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Submission + - Patient just wants to see his data from his implanted medical device (umass.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hugo Campos got an implanted cardiac defibrillator shortly after collapsing on a BART train platform. He wants access to the data wirelessly collected by the computer implanted in his body, but the manufacturer says no. It seems weird that a patient can't get access to data about his own heart. Hugo and several medical device engineers are responding to live Q/A on Sunday night on such topics via ACM MedCOMM webcast at ACM SIGCOMM.

http://icdusergroup.blogspot.com/
Science

Submission + - The Sun's Odd Behavior (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by gyrogeerloose
gyrogeerloose writes: Most of us know about the sun's eleven-year activity cycle. However, relatively few other than scientists (and amateur radio operators) are aware that the current solar minimum has lasted much longer than expected. The last solar cycle, Cycle 24, bottomed out in 2008 and Cycle 25 should be well on it's way towards maximum by now but the sun has remained unusually quiescent with very few sunspots. While solar physicists agree that this is odd, the explanation remains elusive.
Apple

Submission + - Apple patents 'enforceable' ad viewing on devices (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Rexdude
Rexdude writes: Apple has filed a patent that forces users to interact with an ad. FTFA: "Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing."
Google

Submission + - Mark Cuban's Plan to Kill Google (daniweb.com)

Submitted by rsmiller510
rsmiller510 writes: Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner has a plan to kill Google by paying the top 1K sites a cool million each to leave the Google index and move to Microsoft, but could such a plan ever work and would it be worth the risk to abandon Google?

Submission + - How vulnerable is our power grid in reality

Submitted by coreboarder
coreboarder writes: Recently it was divulged that the Brazilian power infrastructure was compromised by hackers. Then it was announced that it was apparently faulty equipment . A downplay to the global public or an honest clarification? Either way it begs the question, how vulnerable are we really? With winter and all its icy glory hurtling towards those of us in the northern hemisphere, how open are we to everything from terrorist threats to simple "pay me or else" schemes?

Submission + - Common Diabetic Drug Delivers Killing Blow to Can (aacrjournals.org) 1

Submitted by
SubtleGuest
SubtleGuest writes: "In the latest issue of Cancer Research, a breakthrough study shows that Metformin, a cheap and common diabetic medicine, kills cancer stem cells- the cells postulated to be responsible for tumor resistance and recurrence after chemotherapy. It has been known that diabetics taking Metformin experience lower cancer rates, and now it is apparent why that may be and how it may apply to non-diabetics as well. When combined with Doxorubicin to kill non-stem cancer cells, the results are nothing short of astonishing: total remission in a mouse xenograft model. The results are achieved at levels below the dosage needed for diabetic control, opening many new avenues in cancer treatment and prevention."

Submission + - Honda Makes Nanotube Breakthrough (pcmag.com)

Submitted by
SkinnyGuy
SkinnyGuy writes: "Carbon nanofibers and nanotubes are the future of computers, cars, energy and more, but it wonâ(TM)t happen until someone figures out how to make carbon nanotubes more efficiently and in formations that can deliver enough energy and functionality to offer practical solutions for real world problems. Honda's latest breakthrough could be the first step. Of course, Intel is working on similar carbon nanotube fabrication technology. Whoever finally delivers a practical solution, it sounds like a win-win for us."
Security

Stupid Hacker Tricks - The Folly of Youth 226

Posted by timothy from the reap-and-sow dept.
N_burnsy points out an article in Computerworld which "profiles several youthful hackers, some still serving prison time, some free, who have been caught indulging in some fairly serious cybercrime, and looks at their crimes and the lessons they have (or have not yet) learned. Starting with Farid 'Diab10' Essebar, currently a guest of the Moroccan prison system, who wrote and distributed the Mytob, Rbot, and Zotob botnet Trojans. There's Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov, and Denis Stepanov, all guests of the Russian penal system, sentenced to eight years at hard labor for creating a botnet to engage in DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks to blackmail online gambling sites based in the UK, threatening to take the sites down during major sporting events. Then there's Shawn Nematbakhsh who was a little too eager to prove a point about the electronic balloting system that the University of California employed to hold student council elections, by writing a script that cast 800 votes for a fictitious candidate named American Ninja." Not everyone on the list is exactly youthful, and the range of offenses shows how lumpy this area is both to the law and in public perception.

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