Just my blogroll - BlogFlock

Celebrate the fictitious 35th anniversary of Ruin, a faux point-and-click adventure game that never was - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T22:54:43.000Z

Gosh, can you believe it? It's already the 35th anniversary of Ruin! It came out before I was born, but even I'm feeling the passage of time with this one. With such a momentous occasion upon us, a special 35th anniversary edition of the legendary RPG has been released by its developer Official Electric, split across just four floppy disks… except, well, you've definitely already clocked that Ruin isn't quite real. At least not in the way it's been presented.

Who knows if we'll ever get another Hollow Knight, but if we do, you can expect it to be as standalone as Silksong - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T21:42:54.000Z

Let's get something real clear here right off the bat: I couldn't possibly tell you if Team Cherry are planning to make any more Hollow Knight games. That isn't to say there isn't more Hollow Knight on the way, as Silksong will be getting… something, at some point, in the future. However! Studio heads William Pellen and Ari Gibson have at least floated a hypothetical idea around how the world of Hollow Knight might get bigger.

Varsapura adds some flashy-but-plain-looking, pyschic action to miHoYo's Genshin Impact formula in its first gameplay trailer - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T18:57:43.000Z

I think miHoYo might just have a bit too much money. Somehow, they have yet another game on the way called Varsapura, yet another anime-looking, open-world action game, this time by way of psychic mishappenings. As many have pointed out, there's a vague Control-like quality to it, at least in its newly shown off, lengthy gameplay demo.

Hytale gets a cheap price point, all because its devs don't think the game is good yet - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T18:02:25.000Z

Hytale has had a bit of a rough go of it, given how it's been in the works for a decade, still isn't finished, and was unceremoniously cancelled. Not to worry though, as it's back! And it's in the hands of its developer's original co-founders. With the announcement that Hytale will live on, it was also noted that the game's pricing would be revealed soon, and soon it was as it's already been confirmed.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is free to keep forever on Steam, as long as you're quick about it - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T17:01:12.000Z

It's been 10 years since Fatshark's Warhammer Tide years kicked off, starting with Warhammer: End times - Vermintide, and to celebrate that anniversary the developer has been offering up various in-game events and updates in both Vermintide 2 and Darktide. Earlier this week Vermintide 2 received a free new level, a point we'll come back to, but the big thing you should know first is that you can pick up the co-op dark fantasy game for free on Steam right now, and keep it forever.

Infix Versus Prefix Operators - Irreal

2025-11-22T15:32:48.000Z

Over at the Lisp subreddit, Combinatorilliance asks if there are any studies addressing the question of whether infix or prefix notation is easier to read and understand. There are, of course, fierce partisans on both sides of the question. We certainly hear lots of complaints from the anti-Emacs brigade about how hard Elisp is to read and in particular how prefix notation is an abomination.

I can read either notation with equal facility so I’m not going to enlist in either camp. At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that it’s just a matter of what you’re used to. That gives the infix camp a huge advantage because, of course, we all learned to do arithmetic that way. But once you’ve used Elisp—or any Lisp—for a while you get used to prefix notation too and mostly don’t care which you’re reading.

I say “mostly” but truth to tell, I slightly prefer prefix. It is, after all, unambiguous and doesn’t require parenthesis that aren’t already there for other reasons. The precedence is always explicit. And an interesting, if anecdotal, data point is that Lisp originally envisioned an eventual infix notation but the original users liked and preferred S-expressions with their prefix notation.

As for Combinatorilliance’s question, it’s far too underspecified as stated. It’s like asking whether English or Italian is easier to read. You’ll get widely different answers if you ask the question in the United States or Italy. To be well-formed, the question would have to be something of the sort, “Do people with equal facility in reading infix and prefix find one or the other easier to read?” You can already see the problems. Now you have to have an reliable of measure of facility in reading the two notations and once you do, the question seems to lose some of it’s interest. Again, it will come down to a matter of preference rather than inherent lucidity.

Most Emacs users in a programming position are going to have to be adept at both notations so the whole thing boils down to just another holy war like Vim versus Emacs.

What are we all playing this weekend? - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-22T08:00:00.000Z

Saturdays are for trying to befriend the local foxes. There are a bunch living under the hedge by the flat. I saw a big fat fox sitting in the road this week, like a cross between a rising bollard and a garden gnome. I wonder if I can entice them into gathering outside my window with slices of Hovis. Anyway - any weekend plans? Here's what we're clicking on.

Proton Experimental for SteamOS / Linux gets fixes for Marvel Rivals, BlazBlue Centralfiction and more - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-11-22T00:26:17.000Z

A fresh Proton Experimental update from Valve for the weekend with various game fixes for SteamOS / Linux.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Tracking my oopses - Sacha Chua

2025-11-21T22:39:54.000Z

My stress level seems to be higher this year compared to last year. There are a number of ways I can tell when I need to slow down. I feel more tired, less energetic. Enthusiasm is difficult to muster. I need to break things down into smaller tasks. I make lots of little mistakes: I misplace things, I forget things, I don't think ahead.

I track my mistakes in my home-made web-based journal under the Oops category. It feels a little better, come to think of it, when I can recover at least some data from a mistake. It's part of life, just a signal that tells me my brain is getting overloaded.

I thought it would be interesting to analyse the frequency of my oops. For example, here are some recent oopses:

I forgot to check the EmacsConf upload folder before e-mailing the speakers a nudge about videos. There were a few more videos in there, whew! It's all good, people are patient and wonderful. Impact: people's patience. (2025-11-21-01)
I ate the last of the brown rice because I forgot to check if there was more. Good thing W- had more in the freezer. (2025-11-18-06)
I fumbled the Apple Pencil as I took my iPad off the piano. It disengaged from the magnetic lock, slid down the piano cover, and fell on the floor, breaking the tip. I didn't want to rush to catch it because I was tired and I was also holding the iPad. Fortunately, I have a number of backup tips. Impact: maybe $3 to replace that tip eventually. Cause: tired. (2025-11-18-03)
I washed the clothes on hot because I'm trying to avoid insect bites, but I accidentally shrank A+'s favourite purple shirt. Maybe next time I can just do a small load of my stuff. Impact: $10. I made up by buying new clothes for her, which I've been meaning to do anyway. #household (2025-11-15-16)
I crossed the street against the lights because I wasn't looking at the pedestrian light. (2025-11-11-06)

Here's a yearly analysis:

Code for retrieving and grouping my journal entries

(append '(("Year" "Count"))
(sort
 (mapcar (lambda (group)
           (list
            (car group)
            (length (cdr group))))
         (seq-group-by
          (lambda (o) (substring (my-journal-date o) 0 4))
          (seq-filter (lambda (o) (string= (my-journal-category o) "Oops")) (my-journal-get-entries))))
 :key 'car))

Data table

Year	Count
2017	12
2018	75
2019	36
2020	38
2021	33
2022	25
2023	28
2024	37
2025	73

Code for graphing comments by year

import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

df = pd.DataFrame(data[1:], columns=data[0])
df['Count'] = df['Count'].astype(int)
df['Year'] = df['Year'].astype(int)
df = df.sort_values('Year')
plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))
ax = sns.barplot(x='Year', y='Count', data=df)
plt.title('Oops by Year (2017-2025)', fontsize=16, fontweight='bold')
plt.xlabel('Year')
plt.ylabel('Number of oops entries')
plt.xticks(rotation=45)
plt.grid(axis='y')
for i, v in enumerate(df['Count']):
    ax.text(i, v + 1, str(v), ha='center', fontsize=9)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('year_count_plot.svg')
return 'year_count_plot.svg'

2017 was not a full year of data, so that's probably why the number is so low. 2018 was when my dad died. I flew to the Philippines several times with my 2-year-old daughter so that we could spend time with my mom. It's a wonder that I managed to keep things mostly sorted out. Things were mostly manageable in between despite the ongoing pandemic. This year, though, a confluence of factors added a lot more strain on my brain. I wonder if part of it is because I'm concerned about health issues for people I care about. I also worry about the kiddo, school, change, and possibly adolescence. Who knows, maybe I'm starting to go through perimenopause, which apparently tends to include brain fog and mood swings. Fun. These are big things that I won't be able to resolve on my own, but I can get better at not overextending myself.

Might be fun to do a month-by-month analysis.

Code for retrieving and grouping my journal entries

(append '(("Year" "Month" "Count"))
(sort
 (mapcar (lambda (group)
           (list
            (substring (car group) 0 4)
            (string-to-number (substring (car group) 5))
            (length (cdr group))))
         (seq-group-by
          (lambda (o) (substring (my-journal-date o) 0 7))
          (seq-filter (lambda (o) (string= (my-journal-category o) "Oops")) (my-journal-get-entries))))
 :key (lambda (row) (format "%s-%02d" (car row) (cadr row)))))

Code for making the heatmap

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

df = pd.DataFrame(data[1:], columns=data[0])
df = pd.pivot_table(df, columns=['Month'], index=['Year'], values='Count', aggfunc='sum', fill_value=0).iloc[::-1].sort_index(ascending=True)
plt.figure(figsize=(12, 8))
sns.heatmap(
    df,
    annot=True,
    fmt="d",  # Format as integer
    cmap="YlGnBu",  # Color map
    linewidths=.5,
    cbar_kws={'label': 'Count of "Oops" Entries'}
)
# Set the title and axis labels
plt.title('Heatmap of "Oops" Entries by Month and Year', fontsize=16)
plt.xlabel('Month', fontsize=12)
plt.ylabel('Year', fontsize=12)
plt.savefig('number-of-oops-by-month.png')
return df

Data table

Month  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12
Year
2017    0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   7   2   0   3
2018    4   7   4  10  10   8   8   1   7   7   5   4
2019    4   4   2   4   4   1   3   5   1   1   2   5
2020    3   1   2   2   1   5   7   7   4   2   2   2
2021    2   2   1   1   2   4   6   4   2   2   1   6
2022    2   3   2   1   3   2   0   3   2   2   4   1
2023    3   1   1   1   5   2   4   5   0   0   3   3
2024    0   1   1   4   4   8   8   1   3   3   2   2
2025    7   1   7   2   6   4   9   8  10   4  15   0

Oooh, what's up with this month, yeah…

Most of my mistakes are small and easy to fix, just wasting time or patience. Others are a bit more annoying (dropping electronic devices, etc.). Some are potentially life-limiting (gotta make sure I look at the right lights before crossing the street). I tend to have a hard time with:

transitions, like coming home after a bike ride: I might accidentally hang up my keys on the wrong hook if I'm not paying attention. I've started saying the steps out loud.
tidying: If I have an attentional lapse, I put things in not-quite-the-right-place, so I probably can't listen to podcasts or think about complex thoughts.
travel: If I'm biking or walking, I have to pay extra attention.
task switching: interruptions, stacks, etc. I say things out loud and write them down if needed.

When I notice myself making more oopses than usual, I try to sleep more, take things more slowly, offload more of my thoughts to drawings and notes, ask for help, and do fewer things.

I'm working on single-tasking more instead of getting distracted by interesting thoughts. Maybe I used to be able to think about stuff, but now it's probably better to just let my mind be slightly bored if necessary instead of letting it get overloaded. I have to adapt to my capacity at the moment. I can either trust that those thoughts will come back if they're important, or take a moment to write them down on my phone. I can also give myself more focus time during the day to revisit those thoughts so that I don't get tempted to squeeze them in while, say, I'm putting away the dishes.

Maybe routines, songs, physical cues like checklists, or pointing and calling (physically pointing to something and saying it out loud for confirmation) can help me with some of my frequently-made mistakes.

Little by little. I might not be able to get rid of all the little mistakes, but if I can smoothen out some of the frequent ones, have an oops fund for the monetary costs of moderate mistakes, and keep myself from making the life-limiting ones, that might be enough.

View org source for this post

You can comment on Mastodon or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Grab a free copy of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 for a limited time - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-11-21T19:15:24.000Z

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is currently on a time-limited deal where you can grab a copy and keep it, so act fast if you want a free game.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord War Sails designer on ships that mimic horse archers and dredging for inspiration in French bogs - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-21T18:00:00.000Z

Can a ship be a horse archer? This is one of the many maritime musings Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord's devs had to grapple with when putting together the flotilla of vessels which make up its naval warfare-themed War Sails expansion.

Ahead of War Sails' release on November 26th, I chatted to a couple of its developers. Naturally, I was keen to hear about what the process of assembling the expansion's armada. A particular challenge as each of Calradia's historically-inspired nations has access to unique ships.

To Grandmother’s House We Go - McSweeney’s

2025-11-21T18:00:00.000Z

Over the river and through the woods,
To Grandmother’s house we go;
At the airport on time, which is good cause the lines
Are moving super slow.

Over the river and through the screens
Then stuck at security
I’ve been patted down and thrown to the ground
Due to my lithium battery.

Over the river and through the woods
I’m looking around for food
Everything sucks and costs twenty bucks,
Guess I’ll just slam some booze.

Over the river at Hudson News
Flipping through the magazines
The book that I bought is a bit overwrought
With a dearth of good sex scenes.

Over the river, now on the tarmac
To Grandmother’s house we wait
The flight is delayed, our nerves are all frayed
As we taxi around the gate.

Over the river and very hungry now
The food cart scuttles past.
How incredibly rude that the smell of food
Only wafts in from first class.

Over the river and through the woods
My family’s in four different rows
My seatmate smells vile, and he puked in the aisle
Then I watched him clip his toes.

Over the river and through the woods
I tried to recline my seat
Then it was kicked, and I was called a dick
And the flight attendants all agreed.

Circling the river and stuck in the woods
Is that a storm I spied?
Attendants are gone, the seat belt light’s on,
We’re in for a bumpy ride.

Over the river and through the woods
My checked bag has disappeared
It has all my meds. I wish I were dead
When did flying get so weird?

Over the river and Ubering now
Oh Grandmother’s condo’s in sight!
Let’s give a cheer, the family’s all here…
Is it time for the return flight?

Seasons Of Solitude is a wistful turn-based strategy game with constantly changing prehistoric maps - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-21T16:33:30.000Z

Seasons of Solitude is a soulful balance of survival game and turn-based strategy about an exiled prehistoric tribesman who is trying not to trash his own habitat. It's the work of Estonian developers Ninjarithm Studio, and is based on Estonian myths.

There's a demo on Steam, which I've spent barely any time with, but this seems Interesting - Interesting enough that I wanted to get a write-up in front of you before the weekend. Please disregard the rapid-fire editing of the trailer below: it works as an overview of the mechanics, but doesn't really convey the sleepy pensiveness of the actual game.

[$] Unpacking for Python comprehensions - LWN.net

2025-11-21T16:09:50.000Z

Unpacking Python iterables of various sorts, such as dictionaries or lists, is useful in a number of contexts, including for function arguments, but there has long been a call for extending that capability to comprehensions. PEP 798 ("Unpacking in Comprehensions") was first proposed in June 2025 to fill that gap. In early November, the steering council accepted the PEP, which means that the feature will be coming to Python 3.15 in October 2026. It may be something of a niche feature, but it is an inconsistency that has been apparent for a while—to the point that some Python programmers assume that it is already present in the language.

🥩 Red Meat Friday: Cloudflare And AWS - Irreal

2025-11-21T16:00:48.000Z

I’m sure that every Irreal reader is aware of the recent Internet outages caused by problems at AWS and Cloudflare. Most of those readers also know that things happen. Servers fail, cables break, backhoes wreak havoc, software runs up against implicit boundaries, and human beings make configuration errors. When those things happen, sites can lose their Internet connectivity. When they happen to services like Cloudflare or AWS, lots of sites can be knocked offline.

Cloudflare and Amazon are big companies with an outsize presence. That makes them an irresistible target for some people. Especially people who make their homes under bridges. An unfortunate number of these people are in the tech press which engaged in a feeding frenzy over unfortunate events that are rare but inevitable.

Sadly, even normally temperate folks can be drawn into the fray. Rik Huijzer, for instance, recommends that “ordinary” people not use Cloudflare because it’s a single point of failure. But what are the alternatives? At the end of the day you have to connect to the Internet and that connection point is just as apt to fail—more likely, actually—as Cloudflare or AWS. That’s true even if you self host: problems like this are almost always going to be at the network end.

I was inclined to dismiss the whole brouhaha with a shrug until Miguel Arroz injected a certain amount of rationality into the discussion and made me realize that reasonable people shouldn’t let this nonsense stand unchallenged. Arroz makes a great point: “Their downtimes being so visible is a consequence of their success.”

PHP 8.5.0 released - LWN.net

2025-11-21T15:47:25.000Z

Version 8.5.0 of the PHP language has been released. Changes include a new "|>" operator that, for some reason, makes these two lines equivalent:

    $result = strlen("Hello world");
    $result = "Hello world" |> strlen(...);

Other changes include a new function attribute, "#[\NoDiscard]" to indicate that the return value should be used, attributes on constants, and more; see the migration guide for details.

PUBG: Black Budget is an extraction shooter spin-off with an island trapped in a time loop of supernatural munching - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-11-21T15:43:48.000Z

Krafton have revealed PUBG spin-off Black Budget, just in time for alpha testing of the extraction shooter to kick off next month. As you might expect given the genre, this latest work from PUBG Studios is all about getting out of the bad vibe zone in good time, after shooting some baddies in said zone. Oh, sorry, tactically shooting some baddies in the bad vibe zone.

The Nightdive Studios enhanced Quake II re-release is now Steam Deck Verified - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-11-21T15:06:42.000Z

With the latest minor update, the newer Quake II re-release that saw Nightdive Studios jump in to improve it is now Steam Deck Verified.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

The multiverse is a mess so you and friends will get cleaning in S.K.R.U.B. Squad - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-11-21T14:48:42.000Z

I do love how many more casual co-op games we're seeing lately, and it looks like S.K.R.U.B. Squad may be one to add to your list.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Security updates for Friday - LWN.net

2025-11-21T14:42:04.000Z

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (delve and golang), Debian (webkit2gtk), Oracle (expat and thunderbird), Red Hat (kernel), Slackware (openvpn), SUSE (chromium, grub2, and kernel), and Ubuntu (cups-filters, imagemagick, and libcupsfilters).