Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get ane-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Watch Out, Big Cable: Xbox Live Now Bigger Than Comcast [Gigaom via New York Times] Xbox Live’s 25 million subscribers tops Comcast’s 23 million, a figure that declined by a quarter million subscribers last quarter.
• Names You Need to Know In 2011: Comcast’s Steve Burke [Forbes] — A suggestion by a Forbes reporter to make him a part of an upcoming issue on the biggest new names to know, as Burke will be largely leading the integration of NBC Universal into Comcast. H/T Philly Tech News
• AT&T, Comcast May Fend Off Web Rules Under Republicans [Bloomberg via BusinessWeek] — “Verizon Communications Inc. and cable companies led by Comcast Corp. may find it easier to block Internet-service regulations with Republicans in charge of the U.S. House, analysts said.”
• Astros, Rockets finalize deal to launch TV network [Houston Chronicle] — Comcast SportsNet Houston to launch in 2010, seen as a big victory against Fox Sports, with whom local sports are currently being broadcast. It will be the tenth regional Comcast SportsNet.

Below, a TiVo executive on the Comcast-NBC deal, how Comcast could help make Philly a better city and more.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Tivo bets against cable cutting, expects Internet and cable to join [Washington Post] — Asks development executive about the “disruption” caused by the Comcast-NBC deal.
• The Philly Post: Make Philadelphia the Best City in America [Philadelphia magazine] — Points to Comcast playing a role in distributing health-orientated content.
• Behind the Scenes: The Comcast Holiday Spectacular 2010 [Comcast blog] — Behind their development, with video, of a new production for their lobby during the holidays.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Comcast (CMCSA) 11/4/10 PriceWatch Alert Up To 19.98% Return [Market Intelligence Center]
• Political Calls Jam Comcast System In New England [AP via NPR]
• Comcast amps up wireless offer [KansasCity.com] — Xfinity 4G grows

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST

Think of it as a savings account for all the cool stuff going on this week. You didn’t want to go out in that rain, anyway.

On Monday, hit up Philly.rb‘s Pub Night and don’t even say you’re sorry that you once were down with Python. Can’t we all just get along? Central NJ Drupal will host an info session Tuesday to help you get involved with the Project. We call it the Project with a capital P because damn if they ain’t been working hard. Maybe it’s time to throw in your two cents.

Wednesday, Mike Welsh of Newgrounds.com and ActionScript coder for Xbox Live Arcade’s best-seller Castle Crashers will lead Philadelphia Flash Users Group‘s discussion on AS3 game development. We never understood why Super Mario went 3D anyway, and we think Mike would agree.

We hate when this happens: a dozen blocks West, Philly Startup Leaders will host a second can’t-be-missed Wednesday night event. Neat Company co-founder Rafi Spero will give his “Unplugged” presentation on the blood, sweat, tears and scanners that went into the company’s successful receipt organization software.

Last but not least, PhillyCHI will host a happy hour to celebrate all things human-computer interaction. Why a happy hour? Because it’s 5 o’clock and someone’s got a bad UI somewhere, that’s why. More details on all of these events after the jump.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.

Monday, June 15: Philly’s Ruby enthusiasts Philly.rb will meet over drinks to chat about their beloved scripting language. # Head to Center City for a good time with Ruby, Rails and more. puts “And drink one for us, too.” end 6:00 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, June 16: Not sure how to get down with the Drupal project? The Central New Jersey Drupal meetup group will give the deets on how to get involved with the Drupal community Tuesday night in Princeton. Whether you’re a newb or a pro, there’s room for all. Plus, AlexUA and Jody from Zivtech will give some special tutorials on contributing to the core Drupal patch. 6:30 p.m. Princeton, New Jersey. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, June 17th: Is new-fangled “three-dimensional” gaming just totally not your style? Philadelphia Flash Users Group will host a discussion on ActionScript3 Game Development. Newgrounds.com’s Mike Welsh (and my old buddy from the murky, old school depths of Internet Relay Chat) will give some expertise from his experience with the Flash-based portal and the best-selling Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers. 6:30 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, June 17th: Also not to be missed Wednesday, Philly Startup Leaders will host the next installment of its Entrepreneurs Unplugged series, and this week Rafi Spero of Neat Company will share the struggles, successes, heartbreak and eureka-moments of one of Philly’s most successful software startups. It’ll be like Nirvana Unplugged without the heroin. 7:00 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, June 18th: Nothing goes together like summertime and design, so PhillyCHI will host its monthly happy hour to mix the two like vodka and cranberry. Head to Kildare’s in King of Prussia and don’t forget your user interface face. 6:00 p.m. King of Prussia. RSVP. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.