June's #SmugglersOfCygnus #wallpaper is up:
https://blog.longplay.games/june-wallpaper-25/

I decided "hey, let's have the new species all rigged up and in the new wallpaper, how hard could it be"

Okay kids, huddle round it's time for another Resistance Storytime with Mama Lana.

If we're throwing glitter at ICE agents - which is a 11 out of 10 idea by the way - you don't want to get the normal everyday glitter.

You want the CRAFT glitter that comes in those little salt shaker type cannisters. The stuff they market for scrapbooking. The cheaper the better. That shit does. not. come. out. It not only gets into your clothes, it gets into your fucking PORES.

And you don't want to just chuck it at people in a crowd. No no no. What you want to do is go get a cheap cordless leaf blower. Then, turn on the blower, aim it at ICE, and throw handfuls of glitter into the back air intake fan.

OR, if you happen to be near one of their unmarked kidnapping cars, toss a few handfuls down in the vehicle's air intake vent. You know, that little groove right under the windshield wipers that always gets clogged with leaves in autumn? Then, when the fascist goons get in their car, thinking they're safe, take off their masks, and turn on the A/C... instant glitter cropdusting.

This has been another Resistance Storytime. Happy scrapbooking!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve been made redundant at my job. If you want to hire an excellent Apple platforms developer (iOS, etc.) with 17 years of experience, time at Apple, and lots of SwiftUI experience, or a great Ruby on Rails developer, reach out.

Full-time or freelance. Ready to go immediately. Please spread the word. #Swift #RubyOnRails #GetFediHired

Indie writer rant, but applies to all creators:

Never chase algorithms.

Any time you spend learning how a particular web site's algorithms works has zero long-term payback.

Recommendation engines will change without warning.

Social media feeds will change without warning.

Writing to tropes? Lovely. Writing to Amazon's idea of tropes and categories? The moment the algorithm changes, you're out of luck.

Chase skill, not the algorithm. #writing

AMD tease new gaming chips that combine "Ryzen and Radeon for consoles, handhelds" and more https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/06/amd-tease-new-gaming-chips-that-combine-ryzen-and-radeon-for-consoles-handhelds-and-more/

#AMD #Gaming #PCGaming

Here we go: #GodotEngine 4.5 is ready for wider testing with its first beta snapshot! 🤖 🧪

As usual, it's feature-packed so we wrote a wordy blog post showcasing the main highlights in this new version.

Please report any issue you encounter while testing on GitHub!

https://godotengine.org/article/dev-snapshot-godot-4-5-beta-1/

Hey Spec Fic authors and readers: sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal and horror. Join us at LimFic.com. We're building an alternative spec fic book community/directory that's also queer friendly (gay owned) and progressive. Help us grow!

Authors:

https://www.limfic.com/membership-account/

Readers:

https://www.limfic.com/

I am tired.

I am going to rest for a bit, and then I am going to write with the defiance of a person who will not go gently into any kind of night, morning, midday, twilight, or golden hour.

I am going to defiantly write something to make anyone who reads it feel like they've had a vacation from the culture of unrelenting, shallow, petty, half-assed, cruel, misspelled, Grammarly-and-LLMs-are-my-editor, Jesus-is-my-blinker, coke-high-to-k-hole idiocy that too many cardboard-cutouts-self-identifying-as-people call their personality.

If I can't have a happy ending outside the page, by dog I will compose scandalously and deliciously hopeful prose.

@light @neil Conversations is certainly a thing, and I've set up a server on Snikket for our folks to experiment with.

Definitely can't recommend the Snikket mobile app though, what even is with that color scheme.

@light @neil I love XMPP, and every time someone suggests it I try once again to find suitable modern apps to support it on mobile desktop.

Really feels like the last good app was Adium, tbh.

Right now my little community is evaluating XMPP/IRC along with a few other options.

What we've been leaning towards is actually just integrating a better chat client with our forum, and dropping matrix entirely.

Unfortunately, there's no decent XMPP chat clients, and that leaves discord, which is a minefield.

Did an attempted migration of our ~60 user space, and it would have been so much effort for our users, we decided to scrap it.

Effectively it would have required everyone to create a new account.

@neil To be *Brutally* honest, we'd rather self-host it, but Matrix has some rather intense flaws in the protocol design for self-hosting.

Converting a space/account whatever to a self-hosted should be as easy as a fediverse or kbin single user node, but it's not. It's a complete nightmare.

@neil Since we use Matrix for our business, we're 100% interested. We support on patreon, too.

Looking for an alternative to Kindle Unlimited? Check out Kobo Plus!
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/kobo-plus-fantasy-reads

To celebrate the launch of @Jess_Alter's new book "Final Lap", she put the first chapter up free on WereBooks:

https://werebooks.com/preview-final-lap/

You can get her excellent #hopepunk #scifi story from kobo, kindle, drivethrufiction, and more to come.
#indieauthor

@crapknocker @bluespruce @Jess_Alter The book is now out!

If you're interested, it's available as a #DRMfree ebook from a variety of sources.

https://blog.longplay.games/final-lap-launch-day/

@Longplay_Games

Thank you so much for not only supporting the development of this book but believing in it so much to put it into the public's hands.

To everyone who has hung out in the #SmugglersofCygnus galaxy, thank you so much for your support.

The new #sci-fi #hopepunk book "Final Lap" by @Jess_Alter is finally out!

https://blog.longplay.games/final-lap-launch-day/

Such a great story, our backers have been reading it a chapter at a time on our patreon and blog, but now it's finally out everywhere.

The final chapter of "Odatria" by @Jess_Alter is now up for all backers!

https://blog.longplay.games/smugglers-of-cygnus-odatria-chapter-25

Ebook and paperback to follow.
#SmugglersOfCygnus #SciFi