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Open Source Study Included In US Stimulus Package
gclef writes "Buried deep in the details of the US stimulus package is an interesting provision that might go a long way toward helping Open Source software break into the medical area. It says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should study the availability of open source health technology systems (PDF, page 488), compare their TCO against proprietary systems and report on what they find no later than Oct 1, 2010. Slashdotters may also be interested in the language that starts on page 553 of that PDF to see just what the final package says about broadband."
The stimulus plan was approved by the Senate on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama by Monday.
The only down side is medical professionals are going to have a difficult time implementing either closed or open source technology by 2010, let alone doing *both* and comparing. Don't get me wrong, I love the use of technology in the medical field and I fully support our new overlord (much better than old Bushy), but that seems a but rushed, IMHO.
An excellent PACS viewer solution; unfortunately runs only on Macs; but is amazing. Developed by a set of dcotors who got fed up with Direct X and the quicksand that is WDDM and DRM nonsense.
Fully Open Source.
http://www.osirix-viewer.com/
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
I'm all for the Open Source stuff and all, but every economist that I've read says that ironically, that massive layoffs are the beginning of the end of an economic downturn, and that it appears as though things will be back into shape around the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, and none of their arguments are contingent upon a stimulus package. In fact, none mention it.
I think that the spending on the infrastructure and unemployment benefits and the like are sufficient. Both will help in the short term and long term, but tax cuts are BS. Ever since I've been alive every politician has cut taxes, yet they always seem to go up. I'm not complaining. Our taxes are low in the US. I'm stating the facts. The only people that seem to benefit from tax breaks are those that are unaffected by their tax burden or any financial burden whatsoever.
Yes, I voted for Obama, and I don't regret it, but I think the effectiveness of this bill does not warrant the cost.
every economist that I've read says that ironically, that massive layoffs are the beginning of the end of an economic downturn, and that it appears as though things will be back into shape around the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010
What were those same economists saying this time last year about the economy at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009?
You can't take the sky from me...
You conclusion does not follow. Just because Republicans didn't vote for it (in the House, not in the Senate) doesn't mean that no Republican pork was added. They knew it would pass and in committee they DEFINITELY added their own pet projects to the bill under the guise of "improving it so that they could possibly support it". However, when it came down to the *political* aspect of actually voting for the bill, they chose to make a partisan statement rather than follow up on their previous talk of "possibly supporting it with these changes" (i.e., their pork that was added). Whatever, it's just politics, and almost none of what the Republicans have said publicly about both the bill itself and their own intentions has ended up being true. For the record, considering the size of the bill, there is an incredibly small amount of actual pork in it. But you'd have to actually look at some of the provisions to understand, rather than parroting big-mouthed right-wing pundits.
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