XML allowed you to use tools to build automatically. We have other better tools now but back then it was like magic. Download an XSD (the more common option to Relax NG but not superior IMO), point a pre-built tool for it and it'd build strongly typed model classes and validation checkers. Then, when you called the service, chances are it would work first time. It could also be used to write the specification too. That was unheard of before. Often the spec you'd get for service was different to what the endpoint served because keeping documentation up to date was not a priority.

XML then got a little overplayed. For example, XSL transforms allowed you to turn one XML into another and because XHTML existed you have people building entire front ends in it (not recommended). You ended up in a weird hinterland where XML wasn't just for representing structured data but it had built in functionality too. It was not the right tool for that job!

I've not needed it in a long time as I prefer lighter weight formats and I don't miss it.

Just my take, others will have their own!

- Building plastic self organising maps (Lang 2002) using Python CUDA build to parallelise the more expensive bits. Also fancy building the directed graph half in Unity 3D.

- Also doing some data engineering pre-training and AIIA at work but no deets, sadly.

I agreed to do it as long as they understood that I felt it was a terrible way of assessing someone's ability to code. I was allowed to use any programming language because they knew them all (allegedly).

The solution was a pretty obvious bit-shift. So I wrote memory registers up on the board and did it in Motorola 68000 Assembler (because I had been doing a lot of it around that time), halfway through they stopped me and I said I'd be happy to do it again if they gave me a computer.

The offered me the job. I went elsewhere.

Works really well and it mimics the what we find is the most important bit about coding.

I don't mind if they use AI to shortcut the boring stuff in the day-to-day, as long as they can think critically about the result.

They've said that they're watching the discussions for feedback, so I hope they listen and implement that one.

Happy that they are being transparent (rather than letting the issues rot), annoyed that they appear to be prioritising marginally useful AI stuff for basic UX.

When I taught at university there was a disparity between exam grades and the physical body of work they had submitted over the years. You'd see the grade and be shocked the did so badly. The grade reflected proficiency in examinations, not in the subject.

Arguing about the effectiveness of edtech is like complaining there wasn't a viola on the Titanic's band.

ESET deployed the change silently, breaking nodejs implementations and leaving people scrabbling around trying to add node to the SSL scan exception list.

Is it reasonable to expect some warning before a change like this?

I might be forced to choose a replacement. What's your goto brand of antivirus/botnet detection for server and workstation with centralised cloud management?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40088420

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

One example of that would be if your model was being used to spot criminals in video footage and it turns out that the bias of the model picks one socioeconomic group over another. Most western nations have laws protecting the public against that kind of abuse (albeit they're not applied fairly) and the fines are pretty steep.