The Plucky Programmer

AP - No one's going to blame you for keeping holiday gifts minimal this year. But if you want to round out your handmade cards, scarves, pickles and jam with a gadget or gizmo, here are a handful of our $100-and-under favorites.

AP - Apple Inc. is in advanced talks to buy online music retailer Lala.com, a Silicon Valley startup that has threatened "the end of the MP3" with its fast song-streaming application.

AP - The Federal Communications Commission on Friday asked Verizon Wireless why it recently doubled the fees it charges customers when they break their contracts on "smart" phones.

AP - In simpler times, maintaining good health was a matter of joining a gym or lacing up running shoes for a loop in the park. At most, you'd buy a watch with a digital display so you could time your laps.

AP - General Electric Co. has promised to buy at least $345 million in advertising from NBC Universal over five years after selling a controlling stake in the entertainment company to Comcast Corp., according to a regulatory filing Friday.

AP - Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have signed off on their plan to team up against Google Inc. in the lucrative Internet search market.

AFP - Online collaboration startup AppJet said that Google is buying the San Francisco firm and merging its technology with an innovation Wave communication platform the Internet giant is creating.

PC World - The latest charger from iGo aims to make it easy to be green. The $100 iGo Green Charger uses only the precise amount of energy your laptop requires, and can automatically shut off if need be when not in use.

PC World - Dell is setting up a new business unit surrounding mobile products as it tries to expand its presence in the communications market, the company said on Friday.

Reuters - Apple Inc has acquired digital music service Lala, as the dominant online music retailer explores new models for selling songs.

AP - Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. plunged ahead of the regular session Friday after the video game maker lowered its financial outlook again and said it probably won't meet its profitability goals for next year.

NewsFactor - Verizon is ramping up the testosterone in its newest ad campaign against the Big Man on Campus, Apple's iPhone. Falling just short of saying other phones are for girlie-men, Verizon's ads tout their phone's "racehorse taped to a Scud missile" speed as opposed to that of a "digitally clueless beauty pageant queen. […]

PC World - HSBC Bank says a bug in its imaging software inadvertently exposed sensitive data about some of its customers going through bankruptcy proceedings.

AP - Telephone and computer software company Avaya Inc. said Friday that Canada's minister of industry approved its acquisition of the enterprise solutions unit of Nortel Networks Corp.

PC World - The US$10 webcam that Anna Giesman bought her daughter at Office Depot over the Thanksgiving weekend sounds like one of those deals that's too good to be true. And for her, it was.

Reuters - Gone are the days of shepherds in tea towels and tinsel-clad angels. Britain's competitive parents are forking out on luxury pashmina shawls and velour dressing gowns to make their child the star of the annual nativity play.

Reuters - A Maryland groom has created an viral story storm after he interrupted his wedding last month to update his Facebook and Twitter accounts from the altar.

Reuters - An Iraqi reporter imprisoned for throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush found himself on the receiving end of a similar footwear attack in Paris Tuesday.

Reuters - A 33-year-old furry photographer is winning fans on social networking website Facebook for pictures of her daily life as an orangutan in a Vienna zoo.

Reuters - Germany's most wanted fugitive was captured Tuesday after a five-day manhunt, when police knocked the escaped murderer off the woman's bicycle he was riding along a rural road near the Dutch border.

Reuters - Designer jeans labeled "Made in North Korea" will go on sale this Friday at a trendy department store in the Swedish capital, marking a first foray into Western fashion for the reclusive communist state.

Reuters - Beverage can tops are still finding their way into the stomachs of some children, especially teens, despite being redesigned in the 1970s to keep people from swallowing them, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Reuters - Parents used to save for their children's weddings but now there's another major rite of passage to fund before they even leave home -- the school formal or prom, a booming industry which seems recession-proof.

Reuters - Jonathan Littell, who won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2006 for "The Kindly Ones," has picked up another prize for the same work -- the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

Reuters - Rome's largest taxi cooperative is trying to improve the bad name of the city's cabbies, notorious among tourists to one of the world's best loved cities.

AP - In a potentially valuable boost to fighting climate change, rich and poor countries are close to an agreement to end the destruction of the world's forests in 20 years, government negotiators said.

AP - A decision could come within days on whether to temporarily close a vital Chicago area shipping waterway in an increasingly desperate bid to stop the invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, an Obama administration adviser said Friday.

AP - Climate researchers say cooler temperatures in North America last year do not mean global warming is easing.

LiveScience.com - The question of how to address global climate change is one of the most confounding on the planet. Experts and world leaders plan to wrestle with the scientific, political and social issues surrounding the topic at an upcoming conference in the Danish city of Copenhagen next week. Here's what you need to know.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has delivered a boost to UN climate talks in Copenhagen, agreeing to delay his visit until the end of the meeting, when the drive for a global warming pact will climax.

AFP - Arab oil ministers of OPEC said on Friday that the cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of 80 dollars a barrel.

SPACE.com - Astronomers say they have taken the first direct image of a planet-like object orbiting a star much like our own sun.

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) -- New research points to the possibility of a genetic link between vitamin D and heart disease.

AP - President Barack Obama is shifting the timing of his visit to an international climate summit in Copenhagen as prospects for a political agreement at the event seem more likely.

AP - A young giant panda who became a major attraction after his birth at Washington's National Zoo will leave for China early next year for breeding.