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Comment Re:What the? (Score 1) 1093

by et764 (#25986683) Attached to: Prescription Handguns For the Elderly and Disabled
It's probably not what they had in mind, but my state just legalized physician-assisted suicide during the last elections. I'm pretty sure the law only allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal injection, but if not I suppose a doctor could prescribe one of these things for the alleviation of a terminal illness.

Comment Re:Who the hell do you think you are? (Score 1) 870

by et764 (#25930599) Attached to: Obama Team Considers Cancellation of Ares, Orion

When the times required it amendments have been made to the US constitution, do you really think that (a constitutional amendment) is the only way to include healthcare in the list of things the federal government has the right to promote as part of the general welfare?

Yes.

The Constitution specifies what the US federal government can do, and also sets explicit limits that the federal government must not go beyond without a Constitutional amendment. These limits are only effective if we choose to follow them, and I think we should be uniform in the way we follow them. Suppose for some unimaginable reason we decided we needed to ban a particularly dangerous religion. Should we let a pesky thing like needing to repeal the First Amendment stop us? What about needing to fight a war, is there really time to get a declaration of war from congress like the Constitution requires?

The Constitution is over 200 years old now. Some of the things in the original document, such as the 3/5ths clause for slaves, have no place in today's society. The people who wrote this document knew that it would some day be centuries out of date, and they added an amendment process to provide a legal way to update it with the times.

Following the Constitution has become seriously out of favor in recent years. In the 20s, we banned alcohol, and the nation at that time felt it necessary to do so through a Constitutional amendment. For some reason today we ban all kinds of substances, yet have made no such amendments supporting these things. Declarations of war have gone seriously out of fashion, to the best of my knowledge, the last declared war the US fought was World War II, over 50 years ago. Many of the things regarding Guantanamo Bay and the PATRIOT act strike me as Constitutionally questionable, at best.

I don't really care if the rest of the world is screaming past me. I care that we follow the laws that we the people agreed to be governed by, and that if they need to be extended or otherwise modified, that we do so by those very same laws.
Data Storage

Submission + - Sony develops fluid-filled bags for hard disks

Submitted by MsManhattan
MsManhattan writes: Sony has filed for a U.S. patent on a liquid-filled airbag that cushions hard disks in portable electronic devices from heavy shocks. 'The liquid used could be water or silicon oil,' and 'the electronics would of course be in a liquid-tight case.' Sony expects to use the technology in mobile devices such as cameras, media players, smartphones and laptops.
Quickies

Submission + - Considering Buying Goggles to Replace Monitor

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I've been considering switching from a monitor to the goggle things (sorry, I'm not sure what they're called). These are the only ones that I found: http://www.amazon.com/EZGEAR-EZVISION-VIDEO-EYEWEA R-PHOTO/dp/B000GL6M50/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9382099-554 4669?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1183418672&sr=1-1.

Do these even work with a computer? If so, would these be a good buy, or would /. recommend something else? Sorry for the possibly misleading topic, I couldn't exactly find one that fitted this question.

Mash Apache Derby with New OpenOffice 2.0 feature 52

Posted by Hemos from the doing-the-mash-ups dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Document storage is hot, hot, hot! There has been an explosion of methodologies and tool sets — both open source and proprietary — to fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents. Mash Apache Derby with a new OpenOffice 2.0 feature to create a repository that lets you store, search, and extract ODF documents in a standards-based manner."
Businesses

Submission + - Canon to erase users' photos and start afresh

Submitted by freeAgent (Kevin Noonan)
freeAgent (Kevin Noonan) writes: Canon announced on January 5th that it would shut down (0) its existing photo-site (1) and launch a revamped site. Rather than automatically transfer users' existing photos (and movies) to the new site, Canon has adopted the novel approach of erasing all of their data. Canon has left it to users to save any photos they haven't backed up elsewhere and upload photos again manually to the new site. February 15th is the deadline for deletion. (0) http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Canon_Image_Gatewa y/termination_announcement.asp (1) http://www.cig.canon-europe.com/
Google

Submission + - Google accused of benefitting from piracy

Submitted by Clant
Clant writes: Google has been accused of benefiting from certain piracy websites because of the Adsense program, according to reports. Several major media companies have called on Google to properly screen their AdSense partners and stop supporting sites that are benefitting from piracy. From the article, "Legal filings show that Google worked with EasyDownloadCenter.com and TheDownloadPlace.com from 2003 to 2005, generating more than $1.1 million in revenue for the sites through the AdSense program. Google reportedly noticed the amount of traffic and advertising served by the two websites and assigned them an account representative to help optimize their efforts." Is this a new ploy to attack sites that are friendly to piracy?
Businesses

Submission + - Vendor-less selling

Submitted by
Steven Goodwin
Steven Goodwin writes: "I've often thought about selling intangible goods on the web. A PDF here, some stock photography there, and so on. The cost of the items would be very low, and infrequent, making the hassle of setting up a shopping cart or vendor shops worthless. Also, I don't want to deal with returns, credit cards, or server outtages. Are there any places that provide a cheap/free service for this? Basically, I submit assets and prices, and they provide links to purchase said items that I can then place on various web sites. And (perhaps equally importantly) can it be done without requiring a PayPal account?"
Biotech

Submission + - Edible RFID Tags

Submitted by
Criticker
Criticker writes: "The latest brainwave, from Kodak, is to use RFID Tags to probe a person's digestive system.
RFID tags are tiny radio chips that resonate with a single echo when hit with a radio trigger. Kodak's digestible tags are harmless and intentionally fragile. The tags would be covered with soft gelatin that takes a while to dissolve in the stomach. After swallowing a tag a patient need only sit next to a radio source and receiver.
Read the full story: New Scientists
via: Random Good Stuff"
Linux Business

IBM Launching an Open Desktop Solution 224

Posted by Hemos from the bridging-the-gap dept.
DJ_Maiko writes "IBM just announced their intent to release an open desktop solution which they're calling "Open Client Offering." The new offering will make it possible for big businesses to present their employees with a choice of running Linux, Macintosh or Windows software on desktop PCs, using the same underlying software code, which will cut the cost of managing Linux or Apple relative to Windows. If this project succeeds, it will make it unnecessary for companies to pay Microsoft for licenses for items that don't rely on Windows-based software. IBM plans to also roll this out in-house to 5% of their 320,000 employees worldwide. This sure seems like a promising endeavor. "
Intel

Submission + - Intel Prototype Chip Raises Industry Bar

Submitted by
Carl Bialik from WSJ
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes: "Intel has developed a prototype chip with the equivalent of 80 electronic brains, the latest sign of a design shift sweeping the semiconductor industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. The teraflop chip draws just 62 watts of power. From the article: 'Some jobs, like identifying and processing images, are ideal for multibrained machines. Video-security systems might quickly scan and pick out a face in a crowd, for example, or a PC might automatically create video highlights of a single player in a football game, said Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer. Mr. Rattner said cameras on future videogame systems could track users' motions — eliminating the need for the kind of hand-held controller offered with Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. Realistic three-dimensional models of users could be transferred into videogames, or programs like a digital dance lesson. "Then you could put the model for your partner in there," Mr. Rattner says. "If you step on their toes, it's not a big deal." '"
Encryption

Submission + - AACS broken for all HD and Blu-ray disks

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Two months after Muslix64 initially publicized his method for getting AACS keys, a user on Doom9 has found the processing key, which is able to decrypt all disks for both formats released thus far. The exploit can even be reused for future keys. This will allow the creation of a one-click backup utility and is a major blow against DRM.
Censorship

Submission + - Columbine game dropped from Slamdance festival

Submitted by
Don
Don writes: "After encouraging the developer to enter his game into the competition and selecting it as a finalist, organizers of the Slamdance game festival have kicked the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG out. They're reasoning is dubious, and seems to be mostly under the pressure of the sponsors. Although any form of censorship is wrong, should this game have even been made?"

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