Links of Note, 23 October 2009

With October nearly over, we turn to thoughts of Halloween. I'll post the Gaming Pumpkin of the Day, assuming I can find one suitable to post every day. Here's today's Not-So-Great Pumpkin:

Cool, huh? I've had three of those. And we can segue right from bad stuff about Microsoft into good stuff about Microsoft:

Neoseeker reports that the global Xbox 360 install base has nearly reached 34 million. That, friends, is a lot of RRODs.

Xbox.com has details about the upcoming last.fm integration into Xbox Live. There's a picture of what it looks like here on Joystiq.

OTOH, Microsoft has back-peddled on the whole Blu-Ray thing for the Xbox 360. In a major WTF? posting on his blog, Major Nelson says Steve "Raises False Hopes" Ballmer was actually talking about Blu-Ray accessories for the PC. He should stick to monkey-dancing. Really.

Gamasutra muses on violence and videogames.

The Game Reviews has a list of 10 Totally Badass Last Stands.

Interested in the roots of gaming? Visit PinballHistory.

Funny stuff from Digg (updated when I LOL):

Not all publicity is good publicity.

What not to serve at a kid's birthday party.

Imperial Stormtrooper's "Spacebook" page.

CSI parody pic.

Stuff that you should never tweet about.