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 :-)
Joke aside, yeah, hearing about interesting tech being used outside of breathless, infinitely scalable, VC funded tech bubble companies is usually quite compelling
I started a company that deals primarily with "cyber-physical systems" use cases in-part because I ceased to find anything remotely resembling "software for its own sake" to be compelling anymore (in an existential sense).
Also, if you do happen to work in solar farm tech, I'd love to chat. nathan@auxon.io
