Xconomy reports Cisco is buying Starent Networks, a Tewksbury company that makes equipment for blasting multimedia across networks, including wireless ones. It's a big deal, Xconomy says. In fact, at $2.9 billion, it whops.

Tele-Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of Phoenix Media/Communications Group, Inc., yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against Facebook, alleging the social network's personal pages violate a patent Tele-Publishing was granted in 2001.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in Boston, seeks unspecified treble damages and an end to Facebook's alleged infringement of Tele-Publishing's patent, which sets out a method by which a remote user can upload images and information to a server to build a personal Web page.

From the Tele-Publishing patient:

Tele-Publishing bills itself as "the leading provider of revenue generating Personals content to the newspaper industry."

If Tele-Publishing wins, the decision could have a profound effect on the Web, since many sites now use similar techniques for letting users set up personal pages, from large social networks to, well, Universal Hub.

Tufts Daily reports some university employees were forced to go home early over the weekend when the school shut down computers across the campus to try to wrest back control from hackers who managed to take over dozens of computers.

Interestingly, most of the computers belonged to Tufts professors and staffers, not students.

Mass. High Tech reports Jack W. Szostak won for his work in with telomerase and telomers, which help protect chromosomes.

Because the last thing we want is a permanently pissed off Avery Brooks. Scott Montminy reports from the MassTLC Innovation 2009 unConference, which featured an actual flying car sitting outside.

Andy Watson is selling his condo in Roslindale. But he has a problem: The condo is near the route of Sunday's Roslindale Day Parade - and his open house is scheduled for the same day. He tries to find online tools that would help him plot out routes for potential buyers that don't involve getting waylaid by parade-related street closings. Has no luck. In the end, he resorts to old-fashioned e-mail.

Either develop the best online or downloadable application for making the MBTA easier to navigate or build the best visualization of "a day in the life of the T" using data on CharlieCard usage. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation. Details.

(Simulblogged on my blog.)

Rachel Levy gets a hands-on lesson in how to revive an iPhone after it's just gone through the wash:

... Then, Claudio instructed me to suck all the water out of every single hole in the iphone. It tasted like Tide. ...

Xconomy interviews Alex Rives, who's spent much of the past year hanging out in coffee shops near MIT and Harvard Medical School as he scoped out the area for investments.