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Comment Comparing libraries to libraries (Score 1) 111

*facepalm* SDL is not C.

Nor is Pillow Python. However, Pillow routinely has significant changes from one major version to the next. Installing a newer version of Pillow than some system package expects could easily break that package. (This is why PEP 668 happened.) Likewise, installing from source a newer major version of a library than some C program expects could break that library.

Comment If-Modified-Since and If-None-Match (Score 1) 39

HTTP has the "If-Modified-Since" request header, which instructs a server to process a request only if the requested document has changed since the provided date. It also has the "If-None-Match" request header, which does the same thing for "ETag" values.

(I did not use the <code> element in this post where the HTML spec states that I should have because Slashdot issued a diagnostic "Filter error: Invalid HTML tag usage".)

Comment Re:Never enough houses (Score 3, Insightful) 158

Italy and Japan have shrinking populations. We would too, if it weren't for immigration. However our population growth rate is still low, and if it were any lower we'd be facing serious economic and social challenges. Sure, a shrinking population would drop housing prices, but we are far from having so many people there isn't space to fit them. Our real problem is seventy years of public policy aimed at the elimination of "slums" and the prevention of their reemergence.

If you think about it, "slum" is just a derogatory word for a neighborhood with a high concentration of very affordable housing. Basically policy has by design eliminated the most affordable tier of housing, which eliminates downward price pressure on higher tiers of housing. Today in my city a median studio apartment cost $2800; by the old 1/5 of income rule that means you'd need an income of $168k. Of course the rule now is 30% of income, so to afford a studio apartment you need "only" 112k of income. So essentially there is no affordable housing at all in the city, even for young middle class workers. There is, however a glut of *luxury* housing.

In a way, this is what we set out to accomplish: a city where the only concentrations of people allowed are wealthy people. We didn't really think it through; we acted as if poor to middle income people would just disappear. In reality two things happened. First they got pushed further and further into the suburbs, sparking backlash by residents concerned with property values. And a lot of people, even middle-class young people, end up in illegal off-the-book apartments in spaces like old warehouses and industrial spaces.

Comment In charge of ethics (Score 1) 145

Plato — who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle,

Heh. Anytime I hear discussions of these guys I can't help but think about Chidi's Ethics Lesson in S1E3 of The Good Place:

Chidi: So Aristotle was Plato's student. And Aristotle believes that your character is voluntary, because it's just the result of your actions, which are under your control. For example, right now, you have made the insane choice to ignore the person who is literally trying to save you from eternal damnation.

Eleanor: No, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm listening. Uh, I just... are we sure we should be paying attention to these guys? It's like, who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics?

Chidi: [points to blackboard] Plato!

Comment Only if a particular game is already on consoles (Score 1) 155

People who want to play games can buy a console

Until they use their tablet to browse the website of the game they want to buy and see "Linux and Windows: Buy Now / Consoles: We are seeking a publisher." A newly established indie studio's games aren't on consoles until the console maker approves a studio's request for a devkit. That in turn doesn't happen until the studio brings two or three games to market on a competing platform, which usually ends up being Windows.

browse websites on a tablet

And write long-form articles for a website on what? Learn concepts of computer science on what?

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