It hasn't changed our roles as engineers, but it has changed the hiring process.

You're not on a blacklist, you're just number 564 to apply to the role, and the AI-based application tracking system didn't find an exact combination of four words in your document that the recruiter decided was the actual criteria for the role you've applied to. They got suggested 27 candidates from the over 1,200 applications, and the recruiter took too long to sort through them so they've dumped all the applicants and re-opened the job posting with just three words as a filter.

Because the two or three major application tracking systems got bitten by the AI hype bug early on, and most of the smaller players added AI "features" to appear competitive. Because of how the pandemic changed hiring, more places are using application tracking systems, and fewer organizations are willing to consider candidates that aren't a "perfect" fit, ignoring that everyone takes a bit (between six months and a year) to become really effective at a new role, and most competent engineers can pick up a language or tech stack in that period of time.

AI hasn't taken the jobs, it's been used to take the jobs hostage.

Your disc came with a manual?

Mine just came with this advertisement for another game with a QR code printed on the back that pointed to a tracking URL that just redirects to the homepage of the website now, and the publisher keeps DMCAing people who post direct links...

The problem here is the difference in scope. Used to be, everyone in your area got their wild ideas from the one nutter at the pub, now everyone gets their wild ideas from the same influencers and nation-state psychops.

The former was kinda managable, as a lot of the wild ideas were different and conflicted with one another.

The latter is a problem, because getting the nutters to all have the same couple of manipulative wild ideas is about how cults get started.

My Compaq LTE Elite begs to differ.

The clever part is actually being aware of the physics of how masking works, and recognizing that reducing risk (both for yourself and others) is worth doing.

We make laws about having more than a certain amount of alcohol in your bloodstream while driving, even though some people could in theory safely drive while slightly intoxicated, and might not even harm themselves if they cause an accident.

Maybe review the science on this one, since there's a clear 10-25% reduction in risk when properly wearing a mask.

Masking when ill reduces transmission.

Masking does not PREVENT transmission.
Pretending that "total prevention by masking only" was the scientific claim here is quite the straw man argument.
You still have to do other things (like reducing exposure in other ways) for best results.

If I get offered a chance to reduce transmission risk by 10-25%, I'll take that chance.

Broadcom wanted the VMware patent portfolio.

All else is just collateral damage in the pursuit of that goal.

The ceramics department would like a word with you about the "no more insulators" bit.
Especially since electric motors can use vitreous enamel coated wire, and most circuit boards are fiberglass.

That said, eliminating hydrocarbon based plastics is entirely unnecessary, we just need to significantly reduce excessive disposable uses, eg most disposable plastic packaging could be switched over to something more recyclable like aluminum foil. Sure, it'd require a lot of supply chain adjustments, but there's a lot of room for improvements without returning to steam power or the telegraph (much as I'd welcome a more steampunk future).

confirmation bias is certainly a type of fact.

https://www.thebodypro.com/art...
(tldr - only measuring people who conform to the pre-existing bias, testing will certainly confirm said bias, so technically you're correct about this being 'a facts'.)

...you know that we have uMatrix on Chrome too, right?

Personally, I use twitter as a concise newsfeed of tech, infosec, and events by following people I'm interested in (eg thegrugq, landley, and briankrebs). The 144 character limit means I get a snippet of things, and (if there's a link) I can choose if I want more info. I even get a smattering of humor by following parody/humor accounts (eg BobRossGameDev, BoredElonMusk, and CommitStrip).

Sure, just like any other social media site, there's shitty parts. That's what happens when you allow the masses to generate content. But you know what's awesome about Twitter? You only see stuff from accounts that you follow. You can mute/block accounts that you never want to see. The content is 100% up to you...dislike a content type or source, and you can easily remove it from your feed.

I've used Twitter heavily for the past three years. I'd gladly pay a low ($1-$5) monthly amount to use it, especially if paying would remove stuff like promoted tweets (which I currently kill with an adblocker).

I agree, tweeting about buying socks is pointless, just like a facebook status update about buying socks is pointless, or a tumblr post about buying socks is pointless. The medium of communication has zero to do with the pointlessness of any given content.

The vast majority of the info I get from Twitter is more along the lines of "High-severity bug in OpenSSL allows attackers to decrypt HTTPS traffic --> link" and "Titan Souls is great example of picking small target audience and making a perfect experience for them. Great example for new devs." than it is about who is taking a shit or buying undergarments.

Twitter may not have any value for you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have value.

Anything but the form fitting track suits!

Why did I bother? Because facts should be sourced.

Why did I bring these particular facts in the first place? Because I was pointing out that anyone can say "This particular number is bigger than the number you're talking about" (as you did with the IRA deaths vs Islamic terrorists comment)...but that doesn't necessarily make it relevant. I even said as much in my comment.

Suicides aren't necessarily directly related to terrorism related deaths, although they do share the rather significant similar factor of death.

In this case, I'm also obliquely making the point that depression and suicide are a significantly bigger problem than terrorism (if a US citizen dies, they've got a 0.00061% chance it's from terrorism...and a 1.58% chance it's from suicide), and we in America are kinda idiots to ignore this.

Regardless of the motives of the kid who took apart the clock, regardless of whether or not it was random chance or a precisely calculated media blitz by someone trying to grab the spotlight...the fact remains that a kid got arrested because he had a box full of wires that may or may not have looked like a thing that actually kills or injurs less than 0.00071% of all humans, worldwide...and meanwhile, we've got depressed kids (and adults!) in every single school in our nation.

tl;dr version: We're severely overreacting to terrorism (especially in schools), and severely under-reacting to other causes of death.

Sources:
http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/n...
http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...

And depression invoked suicides have killed more people than both put together. Did you have a point, or were you just spouting Islamophobia and random "Number A is larger than Number B"?

17,891 deaths by terror attack in 2013.
41,149 deaths by suicide in 2013 (in the US).

Note that those figures for terror attacks may be just for the US, or they may be worldwide...I'm not bothering to check, because if they're just for the US, it means suicides outnumber terror attacks 2 to 1, and if it's NOT just for the US...it's a much worse ratio.

Source(s):
http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/...
http://www.who.int/mental_heal...
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/n...