First Internet-Connected Pacemaker Goes Live 158
The Register is reporting that a New York woman has become the first person to have her pacemaker wirelessly connected to the internet for full-time monitoring. "The device contains a radio transmitter which connects to receiving equipment in New Yorker Carol Kasyjanski's home, using a very low-power signal around 400MHz, to report on the condition of her heart. Any problems are instantly reported to the doctor, and regular checkups can be done by remotely interrogating the home-based equipment — the pacemaker itself doesn't have an IP address, fun as that would be."
Good thing there's no IP (Score:4, Funny)
I hope that's a one way connection (Score:5, Funny)
Otherwise that lady is going to be in for quite the surprise when the pacemaker starts looking at youporn.
Re:Good thing there's no IP (Score:5, Funny)
>I wonder what a DDoS would do to it ...
Blue face of death?
Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Freudian slip? (Score:4, Funny)
If the patent is rapidly losing consciousness
I wonder if that was intentional or not?
Re:I hope that's a one way connection (Score:3, Funny)
Or starts downloading child porn. If cats can do it... [slashdot.org]
It's gonna be bad.... (Score:5, Funny)
Side note (Score:2, Funny)
On a side note, the pacemaker owner was recomended not to play multimedia content from youtube in his equipment so the battery lasts longer.
dead (Score:4, Funny)
ping pacemaker
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3609ms
meaning she is gone...
Here's an idea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2, Funny)
Does it run Linux?
It does. When she sleeps, it downloads updates and reboots when she takes a shit.
On rare occasions when there's a kernel panic, she'll stop and and stand still while her eyes glaze over until the system reboots.
They switched to Linux when the windows version kept crashing and killing folks: the blue person of death. When the device moved to Vista, they had to open some folks up to add more memory.
Some folks have Apple pacemakers with defibrillators. Many wanted one or another but Apple being Apple, only sold that one device. The there was the MacPacemaker Pro. It was Titanium and looked great. Some folks even had a transparent cover for their heart so others could see their Apple pacemaker. Insurance won't pay for an Apple pacemaker because the Linux one works just as well.
Re:Good thing there's no IP (Score:5, Funny)
Brings a whole new meaning to Ping of Death.
If it can access the internet... (Score:5, Funny)
RIAA (Score:1, Funny)
God forbid she downloads copyrighted material and the RIAA have her internet connection terminated...
Re:Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
No, but it does run Netbsd.
Has Netcraft confirmed that the patient is dying?
Re:no IP address? (Score:5, Funny)
Recipient of said device breathes a sigh of relief when he discovers his heart won't be slashdotted.
Really changes the definition of DoS... (Score:3, Funny)
4chan (Score:4, Funny)
Thousands of 4channers suddenly stop what they were doing and in unison spit out, 'WHAT just got connected to the Internet?' as smiles spreads across their faces. ... maybe this isn't such a good idea...
Re:Here's an idea (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know ... I mean ... what could possibly go wrong with connecting a pacemaker to Twitter and a live internet connection?
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of These (Score:3, Funny)
serving as a timing belt.
Re:I hope that's a one way connection (Score:3, Funny)
I got the lolcat caption all ready here, but what picture for the background?
I can haz cheezburgers. Eat lotz and lotz of greezy cheezeburgers for years and years. Then I needz uh internet connected pacemakerz.
Sorry for the lolcat, but I had to do it.
I for one welcome my ..... (Score:5, Funny)
.... Aaargghh
I just tried to browse it... (Score:3, Funny)
... I think the server crashed, just dead links.
We don't need an IP, we are /. ! (Score:3, Funny)
Doesn't matter just try out some of the 2^32 minus reserved addresses
all /.ers Christian Name starting with an "A" take the 0.5*2^30 upper addresses and ...
Thank good they haven't postet the IP on /.
I suppose you don't even need a computer network of brainless bots to DDOS a computer,
slashdot + us the faster than light clicking slashdot-crauts would fullfill the task, twice as good as any botnet can do,
btw. "Police: Man blamed child porn on cat"
haha next time he can blame his hacked pacemaker for doing so, it will also be very complicated to confiscate this evidence.
and here it comes the DomainName for the Pacemaker
http://pacemaker.chicagohope.md/ [chicagohope.md]
Re:Good thing there's no IP (Score:2, Funny)
Does it have a web site? Is there a web page with a button you need to push to make the guys heart beat?
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:"Fatal error" jokes aside... (Score:2, Funny)
Nothing wins a lot of reads like a headline making some technical advancement sound really dumb. Funny how so many readers of a high-tech news source treat high-tech advancements like Luddites.
have you ever read /. before? that's pretty much what we do here. that and welcoming various overlords.
Re:Niggers (You love that word just admit it) (Score:2, Funny)
Correlation does not imply causation. If it did you'd be an inbred racist hick who jumps to conclusions about statistics when they know nothing about how statistical analysis works.
oh wait.. never mind.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good thing there's no IP (Score:4, Funny)
Yes. It comes with a 3 day trial subscription. Then you have to upgrade to premium membership to keep it beating.
Tech support calls are usually routed to organ donor hotline.
Re:Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
lib-pacemaker conflicts with lib-aorta and lib-left-ventricle.
... Dependencies not met.
... Stopping process /etc/heart.d
The next step: Heartbeat pop up ads! (Score:3, Funny)