The way I see it, an interview goes both ways. They try to assess your fit in the company, and you're also trying to assess if the company is something you want to spend your time on.
I call this the "game show style" interview. You know the answer, you get $10k. Next question. You didn't know the answer? You're out of the show. Next contestant.
To me this is very disrespectful of your time and your capabilities. Once I was pumped to go into an interview with a very well known company in Sydney, but was dismayed to learn that they do this game show interview (with IQ test, no less!). I wouldn't want to waste my most precious resources (i.e. time) for a company that doesn't respect me.
This is such a recurring issue that I just stop using new-ish Google products for fear of the rug getting pulled under me.
I used to use Google Home, now renamed Nest Home, and now I just stop using them altogether since I don't know how long it will survive.
Pretty much the only thing from Google I use today are Gmail and Google Docs.
This thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24165445 describes what's going on internally at Google that led to that graveyard. Namely, how the promotion system encourages the creation of a new thing, and inadvertently de-emphasizes maintenance.
Secure communication is unfortunately still difficult for non-tech people. Most of the "easy" ones are tied to a smartphone, like Signal.
However if the goal is to prevent accidental leaking by using reply-all or adding an email address by mistake, then I think encryption features are nice-to-haves rather than a must-have. It's a very nice to have, but for non-techies and for your specific use case, usability is probably more important at this point.
* Slack (https://slack.com/) using a free account, but they limit the number of messages for free accounts. May not be a deal-breaker for you.
* Element (https://element.io/) which was formerly Riot.im, and is encrypted and have more security features vs. the other two. Probably the most secure here.
All of them have their pluses and minuses, but all of them can be opened in a browser
and require no smartphone. I suggest you pick one that you feel is easiest for your group to register and use, and provides the feature set that you require.
With regard to Discord, please make sure to read [0] before making any decisions :)
I admit I'm a bit confused about Microsoft's strategy here. So they're releasing two Xboxes at the same time: series X and series S, with the S positioned as the less powerful version of the X, with the promise that it can play the same game as the X.
The X seems to be a direct competitor to the PS5 [0], hardware-wise.
Wouldn't the release of the S and the X together forces game developers to code for the lowest common denominator (i.e. the S) and makes development more complex for the Xbox? Or is it a strategy to undercut the PS5 (normal edition and digital edition) in price?
This is a difficult question to quantify for me. "Few people" could be interpreted differently, and it depends on where you are. E.g. around the circle of people I know, I might be in the minority, but there is likely to be a niche where I'm part of the majority. It's just that I'm not aware or usually part of such a niche.
Second, what is the nature of the "truth" here? Is it mathematical/physical where there is no denying them? Is it opinion about something? Or historical facts? There are different level of truthiness there that I can see. However once you go into opinion-land, can it still be considered as truth?
I feel there are deeper reasons for this question.
I would also add that the replica set concept that is based on Raft [0] allows for built-in high availability, so the individual servers can be maintained while the whole set is running and servicing clients.
It also helps that the creator of the default storage engine (WiredTiger) are Keith Bostic of BerkeleyDB fame [0] and Michael Cahill, whose PhD thesis on serializable snapshot isolation [1] formed the basis of Postgres concurrency control [2]. Notably, both of them still work for MongoDB.
I played it using a basic Soundblaster card in the 90s and it’s already amazing. Lately I used DosBox with the MT32 emulation and was blown away by how good it sounds.
Wow this really brings back memories! If Ron Gilbert is reading this, thanks for all your hard work on this game. This game was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood.
As to what makes the game great, I think it's the perfect combination of humor, pirates, and difficulty level that feels just right for a kid in the early 90s. It also has an amazing soundtrack.
And also the opting for the nuclear option when faced with defending their 30% app store commissions.
I love Apple devices, but at some point no one can afford them anymore. Strangely, I noticed that this has happened before when Steve Jobs left Apple for the first time. At that point, Apple's product lineup keep getting more complex and more expensive, until Jobs came back and cut both the product count and pricing back to sensible levels.
This time, there is no one that can go back there and do that anymore. Will be interesting to see where this goes.
I find this really sad. I do congratulate the students that managed to figure out the system and game them (they will go far!), but using this keyword salad grading thing is totally missing the point of education.
I came from a third world country where the "education system" is basically just a series of tests on memorization and conformance, and I'm hoping I would never see a system like that ever again.
To me it's like a quiz style of interview, where you're up on a whiteboard trying to answer a series of rapid fire questions. There is little discussion about why you're doing what you did, only a pass/fail signified by a nod or no-nod.
In contrast, a discussion style feels more like they're trying to figure out how you approach some problem, nudge you toward a solution if you're stuck (everyone usually gets stuck somewhere, especially if they have interview anxiety. I know I do), and discuss with you why you did what you did, discuss the pro/cons of some approaches, discuss alternatives, and so on.
The first style is just checking if you know the answers to some list of things, while the second style is more like trying to get to know you as a person and as an engineer.
The drawback of the second style is that it's more time consuming for both parties. Quite tiring as well. However, I think it's part of respecting your time and respecting you as an applicant.