Now that everyone is back from vacation, the gaming world is moving and shaking again. Here's a look around at items relating to Bungie, Halo, or the Xbox:

• The Houston Press has an in-depth article on champion Halo player Matt "Zyos" Leto. Thanks CookedGamers.
• Ducain at High Impact Halo interviewed Louis Wu of HBO about the history of the Halo tricking scene.
• Captain Spark has been busy capturing more dialogue for inclusion in HBO's Halo 2 Dialogue Databank.
• HBO's Halo 2 Cutscene Library has reached the beginning of Gravemind. It's the Legendary version, with the nearly naked Jason Jones.
• IGN purports to predict the future of the Xbox. They also think that a full Halo 3 won't make it as an Xbox 2 launch title, but rather as a "counterpunch" to come when the competition rolls our their new consoles. (Makes about as much sense as anything else, although I still say an Xbox sequel without a Bungie launch title is dead in the water, unless a whole lot of people spontaneously decide they just must have Brute Force 2 --Ed.) Thanks SPOnG.
• Bungie has interviewed their own Princess, Alta Hartmann. Includes SnackWagon imagery.
• Kotaku is spreading the rumor that Microsoft might be preparing a version of Halo for the Gizmomdo portable device. (Don't hold your breath --Ed.)
• True to last-minute predictions, Bill Gates did not talk about the Xbox 2 during his CES keynote address, although CNET did ask him about the console afterwards. (It's impressive that Gates was able to describe convergence without using the term; but as everyone has already guessed, that's where Xbox 2 is going --Ed.) Incidentally, that story also mentions Halo 2 sales-- apparently 6.3 million units to date, and another CNET article officially confirms "Xenon" as the Xbox 2's codename.
• Eurogamer thinks some recent Microsoft patents may provide insight into the Xbox 2's design.