Just my blogroll - BlogFlock

"If we love this work, we have to protect it" - Hyper Light studio Heart Machine is now a "wall-to-wall" union - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T16:42:03.000Z

Developers at Hyper Light Drifter, Solar Ash and Possessor(s) studio Heart Machine are unionising. They've signed up with a local branch of the Communications Workers of America, in a "wall-to-wall unit [that] represents all frontline employees". This comes in the wake of layoffs, and takes inspiration from larger unionisation drives at megacorps like Microsoft.

How CHM Recovered The Unix v4 Tape - Irreal

2026-03-09T16:10:33.000Z

I’ve written a few posts [1, 2, 3] on the recently discovered Unix v4 tape. The tape is significant because it is the only known extant copy of Unix v4. Unix v4 is significant because it was the first copy of Unix to be written mostly in C. The TL;DR of those posts centers around the difficulty of reading the tape or even if it would be possible. In the end, of course, they did manage to read the tape and recover the code.

The Computer History Museum (CHM) has a very nice video featuring the people involved that recounts how hard recovering the tape was. It wasn’t possible to simply mount the tape on a drive and read it. Rather, they tapped into the electronics of the tape reader where the analog signals came off the tape head but before they were decoded into digital. The analog data was then processed by a program that recovered the digital information from the analog signals.

How they happened to have the technology to do this is an interesting story in itself and is told by the people who developed it along with the problem they were trying to solve when they did. We also hear from the people who discovered the tape and their evolving reactions to it. At first, they merely thought that finding the tape—an ancient technology at that time—was sort of cool but they didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until after a bit of research that they realized what they had and got in touch with the CHM.

The video is 16 minutes, 37 seconds long but it tells an interesting story and is worth a quarter hour of your time.

Xbox Full Screen Experience, Windows 11's gaming UI overhaul, is available to try now on Legion Go handhelds - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T15:17:47.000Z

Last year, Microsoft finally put some effort into making Windows 11 less dreadful for handheld PCs, launching Xbox Full Screen Experience - a stripped-back, more gamepad-friendly interface specifically for launching and installing games – on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally family. The same update has been strangely unforthcoming to other Steam Deck rivals, but it sounds like the Lenovo Legion Go series is finally getting access soon. There’s a preview build that Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 owners can try right now, too.

A Nioh 3 boss made me so pissed off that I smashed a hole into my desk - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T14:46:27.000Z

A few weeks ago, I became so irked at a boss battle that I smashed my Xbox wireless controller upon my desk. A loud crunch resulted. My rage quickly melted into horror as I turned my head downwards and realised that lo and behold, my gaming table now had a hole in it.

It was the human form of Nioh 3's Takeda Shingen, so not even the toughest boss in the game - merely one who managed to vex me in a very particular manner on a trying day, resulting in the aforementioned cavity decorating the piece of Ikea MDF that rests atop two cabinets and holds up my computer.

Denuvo has been removed from DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T14:00:17.000Z

Haters of DRM will be happy about this one - as Square Enix appear to have removed Denuvo from DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

[$] Inspecting and modifying Python types during type checking - LWN.net

2026-03-09T13:53:00.000Z

Python has a unique approach to static typing. Python programs can contain type annotations, and even access those annotations at run time, but the annotations aren't evaluated by default. Instead, it is up to external programs to ascribe meaning to those annotations. The annotations themselves can be arbitrary Python expressions, but in practice usually involve using helpers from the built-in typing module, the meanings of which external type-checkers mostly agree upon. Yet the type system implicitly defined by the typing module and common type-checkers is insufficiently powerful to model all of the kinds of dynamic metaprogramming found in real-world Python programs. PEP 827 ("Type Manipulation") aims to add additional capabilities to Python's type system to fix this, but discussion of the PEP has been of mixed sentiment.

digiKam 9.0.0 released - LWN.net

2026-03-09T13:13:11.000Z

Version 9.0.0 of the digiKam photo-management system has been released. "This major version introduces groundbreaking improvements in performance, usability, and workflow efficiency, with a strong focus on modernizing the user interface, enhancing metadata management, and expanding support for new camera models and file formats." Some of the changes include a new survey tool, more advanced search and sorting options, as well as bulk editing of geolocation coordinates.

CoolerControl v4 adds new security features, brings hardware support and more - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T13:07:57.000Z

Monitor and manage various different cooling devices on Linux with CoolerControl. Version 4.0.0 brings a bunch more advanced features for you.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Security updates for Monday - LWN.net

2026-03-09T13:06:10.000Z

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (delve, git-lfs, and postgresql16), Fedora (cef, chezmoi, chromium, coturn, erlang-hex_core, firefox, gh, gimp, k9s, keylime, keylime-agent-rust, libsixel, microcode_ctl, nextcloud, nss, perl-Crypt-URandom, pgadmin4, php-zumba-json-serializer, postgresql16-anonymizer, prometheus, python-asyncmy, python3.10, python3.11, python3.9, staticcheck, valkey, and vim), SUSE (chromedriver, chromium, coredns, expat, freetype2-devel, gitea-tea, go1.24-openssl, go1.25-openssl, grpc, gstreamer-rtsp-server, gstreamer-plugins-ugly,, helm, jetty-annotations, kubeshark-cli, libaec, libblkid-devel, libsoup, libxml2, libxslt, NetworkManager-applet-strongswan, podman, python-joserfc, python-Markdown, python-pypdf2, python-tornado, python-uv, python311-Django, python311-joserfc, python311-nltk, roundcubemail, and valkey), and Ubuntu (python3.4, python3.5, python3.6, python3.7, python3.8, python3.9, python3.10, python3.11, python3.12, python3.13, python3.14).

“He doesn’t have a heart, but he has heartstrings”: The making of Nick Valentine, Fallout’s best-loved companion - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T12:46:29.000Z

When Emil Pagliarulo was growing up in South Boston, he lived in fear of Whitey Bulger: a local crime boss who had been shaped not only by street gangs but Alcatraz, and a stint in the CIA’s mind control program, MKUltra.

"He was basically the boogeyman," Pagliarulo says. "He was the evil bad guy. You didn’t know where he was or even what he looked like, but you knew he was out there. I’m 10 years old, and I know this name."

Decades later, as Bethesda Game Studios shifted into full production on Fallout 4, Pagliarulo drew on those memories to bring a post-apocalyptic Boston to life. "The game was missing something, as far as one of the overall themes," he says. "I remember having a conversation with Todd Howard that there should be this overriding sense of paranoia that people have, and they don’t know who to trust."

You can grab the Mafia: Trilogy, Far Cry Primal, Pentiment and more in this game bundle - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T12:46:29.000Z

The ESA All-Star Alliance Humble Bundle is live and includes a really great set of games to add to your collection including the Mafia: Trilogy.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Why I, Lucifer, Rejected a Deal for Donald Trump’s Soul - McSweeney’s

2026-03-09T12:00:00.000Z

I’ve made contracts with every sort of lowlife. I’ve been to the crossroads. I’ve been down to Georgia. I’ve signed agreements with legions of lawyers, living, as I do, in the details, and ended up with the souls of everyone except Daniel Webster, that prig-tastic blowhole.

But Donald Trump? Not worth it.

Maybe you thought I already owned Trump’s soul. How else could someone so gobsmackingly incompetent fail upwards all the way to a second presidential term? But social media, misogyny, and the everloving shitshow known as the also gobsmackingly incompetent “Democratic Party”—that’s on you, humans. As folks in our Fifth Circle say about Trump, ” Wow, does his shit stink.” And that place reeks so bad, the demons wear gas masks.

By the way, there’s an easy tell if I’ve got the pink slip to someone’s soul: if suddenly they get something that makes no sense. Like Indiana winning the national football championship, Kash Patel getting a law-enforcement job, or Travis Kelce getting hitched to Taylor Swift. Trust me, the G-man and I were throwing back some beers, and He said He made that dame out of anybody’s league, even for Kelce, an incredibly hunky, charismatic world-class athlete with a schlong like an Owala bottle.

Anyway, after his inauguration last year, Trump started pestering me for a “deal”: his soul for a Nobel Prize. And I considered signing on, because all I’d have to do is have my people repurpose the text of a notarized contract I already had lying around, substituting “Nobel” for “Oscar” and “Donald Trump” for “Ben Affleck.” Which was good because I was down half my staff, what with the other half pulling double shifts and preparing an entirely new Circle for Stephen Miller.

But then I started thinking about a contract where I’d give up something to get Trump’s soul. What was my value proposition here? With Trump slathering everything with gaudy gold paint, turning ICE into a super-charged federal employment program for neo-nazi gun nuts, and by comparison making Ted Cruz look nearly sane and reasonable, what am I gaining now on paper that I’m not getting regardless when that bile-hearted bastard keels over? Nobody plays the long game like me, and let’s face it, everything about Trump’s pallor, posture, and speech patterns screams “past the fourth quarter’s two-minute warning.”

I might still have pulled the trigger. Trump is super-popular down here, and not only with the three “Jeffs”: Davis, who wants to shake his hand; Epstein, who wants to reunite with his main man; and Dahmer–that guy’s just plain whack. The demons in Circle Three are licking their poisoned-saliva lips, devising Trump’s punishments. Not to let the cat out of the bag, but it will likely involve a gag, a treadmill, and the Squad’s Bluesky feeds.

But then Trump ups his ask. Greenland? What the ACTUAL fuck? Not like I couldn’t do it—I’ve got an autograph book sporting every conquistador’s John Hancock—but, dude, make up whatever’s left of your FoxNews-addled brain. And really, if the G-man wanted that, He’d have festooned the joint with lagoons, put fool’s gold everywhere, and called it “Orangeland.”

Somehow, Donald thinks he’s sweetening the pot by offering to throw me a presidential pardon. What use is a get-out-of-jail-free card to me, Ruler of Hell? You’ll have a hard time finding anyone in the whole friggin’ universe less against either crime or punishment. Still, just to dick Trump around, I dared him to pardon the biggest criminal he’s got, which he actually goes ahead and does, tossing one to former Honduran-president-cum-drug-dealer Juan Orlando González, unwittingly helping me make good on that guy’s contract with me (four-dimensional chess, baby!). Why should I bargain for something that cheeseburger-stuffed cretin is stupid enough to give away? “Art of the deal,” my spiked tail; if that’s Trump’s idea of using leverage, I wouldn’t bet on him to negotiate for quiet time at a mime convention.

The last straw was Trump insisting the contract be enforceable under US law, meaning any disputes would end up in the Supreme Court. Forget it. If anybody is Trump’s useful idiot, it’s John “Presidential Immunity” Roberts and his merry band of kowtowers. I’d no sooner trust those clowns for a fair shake than shove my sensitive, tender balls into an industrial-scale, single-auger trash compactor.

Enough’s enough, I’m not going in for Trump’s mishegas. I told him he can “Truth” all he wants, but he’s not getting the Nobel or Greenland. I’ll see his ass soon enough. Besides, I’ve got an insurance plan. How do you think that putz Vance got to be Vice President?

A Steam Machine update reignited release date fears, but Valve say the new hardware is still shipping this year - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T11:57:12.000Z

Valve have reworded a Steam blog post after its original, unsure-sounding text left open the possibility of further long-term delays to the new Steam Machine. The 2025 Year in Review article only briefly touches on the Machine, as well as the upcoming Steam Controller redesign and the Steam Frame VR headset, but its previous phrasing of "We hope to ship in 2026" – accompanied by a reminder of ongoing and widespread memory shortages – did have the kind of noncommittal yeah-we’ll-seeism that one might apply when responding to an unwanted dinner party invitation. The grim possibility of another delay, this time into 2027, hung heavy.

Now, however, that passage has been replaced with a more confident and definitive commitment to a 2026 release. "We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages," Valve’s update reads, "but we will be shipping all three products this year."

This week in PC games: John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake, and a myth-inspired match-3 game where you combine three dogs into Cerberus - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T11:54:44.000Z

Sadly, I must report that Edwin has once again been eaten by the Maw. I want to say it was through some devious ruse but, reader, it was not. As Edwin worked the gaps between the Maw's canines with the 8-foot toothpick, one of the Maw's smaller tentacles slipped behind our news editor and tapped him on the shoulder. Edwin turned his head. It was only for a moment, but it was all that was needed to gobble him up.

Not to worry, Edwin will surely have worked his way out of one of the Maw's orifices (orifici?) and be back on duty shortly.

In his stead, let me provide this week's delivery of games.

CachyOS update brings improvements for PC gaming handhelds, the installer and more - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T11:20:33.000Z

CachyOS continues being one of the most popular Linux distributions, and the brand new release comes with lots of welcome improvements to setting it up.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

DG2: Defense Grid 2 - Aftermath DLC finally comes to PC - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T11:07:33.000Z

12 years after the original release of DG2: Defense Grid 2, a first DLC has been released for the well-received Tower Defense game.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

PRAGMATA from Capcom has the release date moved closer in April - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T10:27:33.000Z

Capcom recently announced that the brand new science fiction action-adventure PRAGMATA is actually going to release earlier than expected.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

The deep strategy RPG Heart of the Machine 1.0 is out now - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2026-03-09T10:21:49.000Z

From Hooded Horse and Arcen Games, the high-concept strategy RPG Heart of the Machine has now left Early Access for the big 1.0 release.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Slay The Spire 2 update fixes some spectacular multiplayer bugs, like the relic that gives infinite block - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T08:28:49.000Z

Slay The Spire 2 launched into early access last week to the tune of over half a million Steam concurrents, which isn't too shabby for a game with placeholder art that looks like it was knocked up in MS Paint. I played a couple runs of the roguelike deckbuilder this weekend, and experienced such positive emotions as Wait, Doesn't This Basically Break The Game? Delightfully Devilish, Seymour and Oh, I Forgot I Had That Potion.

I wouldn't say I'm bowled over, mind. The original Slay The Spire precipitated a Cambrian explosion of roguelite or roguelike deckbuilders. The sequel has to stand apart from both its predecessor and from all the games Spire has in-Spired, like Monster Train. While not without precedent, the co-op functionality could be its silver bullet. So it's just as well that the game's first round of patches are targetting problems with multiplayer.

Website that let Marvel Rivals players pay each other to throw matches pivots to "transparency initiative" after NetEase get mad - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2026-03-09T07:25:22.000Z

Marvel Rivals developers NetEase have introduced new systems for detecting thrown matches. This follows a bizarre wave of people getting bribed to take a fall, instigated by a third-party website who are now advertising themselves as some kind of community advocacy initiative.