Amazon offers free Super Saver shipping on all orders over $25. For years, this benefit applied to all shipping within the United States, Puerto Rico included. Eventually, Amazon introduced the Amazon Prime program, where for a $79 annual fee, consumers could get free two day shipping on all orders, regardless of the total transaction amount. This, however, didn’t apply to Puerto Rico. The reasoning for it is obvious: we are an island, and the only way to get two day shipping is by air. While Amazon could recoup costs by using ground shipping for all orders made within a given distance of one of their warehouses, this is just not possible for Puerto Rico (or Hawaii, for that matter).

Puerto Ricans began to ask Amazon to give them Amazon Prime. Amazon, please think of us! And so Amazon did. And it didn’t like what it found: a computer glitch was allowing us sneaky Puerto Ricans to benefit from free Super Saver shipping! And it was fixed.

Fouts said those addresses slipped under the radar "due to a bug in the system that was recently fixed."

"I don’t know what the reason is for not offering the free shipping option to Puerto Rico or the territories, but that’s always been our policy," Fouts said, unable to confirm the exact date the "bug" was fixed.

Now, a few months later, the Consumer Affairs Department, known as Daco, after initially threatening to sue Amazon, is fining them:

The Consumer Affairs Department has issued a fine against online retailer Amazon for failing to reasonably support its decision to take the "Super Saver" free shipping benefit away from Puerto Rico consumers, News is my Business learned Tuesday.

The initial $340,000 fine lodged two weeks ago is currently hovering at about $500,000 and will increase by $10,000 a day as long as the case is open, agency Secretary Luis Rivera-Marín said.

Barcamp Mayagüez will be taking place on February 28, 2012 at Madridz. The first two Barcamps in Puerto Rico were held in San Juan, and now its time to shift our attention to the west coast. Giovanni Collazo and José Padilla, through Startups of Puerto Rico, have recruited a group of UPR Mayagüez engineering students to take charge of the logistics of the event. Hopefully, Barcamp Mayagüez will serve as a catalyst to other similarly themed events in the future. It is time to nip the problem in the bud and inspire our fellow college students.

Barcamp Mayagüez is open to everyone, just make sure to confirm your assistance on Facebook.

One of the common questions I get from my friends in Puerto Rico, shortly after visiting my website or following me on Twitter, is about my choice of language. As you can see, everything here is written in English, even though I carry most of my daily conversation in Spanish. Why, then, do I choose English over Spanish when writing online?

There’s something about non-Apple laptops that bugs me. It’s a very small detail, admittedly, but when you’re paying hundreds of dollars for a piece of equipment that is essential to my line of work, every little detail counts.

The ports.

The startup community in Puerto Rico is still very, very young. It’s almost non-existent. I’ve met a few people here and there over the last few years, and we generally keep in touch, but it feels like we’re all alone in this island. Local higher education institutions don’t do much about promoting startups, leading graduates instead towards the big companies, local or out of state. Who can blame them, though? A cushy job at a big company is a safe bet.

It’s time to kickstart this community. It won’t happen quickly. We won’t be able to compete with Silicon Valley. But maybe we can plant the seed, share our vision with others. Eventually the idea will take hold, and people will realize that working for a big company is not the only way of making a living. We need more entrepreneurs in this island, and we believe that technology startups hold the key for improving our economy.