Mark Lennihan

Even a sour economy doesn't mean you have to scratch technology gifts off your shopping list. You can still get a lot of neat gadgets for less than $100. And if you can afford to splurge, your money can go further these days.  

Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images

A new YouTube Symphony Orchestra project promises to set classical music on a far larger stage than before: YouTube's global video platform. The plan is to create, via the Internet, a new orchestra with 100 members from around the world.  

The financial crisis hammering Detroit's auto industry is sending shock waves to Silicon Valley, where a number of companies make the computer chips that have become increasingly vital components in cars and other vehicles.

• More auto industry news

 

David M. Barreda

If government agencies wanted to track his movements, Hasan Elahi decided, he would do it for them, letting his life play out in surreal time for the whole world to see on the Internet. If Big Brother was watching, Elahi would bore him to death.

• Video: Hasan Elahi's appearance on Stephen Colbert's show

 

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, recently spoke with Mercury News columnist Chris O'Brien about where he sees big opportunities for the software giant.

• More Microsoft news

 

Dai Sugano

A small wave of Bay Area investors has ventured into the risky Indian film industry, typically with amounts in the $50,000-to-$1-million range. Meanwhile, companies such as Cisco Systems and Yahoo have begun to look for ways to cash in on the digitalization of the popular melodramas.

• Q&A with Bollywood director Shekhar Kapur
• Silicon Valley to Bollywood | Photos

 

Even while performing better than expected in the last quarter, Hewlett-Packard is girding for a tough economy in the year ahead. HP is forecasting that its revenue and profit will grow in 2009, though at slower rates than in 2008.

• More Hewlett-Packard news

 

Going online instead of going to the mall can be a convenient and often cheaper way to get the holiday shopping done. But it can have a downside. Cyber-criminals tend to come out in force around peak shopping times.  

That annual Christmas party? Sorry, it's been downsized. The big family reunion? Maybe next year. Those cushy corporate retreats? Postponed, iced-down and deep-sixed. In Silicon Valley, the holidays have been scaled back.

• More on the economic crisis

 

At the risk of jeopardizing my own career, I think it's time for America to reconsider its love affair with gadgets. I'm not talking about a complete breakup, but, as one of my ex-girlfriends told me many years ago, perhaps it's time to "slow things down a bit."  

Some executives get big bonuses as their workforces get slashed. Companies argue they need to pay the money to keep top talent motivated.  

Patrick Tehan

On the opening of Christmas tree season, Frosty's tree farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains comes to life thanks to a pair of accidental farmers.