As the year comes to a close, I'd like to ask you something: What was the best tech purchase you made (or received as a gift)? What about it is so good?

December is a time of reflection and preparation for a new year and when blogs and news sites fill space with stories looking back on the past 12 months and making predictions for the year ahead. I avoid writing the latter type but have opined about some companies' successes and failures, typically Apple, Google, or Microsoft. But if you'll oblige me, I would like my 2014 reflection(s) to be about you -- to make you the star.

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It may be very old, but Microsoft's Compiled HTML Help (CHM) is still a common format for software documentation, as well as the occasional e-book.

Windows has a standard HTML Help viewer which should be able to display most files, but it’s a little fragile (just search the web for "regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx"). It may not work well if you need to display files in various character sets. And even if there are no problems, it's still a very basic viewer.

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Even though we are in a golden age of television, with shows like Breaking Bad, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, more and more people are turning to YouTube for their video watching. It is hard to blame them, as the online videos are usually concise, entertaining and more importantly, the stars are oftentimes more accessible. In other words, while getting a tweet from a Hollywood celebrity like Jim Carrey is rare, getting one from iJustine or Chris Pirillo is not so far-fetched. Not everyone gets tweets from Jay Z like I do.

Today, YouTube is sharing its "YouTubeRewind 2014" -- a mashup video that celebrates the best of 2014 (seen above). In addition, the search giant is listing the overall top videos, plus filtered categories for music and advertisements. Did your favorite videos make the cut?

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What's your gender? For some people it's a simple question -- nothing more than checking one of two boxes. But it can get more complicated than simply indicating that you're male or female. Many people feel that gender is not important and would prefer to keep this information to themselves. This is now a wish that Google respects on Google+.

In fact Google is going far beyond this. Starting today Google+ includes support for an infinite number of gender identifies. So whether you would rather not disclose where you fit onto the gender spectrum, or want to proclaim it outside of the confines of the usual binary options, now you can.

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The Pirate Bay has hit turbulent seas once again. Earlier today torrent users noticed that the site appeared to be offline. This in itself was nothing particularly unusual -- all sites have occasional downtime -- but it soon transpired that the site was down around the world. The Pirate Bay has already been blocked by many ISPs around the world, but it was clear that this was something different.

Now it seems that the reason for the disappearance of the Pirate Bay is a raid by Swedish Police. And it is not just the main site that's gone -- the same fate became the site's forum (Suprbay.org) and associated sites Bayimg.com and Pastebay.net.

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4K video is a runaway train at this point -- it is no longer a fad. It is looking like it will definitely become the next widely-adopted standard. While many people say 1080p is "good enough", that type of mindset stops progress. In the technology world, nothing is ever good enough; we must always push for more.

Unfortunately, 4K content is a bit rare at the moment, but growing every day. Today, Amazon announces that Prime members can watch 4K content for free. While this is very exciting news, there is a catch.

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Whilst high profile vulnerabilities in popular products tend to make the headlines, they’re often not the ones that most of us face on a regular basis.

IT security specialist Secunia has released a new quarterly Vulnerability Update revealing the day-to-day threat landscape. It lists the number of vulnerabilities disclosed for software products over a three month period.

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What is Nokia doing after ditching phone-making? The Finnish company is focusing its efforts on more lucrative endeavors, like HERE. Even though nowadays the brand is mostly associated with Windows Phone, Nokia also brought its well-known mapping software to Android and ramped up its efforts to make the web version more attractive as well.

The result of the company's work to improve the online version of HERE is said to be "a better, faster and stronger here.com", which packs some interesting, value-adding new features. However, there is also something in store (no pun intended) for Windows Phone users, in the form of an update which is available for HERE apps on the platform.

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If you've traveled to certain locations then you likely know that bargaining over a price is an acceptable practice. It is, however, something that went out of style long ago in the US, save for car dealers. Now Amazon aims to bring it back into fashion.

The new system is called, quite simply, 'Make an offer'. It enables customers to haggle a price with third party sellers who operate on the retailer's platform.

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Theft by hackers is a constant problem for software companies, so solutions that can prevent license abuse can help protect revenue.

In the past these have often been quite clunky, involving hardware dongles and such. The cloud era means that more sophistication is needed and Flexera Software has created a secure licensing technology with leading tamper resistance and detection.

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There are so many Linux distributions nowadays -- arguably too many -- that it often feels like resources are being spread thin. After all, many Linux contributors don't get paid for their work -- they do it for love. With that said, it is a bit silly that this free labor is not being maximized to its potential. It is reminiscent of Android ROMs, where much of the work is duplicated, and everyone wants to offer their own for Internet fame. The Linux community has become like a vomit-bucket, where developers puke up distros that come and go; a trip to Distrowatch can make you dizzy.

Luckily, not all Linux distributions are fly-by-night operating systems; quite the contrary actually. There are still dependable distros like Ubuntu and Fedora, with the latter being my personal favorite (Linus Torvalds' favorite too). Today, Fedora 21 reaches final release. Yes, the wait has been long, but good things come to those that do so.

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One of the problems that larger businesses face is pulling together information from different sources in order to get an overview of the whole.

Integration specialist Jitterbit has upgraded its Harmony cloud platform to allow it to bring together digital processes spanning multiple applications, departments and partners in real time.

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Coming to the end of 2014, it's time to start looking to what the year ahead may have to offer. After gazing into its crystal ball, Juniper Research has compiled a list of what it expects to be the biggest technology trends of 2015. Topping the list is a focus on security. Juniper Research predicts that there will be greater interest in encryption and tokenization, as cloud storage providers battle to regain customer trust.

The launch of Apple Pay will help to drive an increased interest in biometrics to help with security, but 2015 is also predicted to be the year that wearables really take off. Now that Apple has entered the arena, there should be a greater focus on aesthetics and smaller players will increase in popularity. Tied in with both security and wearables is a predicted jump in the use of NFC -- for payments, authentication, health and more.

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Bombarding customers with irrelevant communications is not an effective way of getting across a marketing message and generating new sales.

The key is to understand the consumer and deliver the right message at the right time. Cloud marketing specialist AgilOne is making this easier for retailers with a new 'predictive intelligence' product.

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If you are running Windows 8.1 and have a collection of videos in the MKV format, then you are most likely using desktop software like VLC, or a third-party Store app to watch them. You are forced to, because Xbox Video, the Modern UI video player that Microsoft bundles with the operating system, doesn't support MKVs. Well, that just changed.

Microsoft has updated Xbox Video for Windows 8.1 to introduce support for MKV video playback. The latest version of the app -- 2.6.0432.0 -- also packs a couple of fixes that improve the functionality of certain features.

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