Who runs out of stack space on modern desktop computer platforms anyway unless you messed up your break condition or you've made very, VERY large data structures?
People programming in languages that do not offer tail recursion optimization. For example, Guido van Rossum decided explicitly to exclude tail recursion optimization from Python because it would make the output from functions in the traceback module less clear.
I don't know my password on stackoverflow by heart, so It's hard to keep up to date on it [...] So I visit there when Google shows it as a response to my questions.
If you use Google often, you can sign into Stack Overflow with Google. First look up your Stack Overflow password and log in. Then visit your user page on Stack Overflow, click Edit Profile & Settings, and click My Logins. From there you can sign in with Google, and your Google identity will be added to your Stack Overflow account.
Most of my Skype use is actually text chat. I prefer it over IRC because I find server-side logging convenient. Only occasionally do I switch to voice and video. Which chat app integrates well with Linphone on Windows, Android, and GNU/Linux, so that my chat contacts are synchronized with my voice and video contacts?
If a household has an antenna, a cable box, a streaming box, and/or a DVD or Blu-ray player, it has such a second TV. As I understand it, the more common setup is for the family's largest monitor to be in the living room, with a smaller monitor on the computer desk in another room. I imagine that in developed countries with no recurring tax on TV ownership, households that either have no TV or use the household's only TV as a computer monitor are in the minority.
And I imagine it's cheaper for this second machine to be a Nintendo Switch than a gaming PC.
Well, that's a Switch-specific argument, not applicable to other consoles.
How not? I mentioned Switch because headline, but $299 will also get you a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One S that connects to the monitor that's likely already in your living room.
upgrading one's video card (and occasionally the proc/motherboard) has been cheaper
if your existing PC is something other than a Windows tower, such as a laptop or a Mac, upgrades aren't quite so simple.
If you're using a laptop for cutting-edge gaming, you have too much money and upgrade cost therefore shouldn't be an issue. If you're using a *Mac* for gaming, you're a masochist and you have too much money.
I thought your claim was that adding a GPU to what you already use for non-gaming is a practical alternative to buying a game console. Adding a GPU isn't practical if what you already use for non-gaming happens to be a laptop, tablet with keyboard, Mac, or an eight-year-old desktop PC with a Core 2 Duo that still runs. If any of those is true, you first need to buy or build a recent Windows PC, and then that gets factored into the price.
Do you know anyone who bought a portable TV and carried that around in a bag with their console to do some console equivalent of LAN parties?
My aunt's son.
Besides, the console counterpart to a LAN party isn't necessarily a LAN party at all as much as bringing your own controller to use in someone else's living room for same-screen multiplayer.
Web browsers also "suddenly rotted and stopped working" when websites switched from cleartext HTTP or old SSL to new TLS in response to vulnerabilities discovered in the former.
The problem with waiting out essential patents on cellular is that by the time they expire, carriers have retired service in the air protocol that they cover in favor of more capable protocols whose patents happen to subsist.
In the 90s, consoles were cheaper but in the 2000s and 2010s upgrading one's video card (and occasionally the proc/motherboard) has been cheaper.
That's fine if you live alone. But if you have more than one person in the household, and one wants to use the PC for non-game purposes while the other plays a game, you need a second machine for the game. And I imagine it's cheaper for this second machine to be a Nintendo Switch than a gaming PC. Furthermore, if your existing PC is something other than a Windows tower, such as a laptop or a Mac, upgrades aren't quite so simple. Do you know anyone who has bought an aftermarket MXM GPU for a laptop or a Thunderbolt external GPU for a Mac?
if kids already have an iPod, iPad or iPhone, then why would they need a Wii U?
Because not all game genres work well with a touch screen as the only input method. That's why the Wii U GamePad has buttons beside its touch screen rather than expecting developers to make a virtual gamepad.
The games are far inferior, but if I could buy a proper Nintendo game for iPhone, I would pay $20.
Super Mario Run exists. The drawback is that it doesn't run on an iPod touch or Wi-Fi-only iPad in a vehicle.
How is it possible to make a mobile phone or mobile Internet terminal without "invest[ing] in proprietary technology"? UMTS, CDMA2000, and LTE are patented. Even Wi-Fi is patented.
Game consoles do this all the time. You update or lose access to all online services, period.
For one thing, game consoles tend to be more usable offline than smartphones and tablets running a smartphone-derived operating system are. They can play disc games in single-player or same-screen multiplayer, and they can play games downloaded from the store to your console in single-player or same-screen multiplayer. For another, updates to a game console's operating system tend not to dramatically expand its RAM footprint to the point where basic operations take seconds instead of tenths of seconds, with the only remedy being "Replace your PS4 with a PS4 Pro" or "Replace your Xbox One with an Xbox One S".
Apple released an update that preserved the features [...] the complaint here is that they pushed a new client version and tied it to the new OS version
On affected devices, the new OS version did not preserve the multitasking feature. Instead, switching to a different application causes iOS to have to OOM-kill the other application, making it take far longer to switch between the two.
Stunt? Which is the orderly upgrade of software to newer versions followed later by deprecation of the older versions?
The "stunt" is failure to support the latest operating system available for a particular device. If WhatsApp requires a new operating system, and your phone requires an old one, then continuing to run WhatsApp costs $100 or more to replace your phone with one that can run a new operating system, plus whatever it costs in your area to recycle your old phone in compliance with applicable e-waste regulations.
Basically we are coming to a point where you have to login online to use a computer at all
How will that be enforced? Why can't people just switch to free software? For example, instead of an iPad or a tablet or laptop running Windows 10 Cloud, buy a device running GNU/Linux or Android. Or instead of an iPhone, buy an Android phone and install the F-Droid store. Or instead of a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, build a PC with SteamOS. What computing device class has no practical device that allows at least sideloading free software, if not replacing the operating system entirely with one that respects users' freedom?
Which your contacts don't already use and are likely to prove unwilling to start using. For example, it costs over $100 for a U.S. resident who currently uses a landline, flip phone, or outdated smartphone to start using WhatsApp because the desktop client requires a sufficiently recent smartphone to act as a proxy.
Technically, Skype for Linux Alpha is 64-bit. But as Artem Tashkinov pointed out above, it's really just Skype for Web running in 64-bit Chromium, and it takes a half GB of my laptop's 2 GB RAM. Because of the RAM use and the fact that I already had the 32-bit libraries installed to run Wine, I switched back to good old 4.3, which is still the only 32-bit Skype for Linux. Or should I just run the distribution's build of Firefox?
That depends on whether a particular country's age rating regulations consider PlayStation Store, Steam, and other paid download services to be "stores".
[Submitting a separate pull request from each branch of your fork to the upstream project] can be done entirely from the Web UI as long as you're only making small changes that touch one file at a time
I was asked to make three pull requests to HTTPS Everywhere, each to make one small change to a different section of the same FAQ. Because one of the changes would reorder and then combine two sections, I fear an error message that my pull request "has conflicts that must be resolved". GitHub's page about merge conflicts states that for many "merge conflicts, you must resolve the merge conflict locally on the command line."
inconsistent ordering of the bare versions and the www. versions
Ideally, a hosts parser would use a Bloom filter to cache a large file. But because most operating systems instead use a linear scan, more frequently accessed hostnames should go near the top. If you're using it to work around flaky ISP DNS, hostnames you use frequently should go above hostnames you're blocking. Thus the output of a tool that automatically sorts entries by access frequency might look inconsistent in this manner.
AOSP and Chromium are both free software. So other browser publishers can see what Android APIs Google is using to make web apps feel native and use them as well.
The facts in this case differ substantially from the facts in the case of IE. First, practically everything in Chrome except Adobe Flash and Widevine digital restrictions management comes from Chromium, which is free software. Second, Google works with W3C to encourage the other browser publishers (Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft) to implement the same "progressive" APIs.
Slashdot Mirror
By your criteria, Python is the wrong language, and this is intentional. See Guido van Rossum's explanation: part 1 and part 2.
Who runs out of stack space on modern desktop computer platforms anyway unless you messed up your break condition or you've made very, VERY large data structures?
People programming in languages that do not offer tail recursion optimization. For example, Guido van Rossum decided explicitly to exclude tail recursion optimization from Python because it would make the output from functions in the traceback module less clear.
I don't know my password on stackoverflow by heart, so It's hard to keep up to date on it [...] So I visit there when Google shows it as a response to my questions.
If you use Google often, you can sign into Stack Overflow with Google. First look up your Stack Overflow password and log in. Then visit your user page on Stack Overflow, click Edit Profile & Settings, and click My Logins. From there you can sign in with Google, and your Google identity will be added to your Stack Overflow account.
Most of my Skype use is actually text chat. I prefer it over IRC because I find server-side logging convenient. Only occasionally do I switch to voice and video. Which chat app integrates well with Linphone on Windows, Android, and GNU/Linux, so that my chat contacts are synchronized with my voice and video contacts?
Same argument for "a second TV."
If a household has an antenna, a cable box, a streaming box, and/or a DVD or Blu-ray player, it has such a second TV. As I understand it, the more common setup is for the family's largest monitor to be in the living room, with a smaller monitor on the computer desk in another room. I imagine that in developed countries with no recurring tax on TV ownership, households that either have no TV or use the household's only TV as a computer monitor are in the minority.
And I imagine it's cheaper for this second machine to be a Nintendo Switch than a gaming PC.
Well, that's a Switch-specific argument, not applicable to other consoles.
How not? I mentioned Switch because headline, but $299 will also get you a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One S that connects to the monitor that's likely already in your living room.
upgrading one's video card (and occasionally the proc/motherboard) has been cheaper
if your existing PC is something other than a Windows tower, such as a laptop or a Mac, upgrades aren't quite so simple.
If you're using a laptop for cutting-edge gaming, you have too much money and upgrade cost therefore shouldn't be an issue. If you're using a *Mac* for gaming, you're a masochist and you have too much money.
I thought your claim was that adding a GPU to what you already use for non-gaming is a practical alternative to buying a game console. Adding a GPU isn't practical if what you already use for non-gaming happens to be a laptop, tablet with keyboard, Mac, or an eight-year-old desktop PC with a Core 2 Duo that still runs. If any of those is true, you first need to buy or build a recent Windows PC, and then that gets factored into the price.
Do you know anyone who bought a portable TV and carried that around in a bag with their console to do some console equivalent of LAN parties?
My aunt's son.
Besides, the console counterpart to a LAN party isn't necessarily a LAN party at all as much as bringing your own controller to use in someone else's living room for same-screen multiplayer.
Web browsers also "suddenly rotted and stopped working" when websites switched from cleartext HTTP or old SSL to new TLS in response to vulnerabilities discovered in the former.
The problem with waiting out essential patents on cellular is that by the time they expire, carriers have retired service in the air protocol that they cover in favor of more capable protocols whose patents happen to subsist.
In the 90s, consoles were cheaper but in the 2000s and 2010s upgrading one's video card (and occasionally the proc/motherboard) has been cheaper.
That's fine if you live alone. But if you have more than one person in the household, and one wants to use the PC for non-game purposes while the other plays a game, you need a second machine for the game. And I imagine it's cheaper for this second machine to be a Nintendo Switch than a gaming PC. Furthermore, if your existing PC is something other than a Windows tower, such as a laptop or a Mac, upgrades aren't quite so simple. Do you know anyone who has bought an aftermarket MXM GPU for a laptop or a Thunderbolt external GPU for a Mac?
if kids already have an iPod, iPad or iPhone, then why would they need a Wii U?
Because not all game genres work well with a touch screen as the only input method. That's why the Wii U GamePad has buttons beside its touch screen rather than expecting developers to make a virtual gamepad.
The games are far inferior, but if I could buy a proper Nintendo game for iPhone, I would pay $20.
Super Mario Run exists. The drawback is that it doesn't run on an iPod touch or Wi-Fi-only iPad in a vehicle.
I imagine a given GPU's shader capability and its OpenCL capability are correlated.
How is it possible to make a mobile phone or mobile Internet terminal without "invest[ing] in proprietary technology"? UMTS, CDMA2000, and LTE are patented. Even Wi-Fi is patented.
Game consoles do this all the time. You update or lose access to all online services, period.
For one thing, game consoles tend to be more usable offline than smartphones and tablets running a smartphone-derived operating system are. They can play disc games in single-player or same-screen multiplayer, and they can play games downloaded from the store to your console in single-player or same-screen multiplayer. For another, updates to a game console's operating system tend not to dramatically expand its RAM footprint to the point where basic operations take seconds instead of tenths of seconds, with the only remedy being "Replace your PS4 with a PS4 Pro" or "Replace your Xbox One with an Xbox One S".
Apple released an update that preserved the features [...] the complaint here is that they pushed a new client version and tied it to the new OS version
On affected devices, the new OS version did not preserve the multitasking feature. Instead, switching to a different application causes iOS to have to OOM-kill the other application, making it take far longer to switch between the two.
Source: replies to jcr's comment
I think it was a Chase Visa card. I forget whether debit or credit.
Stunt? Which is the orderly upgrade of software to newer versions followed later by deprecation of the older versions?
The "stunt" is failure to support the latest operating system available for a particular device. If WhatsApp requires a new operating system, and your phone requires an old one, then continuing to run WhatsApp costs $100 or more to replace your phone with one that can run a new operating system, plus whatever it costs in your area to recycle your old phone in compliance with applicable e-waste regulations.
Basically we are coming to a point where you have to login online to use a computer at all
How will that be enforced? Why can't people just switch to free software? For example, instead of an iPad or a tablet or laptop running Windows 10 Cloud, buy a device running GNU/Linux or Android. Or instead of an iPhone, buy an Android phone and install the F-Droid store. Or instead of a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, build a PC with SteamOS. What computing device class has no practical device that allows at least sideloading free software, if not replacing the operating system entirely with one that respects users' freedom?
Which your contacts don't already use and are likely to prove unwilling to start using. For example, it costs over $100 for a U.S. resident who currently uses a landline, flip phone, or outdated smartphone to start using WhatsApp because the desktop client requires a sufficiently recent smartphone to act as a proxy.
Technically, Skype for Linux Alpha is 64-bit. But as Artem Tashkinov pointed out above, it's really just Skype for Web running in 64-bit Chromium, and it takes a half GB of my laptop's 2 GB RAM. Because of the RAM use and the fact that I already had the 32-bit libraries installed to run Wine, I switched back to good old 4.3, which is still the only 32-bit Skype for Linux. Or should I just run the distribution's build of Firefox?
To which "better, less invasive, alternatives" do you refer? Are they only for Android-to-Android, or also Android-to-desktop?
That depends on whether a particular country's age rating regulations consider PlayStation Store, Steam, and other paid download services to be "stores".
[Submitting a separate pull request from each branch of your fork to the upstream project] can be done entirely from the Web UI as long as you're only making small changes that touch one file at a time
I was asked to make three pull requests to HTTPS Everywhere, each to make one small change to a different section of the same FAQ. Because one of the changes would reorder and then combine two sections, I fear an error message that my pull request "has conflicts that must be resolved". GitHub's page about merge conflicts states that for many "merge conflicts, you must resolve the merge conflict locally on the command line."
putting each url on separate lines instead of grouping them logically by SLD
Some hosts parsers do not understand more than one hostname per line, though recent Windows supports up to nine.
inconsistent ordering of the bare versions and the www. versions
Ideally, a hosts parser would use a Bloom filter to cache a large file. But because most operating systems instead use a linear scan, more frequently accessed hostnames should go near the top. If you're using it to work around flaky ISP DNS, hostnames you use frequently should go above hostnames you're blocking. Thus the output of a tool that automatically sorts entries by access frequency might look inconsistent in this manner.
AOSP and Chromium are both free software. So other browser publishers can see what Android APIs Google is using to make web apps feel native and use them as well.
The facts in this case differ substantially from the facts in the case of IE. First, practically everything in Chrome except Adobe Flash and Widevine digital restrictions management comes from Chromium, which is free software. Second, Google works with W3C to encourage the other browser publishers (Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft) to implement the same "progressive" APIs.
There are millions of PCs in the 3rd world running XP, 512Mb RAM is very common
For 512 MB, why doesn't Lubuntu work?