IPod: Music to Hackers’ Ears

“Apple’s iPod is the hottest digital music player on the market. And

thanks to a small army of hackers, it’s being transformed into a

general-purpose device that makes the Palm seem quaint.” Wired

Brace for pop-up downloads: ‘Web surfers who thought online advertisements were becoming increasingly obtrusive may be dismayed by a new tactic: pop-up downloads.

In recent weeks, some software makers have enlisted Web site operators to entice their visitors to download software rather than simply to view some advertising. For example, when visiting a site a person may receive a pop-up box that appears as a security warning with the message: “Do you accept this download?” If the consumer clicks “Yes,” an application is automatically installed.’ CNET

“Companies are allowed to market computer ID chips which

can be embedded under a person’s skin in the US, after the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the technology its qualified approval.

The FDA said yesterday it would not block use of such devices as long as they contain no medical data – paving the way for the sale of devices such as the VeriChip, from Applied Digital Solutions.

VeriChip, an implantable, radio frequency identification biochip slightly larger than the size of a grain of rice, can be scanned (using equipment expected to cost between $1,000 and $3,000) to give a unique ID number. Its use is touted for security and emergency, as well as for medical applications. In South America, the chip has been bundled with a GPS-unit and sold to potential kidnap victims, Wired reports.

ADS intends to sell the chip for about $200, with an annual service charge of $40 for maintaining a user database.” The Register

Review: Complications: An Uncompromising Look at Medical Fallibility: ‘By his own admission, Gawande purported to tell us unambiguously what is right with medicine and what is wrong with it. This he has done admirably well. At a time when a hospital advertises with the phrase ”where miracles happen”; when physicians claim, without blushing, to perform ”cardiac resuscitation,” letting people believe that they bring back Lazarus every day, candor like Gawande’s deserves unreserved praise.’ NY Times

Cloned-Fetus Rumor Stirs Talk: “Scientists, ethicists and politicians around the world became caught up in a flurry of electronic chatter yesterday triggered by an unconfirmed report that an Italian fertility doctor had helped a woman become pregnant with the world’s first human clone.” Washington Post And: Cloning pregnancy claim prompts outrage: ‘A woman taking part in a controversial human cloning programme is eight

weeks pregnant, claims Severino Antinori, one of the two controversial

fertility specialists leading the effort. “One woman among thousands of infertile couples in the programme is eight

weeks pregnant,” Antinori is reported as saying at a meeting in the United

Arab Emirates. If true, this would represent the first human cloning

pregnancy.’ New Scientist