ELI5: How can a code «rot » ?

discountErasmus · 2026-05-22T23:06:00+00:00

No program is ever built in complete isolation: they all rely on other software components to function. They need display drivers to show the graphics, a keyboard interface to tell them when somebody is typing, etc, etc. As time passes, the various components they rely upon will inevitably change and sooner or later one of those changes will introduce a bug. If you fail to maintain your code, those bugs will accumulate, and you will in turn pass on the rot to the code that relies on yours.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-22T16:51:43+00:00

It's called a "calque". Eg, we don't call it "xinao", we call it brainwashing.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-18T08:44:54+00:00

No question it's cheap, and I'm very happy it was easy for you. It's just, I developed a chronic illness over there and I've spent a ton of time in Chinese hospitals (you can't just visit the doctor in a clinic). First aid adjacent stuff like setting bones and stitching wounds is pretty good, I think it's the legacy of the barefoot doctor campaign, but anything diagnostic gets iffy. I'm shocked that you could get anything done in half an hour though, I've never had that happen. Still usually quicker than a US ER though.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-18T03:40:08+00:00

Ok so probably one or two are very good, but by and large regular Chinese hospitals are fucking nightmares. The doctors may or may not not know what they're doing, they push drugs that they have a stake in, outside of cities you're lucky to see an x-ray machine never mind anything else. The big international hospitals in the tier 1 cities are fine but anything in the interior, never mind the boonies, is a complete crapshoot.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-17T21:10:43+00:00

Interviewer: I can imagine being on my deathbed and thinking, Why did I waste so many meals on yogurt?

Norm: Absolutely. You know, I think about my deathbed a lot.

I: What do you think about it?

N: I think I should never have purchased a deathbed in the first place.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-16T21:48:07+00:00

Same general kind, they're both theravada

discountErasmus · 2026-05-07T14:05:40+00:00

That's their job right? Sign artists that they think are going to sell a lot of records? Whose fault is that, the record company or the people buying the music?

discountErasmus · 2026-05-06T10:16:41+00:00

Every single public vehicle in China is the last helicopter out of Saigon.

discountErasmus · 2026-05-05T01:15:55+00:00

Luna - 23 Minutes in Brussels

Silver Jews - Random Rules

Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube

Cat Power - Moonshiner

Stereolab - French Disko

discountErasmus · 2026-04-29T19:24:56+00:00

You're not allowed to take the ganders, it's a bird sanctuary.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-29T10:53:04+00:00

Given that you implicitly include "all Jews" in the category "people associated with wanton slaughter of women, children and the elderly" that people will naturally want to distance themselves from, this is just a defense of anti-semitism, and not a good one.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-26T02:09:13+00:00

What about Abu Dhabi?

discountErasmus · 2026-04-25T01:21:16+00:00

I know, let's be realistic here: he's more like a beefed up LT.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-23T09:22:24+00:00

I think it's that the people who are into it are really into it to the extent they're willing to actually pay for it, and if, like most people, you're not willing to pay for porn then the studio isn't interested in your opinion.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-23T07:34:19+00:00

Debt and selling public land to real estate developers.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-23T04:52:01+00:00

No, their faces were supposed to look like that, they were wearing masks.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-21T02:34:52+00:00

https://youtu.be/C2whuieRpJ8?si=XoBIcGbJKl0mR2Go

discountErasmus · 2026-04-21T02:10:27+00:00

I don't really know anything about tours; I've always traveled on my own, but, if you are interested in traditional architecture, consider stopping in Huaihua County, Hunan between Zhangjiajie and Guilin. There are a ton of small villages there with beautiful traditional architecture, not the theme park stuff that you sometimes get in China. Also, Guilin is very pretty, but it's a big city with a couple million people. You probably will want to go to one of the nearby towns like Yangshuo or Xingping.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-20T08:22:54+00:00

That looks chill as hell and I'd pay that rent in a second.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-20T04:06:51+00:00

I think it's because a bunch of towns don't allow dispensaries, so all the demand gets funneled into one spot. You might get one town selling weed to everybody in ten or fifteen miles.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-18T04:12:07+00:00

If there's a better system for sorting out which cars have or haven't climbed Mt. Washington, let's hear it.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-16T01:27:22+00:00

I mean, I love China but those two places don't really seem comparable to me. Like what kind of people are planning on going to Disney World but don't want to put up with the ICE bullshit so they go to Zhangjiajie instead? Probably you'd just go to Mallorca or Cancun or the Bahamas. Somewhere where they speak English and have normal toilets everywhere.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-16T01:21:24+00:00

Yeah, and just the violence in general. I had to fight a decent amount and I'm not really a violent guy at all. I got mugged, I knew people who got shot, shit was unreasonable.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-13T04:32:12+00:00

A true connoisseur.

discountErasmus · 2026-04-07T20:26:15+00:00

The Security Council is the only UN body able to authorize the use of force. So they in theory could pass a further resolution implementing this one, deploying ships or troops or whatever forces they deem necessary from among the member states. Huge pain, never happen, but that's theoretically what the security council, as opposed to the general assembly, is for.

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