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I get really annoyed when I see articles like this one on TechCrunch, confusing provincial and federal governments, when the author even bothers to make a difference. Even worse is when research for such articles are so half-baked as to ignore the fact that there's more to the story than what's being reported.

The Large Hadron Collider has been switched on. So, are we dead now, and the universe exploded? Check this site for the answer. And check back often, in case you’re not sure.

Gizmodo reports and shows us a gigantic, 50 foot robotic spider posed to strike Liverpool, UK at the end of the week. It won’t be long before its compatriots arrive here on Earth, and commence attacks against other targets around the world. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the spiders will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new robo-spider overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil on their fibre optic webs.

I wonder what brave soul ventured close enough to the spider to interview it and get that prospective date of attack. He or she must be very brave.

Everyone's favourite .NET development tool has a new home with Red Gate Software. After eight years of working on .NET Reflector, Lutz Roeder, the original creator of the program, has handed it off to Red Gate in order to move on with his career and explore new opportunities.

I received an interesting e-mail this afternoon from the OMDC, the crown corporation which manages tax incentives and other programs for the entertainment industry in Ontario. They released a report today, titled Ontario 2012: Stimulating Growth in Ontario's Game Industry. From the report's cover letter:

Thank you Techdirt, for pointing out a recent column on Gamasutra in which "industry commentator Matt Matthews suggests" using artificial scarcity to increase download sales of games.

Dave Weller announced yesterday that a preview of XNA Game Studio 3.0 is out and about for people to play with. This CTP has all you need to start making games for Microsoft's Zune media player.

GarageGames, the producers of the Torque game engine and publishers of a number of indie games, has recently been purchased by American media conglomerate IAC. The official word is that nothing's changing at GG as a result of the purchase, and that the IAC purchase may lead to more opportunities for developers to get published via the company. CEO Josh Williams says it all his blog.

Here's hoping this makes the indie scene even more vibrant!

Michael Klucher, a program manager at Microsoft working on XNA, recently posted to the XNA Team Blog about updates to Game Studio Express and the XNA Framework. In his article, Michael mentions that bitmap font support is being added, as well as improvements to the math API and XACT. Also, GSE will finally have official support for running on Windows Vista.