“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.

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