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And while you're shaking your wrist, the die keeps rolling, and it only settles a half second after you stop.

The same way people will roll a die for a while in their hands, especially if they really want a good roll, even though after the first two shakes it's making no difference. You should be able to really keep shaking your wrist for a while if you want.


I don't see this as "labor having for the human" but rather as a way to immerse yourself into the fantasy that you're playing another being.


Reading your comment I had no memory of ever playing that game, until I remembered mastering the hock-a-loogie minigame. Thanks (I guess?) for the memory!


You're right, I think they would be fun.

Part of the appeal was definitely the retro look, but this is a very-specific retro look that the author worked hard to put into 3D space.

If people tried to make a "retro" to VR games, you'd mostly just get lots of blocky, cheap-looking graphics. But this could really be weird, in a good way.


I've only played Obra Dinn, but I similarly had a notebook filled with notes that I used through the game.


Seems like it would be a lot more accessible for a lot of people if it were a set of HTML pages.

I expect that whatever was used to create the PDF could be configured to produce a website...


also on a webpage you would be able to filter it by available tools/knowledge


Or not. Maybe you'd get "infinite scroll". Or some other modern webdev bullshit that's strictly inferior to PDF (or plain HTML) and CTRL+F.

I'm actually surprised by the anti-PDF sentiment here (in general case, not necessarily this book). Modern web is so bad, that almost every day I end up on some page that would be strictly better if it were a PDF. So, to play devil's advocate, PDFs are cool because:

- The links may rot, but they remain, and so does surrounding content. Once you get a PDF, no one can take it away from you.

- It's self-contained. It can easily be transferred between devices and read without an Internet connection.

- It's a file. Yes, it's important to mention because in 2024, files cannot be taken for granted.

- Rich format without spurious dynamics and other web nonsense. Sure, PDFs technically can run arbitrary JavaScript, but hardly any reader supports that.

- Can't track you or spy on you (theoretically it could, in practice, see previous point).

I could come up with a few more. Point being, you could do worse, and modern web quite often is worse.

As for what could be an even better format, my mind is drawn towards CHM[0]. You know, like the help files in old Windows software. A self-contained file built of interlinked HTML pages, complete with index and internal search/xref. Kind of a better EPUB[1].

(Ironically, marketers should actually love PDF - total control over presentation is exactly what they've been trying to gain on the web all these years.)

--

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Compiled_HTML_Help

[1] - Despite being a decade older.


I guess the sentiment is because

a) it cannot be automatically reflowed

b) it’s a complete mess of a file format with tech deb spanning 30 years

c) the linked ressources info

Everything else is fine with it and apparently lotta folks write plenty of software to read it.

Perhaps epubs (and .mobi etc) come close but they are not universally adopted


I do agree, especially on

- It's self-contained. It can easily be transferred between devices and read without an Internet connection. - It's a file. Yes, it's important to mention because in 2024, files cannot be taken for granted.

(Btw it’s a sad state of affairs that we can less and less own our files)

But I do think in the post here, the issue is that the PDF in itself is pretty useless : it doesn’t contain any information and only links to … websites.

(Btw I wouldn’t criticize this a lot because I’m admirative of the indexation work, it’s pretty cool !)


All locks ought to work that way.

Some don't, and it pisses me off every time.


I've encountered an old safe which required two keys to open, one of them turning the "wrong way" - perhaps it's an attempt to slow down a possible burglar by making it "surprising"?


I feel the same way when twist-ties on bread from the store are twisted the “wrong” way (for the 90% of people who are right-handed)


raises left hand defiantly :)


Kind of like APs, except that you typically study only 3, sometimes 4 subjects for the final two years of high school and then take final exams.

So for my final two years of high school, I only studies math, physics and bio.

In the same way that an AP can sometimes give you a semester's credit at a university, an A-Level can sometimes give you a full year's credit. (Only in US universities, though. In the UK you're expected to have done them, so you don't get extra credit. Though, for the same reason, a bachelors degree in the UK is typically only three years, not four.)


Klimt is one of those artists that I feel primed to dislike, because it's so reproduced that's it's turned cheesy. I've probably seen more Kiss posters and fridge magnets and whatevers than any other painting in the world.

But good god are they beautiful. They just make me so happy to see them. Or sad.

My favorites are probably the birch forests, though, perhaps Birch Forest (1903) [1]

1. https://www.wikiart.org/en/gustav-klimt/farmhouse-with-birch...


Where I am in Mass, highways often have big billboards saying "Tune to 1610 AM for emergency info" or whatever.


This is common in mountains in WA too.

To replace the AM in cars isn’t just the cars - it’s all the signage and transmitters, for regional information.


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