It is a very crude method for injecting diversity into search results (and the browsing experience). It can't be turned off and still shows up even if very specific search terms are used.

Hard to believe it is the best possible video search implementation for their ad serving goals.

There are real advantages from having a managed data platform compared to managing everything yourself, especially if you have a large number of data teams that need to collaborate.

Yep, and Databricks will have you churning and changing everything on your stack every 18 months (if you want to keep up to date at all) - its not what I would choose as a data partner unless I was just picking what all the other kids at lunch were.

In my first proper job, I worked with an accounting system in 2014/2015 that was a .NET GUI client that directly called SQL Server stored procedures. There was a bundled WMS that did the same thing. IIRC the requests were sent directly to the database and were authenticated with the client user's details.

I was a data analyst and had full access to the database for reporting and data import/export purposes. I had a lot of fun browsing through the stored procedures, which were not locked down or encrypted in any way, and figuring out how it all worked.

I even fixed a bug with a custom module that was causing huge stock valuation errors (I can't believe I even did this now) and also created my own automated order import procedure by monitoring the procedures used by the client's order import screen. Possibly invalidating warranties and support contracts etc. but no problems came of it. They even tried to rehire me a few years later.

Sometimes it results in more work because of the lowered upfront cost of spinning up new cloud services

Need to get Platform Engineer for a full house

It is still subsidised and costs (as reflected in CFD bids) have stopped decreasing.

The need for backup is not an argument against wind in itself. But it is important to consider the full system costs of wind generation, which includes the backup costs as well as the additional transmission infrastructure.

I am similar. Green tea always makes me feel nauseous on an empty stomach. Tea with milk is normally ok.

That's why the Brits are having it ;-)

There was a big step change in my experience, enabled by the adoption of Teams for remote work and the resulting ease of scheduling meetings. Previously meetings had always required the organiser to book a room.

what do they use for ETL?

They don't need to hold USD long term to complete transactions. Transaction demand does not explain why the dollar is the global reserve currency.