"For years there have been rumors that NVIDIA has a top-secret x86 processor project, and last November an NVIDIA exec all but confirmed that the company is looking at making an x86 chip at some point. That's why today's processor announcement from NVIDIA was both surprising and unsurprising... No, NVIDIA didn't finally take the wraps off its x86 project—assuming that it hasn't been cancelled, that's still a secret.

"This year has seen two major developments in the TV market: 3D, and the Web. TV makers are betting that consumers will flock to stores this holiday season to upgrade their plain old 2D and Web-less panels with models that will let them bring the Internet into their living rooms without requiring them to add another box to their entertainment center.

"A group of researchers have developed a way to identify pirated movies by reducing the original to a signature genetic code. The system can match even videos that have been altered or had their colors changed to the source, an area where many video piracy mechanisms fall short. Drs. Alex and Michael Bronstein and Professor Ron Kimmel have come up with a way to isolate a certain subset of data from video files that serves an analogous role to a fingerprint at a crime scene.

"In this article, we'll take a look at some of the issues that surround video games and the family, and we'll give you some real-world advice on what to look for, what the dangers are, and what you can do to have gaming be a safe and fun part of your household. What we hope you'll find is that most of this advice is common sense, and that by using your head and doing a bit of research you'll eliminate most of the problems that can pop up with children and gaming.

"World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Cataclysm, dropped on December 7, and brought a slew of big changes with it. The entirety of the continents in the original game have been altered significantly, creating a completely new leveling experience for players' first many hours (or days) with the game. There are two new races, new starting zones, and there is now more content on the other end of the game as well: new zones let players level to 85, then enter a bunch of new dungeons and raid instances.

"Google's wonderful new Ngram Viewer allows Internet users to search a huge corpus of scanned books from 1800 to 2008, searching them by word and graphing the results over time. This is far more awesome than it sounds, because it allows us to chart the history of all sorts of things. And, of course, to settle bar bets. For instance: which is superior, Mac or PC? And how would we decide?

"The forces of Anonymous have taken aim at several companies who are refusing to do business with WikiLeaks. 4chan's hordes have launched distributed denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Swiss bank PostFinance, and other sites that have hindered the whistleblowing site's operations." | more

"On October 30, Oleg Nikolaenko flew from his home in Moscow to JFK airport, and then on to Las Vegas. He checked in to the Bellagio Hotel, where he attended the Speciality Equipment Market Association car show, a show he had attended last year as well. Bad move—because the feds nabbed him in Vegas just before the show ended, leaving his wife and young son back in Russia. At a November 4 hearing before a judge in Las Vegas, Nikolaenko needed a Russian interpreter and a public defender, but it didn't take much interpretation to see that he wasn't about to go free.

"If you're in the market for a new point-and-shoot camera—whether for yourself or for someone on your holiday shopping list—the array of choices can make it difficult to find one that's right. Here are some tips to help you narrow down the options.

"We've already highlighted a few of the gaming deals to be had on Black Friday, but Direct2Drive is going above and beyond with its promotions. The company promises to have the lowest price on the games you buy digitally and, if one of the qualifying services has a lower price, you get the difference in store credit. That's not bad, especially when it's hard to make the decision to buy something knowing how many other sales are going to be starting in the next few weeks."