What if you didn't have to drive to the hardware store and instead you could just print out whatever tool or part or object you might need? What if when the kids were demanding the latest must-have toy, you could just print it instead? In 3D? That may be the world that's just around the corner. A world where you buy blueprints instead of things and the 3D printer is the most important appliance in your house.

Even if you're not hitting the malls for those crazy doorbuster sales today, chances are pretty good you'll need to do some holiday shopping between now and the end of the year. Given that technology is supposed to be making our lives easier, we're offering some ways to leverage the digital age to make your shopping fruitful and easier.

Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most popular websites in the world. Looking through some of the massive entries and their histories of meticulous editing, one wonders who the people are who create and maintain the site. In large part, they are volunteers, driven to create and improve the site.

The process of waiting for a new kidney can be agonizing for patients in need of one. But there's new hope thanks to computer science and math. A team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh thinks they've found an algorithm that can make a huge difference.

It's a busy travel week and many passengers are facing a choice in security screenings between scanners many see as a violation of their privacy or a physical pat down search that could violate their privacy in different ways. Today, we're looking into just how effective the scanners are and whether a better system could be found.

You can think of technology as gadgets, computers, the internet. Kevin Kelly says the most helpful and accurate way to see it is as a living force with a mind of its own. Like any living creature, technology has desires. Understanding those desires is the key to living in harmony with technology. We talk to Kevin Kelly about the ideas in his new book, What Technology Wants.

A Nicaraguan general looks on Google Maps, sees that some nearby land is marked as belonging to his country but is currently flying a Costa Rican flag. So he marches in, has the flag taken down, and claims the land. If it was a movie, he'd be played by Steve Carrell. But the reality of the situation is more complex and thought-provoking.

Mark Reed and Dante Walkup have been together for 10 years and decided to get married. But they live in Dallas where same-sex marriage is not legal. After doing a little research, they found that the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriages are recognized, does not have clear laws forbidding what are called proxy weddings. So they got married via Skype.

Short answer? We don't know. Slightly longer answer: It's kind of strange that we don't know. The incident occurred last April and was recently reported by the security firm McAfee. The Chinese government says the sudden traffic reroute was an accident but little is known about what happened to the data when it was there.

Facebook announced a new messaging system that incorporates email, texts, instant messaging, and the Facebook messaging people are already using. But given the privacy concerns that have dogged the social media giant for years, are users going to be willing to trust Facebook enough to use it for all their personal communications?