Romanian villagers, in Suceava, who build their own bridge because they were tired of of waiting for authorities to replace a bridge swept away last July by floods have been taken to court. The problem was that they didn’t have a permit. So now they are under criminal investigation.
Prosecutor Viorel Damu said Friday that police are trying to identify those who worked on the bridge, which was built in a single day, Feb. 6. The guilty parties could be jailed for three years or fined up to 70,000 lei ($20,800), he said.
The mayor of Marginea called that “absurd.” He said villagers tested the bridge and limited the allowable weight to 2.5 tons. And they’ll tear it down again, too, he said — just as soon as authorities find time build a new one.
Marginea was cut in half when the river overflowed seven months ago, making it difficult to get from one part of the village to the other. Police may be investigating, but on Thursday the prime minister commended the villagers’ “solidarity.”
And even the prosecutor seemed to relent. He said the villagers could escape punishment if an investigation concludes they acted out of a “state of necessity.”
The UK government has said it will accelerate the use of open source software in public services. Tom Watson MP, minister for digital engagement, said open source software would be on a level playing field with proprietary software such as Windows.
Steve Shine, European vice president of Ingres, an open source support vendor, said the government’s action plan had “more teeth” than policies being adopted in other countries because the plan was tied into policies regarding how IT managers procure new software.
He said the move had partly been driven by a series of high-profile IT failures in recent years that had relied on proprietary software.
Announcing an open source and open standards action plan, the government said it would:
ensure that the government adopts open standards and uses these to communicate with the citizens and businesses that have adopted open source solutions
ensure that open source solutions are considered properly and, where they deliver best value for money are selected for government business solutions
strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities within government and in its suppliers to use open source to greatest advantage
embed an open source culture of sharing, re-use and collaborative development across government and its suppliers
ensure that systems integrators and proprietary software suppliers demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re-use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source.
DistroWatch have picked up on my FreeNAS interview movie that I made with Xtranormal. It is mentioned in DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 291, 23 February 2009 about half way through the “Miscellaneous News” section.
Still on the subject of BSDs, but switching to FreeNAS, a minimalist, FreeBSD-based operating system for building network-attached storage devices. All that is nice to know, but this definition sounds rather technical, so what does it mean in terms of practical use? Can it help with our everyday computing tasks? If so, how? Gary Sims, author of the book called Learning FreeNAS, has created an entertaining video animation that should make the purpose of FreeNAS more clear: “I have put together an interview on Xtranormal. In the interview, set in a TV studio, the guest talks about FreeNAS, what it can do and where you can find out more information.” Xtranormal is an interesting site which enables users to create video using text: “Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill - typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop.” If you’re interested in building your own storage network then take a look!
This may come as a surprise to those of you not living in Las Vegas, but there are more catholic churches than casinos. Not surprisingly, some worshipers at Sunday services will give casino chips rather than cash when the basket is passed. Since they get chips from many different casinos, the churches have devised a method to collect the offerings. The churches send all their collected chips to a nearby Franciscan monastery for sorting and then the chips are taken to the casinos of origin and cashed in.
I have put together an interview on Xtranormal. In the interview, set in a TV studio, the guest talks about FreeNAS, what it can do and where you can find out more information.
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. Thestatutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. – Psalm 19:7 (NIV) Most laws condemn the soul and pronounce sentence. Theresult of the law of my God is perfect. It condemns butforgives. It restores–more than abundantly–what it takesaway. … Jim Elliot (1927-1956)
