Sony has the Playstation Network.  Microsoft has XBox Live.  Nintendo has… well, not much.  Nintendo has a virtual marketplace and a way to download DLC content and buy downloadable verisons of classic games, but a robust online multi-player environment just doesn’t exist for Nintendo at the moment.  It’s probably their biggest weakness from a marketing standpoint, and it’s something that they’re going to address.  Nintendo will be launching the Nintendo Network, an online hub for the 3DS and (hopefully) the WiiU console.

Here’s the kicker:  the Nintendo Network won’t just be a delivery system for downloadable content.  Nintendo has constructed it in such a way as to facilitate the purchase and use of digital, downloadable games.  That’s right, Nintendo (the first company to use motion control in its games) just may be the first company to adopt the PC-style Stream model of game downloading rather than physical purchases of games.  The Nintendo Network will also feature a personal account system to allow for multiple users on the same system and online communication.

Granted, Nintendo isn’t revolutionizing anything with the Nintendo Network; these sorts of console-based game networks have been around since Sega Channel was a thing.  Still, if the big N can catch up to the competition in the online network setting then bring streaming game purchases to bear… they just might shake up the video game world yet again without even taking into account the WiiU’s revolutionary construction.

In the anti-SOPA/PIPA furor from last week, someone stepped out to become a big star.  That person is YouTube user LaughPong, who produced the best song parody since Weird Al’s last song parody, except this one was for a good cause.  It was called “The Day the LOLcats Died,” and it’s an anti-SOPA rendition of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”  Let’s cue it up, shall we?

The song is great, and while it’s no longer right on the cusp, the SOPA/PIPA movement is still alive and still active, and if you think you’ve seen this bill for the last time, think again.  It will be back in some different form; don’t you worry about that.  The media cartels are scared, and since they don’t know how to bring their business back, they’re going to lash out in a public manner.  Since they own so many Congressmembers, it’ll be in law form.  SOPA and PIPA will be back, eventually.  Just wait.

Instead of using CAPTCHA and forcing people to type a string of gibberish words before getting online, I think it’s time we update our permissions to force people to pass an intelligence test to prove they are not robots.  A great way to do this is the above their/there/they’re test first spotted on I Raff I Ruse.

What better way to prove that A) you are not a robot, but a person and B) you’re the sort of person who is smart enough to leave intelligent comments on blog posts or news articles?  It’s killing two birds with one stone, and I for one can’t wait until this sort of thing becomes an actual CAPTCHA and not just a fun image of a fictional CAPTCHA.  Don’t get me wrong, everyone has a right to their opinion, but they’re not always the smartest person in the class and there’s no reason others should have to read their thoughts if they can’t master simple grammar.

I’ve seen a lot of hilarious WiFi network names, such as The Matrix, A Series of Tubes, Lebowski, Skynet, and a host of other great ones.  However, I’ve also seen some dumb ones.  It’s not a funny one or a dumb one that’s got police in an uproar in Teaneck, New Jersey.  Police are investigating a racist, anti-Semitic WiFi network name that was uncovered during a dance class at a recreation center.

A 28-year-old woman was at a dance class for yer 3-year-old daughter when the racist WiFi network name popped up on her iPhone.  She went to the facility’s office and they called police, who came around to investigate.  As it turns out, the signal came from the nearby Richard Rodda Community Center.  Now, the police are hunting for the party responsible for the offensive WiFi network.  Police consider the offending name a “bias crime,” and are investigating it as such.

So, for all you people out there, be careful what you name your WiFi network, because you just might go to jail over it if it’s something stupidly racist and anti-Semitic.  Then again, if you’re SO stupid as to publicly announce your racism, you deserve to go to jail.

You see that above?  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  That is a special edition of the Nintendo 3DS that has been embossed in a snakeskin pattern in honor of the most famous video game character in Konami’s history.  That would be Solid Snake, the star of the Metal Gear series of video games.  It’s not just any celebration in honor of Solid Snake, it’s a celebration of Metal Gear Solid:  Snake Eater 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.

There’s only one drawback to this 3DS:  the only way you can pick one up is to jump through a whole lot of hurdles in the process.  First of all, you can’t just walk into any store and pick it up.  You can only pick it up at Konami Style stores in Japan.  Even if you go to one, you’re probably not going to get your hands on it.  You go to the Konami store and enter a raffle before February 3.  If your name is drawn, then you get the privilege of plunking down $300 US (or just under 23,000 yen).

Still, if you win, you get more than just the system itself.  You win a copy of Metal Gear Solid:  Snake Eater 3D and two folders embossed with Metal Gear Solid characters.  Oh yeah, you also get the pride of having an epic Nintendo 3DS that no one else will have.

When it comes to the future of education, all the talk for the past 30 years has been technology in the classroom.  The computer lab is all well and good, but to really get kids where they learn the most, you have to get into classrooms and backpacks and even on the school bus.  That’s the exciting thing about ultrabooks, tablets, and of course, the iPad.  Apple has wanted to get the iPad into schools forever, and they’re starting to make progress.  Apple’s latest educational tool is called iBooks 2, a digital textbook app.

“There’s a lot that’s talked about that may be wrong with education.  One thing we hear louder than all else and where we can help is in student engagement,” said Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller.  ”That’s why we get excited when students get their hands on an iPad.  The textbook is not always the ideal learning tool, yet their content is amazing.”

In addition to iBooks 2, there’s also the iBooks Author suite, which allows creators to make their own interactive educational lessons using iBooks 2. Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the three companies that produce 90 percent of US textbooks, are already onboard.  DK Publishing, a leading publisher of books for younger students, has also signed up.  Each textbook for the iBook will retail for $14.99 and will be fully customized for the student; more importantly, it’s the only text book that students can mark up, make notes in, and then keep after the fact.  Apple is also expanding iTunes U, a service that allows college professors to put their notes, lessons, and what-have-you online for sharing and downloading.

It’s starting, and if you’re not on board, then you should be aware of the choices you are making.  The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act are two of the most destructive, dangerous bills in the history of the Internet.  Under the guise of protecting the interests of multinational corporations, SOPA and PIPA are a direct assault to free speech and freedom online.  Wikipedia, I Can Has Cheezburger, reddit, Boing Boing, and numerous other websites are going black to protest this assault on freedom in the form of misguided, vague legislation.

Google isn’t blacking out, but it is publishing a guide to why they oppose SOPA and PIPA and how to get your Congress person to vote no.

I have already signed the petition.  I don’t know every little detail about SOPA and PIPA to explain it in an adequate manner, but I do know how Congress works and I do know that most of them have no real understanding of how anything works when it comes to technology.  I also understand that the bill’s real sponsors, the MPAA and various other conglomerates, know how things work and simply don’t care.

Well, when it comes to online security, no one’s perfect.  Despite having the power of Amazon behind them, online retailer Zappos–the Amazon of shoes–is the latest victim of a security breach.  That’s right, hackers hit Zappos and stole the details of 24 million accounts.  Don’t worry; your credit card numbers are safe, but your other details have possibly been exposed.

So what might have been captured?  Well, for starters, customer email addresses, shipping information, telephone numbers, account passwords, and the last four digits of the payment card used.  That’s a whole lot of information to be put into the hands of the nefarious, isn’t it?  The public domain stuff (shipping, phone number) aren’t troubling, but the email and passwords are a big deal.  A lot of people I know use the same passwords for everything, and this would be frightening to them.

That’s just another reason to break up your passwords.  Failing that, use a service like LastPass to randomize your passwords and do the heavy lifting stuff for you.  It’s free, and from what I hear, it works very well.  I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s about time I did.

The 2012 edition of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has drawn to a close, but the fallout from the week-long event is still being felt throughout the technology world.  The show itself may be over, but the gadgetry that was debuted at CES will remain hot throughout this year and beyond.  Here are USA Today’s six favorite gadgets debuted at CES.

Among these is my favorite gadget.  Two television manufacturers, LG and Samsung, debuted 55-inch televisions.  These aren’t all that special–after all, 55-inch TVs have been around for ages–but what they’re made of is where these TVs stand out.  Rather than standard LED or LCD displays, these are OLED displays.  That’s organic light-emitting diode technology, an organic type of LED display that is more environmentally friendly due to its low power consumption and more impressive from a TV standpoint due to its high contrast screen, vibrant colors, and incredibly thin display.  LG’s OLED screen is only 1/6th of an inch thick!

Of course, OLED screens have some drawbacks, but in the future, we’ll all be watching OLED televisions due to their cheaper (potential) manufacturing costs.  It’s a refinement of television production.  That seems to be the trend of this year’s CES:  older gadgets made thinner, lighter, more efficient, or just plain better.  If you can’t build the mouse trap, it makes perfect sense to improve on the mouse trap and add a few more ways to make money.

So, through the wonders of the NPD Group, the best-selling games of 2011 have been revealed.  If there’s one thing you can say about 2011, it’s that we were all getting our groove on throughout the previous year.  2011′s best-selling video games won’t be terribly surprising, save for two entries.  You’ve got your Call of Duty games (Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops), your Skyrim, and your… Just Dance?

That’s right, 2011 is the year of the dancing game.  The dancing game genre shot up 66 percent from last year, and not one but two entries into the Just Dance pantheon made it into the 10 best-selling games of 2011.  Just Dance 2 ended up at number nine for the year, while Just Dance 3 made it all the way to number two, just behind all-world seller Modern Warfare 3.  Consider:  Just Dance 2 was ONLY for the Wii, yet it’s beating wide released games in sales!

My big question is this:  will it last?  Remember how big music games were for a few years?  And remember how now they’re all dead?  That’s my fear for the dance genre.  Then again, maybe there will be a market for downloadable dance content, a-la the Rock Band DLC tracks!