[sarcasm]Please continue to use this question. It’s a wonderful marker for candidates (like me) who don’t want to work with folks who think questions like that are useful.[/sarcasm]
That's a two way street. Asking this question to ward off people who are offended to be asked it sounds like a net win to me.
Also, some of the replies to the original article got me thinking about my own experiences as an interviewee. I realized that those engineers who have interviewed me in the past and did not ask much technically have been amongst the weakest engineers I have worked with. Really nice people, not really good engineers.
That's a two way street. Asking this question to ward off people who are offended to be asked it sounds like a net win to me.