business: [JS Webb Development LLC](jswebbdevelopment.com)
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
Business E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

Personal Site: kell.dev
Instagram: kellytoearth
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

Site: www.saltcitycode.com
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!

"I want something new and something different every day."

Kelly Corey interviews co-host Karin Thorne, co-founder of Salt City Code, about her experience as a new web developer.
Topics discussed include: imposter syndrome, balancing work and family with class, and comparing a coding bootcamp with college classes

Our theme is "Enthusiast" by Tours. Listen to the full song here!

Follow Karin

Personal Site: kethorne.com
Instagram: karin_thorne
Twitter: kaythorne
E-mail: contact@kethorne.com

Business: [JS Webb Development LLC](jswebbdevelopment.com)
Instagram: jswebbdev
Twitter: @JSWebb_Dev
Business E-mail: JSWebbDevelopment@gmail.com

Follow Kelly

Personal Site: kell.dev
Instagram: kellytoearth
Twitter: @kellytoearth
E-mail: hello@kell.dev

Follow Salt City Code

Site: www.saltcitycode.com
Instagram: saltcitycode
Twitter: saltcitycode
E-mail: saltcitycode@gmail.com

Sponsored By:

• Hack Upstate: Special thanks to our sponsor Hack Upstate! Visit hackupstate.com to learn more about upcoming hackathons and get ready to code!
• Hack Upstate: Interested in becoming a full-stack web developer? Sign up for the Cohort 2 waitlist and the mailing list at Careers in Code for information on upcoming events and job opportunities!