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Communications

Why Creators Should Never Read Their Forums 221

Posted by Soulskill from the lalala-i-can't-hear-you dept.
spidweb writes "One full-time Indie developer writes about why he never goes to online forums discussing his work and why he advises other creators to do the same. It's possible to learn valuable things, but the time and the stress just don't justify the effort. From the article, 'Forums contain a cacophony of people telling you to do diametrically opposite things, very loudly, often for bad reasons. There will be plenty of good ideas, but picking them out from the bad ones is unreliable and a lot of work. If you try to make too many people happy at once, you will drive yourself mad. You have to be very, very careful who you let into your head.'"
Games

Game Endings Going Out of Style? 190

Posted by Soulskill from the to-be-continued dept.
An article in the Guardian asks whether the focus of modern games has shifted away from having a clear-cut ending and toward indefinite entertainment instead. With the rise of achievements, frequent content updates and open-ended worlds, it seems like publishers and developers are doing everything they can to help this trend. Quoting: "Particularly before the advent of 'saving,' the completion of even a simple game could take huge amounts of patience, effort and time. The ending, like those last pages of a book, was a key reason why we started playing in the first place. Sure, multiplayer and arcade style games still had their place, but fond 8, 16 and 32-bit memories consist more of completion and satisfaction than particular levels or tricky moments. Over the past few years, however, the idea of a game as simply something to 'finish' has shifted somewhat. For starters, the availability of downloadable content means no story need ever end, as long as the makers think there's a paying audience. Also, the ubiquity of broadband means multiplayer gaming is now the standard, not the exception it once was. There is no real 'finish' to most MMORPGs."

Comment The 'N' word : Nutrition (Score 1) 978

by Voxol (#30030136) Attached to: Why Doesn't Exercise Lead To Weight Loss?

There's more than calories and exercise to losing weight.

High calcium is important while losing weight for instace, people often cut out dairy when dieting, and a lot of people don't eat enough calcium anyway. (studies have shown)

Less accessible energy sources are a good idea too, hydrophilic colloids can create a matrix through which your nutrients get absorbed. (In terms of what you eat this means stew/chilli/curry with flour in it, also cut out simple sugars)

Ticking all your mineral and vitamin intake boxes is a really good idea (a daily multi vitamin is a great way to do this).

I personally found I could lose a lot of previously very stubborn weight by doing the above and then running for an hour in the morning. (n=1 study and so totally worthless)..

A lot of the overweight people in the study may have been overweight partly because of their bad diets in the first place, without changing that you don't expect changes.
Transportation

Plug-In Hybrids Aren't Coming, They're Here 495

Posted by kdawson from the fiull-'er-up dept.
Wired is running a story about the small but vocal, and growing, number of people who aren't waiting for automakers to deliver plug-in hybrids. They're shelling out big money to have already thrifty cars converted into full-on plug-in hybrids capable of triple-digit fuel economy. "The conversions aren't cheap, and top-of-the-line kits with lithium-ion batteries can set you back as much as $35,000. Even a kit with lead-acid batteries — the type under the hood of the car you drive now — starts at five grand. That explains why most converted plug-ins are in the motor pools of places like Southern California Edison... No more than 150 or so belong to people like [extreme skiing champion Alison] Gannett, who had her $30,000 Ford Escape converted in December. Yes, that's right. The conversion cost more than the truck."
Image

Under Fire Screenshot-sm 1

Posted by samzenpus from the stay-cool dept.
This guy sat through all of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now nothing fazes him.
Music

Elton John Says Internet is Destroying Music 709

Posted by samzenpus from the mtv-already-did-it dept.
Jared writes "Elton John says that the internet is destroying good music and "stopping people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff." He laments the way that the internet and the emerging industry of digital music has created a cold and impersonal world for artists to create new music in."

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