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MurrayL

@ MurrayL @lemmy.world

Posts
5
Comments
496
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Why Are Cars Getting Rid Of Android Auto?

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  • I imagine they’ll try to make this increasingly difficult; maybe even impossible.

  • European Christmas Songs

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  • all good - I was just feeling pedantic

  • A Proclamation Regarding the Restoration of the Em-Dash

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  • I’ll allow it

  • A Proclamation Regarding the Restoration of the Em-Dash

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  • Different punctuation with a different purpose

  • European Christmas Songs

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  • Michael Bublé is Canadian (still not European, but also not American)

  • The Titanic, Sinclair C5 and Brexit: the Museum of Failure is coming to the UK

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  • You’re confusing design/technical failure with failure in the broader, catastrophic sense. It was an ‘unsinkable ship’ that sank. As Picard said, it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.

    If you read the article you’ll see that the exhibition is about failure in all its guises.

  • Ho Ho Ho, got some keys for you

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  • It’s a fantastic (and very funny) game!

  • Any tips from writers with ADHD?

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  • I’m a professional writer for video games - not exactly the same, but hopefully still relevant enough!

    A couple of things that you might find helpful:

    1: Loosen up with freewriting

    There are guides online, but essentially it’s about setting a time limit (e.g. 10 mins) and then writing whatever comes to mind until the timer ends. You can use pen & paper or a computer.

    The single most important thing is that you do not stop writing; even if it’s total gibberish or repeating the same word over and over. Do not stop. Do not go back and edit. Keep writing. Early on, you might fail at this and realise you’ve stopped writing or gotten distracted. Don’t beat yourself up if it happens, just acknowledge and then keep going.

    Only after the timer ends can you then go back and review what you’ve vomited onto the page. Most of it will be crap, but there will be some flashes of light: a gem of an idea, or a nice line of dialogue. Highlight those things (I like to put an asterisk in the margin). If there’s nothing at all, don’t sweat it - that’s part of the process too.

    Try to do this once a day like a routine; for me it works best as a way to warm up each morning. I sometimes prompt myself with a random word, or a writing problem I’m trying to solve that day, but it doesn’t matter if you ignore the prompt. The whole point is learning to let go and just put some words - any words - on the page.

    It will feel ridiculous at first, but the more you do it, the better you get at turning that stream of consciousness into a fountain (or at least a trickle) of ideas, and it will help enormously with learning how to turn down the volume of that inner critic that tells you to constantly edit your work before it’s done.

    2: Write flash fiction

    If you struggle with plotting and getting things finished, don’t keep setting yourself up for failure by trying to write long stories. Lean into your strengths and write shorter ones instead.

    I have a lot of fun with flash fiction, which typically runs to around 1,000 words; a story on a single page. There’s a bit of a learning curve in knowing how much you can fit into that form, but it’s a lot of fun and allows you to really laser-focus on a specific scene or conversation. It will allow you to build a vast body of work quickly, jump between ideas based on what interests you in the moment, and make you a better writer in the process.

    Find prompts or a prompt generator, or join one of the many flash fiction communities online for extra support and encouragement. Read flash fiction and short stories in general to get a feel for what’s possible - I adore Hemingway and Raymond Carver.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • Kids these days don’t know the horrors of wrangling IDE ribbon cables and fiddling with jumpers.

  • [Be Honest] Do you only read the title before replying?

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  • You forgot rule 5: If you can’t think of anything insightful to say, be sarcastic and dismissive instead.

    So many people here (as on Reddit) seemingly can’t resist the urge to drop an oh-so-clever zinger so they can watch the updoots roll in with zero critical thinking skills required. It’s tragic.

    Usually it’s combined with rule 1, so they’ll be reacting to something in the title without realising the article explained what they’re griping about. Confidently incorrect, always.

  • Support For The Sega Dreamcast's Web Browser Has Ended After 25 Years

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  • *Google support has ended.

    Alternative retro-friendly search engines are available, and the article even gives a shoutout to frogfind.

  • Sony's Naughty Dog Studio Orders Employee Overtime on ‘Intergalactic’

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  • I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad take, but it’s worth pointing out that lots of games miss internal deadlines and waste time ‘spinning their wheels’ but still turn out good or even great. The difference is that you don’t usually hear about it, whereas here some of the team are obviously pissed enough about the crunch that they went to the press.

    Crunch is always bad and is an indication of poor project management and/or unrealistic expectations, but issues with scope or major reworks aren’t always a death knell either. I’ve seen plenty of games go through that and come out the other side better than before.

  • Sony's Naughty Dog Studio Orders Employee Overtime on ‘Intergalactic’

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  • Demo in this context isn’t a consumer-playable ‘demo’ in the sense that most people understand; it means a playable internal build with specific targets for what must be included. Internal demo milestones are often linked to project funding and approval to move forwards, so there is a tangible risk if they fail to deliver.

    Presumably the current state of the game is behind where it needed to be to deliver that demo, so they’re now crunching to finish it on time.

  • “They burned millions but got nothing.” Japanese game font provider’s aggressive price hike could be result of parent company’s alleged AI failure and financial struggle

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  • Whenever they add new symbols to Unicode, for a start.

    Probably other reasons too, on occasion. For non-Latin languages with thousands of characters, I’d imagine certain unusual combinations occasionally get discovered that need rendering tweaks? Things like that.

  • “They burned millions but got nothing.” Japanese game font provider’s aggressive price hike could be result of parent company’s alleged AI failure and financial struggle

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  • Except there won’t be much of a consumer market to come back to, due to the aforementioned economic devastation.

  • UK to “encourage” Apple and Google to put nudity-blocking systems on phones

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  • Yep, and the option to filter them is already in settings and has been for some time.

  • It just keeps getting worse - Firefox to "evolve into a modern AI browser"

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  • I don’t think the bot will reply

  • Thank Goodness You're Here - most absurd & hilarious game what did I just play?

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  • I wouldn’t say it’s suitable for kids - there’s a lot of innuendo and crude visual gags. Mid/late teens probably fine, but it’ll depend on your tolerance.

  • iOS 26.3 Makes It Easier to Switch From iPhone to Android

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  • Nice to have the option I guess, but I’ve yet to encounter a platform migration tool that didn’t make a complete mess of something, not to mention the fact they transfer however many years of cruft along with everything else.

    It’s like moving house and bringing all the dust with you.

    I find it’s far easier to just have a clean slate and manually transfer data that matters.