[college_physics]

Yep, "tech" and "engineer" regularly used (also on HN) to mean software/information technology and programmer/developer respectively.

Not very accurate use at all, the whole sector has actually more a social science than a hard sciences bend. Information is a very culturally defined concept and the silicon tech and the true white coat engineers designing and making chips a very small fraction of what happens (or gets discussed).

This is probably title inflation that makes people feel better. The same dynamic that created "Data Science" to mean data cleaning, and AI to mean statistical fitting. But in Rome like the Romans :-)