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Twitter has donated its archive of tweets, dating back to 2006, to the Library of Congress. The Library says it now has about 170 billion -- that's "b" -- of them. It says tweets have grown from about 140 million a day in February 2011 to nearly half a billion a day at the end of 2012.

The Library is developing a system to preserve and organize tweets and then will turn to effectively search them, possibly working with a private partner.

A weakness in Java 7 can allow installation of malicious programming to steal information or capture a machine for use in a temporary network which could carry out message-flooding attacks.

The DHS Computer Emergency Response Team said it knew of no practical solution to the problem.

Java is used by hundreds of millions of Windows, Mac and Linux machines, plus mobile devices and embedded systems to access interactive content or web applications and services.

Emerging markets will fuel much of that 4 percent growth over 2012, the report said, with spending flat or down slightly in Japan and Europe and the American economic outlook uncertain. The "mature" markets are projected to grow only 1 percent, against 9 percent for emerging markets.

Tablets and smartphones account for much of the growth. The CEA says by the end of the year 44 percent of Americans will own a tablet.

Among the new gadgets for those who want everything:

Trakdot -- an application that lets you track your luggage after an airline flight, which presumably will also cut down on lost bags.

HAPIfork -- a "smart" fork that is supposed to help you eat more slowly and also presumably less.

Lego Mindstorms EV3 -- a system from the inventor of those plastic chunks that fit together which can allow any kid over 10 to build a robot in as little as 20 minutes.

Several companies also offered applications to convert a smartphone into a computer "mouse" which can control a desktop unit.

Another smartphone application is TankBee, a toy tank controlled by a phone which shoots infrared "bullets" either at a target or another tank.

"More vendors are aligning with Patch Tuesday," said Jason Miller of VMware. It simplifies keeping track of when patches will arrive, but complicates deciding what patches are most important and need installing immediately.

Microsoft's 12 patches included only three rated critical and did not include one for a problem in Internet Explorer 6 through 8 which is being exploited. IE 9 and 10 are not affected.

One bug affects XML Core Services in every Windows version from Windows XP to the new Windows 8 and RT. Another patch affected the .Net developer framework.

Adobe again patched its FlashPlayer, Google produced a new edition of its Chrome web browser and Mozilla offered an updated Firefox browser.

None of the problems rated "critical" but 11 were given Google's second highest ranking of "high." Five were memory allocation bugs. The new Chrome also incorporated a patched version of Adobe's Flash Player.

Four security researchers split $6,000 in bounties for reporting bugs.

The NSA was asked for technical assistance to help banks understand the attackers tactics and to assess their financial systems. U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe the attacks originate in Iran.

The disruptions do not steal financial data, but simply overwhelm bank websites with floods of messages, slowing activity or shutting down the site temporarily.

On Jan. 1, laws in Illinois and California which prevent employers from asking workers for usernames and passwords to social media accounts went into effect. Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Delaware already had such laws.

The laws were spurred by privacy and worker advocates concerned that employers were asking job seekers and employees for access to social media accounts as a condition of employment.

Messenger users will keep the same account number for Skype and will be able to instant message or video chat with all existing contacts. Skype, however, also offers users to call both land and cell telephones, arrange video calls or conduct video calls with Facebook friends.

The James B. Hunt Library has more than a million and a half books stored. But it takes only about a ninth of the space as a traditional library.

A user goes online, locates the desired book and clicks on a link. The automated system determines whether that book is in and if the user then asks for it, a robot is dispatched to find the volume and deliver it. It can find and deliver a book within five minutes.

A supercomputer in the basement of the new building operates the system, which students and faculty can access remotely, from laboratories, dorm rooms or offices.

Ecovacs Robotics used the Consumer Electronics Show to display its Winbot 7, a robot that really does windows, inside or out.

It uses suction to hang on a window, has a wet pad for scrubbing and a squeegee to wipe the window. It finishes the job with a dry pad.

The Glendale, Calif., company which produces it expects to start selling it in April, at a cost between $299 and $399.

But software developers are working to make some of those tasks easier. They're creating applications, usually for smartphones and mobile devices, that searches municipal and other records and a variety of other information sources and compiles the results into an easily-usable format.

Consider Sage, built by New York City's Edward Yau to let parents quickly find and evaluate any of the city's 2,000 public and private preschools. He created it after relentless and exhausting searching on his own behalf. "I built it because I needed it," says Yau.

He is not alone.

PDX Bus compiles bus and train arrival times in Portland, Ore. Spot Agent shows Baltimore, Md., residents with meter-by-meter information on parking spaces. Again in New York, 596 Acres gives urban gardeners data on open spots likely to be available for gardens.

What makes these possible is the increasing transfer of municipal data into electronic forms and databases. They're time-consuming to be searched individually, but the new applications take advantage of the electronics to reduce that time.