DragonCon, Day 3, Tips for Writers, and Firefly panel

Serial Distrations has some comments about Dragoncon, and detail some of the suggestions for writers from the “How to write Good Fiction” panel…. For example:

  • Characters are the emotional heart of the story.  Without them, the reader won’t care about what’s going on.
  • It is also important to know your audience…if you fall too heavy into characterization and forget to have the character actually dosomething, you may alienate your reader.
  • Two-dimensional/flat characters are nothing new…it’s poor literature, but not a new phenomenon.  Even the ones that are somehow popular.

Remember Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of science-fiction is crap…and if you extrapolate that, 90% of everything is crap.

Check it out here, at Serial Distractions.

Ios 4.1 released (Build 8B117)

Apple has on schedule released iOS 4.1 for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and second and third generation iPod touch. The update carries the build number 8B117 which is the same build delivered to developers last week.

Apple has a page detailing all the major changes in iOS 4.1 which includes a proximity sensor fix, Bluetooth improvements, speed improvements on iPhone 3G, HD video upload to YouTube via Wi-Fi, TV show rentals and the inclusion of Game Center. Apple has also added a high dynamic range photo option to the iPhone 4 camera.

Apple also includes the following release notes with iOS 4.1:

Game Center (Game Center requires iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 2nd generation or later.)

  • Send and receive friend requests
  • Invite friends to multi-player games over the Internet
  • Play multi-player games by auto-matching with other players
  • View Leaderboards and Achievements
  • Discover new games from friends
  • High dynamic range (HDR) photos on iPhone 4
  • Support for TV show rentals on iTunes
  • Ability to upload HD videos to YouTube and MobileMe over Wi-Fi on iPhone 4
  • Additional support for AVRCP-supported accessories, including next & previous track control
  • FaceTime calling directly from Favorites

Bug fixes, including:

  • iPhone 4 proximity sensor performance
  • iPhone 3G performance
  • Nike+iPod fixes
  • Bluetooth improvements