Kudos to Sanctimonia for being the first (that I can recall) to note (by way of using the acronym in a comment) that this is, indeed, the R-I-O-T. Shouldn’t you all be smashing windows and terrifying peasants, being Dragons?

Also: I’ll be traveling for most of Sunday, and will be working on a client site come Monday. I’ll still make a point of updating the site as I am able, but expect there to be a bit of a slowdown in news posting for the next week or two.

Wyoming, and then Trinidad. Because that makes sense.

I trust you all have heard by now that we’ve found Tatooine?

The Kepler 16b planet has two suns that orbit one another in 35 days. If a person visited Kepler 16b, they would be greeted by a sky that featured two prominent stars — and circles both stars in 229 days.

Also:

SETI researchers don’t believe that life exists on Kepler 16b, but are anxious to learn more about Kepler 16b. The planet itself likely is extremely dense, and is close to the size of Saturn, researchers say.

Which means that Episode I is lies.

Various and sundry Windows 8 features.

I’ve been messing around with the Windows 8 Developer Preview a bit, and I have to say that I’m rather fond of the Metro UI (even though I don’t have a touchscreen). You can find other details about Microsoft’s upcoming OS here.

Dinosaur feathers found in amber!

Straight out of Jurassic Park. Except that was a mosquito.

And well, okay, they’re not so much actual feathers as they are “protofeathers”, which aren’t known to exist on modern birds. The obvious conclusion is that they come from dinosaurs, although I suppose there’s still a wee bit of room there for uncertainty.

Then again, we can hardly expect researchers to be able to tell us what happened 80 million years ago with perfect clarity, can we?

British schoolchildren to learn…programming!

Previously, they were learning to use basic applications like Word and Excel. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, I suppose — both applications are widely used across a multiplicity of career fields — it does make for rather dry subject matter. Also, after about a year of exposure, you’ll probably know everything you need to know about both programs.

So now…programming, software development, digital logic. The good stuff.

Cripes, all we had in computer classes back when I was a wee one was whatever Mavis Beacon was serving up. Those of us who learned a thing or two about programming had to do so on our own.

This fan-made Skyrim trailer is epic.

Especially since it was made using Team Fortress 2:

A three-minute RPG!

Hero’s Adventure is a short little thing, done in a style reminiscient of the early Sierra RPGs. I haven’t tried it myself, but Joystiq asserts that it will “shake your RPG faith to the core” in its short span.

If you use Chrome, this might just save your system’s bacon.

I love Chrome. Seriously. I was a Firefox devotee for the longest time, but Chrome has utterly stolen me away from Mozilla’s flamey vulpine. But because I’m definitely in the “power user” category, I do often encounter the problem of having an absurd number of tabs open, which of course means that Chrome has a tendency to suck up every available megabyte of RAM it can.

I had Too Many Tabs installed in Firefox, and it was a lifesaver back then; now, the utility has been ported to Chrome as a free extension.

I’ve already installed it.

Sony perfects the “dick move”.

In the EULA to the next mandatory system update for the PS3, there is a new clause. If you accept the agreement, and thus the new clause, guess what? You’ve just signed away your right to participate in a class-action lawsuit against Sony, for any reason, ever, at any point in the future.

ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LEGAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION. THIS PROVISION DOES NOT PRECLUDE YOUR PARTICIPATION AS A MEMBER IN A CLASS ACTION FILED ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 20, 2011.

This might be the most epic dick move in the history of legal dick moves.

Now, there is a way to opt out…but you have to act quickly! And no, the means to do so is by no means electronic, or even convenient.

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 15, YOU MUST NOTIFY SNEI IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO 6080 CENTER DRIVE, 10TH FLOOR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT/ARBITRATION AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PSN ACCOUNT NUMBER, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION.

Dick. Move.

Microsoft Surface is still around.

And to be perfectly honest, it looks way cooler than it ever has in the past.

Who spends more money in freemium games…guys, or girls?

Despite the staggering popularity of e.g. FarmVille amongst women, it turns out that men actually do play slightly more time actually playing so-called “freemium” games. As such, it also turns out that men outspend women in these games, by about a one-sixth margin.

iOS 5 vs. Windows 8

How do they compare?

Meaningful patent reform?

I haven’t followed the America Invests Act at all, so I know little enough about it other than that it enjoyed bipartisan support. President Obama signed it into law today, although it won’t take effect for another 18 months.

Still…something of interest. I know we’ve talked, in various comment form discussions, about patent reform and copyright law on the site here, and I know that several of you have very strong feelings on such matters.

Eh…if it hobbles the patent trolls, consider me in favour of it. Probably. I should probably read the text of the thing before I say that in any sort of definitive way.

Tonight’s post brought to you by ingenuity:

It needs USB charging ports, though.

“Wi-Fi” with a 45-mile range.

From a security standpoint, the very idea of such a thing bothers me. Still, it makes sense that something like this “smart grid” everyone is talking about these days would need technology of this sort.

Take that, California!

The US Supreme Court has struck down a California law that imposes harsh restrictions on the sale of violent video games.

North Korea: broke and starving.

A recently-released undercover video smuggled out of North Korea paints a dismal tale of a broke, filthy nation that is growing increasingly weak, to the point that it can no longer even secure consistent supplies of food for its army (which once took priority in such matters).

This is troubling for many reasons, not the least of which is that it means that the impoverished country is going to face one of two outcomes in the none-too-distant future: social upheaval (preferable), or war with either South Korea or China (or both?) in a vain — and probably doomed — attempt to secure additional resources to prop up the Kim regime.

Every time I read brainwagon, I feel dumb afterward.

brainwagon is the blog of Mark VandeWettering, technical director at Pixar Animation Studios. He blogs about all sorts of things, most of them geeky and many of them very technical. His latest, examining the difference in RFI noise levels in laptop power supplies (generic vs. vendor-supplied) is in one sense nothing special, and is in another sense another fine example of how even the man’s everyday musings are…er…rather brainy.

Six challenges to hobbyist developers.

Gamasutra offers a feature article discussing the hurdles that “enthusiast” (read: spare-time) game developers face, and thoughts on how to overcome them.

Geohot hired by Facebook?

That’s the rumour, at any rate. The former Playstation and iOS jailbreaker has signed on with the Zuck’s social media juggernaut.

Microsoft will not challenge the 3DS and Vita.

Redmond doesn’t see the market viability of a portable game console right now, preferring to focus their mobile gaming attentions on the Windows Phone 7 platform. Which, for all I know, may be the right choice; the mobile gaming market is being driven a lot more these days by smartphones, most of which have power in excess of the 3DS and not-incomparable to the yet-unreleased Vita.

Tonight’s post brought to you by internet browsers:

Opera is the little girl skipping rope somewhere out of frame.

Does anyone else find it mildly troubling that Sony was able to find a judge willing to grant their request for information that could be used to identify anyone — yes, even you — who has evern looked at noted Playstation hacker George Hotz’s website, Twitter timeline and YouTube channel?

Because personally, I think it’s an excremental ruling by a clown in a robe.

On the other hand, this couple and their use of Skype is pretty darn cool. Not that I’d recommend it for everyone, but under the circumstances it certainly worked.

Also, Charlie Sheen keeps on bi-winning…right into unemployment. So I suppose that’s it for Two and a Half Men. (That’s okay, though; The Big Bang Theory is better.)

Tonight’s post brought to you by hipsters:

Wordpress is too mainstream. I should use Tumblr.

From Joystiq:

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference, as reported by Gamasutra, EA CFO Eric Brown discussed the company’s plans to ramp up support for Android in the near future. Brown noted that “there’s a lot to happen in the future in Android” and EA is set to “position [its] mobile business to take advantage of that trend.” Brown cited the increasing adoption rate of Android devices, and noted that he believes the market is shifting toward smartphones, what he described as “a PS2 to PS3 transition.”

It’s not surprising to see EA so eager to support the Android OS. Last year, the company made a killing on the iTunes App Store, publishing four of the top ten best-selling games on the platform, including the overall best-selling game, The Sims 3.

Obviously, I can’t speak for EA or Mythic Entertainment…but I wonder if — given Mythic’s stated interest in getting Ultima 4 onto the iPhone/iPad — the enthusiastic support that has thus far been shown for mobile ports of Ultima titles will extend to Android-based ports as well.

I can only imagine it will, though of course it would be best to hear it from someone at EA and/or Mythic proper.

It isn’t always easy being a gamer. Though admittedly, it’s probably harder for our spouses.

Sadly, that is the first thing I noticed as well...

I’ve also seen variants of this cake-topper, including one in which the bride and groom were sitting playing an XBox while the preacher stood by looking at his watch. That seems, to me, to be a more optimal spousal pairing.