I wholeheartedly agree with you. I'm suggesting that it might be time to have the counter conversation that just because it has numerical statistical analysis does not make it ML. I've been around the field for a couple of decades and understand linear regression is covered in the first pages of chapter one. If that is the standard, then Excel can claim to have had machine learning capabilities for years.
I appreciate how convenient it is to have statistical analysis tools available directly in BQ SQL, but are linear and logistic regression really considered "machine learning"?
Honestly, those costs were the last thing anyone worried about. There were so many local donations of fuel, water, food, etc. Some of the folks I helped evacuate offered cash donations to cover those things, which we turned down because we didn't need it and knew they would.
The interesting thing is we self-organized. If you had a flat bottom boat and a truck, you helped your family first. Then there were twice as many people asking for help. It was easy to help because so many people needed help. I think technology would have been in the way, to be honest.
During the 2016 floods in the Baton Rouge area, I was part of this effort. Flooding disasters are fog of war. Victims are psychologically paralyzed with disbelief and loss, and there are others who prey on them. It's part of our Southern culture to help one another and get things done. If the CN helps protect the vulnerable while evacuating and saving lives, so be it. You can't sit around and wait for help that never arrives.
This is seriously cool, in my opinion. In fact, I've been working on something kind of similar in Go with more support for network monitoring and vulnerability management that would feed into GrayLog.
I had a first interview with a company where an engineer walked into the room with an eight page C++ exam. No interview. No meet-and-greet-tell-me-about-yourself. Just write, using pen and paper, several complete C++ programs for really hard academic-style problems (combinatorial optimization, dynamic programming, machine learning). Oh, and you had 1 hour. It wasn't an interview as much as a graduate level final exam.
Maybe, but I doubt it. I've had no problem getting interviews and navigating them. But I don't really know because most companies don't respond to follow-ups asking for feedback on why I didn't get the job and what I could do better.
Wow! Thank you all for the positive comments and encouragement. I think it's helpful to us all to share these experiences to show that we aren't seeing these trends in isolation.
I'll add another voice to the job market for experienced developers and managers. It's terrible. I have an advanced CS degree, in-demand programming skills and leadership experience. I've hunted for full-time, part-time, and contracting work for a couple of months.
Interviews tend to go the following way: pass the initial interview, pass the programming test, pass the technical interview and never hear back (even after a couple of following up emails and/or phone calls). This grind really wears down one's self-confidence and outlook. It's been a depressing summer.
I have over 12 months of living expenses in my savings account and a very supportive wife, so I'm going to do a startup and see how far I can take it. It feels like a better use of my time and promises some new learning experiences compared to more interviewing.
I've been a remote worker for over four years, and my experience is this statement is partially true. With a laptop and wifi connection, I can work from any location where I am most productive. Spending every day in the same spare bedroom kills creativity, and a laptop can go anywhere that spurs it.
It saves money if you cast off things you don't need, such as an extra car (my wife and I now car share), business casual clothing, eating out, &c, and if you live somewhere cheap. I live somewhere cheap (Louisiana), so I have a house with a couple of spare bedrooms from which to work.
I think this nails it. In many ways, Microsoft is playing catch-up with Apple, Google, and Facebook. But they have good momentum right now. I, for one, am happy with the Nadella era.