Robin-Yann Storm
@RYStorm
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Tool UX Designer & Workflow Consultant @ . Previously Apple, Guerrilla, IO-Interactive. Organizes the Tool Design Roundtables at GDC.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Joined August 2009
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I have released version 2 of my 'What is USD?' explanation video:
This is a video made for non-technical folks. It explains what a USD workflow looks like, how you would use it as a 3D file format, and there is free example content you can download!
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So unrealistic, completely takes me out of the experience
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I don’t know what this thing on my desk is, but at least I can move it around.
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I guess videogames just take a lot of inspiration from real life in America
94. I always thought American movies and racing games had ramps on the road for action and fun. Not for realism.
Turns out this is completely real! Here is one that you can use to jump over a toilet.
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94. I always thought American movies and racing games had ramps on the road for action and fun. Not for realism.
Turns out this is completely real! Here is one that you can use to jump over a toilet.
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When you buy a Miele appliance you apparently also get the CAD files, including an .fbx
So, here is my dryer in Blender
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I officiated a wedding between two friends today! With a slightly different podium than what I’m used to
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Even after the company had to let go of many people, and went through a bunch of restructuring to survive after being sold off, they still put me, and everyone who worked on Hitman 2, in the credits. Now that's nice.
Thank you so much
@IOInteractive
!
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What I imagine various programmers are thinking right now
haha imagine if you had an in-place mesh editor that would also update all other instances in real-time
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Honestly this is a fantastic bug visualization and reporting system. Easy to spot, easy to screenshot, has info in it,and tells you what to do. 8/10
If you aren't, you should be using spatial documentation as well! Context matters!
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A thread of me trying to get used to American culture, and the wacky hijinks my Dutch sensibilities get me into:
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This also bugs me in Blender.
Honest question: Why do some apps do this? Why not use the native browsers?
is there a way to use OS native file browsers?
custom browsers kinda throw me off and I don't have all my usual shortcuts
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It’s genuinely been very tiring to have had this argument for 15+ years now and it still being the same issue. I finally gave a talk literally comparing them back at GDC 2016, (9m15s) and it just caused more user outcry without any fixes.
It is baffling.
Hey, Unreal, Unity? There people in my replies who are *blown away* that I made a level in the *level editor.* Maybe you guys could step your game up?
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When you have me using a slider to set my age, it makes my life seem a little -too- finite
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Not being able to texture quickly is the death of any geometry editing system.
Being able to instantaneously texture complex geometry, with trims, makes any geometry editing system bulletproof.
Wanna see some black magic? Hammer's Hotspot texturing can easily save you *hours*
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Visited the Ludens statue!
I thought it was neat when
@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN
picked this name, as I was taught 'Ludology' at my university. Learning about Huizinga and The Magic Circle was a part of that!
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Think back to the Cyberpunk 2077 release. Those folks made The Witcher 3! One of the most impressive games of all time! It is clear those developers are skilled and know what they're doing. And yet, the release went how it went. The IC devs were not at fault.
Same with Redfall
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2. You can send letters by putting them in your own mailbox??
Apparently the mailman opens all mailboxes, finds the mail that has to be sent vs. the mail that has been sent to you, and takes it.
Hence the little red flag on mailboxes, that you see in movies! That means pickup!
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1. When you’re at a restaurant, mid meal, and you want something, you can’t just flag down any waiter. I did, and with horror on people’s faces I asked for a drink.
You’re supposed to only ask the waiter that has helped you so far. Your table’s waiter. Woops!
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That 5 cent incentive helps offset nothing for the climate because to get to a recycle center you have to... drive to there. Which causes emissions, and wear & tear on material, like the road and the car.
It makes so much more sense to have recycling happen at the supermarket.
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15. Seeing American politics from the other side of the world is frustrating
Seeing American politics from within the country itself is extraordinarily painful
Voting in The Netherlands is very easy. Here it’s like a multi-stage gauntlet. What a shame
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All the CS2 Hammer videos showing off cool workflows and nice UX made me remember this email exchange I had in 2016 with Gabe Newell and Yahn Bernier. I shared my GDC talk from back then with them, to see what they thought.
Neat to see the sentiment shine through now with Hammer
A lot of people see these videos and say something like "We need to bring back brush-based editors!" Well, guess what? Hammer doesn't have brushes anymore.
Hammer is a static mesh editor. Its ease of use is *not* because there's brushes, it's because of the fantastic UI and UX.
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5. There are a lot of products here with the words ‘European Style’ on them, that I have never seen in Europe.
Conversely, there were some ‘American’ products in supermarkets in The Netherlands, but that usually just meant they were much bigger portions.
That part is accurate!
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Today I learned that the texture on plastic things is standardized by German organization: Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI).
So there is a swatch of various standardized textures you can choose from, and you can select how grainy you want that texture to be, called VDI 3400
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75. It’s strange to see roads that are bumpy and uneven, power that goes out, cellphone towers that don’t reach many people, etc, yet taxes are still pretty high here.
I guess it’s all spent on cruise missiles. Imagine if all that military money was spent on infrastructure.
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And they had two cakes. One of which was real. The other one was cardboard but looked completely identical
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95. It’s strange how you can’t bring in glass and plastic at the supermarkets here. In The Netherlands you can, and it makes sense: That’s where people go to buy anyways!
Here in the US you have to go to a recycling center, which can be far away, and next to nothing, for 5 cents
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On one end its really funny to see everyone react to this with "What, I could have been doing this the whole time!?"
And on the other we have to admit the fact that if such things keep happening, something is wrong with our toolsets and workflows. Where is the natural discovery?
So a coworker was like 'oh you'e sculpting folds manually, why don't you try the Transpose Cloth brush', and then I was 'why, what does it doOOOOOOOH'
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12. It’s getting tougher talking about The Netherlands.
When people ask if I got my education cheaply, I did, but the next generation won’t.
We’ve been electing liberal right wing governments the last 10 years. They changed that. Now teens have debt. It feels bad to say that.
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39. Today I used the phrase ‘kicking in an open door’ to point out something obvious, and people had questioning looks on their faces.
Turns out that’s not an English idiom. It’s a Dutch one that my brain auto translated while mid conversation.
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9. Keep your SSN safe! Don’t tell anyone! It can ruin your credit and life!
Also, give it away to companies you call, and on their website, so they can check your credit.
It’s very strange. Posters telling you to watch out for scams, but at the same time having to trust innately
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The declaration of intent wasn’t“Till death do us part”, as they changed it to “As long as we’re both still alive”
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20. I thought by this point I would’ve gotten used to the smell of tap water here.
Nope, still smells weird.
It’s also strange for everyone to have filters at home, instead of filtering happening at a communal plant. It’s like a small-scale proof of the American way
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29. It’s a very strange feeling to go to the doctor here in the US and have the first question asked be:
“Cash or credit?”
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Huh, so every single image ever uploaded to Discord is a public image?
I just tried this, and yes if you copy the link of an image sent in a Discord DM, you can open that link anywhere and it shows the image. Even in browsers that have no active Discord login.
This Google bug could seriously hurt a lot of people. The default editing tool had a bug that lets you unredact & uncrop all images.
Discord is used in this example because they don’t compress images. A good time to remind you: ALL image attachments are public links. Even for
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7. There are drive-through banks.
Like, instead of taking a fast food order, you do your banking. At a drive through.
How did I only find out about this today? Wow
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10. Big buildings are often made out of wood.
This is very alien to me. I’m used to all new construction being concrete, steel, with brick facades. Seeing large buildings built out of wood like this almost makes it feel like I’m in an old western film.
Maybe it’s cheaper?
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4. It’s usually not ok to sit in the front of a Lyft/Uber
I learned this a few years ago. I always sat in front, thinking if you’re riding alone, it’s the right thing to do! Nope. Nobody complained, but apparently drivers like it more if you’re in the back.
So now I sit there
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3. Drinks here are always freezing cold, even if your meal is hot.
The temperate shocks I’ve had to weather so far are something I’ll have to get used to. Even the fridge in my apartment makes my drinks cold to the point I have to leave them out for a bit to warm them up again!
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86. “You’ll make more money with the US’ low taxes!”
Nah.
First a chunk is removed for health insurance, and then everything else you have to buy afterwards is way more expensive. In the end you’ll actually lose a larger percentage of the wage than in The Netherlands
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26. Air conditioning here is magical
It was hot inside, I turned on the AC, and within 5 minutes it was cool in the entire apartment, no matter how hot it was outside. Instant comfort
This mystical technology has not reached The Netherlands yet, and I’m not sure why
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93. You can buy bee-size-specific honey here.
Also for some reason all honey is packaged in bear shapes?
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6. Everyone in a service position asks you how you are doing, but you’re never sure who is sincere and who isn’t.
Most often I, Dutch, go right into my question or need. To the point where I speak over their ‘How are you?’ And I have to double back with ‘oh uh fine thanks, so..’
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My girlfriend visited me in the middle of GDC, and when coming back to the car the side view mirror had been stolen.
Who steals just a single side view mirror?!
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13. I see bike hitching points all over, but 99% of them are empty. It’s so unusual for me to see.
It’s like my brain goes: “Wow, look at all that free parking!!”
I’m happy to see new infrastructure taking bikes into account. I hope they all get used in the future!
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38. In the Netherlands every first Monday of the month all nation wide alarms are tested. They are loud, unmissable, and mean you need to stay inside with windows closed. Nothing ever happens though
Here in the US there’s deadly fires, smoke, earthquakes, etc, but no alarms.
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83. The US isn’t made for pedestrians, and sometimes this is shown very clearly to me
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Folks are talking about gizmos again! I love gizmos. I talked about this at the 2018 Game UX Summit in Vancouver, by showing a specific UX problem:
Sometimes it can be impossible to grab the right gizmo arrow from your current perspective. It's annoying! Let's solve this🧵
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16. When something says 6oz, don’t say “six oz”. It’s 6 ounce. As in bounce. Why does it have a z on the shortened version when the full word has no z? I don’t know!
I made this mistake years ago when I first came to the US. I’ll never make it again
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35. To suddenly be face to face with a freight train in the middle of the road!
Imagine bumping into this at night, not knowing this is normal
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19. Playing multiplayer games here is a lot more fun, due to more people having microphones and the majority talks English. I bump into talkative people way more
In Europe, with all its languages, it’s pure luck if you bump into others speaking English
Communication is key!
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14. So many company names are based on puns. I’ve not seen this anywhere else.
Mattress firm. Pizza my heart. Chick & Tea.
I wonder whether the pun companies survive longer because they are more memorable, so all that is left is pun names.
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8. California or Bay Area specific:
There are no clouds here.
It’s always a blue sky. Every day so far.
When I go outside, I do the Dutch weather prep out of habit: Dress for sun, wind, and sudden rain.
So now, every day, I am overdressed for the weather.
Summer sounds scary!
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11. Why does all bread need to be toasted?
Bagels? Toasted
Morning bread? Toasted
Why does it need to be toasted? When it isn’t toasted, I hear people talk about ‘oh there isn’t a toaster?’
I’ve never heard someone lament a toaster absence in The Netherlands.
It’s curious! :)
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32. Supermarkets here having the cashiers stand all day, and having people to pack your groceries in a paper bag feels strange.
I’m just standing there with a credit card. Awkwardly waiting. I don’t need the help! It’s hard to fight my instinct of packing stuff up myself!
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33. I see this more often here than anywhere else I’ve been in the world:
Random shopping carts. Dotted around the landscape.
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There were so many other fantastic things. Like instead of flower petals, there were Cave Johnson business cards strewn by the flower girls. Great little details. It was amazing
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42. I want a dentist checkup here, and the amount of documents I need to sign for that is nuts. Acknowledging that after a treatment I could hurt, that injections can hurt, that I might inadvertently die from complications, etc.
It’s like reading a note in The Outer Worlds
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44. I was unprepared for the content of ads here. Most I see on YouTube are political. They come up for any candidate or proposition. I haven’t seen this in the Netherlands.
The rest of the ads are of tacos or pizzas. Ads here are 90% politics, tacos, or pizzas
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21. Wearing a helmet to go on a bike ride feels so, so weird.
...until cars are passing right by you at 70 km/h, everywhere, all the time. Oh, and you have to pass through them to get to the left turn you need.
Yes, it still feels silly, but it’s so necessary
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First: This is a great find, and funny!
Second: I like how it's called out that the devs didn't have enough time. The devs are not called stupid, lazy, uncaring, etc They didn't get enough time. It's not their fault.
Apparently in the new pokemon, if you plug in two controllers at once you can run twice as fast. Like you hold both joysticks and it just... adds the speed
these devs had NO TIME lmao
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53. A strange thing here in the Bay Area is seeing an exotic sportscar parked in the driveway of a small, wooden, one story house with a corrugated roof, and knowing the house is worth 10x more than the car.
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54. Living outside of the US you can often get the idea that people there have to deal with some kind of kafkaesque bureaucracy.
Having lived here for a bit now I can safely say this is true.
Who the hell asks someone to fax something in 2020?!
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Yes, Twitter can be a pretty bad place. But if y'all would just stop quote retweeting awful takes, 80% of it would be resolved.
Stop giving those people views. They know they're wrong. They're doing it for attention, and you're giving it to them. They'll just do it more!
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27. It feels very strange having to pay fees and wait working days for money transfers.
In The Netherlands I have never paid a bank fee, no matter where I sent the money to, and if the receiver was also in The Netherlands it would be instant
I wonder why this is the way it is
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40. You never know what may end up being spicy. Bought some food? May end up being spicy!
I am laying down the law here as a Dutch person that mayonnaise -cannot- be spicy. It is not allowed.
Please remove all the spicy mayonnaise from the earth, thank you.
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65. One of the things you have to get used to here is dealing with inconsistencies. Some letters may be very important, and look like nothing.
Others may have giant red letters saying ‘IMMEDIATE REPLY REQUESTED’ and are just an advertisement.
Feels weird that that is allowed.
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I wrote something up about USD. The 3D file format, not the United States Dollar. That's part of the problem!
Will it be the file format everyone uses for 3D? Ergo, will it be the file format of the metaverse?
I would like USD to succeed. What can help?
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34.
Literally anyone: Oh you just moved here? Welcome to the lovely weather!
Me, as I slowly melt into a puddle: Oh boy, it sure is sunny!
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Proof that in real life, Z is up.
(Also, the factory that makes Utah Teapots in Europe burned down this year, so they’re much harder to get now)
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23. Cursing is a big deal here. It’s noticeably absent, so when one does curse it strikes harder.
In The Netherlands most people won’t bat an eye, unless you swear with cancer, in which case you will get a lot of bad looks!
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279. With how difficult it is to move to the US, it’s funny how easily a US citizen can move to The Netherlands. All it takes is €4500, due to the Dutch American Friendship Treaty.
Which, yes, that abbreviates to DAFT.
Also whenever I mention it, US’ folks eyes light up
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60. Americans here often mention their heritage. To very specific degrees. For example: How much percentage they are European.
It’s something I’ve never ever heard or spoke about in Europe. You don’t bring up you’re 20% Swedish or 15% German. But here, they do.
I’m not sure why
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Whenever I mention USD, the 3D file format made by Pixar, I get questions about what it is, what it does, and what it is for.
So I made a video:
What is USD? (The basics of Pixar’s 3D file format in 15 minutes)
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This thread always seems to cut off, but it’s actually gone on for a loooong time:
279. With how difficult it is to move to the US, it’s funny how easily a US citizen can move to The Netherlands. All it takes is €4500, due to the Dutch American Friendship Treaty.
Which, yes, that abbreviates to DAFT.
Also whenever I mention it, US’ folks eyes light up
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17. I have less problems with Norman doors here than in Europe.
Here in the US, all doors open outwardly. All the time. To the point I feel dumb when I pull on one from the inside. Yes, it shouldn’t have a pull handle, but also, it’s the same everywhere.
Fire laws, is my guess!
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I have often seen folks who get denied for jobs a few times think less of themselves. Here in this thread I’ll try and explain why you shouldn’t.
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85. With the global pervasiveness of American media, sometimes the best way to describe something is by the media.
“What’s this thing called?”
“What thing?”
“The Terminator 2 thing.”
“Ah, that’s San Tomas Aquino Creek.”
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72. I wasn’t prepared for someone telling me “Today was mostly okay, aside from our next door neighbors’ horse being killed by a mountain lion last night.”
We have one wild wolf in the Netherlands. And when anyone sees it it’s big news.
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41. On a similar note: Things filled with peanut butter.
Chocolates, filled with peanut butter
Pretzels, filled with peanut butter
Dates, filled with peanut butter
I believe if you have a craving, you can find it here, filled with peanut butter.
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This also delays a bunch of videogames, right? Like, actors can’t do mocap and voice recording?
So both films and some games development will shut down or get delayed because of this?
BREAKING: Actors union will go on strike, shutting down Hollywood
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49. Felt a raindrop on my head for the first time in 11 months. I halted mid step. I can’t wait to smell a post-rain smell again
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37. This the first place I've ever seen people jog outside without shirts on. Often too!
I never saw this in The Netherlands. If someone in my old neighborhood in Amsterdam would be running without a shirt on, I think people would stop to ask what happened to them
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You know that thing in games where during the credits they show all the enemies in normal situations?
This is one of those great moments.
When your kid walks into the scene midway through a mocap recording
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I wish single player games by default had a 'Quick Start' option, that immediately loads the last save you had made, without seeing any videos or even the main menu screen. It just loads up right away to the thing you want to do in 99% of the cases. I think it'd be so comforting
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Funny to read this in a book from 2004, and seeing a lot of recent modern software saying things like “oopsy, looks like that didn’t work :( here is our cat saying sowwee”, which folks get mad at for exactly the reason described here.
[From: The inmates are running the asylum.]
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25. I think the US is the only place with garbage disposals in their sink.
Why? Is there usually a lot of food left on plates? Are the pipes all old so they can’t take bits of food? But then why do modern new apartments have them too?
So many questions!
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31. I’ve never had an official company such as a bank reply to me over the phone with “Alrighty boss, all taken care of.” until today.
It took me a second to realize that really happened. Feels like I crossed some kinda rubicon
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I am sure this synchronized retweeting was unintentional, but it definitely got my attention very quickly.
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