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Submission + - US Dept of Veterans Affairs to dump freely-available electronic health record sy

Submitted by dmr001
dmr001 writes: US Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, MD announced to Ongress plans to transition from VistA to a commercial EHR. Despite the fact that physicians typically find VistA sensible and relatively easy to use, Shulkin feels the VA should get out of the software business and buy a "commercially tested" product. The US Department of Defense recently contracted with Cerner though that transition is already beset with delays. There's no word yet how the VA might ensure any new system will be compatible with DOD's solution. Recent attempts to upgrade VistA (originally developed in house) using outside contractors have not been clearly successful.

Submission + - Powershell is Open Sourced and available for Linux and MacOS (microsoft.com)

Submitted by Bobfrankly1
Bobfrankly1 writes: Some have suspected the possibility of Powershell on linux since the release of DotNet Core. JSnover announced the release today:

Today, we are taking the next step in our journey. I am extremely excited to share that PowerShell is open sourced and available on Linux. (For those of you who need a refresher, PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language built on the .NET Framework to help IT professionals control and automate the administration of the Windows, and now Linux, operating systems and the applications that run on them.)

It's available on github now: https://github.com/PowerShell/...

Submission + - Ransomware in Hospitals Violates HIPAA Patient Privacy Law (securityledger.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: Ransomware infections have been plaguing the healthcare field for much of the last two years. But amidst all the reports of hospitals hamstrung by encrypted, clinical systems, there’s been precious little talk about whether such incidents are violations of patients’ privacy under the federal HIPAA legislation. Now we have an answer: yes.

Security Ledger reports (https://securityledger.com/2016/07/regulator-ransomware-infections-likely-reportable-under-hipaa/) that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday issued new guidance (http://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/RansomwareFactSheet.pdf) that suggests strongly that ransomware infections that affect electronic patient health information (ePHI) are reportable violations under HIPAA.

“When electronic protected health information (ePHI) is encrypted as the result of a ransomware attack, a breach has occurred because the ePHI encrypted by the ransomware was acquired,” HHS said in its guidance. (PDF)

The new guidance comes after a period of consideration and debate within policy circles about whether having patient records encrypted by ransomware should count as a “breach” of patient privacy. In theory, the files aren’t being accessed and viewed, simply scrambled and held for ransom. Or so the thinking went.

Writing on the Virta Labs blog (http://go.virtalabs.com/ocr-ransomware), Virta CEO and University of Michigan researcher Kevin Fu, noted that the HHS guidelines get a lot right: ruling out an exemption for systems with Full Disk Encryption running (ransomware, by its very nature, operates when the machine is running and the operating system and file system are accessible).

Fu expected that the guidelines would be “bad news” for the majority of Health Delivery Organizations (HDOs) covered by HIPAA. “The OCR guidance means you just got clarity on whether ransomware results in a breach. Sorry, the answer is yes, unless you have methodical evidence to the contrary.”

Submission + - Open source generated music visualisations of 48 preludes and fugues by Bach

Submitted by rDouglass
rDouglass writes: Stephen Malinowski loves creating visualisation videos of classical music so much he created his own open source software, the Music Animation Machine, to do the job. The idea for the software started in 1974 with a hallucination, and since that time he's been refining it and, since the advent of YouTube, posting the results online.

Now he's completed an epic 48 video set of visualisations to the "Open Well-Tempered Clavier", a public domain music project by pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, and the results are spectacular. These are not cold, mathematical renderings (though there is a ton of mathematics involved in creating them — his blog mentions terms like Voronoi tessellation). These are artworks that bely an uncanny understanding and love for the underlying musical structures in Bach's music. It is Stephen's deep comprehension of contrapuntal music and fugues that makes these videos compelling musical / visual experiences.

Press release: http://www.musanim.com/WTC/
See the whole playlist here: http://bit.ly/29N1bRH

Submission + - Where is the rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20 hrs. battery tablet?

Submitted by Qbertino
Qbertino writes: I’m a tablet user. I bought the HTC Flyer when it was just roughly 1,5 years old to fiddle with it and program for it. I was hooked pretty quickly and it became part of my EDC. The hardware has since become way outdated, but I still think it’s one of the best tablets ever built in terms of quality and consistency. About a roughly four years later I moved to a then current 10“ Yoga 2 with Atom CPU & LTE module + a SD slot for a 64GB card. I’m very happy with the device and it goes with me where ever I go. It has 12 — 16 hours of battery time, depending on usage and basically is my virtual bookshelf/music/multimedia/mailing device and keeps the strain on my eyes and my fingers to a minimum. It has some power-button issues, but those are bearable considering all the other upsides.

I’ve got everything on this device and it has basically become my primary commodity computer. My laptops are almost exclusively in use when I need to code or do task where performance is key, such as 3D or non-trivial image editing.

In a nutshell, I’m a happy tablet user, I consider it more important than having the latest phone — my Moto G2 is serving me just fine — and I’m really wondering why there are no tablets that build on top of this. Memory is scarce on these devices (RAM and storage) as often is battery time.

Most tablets feel flimsy (the Yoga 2 and Yoga 3 being a rare exception) and have laughable battery times (again, the Yoga models being a rare exception). However, I’ve yet to find a tablet that does not give me storage or memory problems in some way or other, lasts for a day or two in power and doesn’t feel chinsy and like it won’t stand a month of regular everyday use and carrying around in an EDC bag.

Of course, we all know that RAM is an artificial scarcity on mobile devices, so the manufacturers can charge obscene amounts of money for upgrades but 1GB as a standard? That’s very tight by todays standards. Not speaking of storage. Is it such a big deal adding 128GB or perhaps even 256GB of storage to these devices as a default? Why has none of the manufacturers broken rank? Do you think there’s a market for the type of tablet described in the title and we can expect some movement in that direction or am I on my own here?

What are your thoughts and observations on the tablet market? Do you think they are the convergence devices we’ve all been waiting for — as apparently Apple and Aquaris & Ubuntu seem to think? (I’d agree to some extent btw.)

Your educated opinion is requested. Thanks.

Submission + - Coleco pulls trademark on the Chameleon / Retro VGS (engadget.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Last month the Coleco Chameleon showed up at Toy Fair promising a taste of retro-gaming glory. But those promises have come to naught after a non-start to its Kickstarter and numerous accusations regarding faked prototypes. Today the Chameleon suffers another blow as Coleco Holdings, the company with the rights to the Coleco name and properties, has terminated its association with RetroVGS and the Chameleon project.
Coleco partner Chris Cardillo gave Engadget the following statement, which will also appear on Coleco's Facebook page:

"Retro has decided that the work that they have created is not sufficient to demonstrate at this time. Consequently, we can no longer proceed with the project and the Chameleon project will be terminated. This separation is amicable. We wish Retro luck in the future."

This isn't the only blow RetroVGS has suffered in the past week: On Saturday David Giltinan, the managing editor of RetroVGS's RETRO Magazine, announced his departure from the company. He cited the ongoing issues with the Chameleon as the impetus behind his leaving, saying "I have to separate myself from everything associated with it." Though he conceded poor messaging from RetroVGS, he also asserted that there was "no ill intent or maliciousness on the part of the team."

We've reached out to RetroVGS for comment on the future of the project."

Submission + - Eclipse pushes new open IDE (prweb.com)

Submitted by LeadSongDog
LeadSongDog writes: Backed by Codenvy, Microsoft Corp., Red Hat, and SAP, the Eclipse Foundation has touted a new cloud based IDE they call "Eclipse Che", built upon Java, Javascript, and Docker.

Submission + - A New Reality for IT: The 18-Month Org Chart

Submitted by StewBeans
StewBeans writes: Finding and keeping IT talent is getting increasingly competitive and expensive. A recruiter for Bay Area and Seattle tech companies said in a recent New York Times article about the cloud computing skill gap, “Someone working deep inside Amazon is getting five to 20 recruiting offers a day. Compensation has doubled in five years.” Beyond steep salary and benefits packages, the resources to train new IT talent is wasted if they jump ship for the next best offer. That's why some IT executives are focusing talent management inward and investing in their current employees who are loyal and eager to learn, adapt, and grow with their company. Curt Carver, CIO for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said that this approach led him to do away with the 10-year IT org chart and remain more agile as technology needs change. He argues that 18-month org charts and constant training are the new reality for IT, providing this example: "If you go back a couple of years ago, we were heavily involved in the storage business. Now I can buy unlimited storage from the cloud. I don’t need a lot of people doing storage. In fact, I may only need one. Everybody else, I’m willing to retrain you, but you’re going to be doing mobile, or you’re going to be doing business intelligence, or you’re going to be helping our organizations do gap analysis."

Submission + - AMD Catalyst Linux Driver Performs Wildly Different Based On Program's Name (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In past years the AMD Catalyst Linux driver has yielded better performance if naming the executable "doom3.x86" or "compiz" (among other choices), but these days this application profile concept is made more absurd with more games coming to Linux but AMD not maintaining well their Linux application profile database. The latest example is by getting ~40% better performance by renaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Linux. If renaming the "csgo_linux" binary to "hl2_linux" for Half-Life 2 within Steam, the frame-rates suddenly increase across the board, this is with the latest Catalyst 15.7 Linux driver while CS:GO has been on Linux for nearly one year. Should driver developers re-evaluate their optimization practices for Linux?

Submission + - Calling All Data Do-Gooders

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: We're entering a new era of data-for-good, writes SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, who explains how SAS and the International Organization for Migration are using analytics and data for disaster relief efforts, but issues a broader call-to-action: "These projects just scratch the surface of what’s possible when new data, and those that know how to use it, are applied to humanitarian needs. Organizations such as DataKind and INFORMS, through its new Pro Bono Analytics program, are rallying data scientists to lend their time and expertise to helping people around the world. And there are many more data sets out there that could help with relief and other humanitarian efforts. It’s an exciting time to be in the world of big data and analytics. We’re just beginning to understand how technology can tackle society’s 'grand challenges." Please share your ideas on what unlikely data sources might help with disaster relief. And, how can we bring the world’s analytics talent to bear on these challenges?" So, who's ready to be the next John Snow?

Submission + - PayPal responds to fury over robocalls, will now allow users to opt-out (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this week, PayPal was lambasted for its new user agreement which allowed the online payments company to robocall and autotext customers at will. What was particularly jarring about the user agreement — set to go into effect on July 1 — is that PayPal reserved the right to contact customers not just for account problems, but also for surveys and promotions. Even worse, PayPal brazenly advised users who weren’t on board with the new agreement that they should simply close their account and move it along.

Naturally, news of PayPal’s new TOS caused something of an uproar online. Thankfully, PayPal has since realized that forcing users to accept automated texts and phone calls wasn’t the wisest of business decisions.

Submission + - Amazon now collecting sales tax on purchases by Ohio consumers (cleveland.com)

Submitted by Fnord666
Fnord666 writes: According to a news article on cleveland.com, Amazon began collecting sales tax from Ohio consumers starting on June 1st, .

Ohio retailers and retail associations have spent years trying to persuade Congress to pass laws requiring online retailers to collect and remit the same state sales taxes that brick-and-mortar stores are required to.

"What great news for Ohio," said Gordon Gough, president and chief executive of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, which represents more than 6,400 members. His group is applauding the fact that not only is Amazon making a substantial commitment to the state by creating 1,000 jobs here, but "they're going to come to Ohio and play by the same rules as all the other retailers." According to Gough "Ohio will become the 25th state where the online retailer collects sales tax."

The article goes on to say that "In exchange, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority gave Amazon an exemption on sales taxes for equipment purchases at the data centers and a payroll tax credit for new jobs, according to Bloomberg News. The incentives are valued at about $81 million over 15 years."

Submission + - NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Reviewed: Gaming And Possibly The Ultimate 4K Streamer (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: NVIDIA officially launched its SHIELD Android TV set-top device today and it's sort of a "tweener" product, with far more horsepower than something like Roku or Apple TV, but on par with an average game console, and at a more affordable price tag of $199. What's interesting, however, is that it's powered by NVIDIA's Tegra X1 SoC which features a Maxwell-derived GPU and eight CPU cores; four ARM A57 cores and four A53s. The A57 cores are 64-bit, out-of-order designs, with multi-issue pipelines, while the A53s are simpler, in-order, highly-efficient designs. Which cores are used will depend on the particular workload being executed at the time. Tegra X1 also packs a 256-core Maxwell-derived GPU with the same programming capabilities and API support as NVIDIA's latest desktop GPUs. In standard Android benchmarks, the SHIELD pretty much slays any current high-end tablet or smartphone processor in graphics, but is about on par with the octal-core Samsung Exynos in terms of standard compute workloads but handily beating and octal-core Qualcomm Snapdragon. What's also interesting about the SHIELD Android TV is that it's not only an Android TV-capable device with movie and music streaming services like Netflix etc., but it also plays any game on Google Play and with serious horsepower behind it. The SHIELD Android TV is also the first device certified for Netflix's Ultra HD 4K streaming service.

Submission + - A Ph.D thesis defense 77 years late (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: A story about a 102-year old lady doing her PhD thesis defense is not that common, but when the thesis defense was delayed by a whopping 77 years, that gotta raise some eyebrows

Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport studied diphtheria at the University of Hamburg in Germany and at 1938, the 25-year old Protestant-raised, German-born Ingeborg Syllm submitted for her doctorate thesis defense

Ms. Ingeborg Syllm was denied her chance for her thesis defense because her mother was of the Jewish ancestry, making her an official 'cross-breed'

As a 'cross-breed' the Nazi regime forbidden the university from proceeding with her defense, for 'racial reasons'

She became one of the thousands of scholars and researchers banished from German academe, which at the time included many of the world’s most prestigious research institutions, on account of Jewish ancestry or opposition to Nazi policies. Many of them ended up suffering or dying in concentration camps

Rudolf Degkwitz, Syllm’s professor, was imprisoned for objecting to euthanizing children

Syllm, however, was able to reach the United States and earned her medical degree from the old Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia

Eventually she married a fellow physician named Samuel Mitja Rapoport, had a family, and moved back to Germany in the 1950s, where she achieved prominence in neonatology

Syllm-Rapoport, who is now 102 years old, might have remained just a doctor (if a very accomplished one) had not the present dean of the Hamburg medical school, Uwe Koch-Gromus, heard her story from a colleague of her son, Tom Rapoport, a Harvard cell biologist

Determined to do what he could to mitigate this wrong, Koch-Gromus arranged Syllm-Rapoport’s long-delayed defense

Despite failing eyesight, she brushed up on decades of developments in diphtheria research with the help of friends and the Internet. Koch-Gromus called the 45-minute oral exam given by him and two colleagues on 13 May in her Berlin living room “a very good test. Frau Rapoport has gathered notable knowledge about what’s happened since then. Particularly given her age, she was brilliant.”


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