The Plucky Programmer

AP - A graduate student who must pay four record labels a combined $675,000 in damages for downloading and sharing songs online has been ordered to destroy his illegal music files — but a judge declined to force him to stop promoting the activity that got him in trouble.

AP - Amazon.com Inc. will add two features to the Kindle e-book reader to make the gadget more accessible to blind and vision-impaired users.

AP - Fresh information from blogs, news sites, Twitter and other popular hangouts will appear in Google's search results more quickly as the company aims to give people a more comprehensive look at what's happening on the Web.

AP - The Associated Press is inviting Facebook users to vote on the 10 top news stories of the year, marking the first time the public has been invited to weigh in since the news cooperative began its annual survey in 1936.

AP - AOL is shaking loose from Time Warner Inc. and heading into the next decade the way it began this one, as an independent company. Unlike the 1990s, though, when AOL got rich selling dial-up Internet access, it starts the 2010s as an underdog, trying to beef up its Web sites and grab more advertising revenue.

AP - A new online tool from Yahoo Inc. will let users see and edit the personal profiles that the Internet company compiles about them to target Internet advertising.

AFP - Google search is getting eyes and ears, moving beyond typed key words to let people scour the Internet with mobile telephone cameras or spoken words in multiple languages.

PC World - The buzzy (and buzz-worthy) online video management software Boxee has become a set-top box, with the help of D-Link. So instead of using your spare laptop or Mac Mini to run Boxee, you can now buy a dedicated piece of hardware (with Boxee baked in) and plop it down by your TV set. Yay! Another box for the living room! Merry Christmas!

AP - The 3M Co. said Monday it has formed a new division that will focus on mobile electronics.

AP - Music videos from Norah Jones, Coldplay, Katy Perry and other artists under EMI Group PLC are headed to an online music video venture, Vevo, set to launch Tuesday with a gala in New York.

PC World - In the "I'll do anything for attention" category this morning, Spike TV Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley can reportedly be heard pimping for Microsoft's upcoming Halo:

PC World - Complaining to AT&T about poor wireless coverage has never been easier thanks to a new iPhone app.

PC World - Nearly a week after an unidentified hacker posted attack code that exploits a flaw in Adobe's Illustrator software, the company says it will fix the issue by Jan. 8.

AFP - A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has won a 40,000-dollar prize for using social networking tools to identify the locations of 10 large weather balloons in a contest sponsored by the Pentagon's research agency.

PC World - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission plans to take a hard look at how it enforces consumer privacy standards in the coming months, with new rules for online companies possibly on the way, the agency's chairman said Monday.

Reuters - Australian police have charged two stars of British reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here" with animal cruelty after an RSPCA complaint over an episode that involved killing and cooking a rat.

Reuters - Robbers took advantage of Brazil's passion for soccer to steal about $6 million from a cash delivery firm, as the nation was transfixed on championship games, media reported on Monday.

Reuters - Britain's Ministry of Defense has had a close encounter of the credit crunch kind.

Reuters - Some Australians are up in arms over a new kangaroo and emu flavored chip, horrified that people are encouraged to eat the nation's coat of arms which depicts the iconic Australian animals.

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.

AP - The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health.

AP - The sleek, bullet-shaped spacecraft is about the size of a large business jet — with wide windows and seats for six well-heeled passengers to take a thrill ride into space.

AP - Delegates to a pivotal climate conference welcomed an Obama administration move Monday to regulate greenhouse gases under existing clean air law, but said they still expect more.

LiveScience.com - If asked to describe how skin cream feels, you might use words like "smooth," "thick," or "greasy."

HealthDay - MONDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. environmental officials said Monday that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide endanger people's health.

AFP - The energy ministers of nine European Union nations on Monday signed a deal to develop a massive offshore wind power grid in the North Sea and Irish Sea, as UN climate talks got underway in Copenhagen.

SPACE.com - Two months ago, NASA put out the call to its past and present employees: design a patch to symbolize the end of the space shuttle program coming to a close in 2010, and the chosen artwork will fly to orbit on one of the final flights.

Reuters - A study involving 128 South African families has identified genetic traits that may protect some people from tuberculosis in a finding that could help lead to a new TB vaccine, scientists said on Saturday.

AP - Intellectual freedom, independent research and frequent coffee breaks with colleagues helped this year's Nobel Prize winners make their groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

Reuters - Australian police have charged two stars of British reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here" with animal cruelty after an RSPCA complaint over an episode that involved killing and cooking a rat.