Culture
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Background: In olden times, recordings could only be viewed at home by either personal movie projector (extremely rare) or VHS player. Nowadays, digital video makes it possible for anyone to get on-demand video without the hassle of low-quality video and rewinding tapes. But perhaps the “VHS experience” is integral to getting the full effect from…
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Background: With the introduction of DVDs, it first became possible for a movie to contain user-selectable arrangements of scenes. This was a rarely used feature, but it did have a few interesting applications, such as a feature on the Memento DVD that allowed the movie to be watched in reverse order from normal (i.e., in…
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Background: An emoji overview: Fig 1: Current Apple emoji skin tones. Available tones vary by emoji font designer (e.g., Google, Microsoft). Emoji people were originally only available with a light skin tone. Recently, more skin tone options have been added (Fig 1). However, they are just a recoloring of the original emoji, and thus may not have realistic…
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Background: When a fully-stocked kitchen is just one room away from you, it’s really easy to constantly snack at non-officially-sanctioned mealtimes. The issue: But the tyranny of prescribed mealtimes must be obeyed if one is to avoid eventually becoming completely spherical (due to being completely full of delicious snacks). Fig 1: A delicious snack in…
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Show how classy your phone app is with REAL fake GOLD text! Gold everywhere = high class operation.
custom font, font nerd, gold font, gold leaf, helvetica, hiragino sans, my precioussssss, paypal, paypal font, phone font, sell your gold, sell your worldly possessions and adopt the life of a wandering ascetic after you give up your gold, shiny gold, specular highlight, trade in your gold now for terrible rates
Background: PayPal recently announced a new font that they are quite proud of, which, according to the designer (https://klim.co.nz/blog/paypal-sans-design-information/), features “understated elegance” and shows the “confidence and foresight to buck the neo-grotesque groupthink of their Silicon Valley brethren.” Fig 1: Left: PayPal’s new custom font. Right: this approximation in “Hiragino Sans” (a default Mac font)…
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Background: Some games are notorious for having extremely complex rulesets. For example, the card game Magic: The Gathering has pages and pages of additional rules, commentary, and clarification. An actual example: “8/1/2005 Goblin King now has the Goblin creature type and its ability has been reworded to affect *other* Goblins. This means that if two…
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One weird application of the “invisible fence” dog collar that’s setting the world of Internet comments on fire! And possibly also setting people on fire, depending on the amperage involved.
dog collar, fix internet comments, hexagon commission, Internet, internet comment shock collar, internet commenting, internet shock collar, invisible fence collar, lizard people, no need for comment moderation with this one weird trick, possible electrocution hazard, quadrilateral commission, shock collar, trilateral commission, usb compatible
Background: The staggering degree of stupidity and general mean-spiritedness of Internet comments is a well known and undeniable phenomenon. But what can be done to prevent the anonymity of the Internet from causing people to write inhumanly monstrous things in Internet comment sections? Fig 1: Even if your web site is about historical Danish model…
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The issue: Sometimes, it’s difficult to avoid being distracted by the wide variety of enticing modern entertainment options. It’s always possible to physically unplug your Internet router and turn off your phone, but most people aren’t going to do that on a regular basis. Proposal: An individual could purchase a set of wireless buttons that…
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Background: Modern video games are, with a few notable exceptions, generally designed to minimize the amount of irritation and aggravation that the player experiences. The issue: However, one flip side to the general “smooth sailing” experience of gameplay is the lack of any “stake” of the user in the gameworld, which reduces the tension and…
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Background: As you are no doubt aware, the humble housecat is one of the world’s most popular pets. Fig 1: A standard issue cat. This is the base model. The issue: Sometimes, a cat needs to be taken somewhere, and this typically requires a cat carrier. But most cats are hesitant to enter a cat…
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