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The middle row of seats is fine. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Some early owners of Tesla's Model X will need to hold off using the SUV's third row of seats for the next few weeks. On Monday night, Tesla sent out a safety notification to about 2,700 Model X owners after discovering a faulty hinge during testing. The company has issued a voluntary recall to replace the part and has asked affected owners to refrain from using their third row of seats until their car has visited a service center for the fix.

According to the e-mail sent to Model X owners, "…during an internal seat strength test that was conducted prior to the start of Model X deliveries in Europe, the recliner in a third row Model X seat unexpectedly slipped. The recliner, which is provided to us by an outside supplier, is the locking hinge that allows the third row seat back to fold forward, and if a recliner were to slip during a crash, the seat back could move forward."

Tesla also sent e-mails to Model X owners who were unaffected by the issue, letting them know that a revised locking hinge has been in use for production cars since March 26th.

(credit: javelinnl)

The latest Insider Preview build of Windows 10 (build 14316) has tweaked the Blue Screen of Death to include the most moddest of cons: a QR code.

Now, instead of scrambling to write down the CRYPTIC_ERROR_CODE, you can just whip out your smartphone and scan an on-screen QR code. If you don't have a phone or QR scanner to hand, the new Insider Preview BSOD also includes a help page URL that you can try to remember (or take a photo of).

In theory it's a pretty neat idea. In practice the feature isn't quite there yet: currently the QR code (and the written URL) always points you to the same "dealing with blue screen errors" page, irrespective of the actual error code. Presumably future builds of Windows 10 will have QR codes and URLs that are a little more targeted. Maybe that empathetic frowny face will be replaced with a variety of different emoji, depending on the crash, too.

13 years since the last Master of Orion, and 20 since the last good Master of Orion, we're met with an interesting proposition. Wargaming, the studio behind the inexplicably popular World of Tanks, is funding a reboot of the spacefaring strategy series, which was once a leader of the 4X genre, and the very reason the eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate moniker was coined in the first place.

While there was a lull in the number of space-based 4X games being released around a decade ago—and the awful Master of Orion 3 has to take much of the blame for that—the genre has seen a huge resurgence in recent years. Galactic Civilizations, Endless Universe, Civilization: Beyond Earth, Sins of a Solar Empire—the list stretches beyond the bounds of the known universe (maybe).

So why bring Master of Orion back? The genre is doing just fine without it, and even with a tarnished record from the third game, the original is still remembered fondly. Surely bringing MOO back is just an exercise in slapping a name on any old 4x game, throwing money at some big-name voice actors, and calling it a day?