Just my blogroll - BlogFlock

Hooded Horse reveal Substructure, a factory sim from a top Factorio modder in which you excavate the layers of a rogue planet - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T20:15:00.000Z

If you were Senior Floor Manager of Earth, and a weird planet innocently appeared on the fringe of our solar system, what would you do? I would probably not zip out there and plant a factory on that planet, in much the same way that I wouldn’t high-five a bear-shaped shadow on the edge of a campsite. But I am not the modder behind beloved Factorio mod Ultracube, who is now part of game developer Dubious Design.

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift puts a roguelitey twist on the series' classic wheeled warfare, will start bending fenders in early 2026 - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T20:10:00.000Z

Crank up the pounding metal riffs and make sure you're covered in spikes. Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, a roguelite-infused take on the old school automotive murder-battler from Redout devs 34BigThings, has just been revealed and is set to smash onto the scene early next year.

Alpine Linux 3.23.0 released - LWN.net

2025-12-04T19:26:35.000Z

Version 3.23.0 of Alpine Linux has been released. Notable changes in this release include an upgrade to version 3.0 of the Alpine Package Keeper (apk), and replacing the linux-edge package with linux-stable:

For years, linux-lts and linux-edge grew apart and developed their own kernel configs, different architectures, etc.

Now linux-edge gets replaced with linux-stable which has the identical configuration as linux-lts, but follows the stable releases instead of the long-term releases (see https://kernel.org/).

The /usr merge planned for this release has been postponed; a new timeline for the change will be published later. See the release notes for more information on this release.

[$] The beginning of the 6.19 merge window - LWN.net

2025-12-04T19:22:54.000Z

As of this writing, 4,124 non-merge commits have been pulled into the mainline repository for the 6.19 kernel development cycle. That is a relatively small fraction of what can be expected this time around, but it contains quite a bit of significant work, with changes to many core kernel subsystems. Read on for a summary of the first part of the 6.19 merge window.

The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner Interviews Santa Claus - McSweeney’s

2025-12-04T18:00:00.000Z

For several centuries, Santa Claus has been one of the most prolific mythical gift-givers in the world. Formerly known as Saint Nicholas of Myra, a man whose works included reviving the bodies of three children slain by a serial murderer, Santa Claus reinvented himself in the mid-1800s as a jolly Norwegian-style figure of merriment, whose generosity was based on the recipient’s moral acuity.

I recently spoke with Santa Claus, who is currently coordinating his staff of immortal blue-collar elves, about the morality of children and his friendship with a creature whom many carolers consider a war criminal: Krampus.

You have chosen to spend every Christmas Eve flying around the globe giving gifts to all of the, and I’m quoting here, “good girls and boys.” Why did you decide that only good children deserve gifts?

I wouldn’t say that I made the decision. I’d say that I’m following the traditions set forth by Christianity and other religions in which acts of good are rewarded, while acts of bad are punished. Christmas is a fun way to teach children that being good and kind can lead to positive results, even if being mean or a bully feels better in the moment.

And so-called bad children deserve nothing.

That’s not what I’m saying, Isaac. I’m saying that the better a child behaves, the better the gift they get. There are degrees of bad. A child who won’t play with his little sister might not deserve a Nintendo Switch 2, but, like, a baseball glove? Sure. I can do that.

So if a very wealthy child gets everything they requested and a poor child does not, are you positing that the wealthy child is morally superior to the one who lives in poverty?

No! What I’m saying is that overall—and I just mean overall—whether a child is naughty or nice does have an impact on what they receive. You know, in general.

But you do make the list yourself, and you are the one who checks it twice.

Yes, of course. It’s in the song.

So you are, in fact, the one who decides which children deserve nice things and which don’t.

That’s unfair. I’m saying that, through the magic of Christmas, I can understand the heart of each child and through that special bond—

Can you see into the heart of every child?

Yes.

I have to stop you there for a second because you just said something interesting. If you can see into every child’s heart throughout the year, don’t you feel that you have a moral obligation to help them when they’re in crisis rather than waiting for December to give them a Hatchimal?

Look, you have to understand that the magic of Christmas is limited.

Limited to flying to approximately 2.6 billion Christmas homes in one night and changing your body’s shape to slide down chimneys?

I didn’t say it’s not powerful magic, Isaac. I said it’s limited magic.

I’m just trying to understand how you can run a magic workshop all year long, raise magic reindeer all year long, watch children’s deeds all year long, but your ability to act is limited to a few hours.

Yes. Whether you want to believe that’s true or not, it’s true.

What I also struggle to believe is that you are the self-described arbiter of naughty and nice, but you are close to Krampus.

I don’t know if I’d say we’re close.

There are Christmas cards with you both on the front.

Yes, we both work on the same holiday. We’re both tasked with making Christmas truly magical.

By snatching the children from their beds and taking them to hell?

You’re giving an example of the most extreme situation and making it sound like the norm.

But that does happen on occasion, you agree?

Yes.

And those children are getting dragged to hell by Krampus on the one night that you said you could do something. But you don’t. Why?

Because Krampus has his role and I’ve got mine! I think it’s weird that the Tooth Fairy takes teeth, but that’s not my job either.

So your job is to judge people, but not to judge people for judging people.

You’re making it sound like I approve of Krampus’s methods. I don’t. Just because you share a holiday with someone doesn’t mean you agree with them on everything. I love kids.

Santa Claus, thank you so much for doing this.

Great, thanks. If we go light on the Krampus part, I wouldn’t complain, because it could dwarf everything else.

Creative Assembly reveal Total War: Medieval 3, while teasing a huge game announcement to follow - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T17:36:50.000Z

Total War: Medieval 3 is in early pre-production, Creative Assembly have revealed during Total War's 25th anniversary showcase, with release still years away. It's to be the "rebirth of historical Total War", and CA are unveiling it earlier than they've ever announced a Total War game before, so that you crafty peasants can offer more feedback throughout development.

Wreckreation studio put entire staff on notice of redundancy, but still believe in their latest Burnout revival - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T17:12:32.000Z

Three Fields Entertainment, developers of Burnout with sky roads racer Wreckreation, have announced that their entire team have been put on notice of redundancy. According to the announcement from CEO and former Criterion studio director Fiona Sperry, this comes as Three Fields find themselves without backing from Wreckreation publishers THQNordic, having "had to self-fund most of this year".

Configuring AUCTeX - Irreal

2025-12-04T16:19:11.000Z

If you’re an Emacser who writes in LaTeX you’re doubtless familiar with AUCTeX. Most of the time, you can depend on Org mode to do the heaving lifting but when you have a complicated layout you may have to invoke AUCTeX.

Randy Ridenour, a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University, writes in LaTeX using AUCTeX and, of course, wanted to configure it using John Wiegley’s use-package macro. He did what we’d all do:

(use-package tex
    :ensure auctex)

but it didn’t work. It turns you have to do

(use-package tex-site
    :ensure auctex)

instead.

When I saw his post, it rang a bell so I checked my config and I do the exact same thing. I vaguely remember going through the same steps as Ridenour years ago. I no longer recall how I discovered the magic spell but I doubtless found it on the Web somewhere. Ridenour’s problem was getting things to work with Skim. I’ve never used Skim so I had some other problem but the answer was the same.

Once I fixed the problem, I just moved on and so have no idea why you need tex-site instead of tex. I’m sure one of Irreal’s well informed readers will jump in with the answer.

I know this trip down memory lane isn’t all that interesting to most of you but I’m writing about it for the same reason that Ridenour did: to help someone else struggling with the problem find the answer.

Four Total War classics join GOG in their Preservation Program with more on the way - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T14:45:21.000Z

GOG have announced today that as part of the 25th anniversary of the series, four classic Total War games are now on GOG in their Preservation Program.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

[$] A "frozen" dictionary for Python - LWN.net

2025-12-04T14:42:12.000Z

Dictionaries are ubiquitous in Python code; they are the data structure of choice for a wide variety of tasks. But dictionaries are mutable, which makes them problematic for sharing data in concurrent code. Python has added various concurrency features to the language over the last decade or so—async, free threading without the global interpreter lock (GIL), and independent subinterpreters—but users must work out their own solution for an immutable dictionary that can be safely shared by concurrent code. There are existing modules that could be used, but a recent proposal, PEP 814 ("Add frozendict built-in type"), looks to bring the feature to the language itself.

cmocka 2.0 released - LWN.net

2025-12-04T14:09:54.000Z

Andreas Schneider has announced version 2.0 of the cmocka unit-testing framework for C:

This release represents a major modernization effort, bringing cmocka firmly into the "modern" C99 era while maintaining the simplicity and ease of use that users have come to expect.

One of the most significant changes in cmocka 2.0 is the migration to C99 standard integer types. The LargestIntegralType typedef has been replaced with intmax_t and uintmax_t from stdint.h, providing better type safety and portability across different platforms. Additionally, we've adopted the bool type where appropriate, making the code more expressive and self-documenting.

Using intmax_t and uintmax_t also allows to print better error messages. So you can now find e.g. assert_int_equal and assert_uint_equal.

cmocka 2.0 introduces a comprehensive set of type-specific assertion macros, including `assert_uint_equal()`, `assert_float_equal()`, and enhanced pointer assertions. The mocking system has also been significantly improved with type-specific macros like `will_return_int()` and `will_return_float()`. The same for parameter checking etc.

LWN covered the project early in its development in 2013. See the full list of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes in cmocka 2.0 in the changelog.

Security updates for Thursday - LWN.net

2025-12-04T14:07:15.000Z

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (expat and libxml2), Debian (openvpn and webkit2gtk), Fedora (gi-loadouts, kf6-kcoreaddons, kf6-kguiaddons, kf6-kjobwidgets, kf6-knotifications, kf6-kstatusnotifieritem, kf6-kunitconversion, kf6-kwidgetsaddons, kf6-kxmlgui, nanovna-saver, persepolis, python-ezdxf, python-pyside6, sigil, stb, syncplay, tinyproxy, torbrowser-launcher, ubertooth, and usd), Mageia (cups), SUSE (cups, gegl, icinga2, mozjs128, and Security), and Ubuntu (ghostscript, kernel, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-intel-iotg, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-nvidia-tegra-igx, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-gcp-6.14, linux-raspi, linux-gcp-fips, linux-intel-iot-realtime, linux-realtime, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, linux-xilinx, and postgresql-14, postgresql-16, postgresql-17).

Epic and Steam banned it but HORSES is out now on other stores - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T13:23:11.000Z

From Andrea Lucco Borlera / Santa Ragione, HORSES has proven to be a highly controversial title with both Epic Games and Steam banning its release.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Get some great Raw Fury games like Kathy Rain, Sable and more in a new Humble Bundle - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T12:50:19.000Z

Another fresh bundle of games to keep you warm with the RAWcember to Remember Humble Bundle.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

FIXKIN: A Long Way Home is a cozy, rhythmic, narrative road trip in a suddenly upside down world - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T12:34:45.000Z

Sonderland Games (Bella Wants Blood, Landnama) announced FIXKIN: A Long Way Home - a new cozy rhythm-based adventure and there's a demo available.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Guild Wars Reforged has arrived on Steam - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T12:15:33.000Z

ArenaNet have released Guild Wars Reforged bringing together the Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall campaigns together along with various improvements.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Hytale won't be on Steam right away, as its devs want to avoid "overindexing on negative reviews" from players who "aren't as well-informed yet" - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T12:05:51.000Z

Revived Minecrafty survivabuilder Hytale got a fresh early access release date of January 13th the other week. However, the team behind it how now confirmed you shouldn't expect to see it hit Steam at that point, with the game's executive director not seeing the need to knock on Valve's pipe-laden door yet and keen to avoid an early access spent drowning in negative reviews.

One of PC gaming's key RAM manufacturers aren't selling to regular humans anymore, so they can peddle more kit to AI companies - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T12:00:56.000Z

The ongoing chaos in RAM production, with mass shortages jacking up street prices to are-you-joking levels, now has a major manufacturer casualty. Micron have announced the end of Crucial, their consumer brand for PC memory and SSDs – and likely a familiar name to gaming PC builders who’ve been hooking up their storage drives and slotting in their RAM sticks for decades.

Eclipsium is cosmic horror at its most fidgety and free-wheeling - Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed

2025-12-04T11:59:00.000Z

Hold up all your fingers. Count them from right to left. When you get to four, stop. That is today's Advent calender number. You will not need the rest of your fingers. Please dispose of them as you see fit.

What game could prompt such a sinister overture? It can only be... Eclipsium!

The Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless mouse is a great reasonably priced pick - GamingOnLinux Latest Articles

2025-12-04T11:29:48.000Z

I decided to upgrade my mouse from a cheap unbranded USB wired to the Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless, so here's my thoughts on it.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.