How long ago was it that anyone coded in raw Postscript? Modelling languages like PS are not the same as coded programs, but maybe the idea is that "programs made of code" will become more like "program models". A lot of the GUI frameworks used in making nearly all modern web apps are little more than models now. Nobody cares about the underlying code, they just want the app to work end-to-end, and codemonkeys can turn out reasonably good (and reasonably secure) web apps in the same way a puppy mill cranks out pedigree dogs.

I wrote UI code, optimized JS, and full-stack web apps for 25 years. Seriously, from Day One (maybe Day Two) of the Interwebs. I used every platform you can remember, and created a few platform-ish things for my own uses. The work always paid well, was fascinating, and I eventually retired comfortably in the Bay Area. But I would never encourage anyone to take up web app development today. Because I expect those jobs -- and everything allied to them -- to become completely dominated by AI "any day now".

Oh, BTW, the last thing I did before I retired was evaluate and then turn down a startup that was going to fully automate DevOps using ML. I wasn't optimistic, but I'm certain it will happen eventually.

It's over, guys. Get into AI or ML development -- until the AI takes that over too -- or get just completely out. Apply your logical chops to making farming a fully automated, hands-free, play. Feed the world. Or maybe get deep into FORTRAN or COBOL, maintaining critical legacy systems that need to last another 50 years. I doubt there will be any AI tools pointed those directions. Heh, I could be completely wrong about that.

But I'm serious about the farming thing. Think about it.

Usually it's just quirks, or the IE6-flashback message "This site only tested in Chrome" or "This site works best in Chrome". But ... some are a bigger deal.
I recognize the irony, but here's one that doesn't work on Firefox: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.microsoft.com%2F. (It won't do sound or video!)

It's not acrobatics. I simply don't think "free software" conveys anything useful to the general public — even the general tech public. Following it with "I mean free as in speech" every time doesn't help much either -- especially these days that needs its own extra explanation. Read this on Elon Musk and Twitter, for example. You might or might not agree with the thesis of that article -- but that's exactly the point. If you're lucky, maybe ten minutes later you're back to what you're trying to talk about.

People better understand the term "open source" -- they've probably heard of it, and it gives a better opening. You're right that it often has to be followed up with the benefits beyond code, but that's what I want to talk about anyway, not about the esoteric philosophy of "freedoms" or "software rights" or whatever. (Source: I talk to diverse groups of people about this stuff all the time. )

I can have those conversations. However, people tend to have widely disparate and strongly-held -- but not very well introspected! -- ideas of about the concepts of rights, freedoms, fairness, justice, and so on. It'd be helpful if people had something like this in their basic education, because without it there are going to be deep assumptions that end up with people talking past each other and. Sometimes fun, especially with a reasonably-sized group of people with good faith intention to understand each other better. But ... for a general tech interview? Nah.

Anyway, I do sometimes say "open source and free software" or "free and open-source software" for the right audience -- I think you'll find that in this interview, in fact. It's not like I'm allergic.

I do senior-level technology work (tho now retired). I've been in three companies owned or managed by Indians. One (from a couple of decades ago now) was much like described here. Top-down pressures all the time, Stoackhold Syndrome, all of it. I swore I'd never do that again. But I did, and the later experiences were a little more balanced. I think the Indian employees were more adjusted to the over-bearing, classist management style than I was (I'm Anglo-American) and it was cringe-worthy to watch. Never liked it, but the money was good, and these days most of the technology employment is under Indian bosses, part of the reason I left. There are serious cultural issues on display here. It doesn't work for everyone. Some of the time, it just doesn't work at all.

... mind-control plans of Bill Gates et al. What was the point of creating a planned pandemic and introducing nanobots into the vaccine if you can't even control your botnet via 5G? This is a major screw-up and needs to be investigated.

Country rednecks all across the nation cry out in anguish at this unjust attack on their sacred culture of recklessness.

They ran right into the arms of the CCP. I bet most would still think that represents a win. These are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

I need to go full OG: tell me when I can run COBOL on iPad. Tons of business-critical applications out there.

Count on it, this is going to turn out to be a get-rich-quick swindle. Get government money, make some progress for a while, pay your C-suite grifter's extortionary salaries, then when the cost gets too high -- or anyone wants to see the books -- keep the early money and vanish.

Everything in the digital realm is a deep fake. Get used to it.

Chad Sneed. Seriously. Now you're just f&cking with us.

Oh man, are cops going to get all over this one, same as they did with Ring cameras. I give it 12 months and then /. has an entry on how cops suddenly have to go through some imaginary process to gain access to your AirTags account information. Apple will claim not to log information, you know like how VPN-as-a-service always claims, but it will turn out they really do and then they share logs with LEOs with a simple request, or no request at all just give them a backdoor admin account.

That's the trend behind all this. I don't see it ending ever. Autonomous cars will be handled exactly the same, same as ride-share is handled now, same as Ring, same as smartphone, same as smarthome. Every use of technology will become a way to monitor users 24/7.

Will anyone care? I doubt it. It's all about fighting terrorism. Or something. Whatever. It's already impossible to unplug and survive. Next year it will likely be illegal, too. Unplug -- escape the Panopticon prison -- and you must be up to something criminal, so go to jail or Gitmo.

*sigh*

Yes of course they need to ask, in a public forum. What's to stop a pedophile cop from just watching some family come and go whenever he wants to. Or what's to stop a cop from stalking his ex? What's to stop a bad cop from waiting until a family is out of the house and then breaking in to ransack the place. Nothing whatever, is what. And you think they don't do this? You honestly think that? And what about all the other cameras and sensors people have installed, how long before the police have on-demand access to the inside of your own home? How long means, last week already.

So because it was a cop, it's fine. Because I'm pretty sure if it was an insurance adjuster using a different computer system (and their authorized account) to do something underhanded, it would be 18 months in the slammer and the SCOTUS wouldn't hear the case. The insurance industry would demand it, because trust is a big part of the product offering. Cops, not so much. Nobody trusts cops, and cops (and their union) neither want nor need our trust. They have a state-sponsored license to do whatever-the-fuk and they use that license all the time, with full immunity, sometimes for personal profit. Welcome to your corrupt police state, have a nice century.

... in Florida. If this starts to go very far, people will start to flip into the investigation camp. It would be nice if this made its way to DeSantis and that smarmy fecker ended up in an orange jumpsuit as a result.