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Canada Courts Quashes Govt. Decision on Globalive->

Submitted by sitkill
sitkill writes "The Canadian Government has rejected the Tory Cabinet's decision to overturn a CRTC mandate not allowing Globalive (which is more commonly known in Canada as the mobile carrier Wind) to operate in Canada. This is a small vindication to the enbattled CRTC which has been recently in the spotlight for it's recent decision on usage based billing, which has also come under criticism by the Tory Cabinet.

The CEO, Mr. Lacavera, stressed that this would not result in Globalive's Wind Mobile being shut down, simply that it would require another round of wrangling with the regulator over how much foreign influence is acceptable in a Canadian telecommunications company."."
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Cellphones

Canada's Telco's bring mobile Payment to masses

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "On Monday, the 3 largest telco's in Canada will release a mobile payment platform (link) to all cellphone users of their base customers. From the cbc.ca article,

"Canada's three main wireless carriers are planning to launch a mobile payment service on Monday, one that will allow their customers to send, request and receive money via their mobile phones.....Money can be drawn from an account the user sets up or from their credit card. Each withdrawal will cost 50 cents from the account, or 3.5 per cent of the transaction if from a credit card. (As a result, sending dollar amounts under $15 are actually cheaper to do using a credit card...Robin Dua, president of Enstream, said he hopes the service's use of the NFC-enabled cards will pave the way for future adoption of NFC chip-enabled phones."

While I hate being charged to use my money as much as the next guy, for ANYONE who's visited Japan or Korea can attest to, FINALLY getting some traction in seeing some American development in getting NFC chips inside of cellphones is awesome."

Biotech

Company Refines Antibody Treatment Using Genetics ->

Submitted by
Al
Al writes "A company called PIKAMAB, based in Menlo Park, CA, has developed a way to target anti-body treatment to different groups, according to the genetic predisposition to respond. Monoclonal antibodies are engineered to hone in on very specific biological targets and have taken off as a therapeutic treatment for cancer and several autoimmune diseases in recent years. But one of the challenges is that some people respond better than others. PIKAMAB's approach is to first sort patients depending on whether they are expected to respond to a treatment or not. This could help a physician decide whether to begin a monoclonal therapy right away in an excellent responder or eschew the drug in favor of other options in a poor responder."
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Comment: SARS Anyone? (Score 5, Interesting) 1127

by FreeKill (#27559471) Attached to: Worst Working Conditions You Had To Write Code In?
During the SARS outbreak a few years back, I was employed as a programmer in a hospital where there was a quarantined SARS area. As a result, the entire building was on lockdown and you couldn't enter or exit without a medical overview (they take your temperature, ask you a bunch of questions) and being suited up in a face mask and rubber gloves that were not to be removed for any circumstances... Try coding for an 8 hour day in rubber gloves and a face mask!
Politics

Violent Games 'Almost' As Dangerous as Smoking 545

Posted by Zonk
from the just-wow dept.
Via Voodoo Extreme, a Reuters report on some very 'interesting' research into violent games. A study out of the University of Michigan has apparently found that 'exposure to violent electronic media' is almost as dangerous to our society as smoking. "'The research clearly shows that exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively,' said Huesmann, adding it could have a particularly detrimental effect on the well-being of youngsters. Although not every child exposed to violence in the media will become aggressive, he said it does not diminish the need for greater control on the part of parents and society of what children are exposed to in films, video games and television programs."
Cellphones

Canada Opens Wireless Industry to Competition-> 2

Submitted by
FreeKill
FreeKill writes "The Canadian government on Wednesday paved the way for new cellphone companies by announcing new rules for an auction of radio airwaves designed to spur competition in the wireless industry. About 40 per cent of the spectrum will be reserved for new entrants with the remainder open to all bidders, including Canada's big three providers — Rogers, Bell and Telus. The government will also mandate roaming area agreements which will force existing carriers to share their networks with newcomers for five years, plus another five if the new entrants can build up their own networks nationally."
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Google

Google purges thousands of suspected malware sites-> 1

Submitted by
Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes "In response to a concerted effort by cyber criminals to infect the computers of Google users with malware and make them unwitting partners in crime, Google has apparently purged tens of thousands of malicious Web pages from its index. Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt Software, noted that many search results on Google led to malicious Web pages that expose visitors to exploits that can compromise vulnerable systems. Sunbelt published a list of search terms that returned malicious pages, the result of search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns by cyber criminals to get their pages prominently ranked in Google — Sunbelt refers to this as "SEO poisoning."

Let's hope Google has done its research and hasn't purged legitimate sites."
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Work expands to fill the time available. -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955