Silicon Valley Squares

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to yet another episode of Silicon Valley Squares. Today we are celebrating Black History Month with Afroflare.

They're doing a squares takeover.

And if you're unfamiliar with the show, what we're going to do is have a whole bunch of fun answering some trivia questions, as my contestants here, Devin and Warren, select various squares and are trying to play tic-tac-toe.

And of course, I'm your host, Dan Hollinger, and happy to have everyone here celebrating Black History Month.

As you can see, everyone's representing from the background perspective.

So with that, I'm eager to kick things off and welcome to the show.

So step one, Warren, welcome to the squares. Happy to be here. Give a quick intro.

Yes. So my name is Warren. I'm part of the Afroflare team, also part of the customer success team here in San Francisco.

Awesome. Well, it's your board first.

So where would you like to play? All right, let's check it out. Um, first, I will go with Chad.

Chad, welcome to the squares. Yo, what's up? Where are you dialing in from?

So at the moment, I'm in London. I just flew back from South Africa.

So yeah, quite cold out here compared to South Africa, but it's okay. Okay, I'm representing with the South African rugby jersey.

To everyone who doesn't know, we won the Rugby World Cup.

So yeah, shout out. Nice. All right, Chad, your question to kick off game one.

Roy L. Clay not only made strides while programming at IBM and HP, he helped establish programs for African Americans to get into tech and consulted for many tech companies.

Roy is known by what nickname in the tech industry?

I need to think about that one.

I think the clue is in an Instagram post on our Cloudflare Instagram.

So if you've been following that, and you saw the, you know, the Instagram post recently, I think it was like maybe last week or something.

I think you'd know the answer to this one.

He was also known as the godfather of Silicon Valley.

All right, the godfather of Silicon Valley. Warren, do you agree or disagree?

That's a reach. You lost me at the godfather at Silicon Valley. I don't know.

I'm gonna say that's false. All right. It was correct. He was the godfather of Silicon Valley.

Oh, man, that seemed convincing to me. Okay. All right. All right.

I'll take that out. So, Devin, welcome to the squares. You're already on the board with Warren's Miss.

Would you mind giving a quick intro? Yeah, Devin Davis, IT security operations engineer based out of Austin.

Like long walks on the beach.

Capricorn. This is not dating squares. Oh, it's not? Okay. I always end up going.

I mean, I realized during Corona, everyone's a little bit lonely. That would be a different show.

Hopefully my wife's not watching. So we'll go. We're just going to lead off and go with the center square.

See ya. All right. See ya. Welcome to the squares.

Would you mind giving a quick introduction? Yes. My name is Sia Johnson.

I am a full stack software engineer on the Cloudflare for Teams product.

Shout out to my team. And I'm also the global lead for Afroflare. And I'm here in Austin, which is sometimes close to the sun and also sometimes as cold as Pluto.

So who knows? When it gets cold, boy. Glad to have you here, despite, you know, Texas freezing over.

Hopefully, you know, all of our friends and family are safe in Texas.

Oh, no. Texas is definitely acting like it didn't try to kill us.

That's all. All right. Sia, your question. What is the name of the series available on Amazon that follows Henry Louis Gates Jr.

through six nations as he identifies with the black experience?

Okay.

Yeah, I think he has a bunch of different series. A lot of them black focused.

They're amazing. So I want to say that this series is called The Black Experience.

The Black Experience.

All right, Devin, do you agree or disagree? I'll agree. All right.

It was not The Black Experience. This one was black in Latin America.

Yeah. I think the hint was the countries that he was going through or the six nations he was walking through.

So much for being my ace. Boom, boom. I see how low these go.

I'm just playing. All right. So we got an even game already. Two misses out of the gate.

Warren, the board is yours. Where would you like to play next?

All right. I'm going to go with Candice. All right, Candice. Glad to have you on the squares.

Would you mind giving a quick intro? Sure. Hi, I'm Candice Bailey.

I'm tuning in from New York City right now, but normally based in Austin. And I do, you know, analytics.

Wait, so you were able to escape. That's what I'm hearing.

Basically, yes. But on accident. Yes, yes, I did. All right. Candice, great to have you here.

Your question. This Afro Flare member famously accidentally called Matthew Prince after missing their flight to orientation.

Oh, my gosh. Bold move. We just talked about this in the other meeting, so I do know.

Yeah, I believe this individual was named Steven.

I forget his last name, but his name is Steven. Steven from London.

All right, I'll check with the producers. That first name's acceptable.

All right. So Warren, do you agree or disagree? You know, I've met Steven before and it doesn't seem farfetched that he would call Matthew.

So I'm going to say I agree.

All right, that is correct. Steven Thompson out of apparently the London office called Matthew when he was, what, missed their flight.

Thanks, Candice. I mean, I mean, is that that's not even like a Corona world problem.

Oh, no, that was before. Yeah, who flies to orientation these days. All right.

Two X's on the board. One O. Devin, where would you like to play next? Let's play Mill.

Mill. Glad to have you. You ready for this? No, not really. But yeah, let's go.

All right. Do you mind giving a quick intro? Yeah, my name is Mill from the IT team.

I handle mostly AV events and for Top Flare. Yeah, awesome. Glad to have you here.

Your question. What is the name of the book written by Sean Rochester that talks about the financial burden and disparity of the black community through facts and data?

I feel like the previous question is a softball and then this one's like, you know, book title.

This one is a. This one's a this one's heavy, this one's heavy.

I'm going to have to say. I can't even think of anything.

All right, Devin, I got you, I got you. It is. Well, it was a question.

What is the name of the book written by Sean Rochester that talks about the financial burden and disparity of the black community through facts and data?

Facts and data. The analytical D prosperity.

All right, the analytical D prosperity.

Seeing a lot of other squares, you know, confidently agreeing.

Confident agree. Confidently agreeing. We're going to agree.

You agree with that answer. Why not? Grave man. All right. Well, it was actually titled The Black Tax.

So, Warren, since it's a winning square, I can't I can't give it to you.

You have to earn it. Oh, but. Yeah. What kind of host is this? Oh, those are the rules of the game.

You have to earn your win. You can't just get it from someone else's miss.

So here's the state of the board. You can choose. Mel, you can choose whoever you like.

Question, go for the head, go for the head, Warren. All right, I'll go for Mel again.

Come on, Mel, let's go. All right, Mel. I mean, I was apparently that was adequately convincing for him.

I mean, I try I try to be.

All right, Mel, your question for game one, please be hip hop. Maybe. No, it doesn't look like it.

All right. Kira Meyer Klott, a graduate marketing associate at Cloudflare, is also the founder of what global storytelling platform dedicated to sharing stories about all aspects of womanhood?

Oh, she was in my group.

She was. Oh, she was. The pressure is on now, Mel. And guess what? I was in that group, too.

You were in my group, too. Yeah. He shared that link, too.

He shared. She did. She had a whole dissertation. Devin, it's like you don't want to.

Devin, it's like you don't want to win. And look, I'm being fair. Honestly, right here at this point, like I'm being fair.

Like if you don't know this one, I'm.

I don't ever start with an H. Oh, man. What can you pull up the Google Doc now?

Can I get a lifeline?

No, it's not that type of show. Oh, dang. Phone a friend. I mean, squares can help squares.

It's not like, again, I can only enforce so much. Wait.

All right, Dev. Start with an H, that's all I got. I'm not helping him, Warren.

I'm just I'm telling you what happened. I'm already. Yeah, this is Warren's question.

Yeah, I don't think starting with an H is a sufficient answer. So I'm going to say I disagree.

That's a good call. That's a good call. All right. So the book was called Heroica.

Oh, that was close. It did start with an H. You were, you know, one seventh right.

So let me bring up the state of the board after game one.

The win goes to Warren. Had a nice competitive back and forth. And with that, we'll shift over to game two.

But keep in mind, game one was brought to you by.

What did I choose this time? We got sponsors. The Cloudflare Partner Network. If you want to learn how to be a Cloudflare partner, you can go to portal .Cloudflarepartners.com.

Learn about enablement, co-marketing, and how our channel account teams can help you.

Why is this brought to you by the Cloudflare Partner Network?

Because I'm part of the Cloudflare Partner Team. And I put this show together.

That's why. And with that, we'll kick it off to game two. So fresh board, fresh faces.

Devin, it's your choice. Where would you like to start us off?

Let's go with Mariana. All right, Mariana, welcome to the Squares. Thank you.

Hello. Good morning slash afternoon. Where are you dialing in from? I'm dialing in from foggy San Francisco, where the winds were howling last night.

I'm on the Places team.

I'm the Internal Events Coordinator, and it's great to be here. Awesome.

Glad to have you. Oh, we got a silent clap, like the golf clap. So respectful on this show.

I try. Or I'm just cold, so my palms are covered by my hoodie.

All right, Mariana, your question to kick off game two. This 2021 anthem by Alia Sheffield was posted with the title, This song is for anyone who feels sick of Earth.

I saw this on Instagram. It's Earth is Crying. Agree.

Earth is Crying. That is incorrect. The right answer is Earth is Ghetto. Sorry, you fell for it.

All right, so Warren gets the first square of game two. And I'll present the board.

I already know who I'm going with. I'm going with Jay. Jay's looking too bored.

Let's get Jay hyped up. All right, Jay, let's get you hyped up.

All right, I'm here. Welcome to the squares. Well then, hi, my name's Jay. Like Devon, I like long walks on the beach, but I work on the sales team here in San Francisco.

I'm calling in from sunny East Bay, Castro Valley, California, where it doesn't snow.

Just gets a little cold with those howling winds, but yeah, we're good, man.

Love it. Nice, glad to have you on the squares. Your question is, all right, Julia Waits, GM and Cyber Business Unit and Public Sector Chairman of the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals, ICMCP, spoke with which Cloudflare employee on Cloudflare TV?

That's like a double plug.

Like, do I want to give a hint? No, you have to name that Cloudflare employee.

No, well, I don't know, but I mean, should I give him a hint that, you know, that Cloudflare employee could or could not be on this show right now?

That could be a good little hint.

Well, anyway, I'm going to go with, because see, I personally know who it was.

I might know, too. I'm going to have your back today. I'm going to have your back because I got your back fully.

I want to see you have some positivity in your world.

So I'm going to go with Joe Sullivan. All right, Joe Sullivan.

Warren, do you agree or disagree? I disagree.

I don't think it was Joe. All right. You have more faith in me, bro. Yeah, it was actually Joe.

Oh, my gosh. Sorry, Jay. I don't know if it's like a high-trust show or a low-trust show.

You guys are all over the place. That one's bad because I was actually on that.

You know, that was bad, too, because I should have known that.

You know what? Maybe I was just tossing it. I'm trying to make this interesting.

I appreciate that, Jay. All right, here's the state of the board. Devin, you're up.

Where would you like to play next? Well, this is weird. But just to get everybody involved, let's go with Andrew.

All right. What do you mean, this is weird?

I mean, the board was weird. What are you talking about? The strategy is limited.

Weird? Please, let's not insult squares here. Only I, as the host, have the right to do that.

Hi, everyone. I'm Andrew Fitch. I'm a weirdo. And I'm based out of San Francisco, but I'm in Provincetown, Massachusetts, right now.

So glad to be here.

Awesome. Welcome back, Andrew. You're one of the Cloudflare Squares all-stars at this stage.

So just keep in mind, it can be very tricky in terms of how he delivers the answer.

Andrew, your question. What is the name of the African artistic movement centered around creating art that is fun, fierce, and fantastical representation of Africa?

Okay. I was really excited to receive this question because I'm really into the answer.

So I grew up, you know, loving gum, bubble gum, all different types of flavors and everything.

So this answer is closely tied to my childhood love.

You ready for this? Maybe. Okay. Well, whether you're ready or not, here it is.

It is Afroberry Bubblicious. Afroberry Bubblicious.

That's right. All right. Do we agree or disagree with that answer?

I'm going to agree.

All right. It was actually just Afro bubble gum. They did not get into the flavoring.

Okay. I'm sorry. No, I knew half of that in there, but I was like, I can't remember the whole thing, man.

The berry didn't throw you off there, buddy?

I don't know. Andrew is very convincing. If it was grape, you know, maybe.

I mean, they went into it pretty hard. Purple stuff. Yeah, definitely. All right.

Here's the state of the board. Warren, you've got your two X's. Where would you like to play?

You know, I want to get everyone involved and have some more fun.

Chat, what's up? Talk to us. What's up? How's it, everyone? I'm Chat. I'm based in Oakland, California.

I'm on the sales team. And when I order takeout, I get all kinds of names.

You know, I get Jack. I get Shaq. I get Chad a lot. I see we had another one on the board already.

Hi, Chad. Do you ever get called Chat? Yeah.

Yeah. All the time. It confuses all the time, right? All right. What name do you want to go by today?

I'll go by Chatty. Chatty? Harder to confuse. All right.

Well, Chatty, welcome to the squares. Glad to have you here. Your question, potentially game two winning question, is Jesse Russell's work was pivotal to wireless technology, so Wi-Fi and the development of WAN.

He was the first HBCU grad hired at Bell Technologies.

What is this company called today?

Hired at Bell Technologies?

Well, Bell, we go back to Alexander Graham Bell. And that's why when your phone rang back in the day, it sounded like a bell.

It was a vanity project, you know.

So but that company went on to become American Telephone and Telegraph.

And but these days is better known as AT&T in small letters with an ampersand.

All right. Chatty says AT&T. I like that. That was such nice context.

And, you know, I love how you like totally gave us the definition of AT&T because I didn't know that.

So I'm going to say I agree. That sounds very credible.

All right. AT&T is correct. Yeah. Got you. Got you. All right.

Thanks, Chat. Warren strategically set up for the double win. I'll bring up the board.

It's looking a little sad there, Devin. I don't think we have four D squares yet, but I'm rooting for you.

Where would you like to play?

Sia. Yes, homie. Let's do it. Sia, your question. What is the name of the American drama television series which follows African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender nonconforming drag ball culture scene in the 1980s through the 1990s?

Good question. And if I wasn't quarantining at home, I wouldn't have watched every single episode on Netflix.

And I'm just going to, you know, do a little bit of this to bring it around.

I would fall back if I could. Devin, do you trust me?

I don't know, based on the first game. I'm just saying. You gotta do a death drop.

The loaded questions. You're loaded. I'm going to say it is my favorite show called Pose.

I agree. You agree with Pose. All right. Everyone give me your best pose.

Down, down, down, down. Oh, perfect. Pose is correct. So I'll bring up the board.

Devin is... Devin has got two squares now. And Warren, where would you like to play next?

Go for the head, Warren. Let's see. Let's see. Chad, let's get you back in here.

All right, Chad. Let's do this. So you're obviously trying to block.

Your question... Playing defense. I see you out there. What content...

All right, your question. What content platform and Instagram culture channel was founded by Brandon Butler?

So, I don't know, like, Warren, you know, I'm into my social media.

So I don't know if you've seen the latest platform. It's been promoted mostly by celebrities on Twitter.

And it's where a bunch of celebrities, well, actually two really, they connect and have like a podcast chat and people can listen in.

And it's like really popular at the moment. The one that's... The upcoming one right now that's like on the list is to look out for.

It's a conversation between Elon Musk and Kanye West.

And this guy's celebrity was able to connect those two together.

And the platform's called Clubhouse. I don't know if you've seen it.

The Tech Bro platform. Yeah. I agree. Although I've never been on it because I feel like I would be highly annoyed.

But yes, I think that's the right answer.

Clubhouse. All right. Clubhouse is not the right answer. It is Butter.ATL. If I'm not mistaken, he said he hates Clubhouse.

Yeah. Which was very funny during that fireside chat.

Flair does not agree with these positions. I was like, wow.

All right, Devin. Well, again, I can't give you the win, but the board is yours.

And here's, you know, the comeback tour. Where would you like to play next? Let's go with Candice.

All right, Candice, game two. Are you excited? Excited. All right.

Your question. This individual is the board chair of Austin Justice Coalition and the policy director of Notely.

She spoke with our very own Alisa Durrett in a fireside chat.

Oh, sorry. Can you say the first part again? What was the first part?

This individual is the board chair of the Austin Justice Coalition and the policy director of Notely.

Yeah. Her name is Arlen Hamilton. She's known really well.

Across like everywhere. I only know that because I've lived in Austin. So, yeah, Arlen.

Arlen Hamilton. Is her name. What's her name? Arlen Hamilton. OK. I'm just doing the Hamilton bit.

Do you agree or disagree with Arlen? You think I've seen that?

Sorry. Now it's in everyone's heads. I know, I know. I was going to. Wait a minute.

Disagree.

All right. Disagree is the correct choice. The answer is Frances Jordan.

Yeah. Yeah. Another person. Wait a minute. That was the first round. So, O takes the square and we're running near the end of game two and time.

So, I'll share the board.

Warren, where would you like to play to start finishing us off? All right.

You know, we haven't chose Eric because I don't think he's here. So. Yeah. You're still welcome to choose Eric.

What will happen is I will select Sia to answer his question on his behalf.

Oh. Be careful. Let's go with Eric.

All right. Eric, also known as Sia. I'm also known by Seth and a few other names.

All right. Your question. This month, Afroflare and Proudflare watched the movie Rafiki.

In what country was this movie based? Okay. Yes. All right.

So, how much were you paying attention when you watched the movie? I was paying all the attention.

Great movie. Watch it if you haven't. I shed some tears.

I felt some feels. Waiting on part two. So, if anybody who's a part of that is going to watch this, please make a part two.

It was in an African country. And if I'm going to throw one out there, it was in Kenya.

All right. Kenya, do you agree or disagree?

You know, I watched the movie. Well, no, actually, I didn't watch the movie.

I feel like it's not in Kenya.

I feel like it's in, I'm not going to say the country, but I don't know if it's in Kenya.

Please don't say the African country.

All right. I disagree. All right. Well, it was actually Kenya.

So, we're just all over the place. Oh, my God. Fortunately, very competitive game.

But we're near the end of time. So, this is the state of the board at game two.

As we hit the end, you know, I want to thank all the squares and the contestants for jumping in.

I want to thank Afroflare for taking over Silicon Valley Squares and celebrating Black History Month with us.

Everyone that's catching in via the live stream or one of the recordings.

Thank you for watching and hope you have a wonderful morning, evening or good night.

All right. Bye, y'all. Catch everyone next squares.