This is the kind of stupidity that occurs:
It didn’t make sense to buy the same size routers for a 1,800-student high school and a 100-student elementary school, according to administrators in the Department of Education’s technology division. The state is distributing 471 of the high-priced routers to schools.
“The WVDE asked if the size of the routers could vary based on the needs of a school,” said Liza Cordeiro, spokeswoman for the Department of Education. “At that time, it is our understanding that, for consistency and future expansion, the plan was to buy all the same size.”
Gianato said putting the same size router in every school was about “equal opportunity.”
“We wanted to make sure a student in McDowell County had the same opportunities as a student in Kanawha County or anywhere else,” he said. “A student in a school of 200 students should have the same opportunity as a student in a school with 2,000 students.”
Technologically illiterate idiocy.
That story is pretty mindboggling and the quote above doesn’t do it justice. Reading between the lines it sounds like these routers are overkill even for the largest schools.
The Cisco 3945 series routers, which cost $22,600 each, are built to serve “tens of thousands” of users or device connections, according to a Cisco sales agent. The routers are designed to serve a minimum of 500 users.
And then the story continues:
Yet state broadband project officials directed the installation of the stimulus-funded Cisco routers in West Virginia schools with fewer than a dozen computers and libraries that have only a single terminal for patrons.
Well, at least Cisco will appreciate the business. BTW, this illustrates a problem with the federal spending by state numbers that often get trotted out whenever some politician needs to show that red states are getting too much federal money. The lion’s share of this pork is going to Cisco (and straight out of the state) for their routers. But is it going to be considered, oh, California pork or West Virginia pork?
On top of which, they should only have cost about $10k each. Good to see govt. spending hasn’t changed from when I worked for the FAA over 20 years ago.
I’m a bit slow. If you follow the money, where does that extra $12k go? Could some of that go into someone’s pocket or campaign (how absurd to even suggest that… Obviously I’m just some homophobic racist Gaia hater. Hater, hater, hater.)
Hey, don’t these routers contribute to global warming???
Because shut up?
So they’re overpaying by $12k on top of buying too much router. It’s probably some sort of ridiculous service policy as well. You know bad things happen when that library with the single terminal has its network go down.
That extra $12,000 is likely a government discount for buying in quantity. Given the headaches of government procurement along with the normal bribery (cough campaign contributions), graft and corruption, an extra $12K per oversized router would be considered a bargain in certain quarters.
Administrative fees. *cough*
Throw a few Crays in there as well. Minesweeper can be pretty demanding.
Only if you have the vectorized version, though.
Why stop at routers? Why not put the same size heating and air conditioning units in every school regardless of size? Same for the electrical panels.
That would make about as much sense as this stupid decision. Morons.
Back when I was in gradeschool (and rode the school bus for an hour each way from where I lived in the sticks to the big city) even they were not all the same (some diesel, some gas, and not to forget the short buses.)
These should all be replace with dirigibles (twice the size of the Hindenburg to make them safer.)
You have to wonder if people know that taking money and power away from local decision makers does this. If they do, what is their [despicably evil] intent?
There is a program whereby schools can be given surplus computer hardware from DoD, NASA, or other government entities when they upgrade. We did this with one of the poorest schools in the San Joquin Valley. We provided computers, routers, printers, enough to equip the entire school with hardware with ZERO cost to the American taxpayer.
Actually, there was a cost to taxpayers. You could’ve sold the surplus equipment and applied that towards the purchase of new equipment. Instead, you gave away the equipment and paid (likely too much) for new stuff.
Still it’s an improvement. It’s always hopeful when some do get it closer to right.
“We wanted to make sure a student in McDowell County had the same opportunities as a student in Kanawha County or anywhere else,” he said. “A student in a school of 200 students should have the same opportunity as a student in a school with 2,000 students.”
That’s got to be just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. This doesn’t even qualify as technological illiteracy.
We need to create a whole new category of “beyond moron” for this kind of stupid. Current vocabularies are inadequate to the task.
In theoretical physics, there’s often the phrase that some idea is so bad, so disconnected, that it’s ‘not even wrong.’
Could work here….
McDowell County has problems that go way beyond too much routers. declining tax base and rampant abuse of Perscription Drugs and Meth for starters.
Are we running out of other peoples money yet?
I have this novel, never before heard idea. Let’s tax the rich! They must be good for it.
Thing is, taxing everyone over $250k income per year at 100% is just too timid. They need to tax 200% because… just because.
I recall that several decades ago, back when they were still together, the singing group ABBA moved from Sweden to Britain to take advantage of the lower taxes in the UK. You see, in Britain they were “only” subject to an income tax of about 80 percent. In Sweden it had been 107 percent.
Kinda takes the wind out of my sarcasm, doesn’t it? You just hafta take more than 100% or how would you ever get all that money those silly rich people are trying to hide?
Truth is stranger than sarcasm.