A few news items before I logon to XBL:

• Tom's Hardware has part two of an interview with Microsoft's J. Allard about the Xbox 2.
• Over at SacredIcon.com, prometheus has a piece on Halo machinima in his blog, Truth and Rationalization. Some interesting ideas here, and we may put up a rebuttal later.
• Joystiq is running a contest drawing on April 1; a free year of Xbox Live is on offer.

Having finally gotten a halfway decent Internet connection at home, I'm at last able to actually connect to Xbox Live and have my worst fears about my Halo-playing ability confirmed.