Kurt sez, "FACIL, the Quebecois Free Software advocacy group, is suing the Quebec provincial government, accusing them of abusing a legal loophole to essentially create 'no-bid' government software contracts for Microsoft. For a province that once considered independence from Canada, never mind independence from indentured servitude to US corporations, this is sublimely ironic." Government buyers are using an exception in provincial law that allows them to buy directly from a proprietary vendor when there are no options available, but Facil said that loophole is being abused and goes against other legal requirements to buy locally. "It shouldn't be the rule," Facil president Mathieu Lutfy told CBC News. "It goes against the public markets policy of the government, which requires them to stimulate competition and look for local alternatives. It's really an absurdity." Quebec government sued for buying Microsoft software, FACIL contests government practices in the Superior Court...

Cameron sez, The non-profit Architecture for Humanity and Lulan Artisans are vying for $1.5M worth of funding to build weaving cooperatives in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and India. These centers will be designed through the Open Architecture Network with the Creative Commons Developing Nations License. These funds will allow 6000 women access to a stable income and create an alternative to the human trafficking going on in many of these rural villages. Voting for the AmEx Members Prize is on September 1st and the top 25 go through. This project is currently in 27th place out of 1190. Vote for Architecture for Humanity and Lulan at Amex Members Project (Thanks, Cameron!)...

Air Canada continues its race to the top of the list of the world's shittiest airlines by removing life-vests from its regional carrier Jazz, saving money on fuel in the process. In the event of a water crash, passengers can use their seat-cushions to float. Come to that, they can use their pillows: the last time I flew AC, you had to buy a "pillow" that consisted of a giant ziploc bag that you were supposed to inflate. Passengers in business class got the same "pillows," but they were "free" (except for the extra thousands of dollars for a business-class ticket). Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that Transport Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices instead of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 miles of shore. Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct passengers to use the seat cushions as flotation devices. Stuart says Jazz is a transcontinental carrier that doesn't fly over the ocean. Jazz planes do fly over the Great Lakes and along the Eastern seaboard from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Boston, Massachusetts, and to New York. Emphasis mine. Airline removes life vests to lighten planes (via Neatorama)...

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our John's found this absolutely ugg-lovely homebrew pocket video-game system: It looks more like a Cold War era device for the remote detonation of nuclear warheads than a game console. but modder Sam Thornley's Portable Pac-Man Mini takes one of those old Namco emulator joysticks you plug and play into any old television and melds it with a tiny 2.5-inch LCD powered by 4 rechargeable AA batteries. That D-Pad isn't very good — perhaps he's trying to duck patent litigation — but the doodad can play Galaxian, Rally-X, Bosconian and Dig Dug. Because it's there! Meet the Pac-Man Mini, Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets...

I’ve always been very bullish on the idea of modular web-services. It’s sound logical, desn’t it? Why reinvent the wheel when you can leverage what somebody has already built. To a certain degree, it’s working. Widgets are getting increasingly popular and there are some raving success stories for mashups like Google Maps. However, plugging in someone [...]

Friday, 29th of August 2008

This weekend only pick up Portal™ for just $9.99.

Offer ends September 1st.

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