Bas Poppink @bas

Martijn What will everyone be doing for Christmas? Do you celebrate it? Do you celebrate something else?

Bas Poppink Family Christmas at my parents' without my sister and her husband (they're abroad). Boxing day at home, and the day after a large family dinner at my parents-in-law. Pretty traditional I guess.

9y, 16w reply

Eric Fed a fox out the palm of my hand tonight, would have loved to have gotten photos but didn't want to scare the bugger. Fantastic.

Bas Poppink This reminds me of a Kate Bush lyric, "I found a fox, caught by dogs. He let me take him in my arms. His little heart, it beat so fast.." Something like that. Hounds of Love.

9y, 16w reply

🦿 Lucian Marin Helvetica fits better with the visual style of Yosemite. In other news, it seems that Twitter has become a photo sharing app.

Bas Poppink I didn't expect it, but somehow I find it hard to scan for content in Helvetica. Especially in Mail. Aesthetically it doesn't seem to be such a big improvement over Lucida Grande either. To me, it mainly works for headers, titling. I guess it was needed to align OSX to iOS, which never used Lucida.

9y, 20w 1 reply

Simon Janes A rant related to this I think. lobste.rs/s/kiq75p... My opinion on Material design is kind of mixed, I have a gut feeling that nearly all animations in computing are unnecessary--you should be able to glance at a display and understand it, and not be forced to watch the screen's behavior to understand it. Data can move, interface shouldn't.

Bas Poppink I am convinced of the added value of motion in design. It should be applied with extreme care though, never getting in the way and be an almost subconscious enhancement. Subtlety is key. I think Google did an outstanding job in seriously attempting to describe the guidelines and putting them into practice. This also applies to other Material components. They deserve credits for that. And on my Nexus 5, it works like a dream. The new keyboard took me an hour to getting used to, and it is an improvement.

9y, 21w 1 reply

Eric That sounds amazing, many thanks!

Bas Poppink I got it! It's amazing. A somewhat confusing read though. It takes a little getting used to, like a book with many footnotes (ever read David Foster Wallace?) But the gorgeous packaging really encourages me to explore the content.

9y, 21w reply

Burensasub Yesterday I finally got an Ello invitation. Once I signed on I discovered it's pretty dead over there so I figured I would check back and see what's going on here on Sublevel. So it seems that Ello is still affecting activity here ;-)

Bas Poppink I didn't even complete my profile on Ello :)

9y, 21w reply

Eric Sublevel doesn't seem so active anymore. Has the thrill of a new toy passed for some?

Bas Poppink I was incredibly busy too. I do still like Sublevel though. Especially after finally being granted access to Ello. There's strong peer pressure there to post wondrousness and excellence. I like design and photography, but find it very intimidating.

9y, 21w 1 reply

🉑 Vincent Leeuw So far I've had two colds since September, but both have been curiously light. Two days of discomfort each. Surprised a bit.

Bas Poppink Well, today I believe I got over it. Took me a week.

9y, 24w reply

🦿 Lucian Marin Let's make flying even more scarier. qz.com/287445/wind...

Bas Poppink Interesting, but not feasible for psychological reasons alone. unless they find a way to make it work individually. Augmented reality perhaps, or VR. Who needs large displays?

9y, 24w 1 reply

Martijn Starting my birthday with the alarm at 4:30 to catch the 6:05 bus to university for an early exam. Exactly how I dreamt to celebrate it... not.

Bas Poppink Happy belated exam. how did the birthday go?

9y, 24w reply

Martijn Yeah, that was the point. When I first heard about Mou it was the only side-by-side application I knew. I thought that was it's 'thing'. But many others do the same thing now for less than the planned 20 USD price tag. I just can't find an edge to their application, which is why I will not be investing in a theoretically better version.

Bas Poppink Ah sorry, I see your point now. You're right.

9y, 25w reply

Martijn I thought about it but I'm really not sure what I would be backing. What changes are they planning? There is 'too much planned for 1.0', but that is all it says. To justify the targeted sales price of 20 USD it really needs to do more. Just searching the App Store for 'markdown' will give you several (cheaper) apps that do the live rendering side-by-side. If the campaign had given a feature list it could have more easily persuaded me, but it just looks goalless now.

Bas Poppink Mou also renders side by side. I have been using it for quite some time, and always considered it to be pretty good. I also wonder what features will make it better.

9y, 25w 2 replies

Bas Poppink Influenza is spreading. Cared for my 3 year olds this weekend and already I can feel it creeping up my throat. Must...resist...virus. I have the coolest project to work on the next few days with a kick ass team. I really can't afford to get sick now!

9y, 25w 2 replies ¬

🉑 Vincent Leeuw So far I've had two colds since September, but both have been curiously light. Two days of discomfort each. Surprised a bit.

9y, 25w 1 reply

Bas Poppink Watching Deadwood on Netflix. Terrific. Except for the whiteness of their teeth. That really is the only thing that bothers me.

9y, 26w reply ¬

💬 Subreply After you get used to click reply, you won't want to click the ellipses.

Bas Poppink I must say I do understand the confusion for first time users, especially because the ellipses are in a different colour. The convention is that contrasting text colour = link. Of course ppl will learn the pattern, but it isn't intuitive.

9y, 26w reply

🉑 Vincent Leeuw How important is a story or setting to a game? We tried to answer that question during one of our GameDenken (Game Thinking) meetups yesterday. We concluded that in board games it serves as an introduction, to lure people into playing the game, but once playing, it falls to the background. For video games it seems to go the other way around, with the action itsef luring people in and the story keeping people hooked for the long term. Anyone else out there with thoughts about these statements?

Bas Poppink Interesting stuff. I believe in every game there's a mix of a competition, exploration, collection, skill and emotion present. In board games and massive online universes, a social element is also important, enabling alliances and cooperation. When a game contains a distinctive style or atmosphere, it's easy for a player to immerse. A proper storyline is essential for games that are not solely based on skill. It will enable the player to identify with the hero and care for his/her progress and survival. A good story will deepen that relationship over time. For skill-based games, progression in skill is enough.

9y, 26w 1 reply