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Espindola's blog

A second look at array layouts

2020-11-18

Introduction A couple of years ago, while working on LLD, we noticed that a substantial part of the link time was spent applying relocations. That was expected, since applying relocations is the main task of a linker. A relocation in a .o file tells the linker to compute an expression and write the result in the final binary. The expression depends on what the relocation is. For example, for int foo = 42; int* bar = &foo; The expression will be just the symbol value of foo.

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Is LNQ friend or foe?

2018-10-18

The BC government has recently reached an agreement to allow the construction of a liquefied natural gas processing and export facility in Kitmat The discussion about the project has been a bit similar to the site C discussion. Some mention the economic advantage, others mention local environmental risks. As with the site C, I think that is missing the point. I think we have to focus on the transition to renewable energy sources and the climate change impact.

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Site C and the BC Greens

2017-11-26

I was disappointed when I first learned that the BC Green Party was against the constructions of the Site C hydroelectric dam . The only criticism of the project I saw at the time was about loss of land and harm to local communities and environments. Those are the arguments I would expect from a "tree hugger", not a factual environmentalist. Looking into it I found out that the BC Greens actually have a good reason for opposing the project and I would like to share it.

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Canadians should not retire at 65

2017-08-05

Or at least, they should not take the canadian pension plan (CPP) at 65. The age one should claim a pension depends on the life expectancy, but also on objectives. In this post I look at a simple objective: maximizing payments. The post ignores things like reinvesting the payments or needing the money earlier for whatever reason. The CPP rules say that you can claim it any time from 60 to 70, but 65 is the default, so why not?

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Airbnb crackdown in Victoria

2017-07-11

The Victoria city council is trying to restrict short term rentals. Ironically when we moved to Victoria airbnb made the move much easier than moving to Toronto a few years before. With airbnb it was possible to search for various options and find a convenient 1 month rent. In my previous move there was no airbnb. Despite Toronto being much bigger, there were fewer choices. There were no reviews on the choices and paying for it from outside Canada was inconvenient.

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