6. : CSO's Joan Goodchild has been all over the botnet beat lately, and her latest installment on that topic offers some advice from security pros on how to keep corporate networks from becoming hooked into botnets.

7. : The headline says it all.

8. and : Well, it looks like many of us who are hoping for e-readers will find Kindle's under the tree now, doesn't it?

9. : Living with four cats, we have keen appreciation for research out of IBM toward building a computer that mimics the human brain, with a brain simulation that exceeds the capacity of a cat's cortex. Of course, it's also the case that some cats seem to have better cortexes than others, but that's a different story.

10. and : Arguably, some other IT news story (OK, quite a few other IT news stories) could be in this slot, but this one generated a whole lot of interest and discussion, and besides which we aren't about to let down the "Cheezburger" crowd by leaving it out. The iPhone app, CatPaint, allows users to add cats to any photo. At last, we have a reason to buy an iPhone.