If you’re a user of Xbox Live, then I suggest you stock up on these discounted Xbox Live monthly passes, because you’re going to need them.  Starting November 1, you’ll be paying more to access your favorite massive online gaming network, as Microsoft has announced a rate hike for its Xbox Live Gold service.  Granted, the price increases are only by a few bucks per package (from $7.99 to $9.99 for a month, $19.99 to $24.99 for three months, and $49.99 to $59.99 for a year) but why pay extra money if you don’t have to?

“Since launching Xbox Live in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same,” said Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, director of programming for Xbox Live.  ”We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox Live Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

And it just so happens to occur right before the launch of Halo Reach!  Heh heh, what are the odds?  Xbox Live Gold rates are also going to increase in Canada, Mexico, and the UK, so nobody gets left out of the price-gouging!

Anyone who has picked up Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy can tell you that the author really loved his technology.  In fact, the gadgets and gizmos and home furnishing in the three books are almost characters in and of themselves, thanks to Larsson’s long, loving paragraphs of description about the makes, specs, and vintages of various things that fill the home of characters like Lisbeth Salander.

For those interested, or those that can’t instantly place a gadget to its name, the fine folks at Engadget have put together The Girl With The Insanely Long Gear List, a complete collection of the gadgets in Larsson’s world AND a gallery of appropriate images.  It’s like looking into Apple’s past, given Larsson’s Mac-centric nature.  There are also page citations for those playing the home game.

Not to be outdone, the fine folks at Apartment Therapy have put together their own version of Lisbeth Salander’s shopping cart with Lisbeth Salander’s IKEA Shopping List.  Once again, it’s a complete list of the stuff she was spending her kroner on, completely with pictures of the stuff no longer available and links to the stuff that you can buy (just in case you want to make your own Millennium Trilogy room in your house).  Even better than Engadget’s page citations are Apartment Therapy’s book citation, giving the appropriate passages with links inserted into the text!

For the record, I’ve not read any of the books.  Are they good?  Anyone with an opinion, feel free to speak up.

Get a Chewbacca Pink Worthington shirt at JCPenney.com, via Fashionably Geek.

Fossil fuels are just that:  fossils.  The wave of the future is electric cars, people!  Get with it or get silently rolled over by a nearly-silent fuel efficiency machine powered by the plug in your wall (that, err, is powered by fossil fuels like coal or natural gas, if you’re lucky and it’s not nuclear power).

To promote the green car movement, and because they love catchy songs, geek musicians They Might Be Giants have put out a single in honor of the electric car called “Electric Car.”  Crazy, right?!  Featuring guest vocals by Robin Goldwasser, it’s probably the catchiest pro-environment song I’ve ever listened to, and the video itself (directed by Tiny Inventions) is absolutely adorable.

You can find “Electric Car” and lots of other on TMBG’s new album Here Comes Science from Walt Disney Records.

A few years ago, when it was mentioned that people could use their iPhone, download an app, and then use that app to order a pizza from Pizza Hut or Papa John’s or wherever, I scoffed.  Why would you need to download an app when you could just call them and place an order?  Or, if you loathe waiting on the phone, just order online via mobile web?  Well, that stuff on my face is egg, because Pizza Hut says half of their orders come from mobile services.

Of course, this includes the mobile web, but between text messages, the iPhone app, and upcoming iPad and Android-based apps, the future of pizza is getting it into your phone long before it gets into your mouth.  The folks ordering on the go are younger (mostly under 34), wealthier (making over $75,000 per year), and obviously very, very hungry for your pepperoni and sausage special with extra cheese.

Check out the whole gallery on Flickr, via io9.

Deface your webpage with Instant Oil Spill, via TreeHugger.

Apple, the former computer company turned entertainment juggernaut, has a fairly long and colorful history.  While a lot of Apple stuff has become pop culture common knowledge (like the famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial), there’s a lot of errata about the company that hasn’t become part of the company’s folklore.  Thankfully, there are websites like Mashable, which has compiled 10 interesting facts you didn’t know about Apple for your reading pleasure.

To me, the most interesting fact of the bunch was that Steve Wozniak sold his scientific calculator to help fund the company’s initial run of Apple I computers.  The calculator, an HP 65, retailed for $795 (Woz sold his for $500).  The Apple I retailed for a paltry $666.66 (also a Woz thing as he has a love of repeated digits). Amusingly, the cost of an average netbook computer is less than what I paid for my scientific calculator in high school, so some things didn’t change much between the 70’s and the 90’s.  (Even today, a Texas Instruments graphing scientific calculator sells for as much as your average netbook.)

Most of Apple’s distinctive features are completely unrelated to company Svengali Steve Jobs; surprisingly enough, he tried to change the Macintosh name to “Bicycle.”  Just goes to show you that he’s far from infallible!

One of the best things that YouTube has ever done was to bring the Muppets, staples of childhood from the 60’s onward, into the modern era.  With the launch of the Muppets Studio channel, period nuggets of Muppet goodness from short segments to full-on music videos come to subscribers throughout the world.  I’m glad to see it, and I’m heartened to see that the Muppets are as funny as they ever were.

As part of a belated tribute to America, here’s Sam the Eagle’s re-imagining of The Guess Who’s classic track, American Woman.  It’s a stirring tribute to American women everywhere (or maybe not) via that classic American pass-time, karaoke.  Take it away, Sam!

I hope you and yours had a relaxing and fun Fourth of July weekend, and that nobody blew up anything terribly important.  Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to all the men and women who serve, or have served, their country both at home and abroad.  Cheers to all.

In the never-ending semantics war, nobody nailed it quite like the TV show Seinfeld did in the above comedy skit, reenacted by a good friend of mine using his extensive and varied collection of crazily-sized vinyl records.  Venti, Tall, Grande, Jumbo, Biggie?  Just give me small, medium, and large.  Please?  I just want an overpriced coffee or a box of fries, not a math quiz on ancient Egyptian Algebra.

The point is, it’s all sales.  People don’t want to order a small, but they don’t want to order the huge, either.  So they play with the words to find the right combination.  That medium is a small if it’s the smallest-available size.  I know selling is all about finding the right gimmick, but why can’t the steak sell itself without the sizzle?  I’m tired of the marketing.