While a lot of gamer talk over the next few weeks will be all Xbox and Playstation, there’s been a lot of buzz this fall about a whole different way to play. Valve is a company that makes games for PCs, but also consoles and mobile devices. It delivers its games with a distribution company called Steam. Many consider Valve and Steam to be more of a big gaming tent, and in that tent is a new console called the Steam Box.

If you want to know how hot social networks are right now, no need to look farther than self-destructing messaging app Snapchat. The Wall Street Journal reports the company recently got an offer from Facebook to the tune of $3 billion. Snapchat owners apparently turned down the social network. And the website Wikileaks has leaked a new document, one that shows an evolving international conversation about intellectual property in the digital world.

This week a debate is heating up at the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva. At issue is whether or not we will outsource to machines not only the act of killing, but the act of deciding when to kill. Organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are calling for a ban on so-called “killer robots.” They’ve even got a website: StopKillerRobots.org. Sounds a little sci-fi right? Science? Yes. Fiction? Not really. 

Relief organizations are searching for survivors in the aftermath of the super typhoon that struck the Philippines on Friday. Survival in natural disasters can often be linked closely with better access to technology. And sometimes the technology is far from fancy. In the Philippines, where 99 percent of the country’s residents have access to mobile phones, simple text messaging has saved lives. So what about when cell service is down? One possible solution to keep people communicating is a so-called mesh network.

When we talk about building new technology, we’re often talking about building it out of artificial ingredients. But as we understand our natural world better, the area of biotechnology is growing. And a person at the forefront of using biotech in everything from medical instruments to consumer electronics is Angela Belcher, professor of biological engineering at MIT. She’s been looking at sea snails and how they might help us build new technology.

It’s Friday and that means Silicon Tally time. This week’s guest is Gizmodo Staff writer Leslie Horn. And, Twitter’s stock may have jumped over 70 percent when going public yesterday, but Facebook also had some key growth this week in Cambridge Massachusetts. The company has confirmed that it’s opening a Boston area office not far from the spot it was born those many moons ago in a Harvard University dorm room.

It’s important to remember that in the tech world, venture capitalists come in all shapes and sizes. And a high profile V.C. just reportedly dropped $1.1 million on a new social network for teenagers called Shots of Me. Who is this mystery man? None other than Justin Bieber. Also, this week after months of waiting, Tom Wheeler became head of the Federal Communications Commission. As the new head of the body that regulates all kinds of communication, Wheeler will face some big issues.

In honor of Twitter’s initial public offering, scheduled for tomorrow, today’s show is all about Twitter. Bells will ring, investors will line up and company leaders are hoping that the New York Stock Exchange will not repeat the NASDAQ’s bungling of Facebook’s IPO last year. But it won’t just be Twitter’s employees and potential investors who are watching. A lot of people in the tech world think Twitter’s IPO is signaling an important moment for the industry.

“Call of Duty: Ghosts” comes out today. And expectations for global sales of the so-called first person shooter video game are high — like 25 million copies high. But it won’t get there without a big marketing budget spent by publisher Activision. Plus, comparing today’s IPOs to those from six years ago. And, new farming technology.