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If given a question about reversing a string, it lets you ask the interviewer questions like:

* Do you want to do it in-place or as a copy?

* Is it an ASCII or Unicode string? If using Unicode, I assume you want to reverse on grapheme cluster boundaries?

Asking these questions let you as a candidate demonstrate your knowledge.

If the candidate doesn't ask these questions, the interviewer can ask follow up questions like.

* What is the time/space complexity of the algorithm? (Easy answer!)

* How does this work with UTF strings?

I don't particularly like the question, but have been in interviews where this exact question was used. From the discussion with the candidate it did very quickly weed out inexperienced developers. I was amazed at how many people applied for roles and had no knowledge of these concepts.

> Do you actually reverse strings here?

We've also tried doing more in-depth code exercises, which are more applicable to our business domain. That didn't work much better, and required upfront work from the candidate, which isn't always fair on them.

Anyways - happily not involved in the recruiting process any more.

Thanks for taking the time to write these comments.

In my opinion, existing tech is able to solve the climate crisis. Breakthroughs can make the solution cheaper and sooner.

In my view the main problem is the attitude of doom amongst the general population. If people felt there was a solution, and were excited and energised by the challenge, they'd be more willing to support political changes. I.e. pushing back against entrenched obstructionist industries, pricing externalities, and investing in infrastructure.

Primary energy consumption isn't a great metric for comparing with renewable electricity, since for conventional plants it includes the unused energy lost as heat.

A fossil power plant wastes ~60% of the energy, a nuclear plant ~75%, a small petrol engine ~75%. Once you take this into account, the stats look a little better.

Travel was open with Australia until the recent outbreak there. Using virus genome sequencing, this outbreak has been traced to a New Zealander who caught the virus in Sydney, and spent 2 weeks in a quarantine centre in Auckland.

It's not yet known how the virus escaped the quarantine centre. None of the quarantine centre staff have tested positive, despite being tested multiple times.

It's suspected that the transmission occurred by somebody walking near the hotel while the initial case was arriving, or in a fenced off outdoor exercise area.

6 people walked by on CCTV at this point. 4 have been contacted, but 2 haven't been identified.

Also worth noting, the border isn't completely closed. There is a steady stream of returning New Zealanders, and also exceptions for some workers. Everyone does a 2 week quarantine stay on entering the country. Some of these people test positive for Corona, but so far it hasn't escaped a quarantine centre. Looks like Delta is harder to contain.

There's also ongoing development on "starnix" which aims to run unmodified Linux binaries.

I hope France finds a path forward. Last I read it's sitting on an aging fleet of reactors, and failing to build new ones in a timely manner.

The big German power companies definitely have a lot to answer for. At least there is now an agreed timeline to shut off all the coal plants.