Your stimulus money at work. Routers?

[JustRalph]

Why a one-room West Virginia library runs a $20,000 Cisco router


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/why-a-one-room-west-virginia-library-runs-a-20000-cisco-router/


This is criminal

[Robert Goren]

Unfortunately, this is not as uncommon as it should be with tech firms(or other vendors selling to the government). Unless the government agency has somebody working for them that is really tech savvy and that person is involved in the buying process which they often aren't, the government gets taken for a ride. In my experience with the city of Lincoln, Ne , there was often a three way disconnect between the purchasing department and the end users and tech support. The office politics and inter-agency rivalries were often used by vendors to over price and over sell the city. I have really some expensive horror stories that I could relay.
At one one point in 2002, somebody decide that way to go in relaying data between the parking garages and the their servers and the main server in the parking office was was wireless. That cost the city over 2 million bucks in equipment and close to another million trying to make it work. Whenever a garage lost communication with the main server for even a millisecond, the whole system crashed. We fought this for six months until they gave up and decided that fiber optics was the way to go.
They had elevators installed in a new parking garage with no cooling system for its motors. 3 motors later and countless trapped patrons.... They finally sprang for a cooling system. They put computer servers in closets on west walls with no ventilation. Don't even get me started the numerious camera security systems they had installed over the years. I could go on and on. And I all I know about is the what happened in the city parking business which was really small potatoes in the overall city budget.

[newtothegame]

Unfortunately, this is not as uncommon as it should be with tech firms(or other vendors selling to the government). Unless the government agency has somebody working for them that is really tech savvy and that person is involved in the buying process which they often aren't, the government gets taken for a ride. In my experience with the city of Lincoln, Ne , there was often a three way disconnect between the purchasing department and the end users and tech support. The office politics and inter-agency rivalries were often used by vendors to over price and over sell the city. I have really some expensive horror stories that I could relay.
At one one point in 2002, somebody decide that way to go in relaying data between the parking garages and the their servers and the main server in the parking office was was wireless. That cost the city over 2 million bucks in equipment and close to another million trying to make it work. Whenever a garage lost communication with the main server for even a millisecond, the whole system crashed. We fought this for six months until they gave up and decided that fiber optics was the way to go.
They had elevators installed in a new parking garage with no cooling system for its motors. 3 motors later and countless trapped patrons.... They finally sprang for a cooling system. They put computer servers in closets on west walls with no ventilation. Don't even get me started the numerious camera security systems they had installed over the years. I could go on and on. And I all I know about is the what happened in the city parking business which was really small potatoes in the overall city budget.
So, wait! It is your contention here that the government is NOT capable of figuring out something as simple as a router??? Yet, we are told by you all on the left that they are able to run a country???????
I see.....:lol:

[Robert Goren]

Sometimes. The stuff I wrote about happened during late 90s and early 2000's when the city of Lincoln had a republican mayor, not that things got any better when he was replaced by a democrat. The first thing I learned when I moved into management was that there was a lot of vendors that tried to rip off the city at every opportunity. I was allow to buy stuff up to $1,000 without having to go through the city purchasing dept. although they provide me with a list of vendors I had to use. I could only buy from other vendors if none of the vendors on the list had what I needed. For instance a too tall tube sign which I am sure you have seen if you ever been in a parking garage ranged in price from $150 to $500. A year into my management career I got a note saying that the purchasing dept. of the city required me to use the vendor for new signs that sold them for $500 because the city had worked a deal with them for 12% discount!
Now an argument can be made that the government should not be in the parking business at all and I wouldn't argue the point. I will say the reason they are in it in Lincoln, Ne is because the downtown merchants wanted them to be in it because they did not want pay what private garages were charging in the late 1970s. I have a feeling that is the case everywhere because there is huge business area in parking company management firms that contract with cities.

[gillenr]

Why a one-room West Virginia library runs a $20,000 Cisco router


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/why-a-one-room-west-virginia-library-runs-a-20000-cisco-router/


This is criminal
Have we forgotten Sen. Harry Byrd?

[newtothegame]

Sometimes. The stuff I wrote about happened during late 90s and early 2000's when the city of Lincoln had a republican mayor, not that things got any better when he was replaced by a democrat. The first thing I learned when I moved into management was that there was a lot of vendors that tried to rip off the city at every opportunity. I was allow to buy stuff up to $1,000 without having to go through the city purchasing dept. although they provide me with a list of vendors I had to use. I could only buy from other vendors if none of the vendors on the list had what I needed. For instance a too tall tube sign which I am sure you have seen if you ever been in a parking garage ranged in price from $150 to $500. A year into my management career I got a note saying that the purchasing dept. of the city required me to use the vendor for new signs that sold them for $500 because the city had worked a deal with them for 12% discount!
Now an argument can be made that the government should not be in the parking business at all and I wouldn't argue the point. I will say the reason they are in it in Lincoln, Ne is because the downtown merchants wanted them to be in it because they did not want pay what private garages were charging in the late 1970s. I have a feeling that is the case everywhere because there is huge business area in parking company management firms that contract with cities.
Do you realize that you continue to say the government is NOT capable in your post yet, you are for the government controlling things???
WOW :lol: