Picture 
this: Your doctor prescribes a new medication, but once you start taking it, you begin to feel a little off. While the smart thing to do is call the doctor or pharmacist, the more common action today is to hop on the Web and see if you can figure out what’s going on.
As it turns out, that self-diagnosing and hypochondriac-like behavior could help save people’s lives.
Gordon 
Bell, 79, doesn’t expect to die anytime soon. But when the time inevitably comes, his grandchildren—and, when they’re born, his great-grandchildren and their children—will have an insight into his life that few descendants ever get.
For nearly 15 years, Bell, researcher emeritus at the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Laboratory, has been painstakingly digitizing and categorizing his life, storing personal and professional moments as part of a “lifelogging” project done in conjunction with a Microsoft research program called MyLifeBits.
The 
video game industry hasn’t done a lot to endear itself to investors in the past few years. Competition from the mobile space, player fatigue with the lack of innovation and aging console systems have resulted in slumping annual software sales since 2009.
But it has shown signs of life in the past two months. Game software sales were up 52 percent last month from a year earlier, after rising 23 percent in August, according to The NPD Group.
Analysts say that momentum could continue into the holiday season and beyond.
While 
big data is fast becoming an essential tool for businesses and marketers, it can still be hard for the average consumer to grasp. Faced with dense data sets and jargon-like “Hadoop,” people’s attentions tend to quickly wander elsewhere.
But big data isn’t all about optimizing shipping routes and streamlining customer support calls. Sometimes, it reveals details about the world we might never have suspected. As data scientists crunch more and more numbers, they’re finding a few startling trends— and they’ve managed to conclusively prove some long-held beliefs.
The 
digital world has done more than change the way music is delivered to fans. It has revolutionized how labels find new acts and position existing ones.
While the days of scouts stumbling across the next big artist in a darkened bar are not completely gone, they’re quickly being replaced by deep data mining. And agents and labels are increasingly leaning on social media to help guide a performer’s career.
North 
American players started forgetting about the PlayStation 2 somewhere around the end of 2007. The PS3 had been out for a year by that point and Sony—and independent third-party game publishers—were focusing all of their marketing efforts on the new platform.
But in developing and emerging markets, the PS2 was all the rage. In fact, that rage only recently died down: with production costs on the console having become negligible, Sony kept selling the system through January of this year, when it finally halted production.
Mention 
big data to the average person on the street and you’ll often get a yawn—or outrage. It’s an overarching term that generally brings one of two things to mind: the NSA’s PRISM project or automated suggestions at major e-commerce sites. Either way, the assumption is it’s not something that affects their day-to-day lives.
But there’s a lot more to big data than snooping and up-selling. And, as it becomes an increased part of business life, it’s having a bigger impact on everyday occurrences than you might realize.
Big 
data have been used for a variety of unusual things, but its latest use might be its most strange yet: The hunt for Sasquatch.
Josh Stevens, a PhD candidate at Penn State University, has compiled 92 years worth of data on Bigfoot, showing where the mythical creature has reportedly been wandering—and how it compares to population growth in North America.
Bitcoin 
may offer a level of freedom that traditional currencies do not, but it’s hardly the most secure form of money.
Just as a pickpocket or mugger can rob you on the street, so a hacker can swipe your virtual money. And it can be much more difficult to recover stolen virtual cash than legal tender.
Is 
a video game that requires torture going too far?
Critics and gamers may love “Grand Theft Auto V,” but, like its predecessors, the game is proving to be a lightning rod for controversy.
Chris Morris: Journalist 