Agreed with Johan S or PeterF: sending a gigs worth of data is no trouble from my Iphone, so why can't the government use these PDAs?
The problem, I think, is that these devices are built on older technology. I don't know for sure, but knowing the government, they probably had devices built for them that used tech circa 2003. Other government endeavors do the same thing: when the military built the Humvee originally it used all existing technology in most places, with the option of being able to retrofit to older tech if needed.
The problem with that was (famously) the Humvee's transmissions were designed off an old 3 speed GM automatic. The idea was that if the Humvee ever broke down, they could find replacement parts in common trucks. Of course, twenty years later GM didn't even make that transmission anymore, and none of its newest transmissions fit that old thing. They had to find the old factories and reboot them. Costing millions. And the old transmissions don't even work half as well as the newer ones.
The idea with these PDA's was probably that because the tech was developed in 2003 or so, by now all the bugs would be worked out of it and parts would be plentiful. But I'd bet that parts suppliers aren't even making parts for 2003 units anymore, and hence Harris Corp had to find parts that "would work," although never intended to. Hence the internals are probably a hodge podge of different stuff. As far as the inner tech, things have been getting more reliable, not less. When XP launched it was riddled with security links and crashed many systems. Vista did none of that to anyone, except those with the creepy "Vista Certified" computers which didn't have enough hardware. If you had a computer with good hardware, it ran Vista and Vista had none of the security or crashing problems.
Likewise todays PDA problem. The Government should've gone to the private sector. I realize they did that when they asked a company to build the PDA's for them, but they could've gone and seen what private companies are using today for their mobile data needs. Many corporate citizens store and transfer massive spreadsheet of data and presentations off their Smartphones, and I've seen transfers of up to a gigabyte before. With text based data, the census bureau will not taking in that amount per neighborhood. Maybe per city. It'd be rather easy to do with a Blackberry and 3G support.
But without reading the specs I'm going to guess these PDAs use a 2G transmitting format. They probably use a custom OS with very little compatibility support. And they probably are intended to be fixable using "off the shelf" parts if need be.
These things spell disaster. An OS that is running reliably and consistently already on million of PDA's and smartphones is the Windows 6.1, or the Iphone OS. How much would it cost to get some PDA's or phones running that? Then how much would it cost to get those phones or PDA's?
$500,000,000 divided by 600,000 is 833.33, or roughly $833.33 cents a unit. That means that while the government will spend $833 dollars a unit to get these PDAs that are more than likely using outdated technology, they could've bought units from Palm or Apple or Blackberry that are equally as capable but $300 a piece cheaper, and with large amounts of already compiled data like "known issues" and tech support would of been as easy as finding an FAQ for most issues. With 3rd gen support data uploads would be much faster (no Iphone then but still the Blackberry) and much more reliable as it uses existing yet cutting edge (or as close to it as you can get with a homogenized device) hardware and software.
With technology, it only works to push into the past if you are using analogue equipment. Trucks that need to haul more could be "retrofitted" with bigger springs or supports if need be, and if your antenna fails just replace it with any old one.
In the digital age, expect older hardware to work like older hardware did. Where as the analogue way of doing things was perfected from 1900 to the year 2000, the digital age is still young. Any new generation of tech will be more reliable, faster, and have more capacity. Its not a case where you can retrofit the truck with older springs: the new springs will be better 99% of the time.
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Agreed with Johan S or PeterF: sending a gigs worth of data is no trouble from my Iphone, so why can't the government use these PDAs?
The problem, I think, is that these devices are built on older technology. I don't know for sure, but knowing the government, they probably had devices built for them that used tech circa 2003. Other government endeavors do the same thing: when the military built the Humvee originally it used all existing technology in most places, with the option of being able to retrofit to older tech if needed.
The problem with that was (famously) the Humvee's transmissions were designed off an old 3 speed GM automatic. The idea was that if the Humvee ever broke down, they could find replacement parts in common trucks. Of course, twenty years later GM didn't even make that transmission anymore, and none of its newest transmissions fit that old thing. They had to find the old factories and reboot them. Costing millions. And the old transmissions don't even work half as well as the newer ones.
The idea with these PDA's was probably that because the tech was developed in 2003 or so, by now all the bugs would be worked out of it and parts would be plentiful. But I'd bet that parts suppliers aren't even making parts for 2003 units anymore, and hence Harris Corp had to find parts that "would work," although never intended to. Hence the internals are probably a hodge podge of different stuff. As far as the inner tech, things have been getting more reliable, not less. When XP launched it was riddled with security links and crashed many systems. Vista did none of that to anyone, except those with the creepy "Vista Certified" computers which didn't have enough hardware. If you had a computer with good hardware, it ran Vista and Vista had none of the security or crashing problems.
Likewise todays PDA problem. The Government should've gone to the private sector. I realize they did that when they asked a company to build the PDA's for them, but they could've gone and seen what private companies are using today for their mobile data needs. Many corporate citizens store and transfer massive spreadsheet of data and presentations off their Smartphones, and I've seen transfers of up to a gigabyte before. With text based data, the census bureau will not taking in that amount per neighborhood. Maybe per city. It'd be rather easy to do with a Blackberry and 3G support.
But without reading the specs I'm going to guess these PDAs use a 2G transmitting format. They probably use a custom OS with very little compatibility support. And they probably are intended to be fixable using "off the shelf" parts if need be.
These things spell disaster. An OS that is running reliably and consistently already on million of PDA's and smartphones is the Windows 6.1, or the Iphone OS. How much would it cost to get some PDA's or phones running that? Then how much would it cost to get those phones or PDA's?
$500,000,000 divided by 600,000 is 833.33, or roughly $833.33 cents a unit. That means that while the government will spend $833 dollars a unit to get these PDAs that are more than likely using outdated technology, they could've bought units from Palm or Apple or Blackberry that are equally as capable but $300 a piece cheaper, and with large amounts of already compiled data like "known issues" and tech support would of been as easy as finding an FAQ for most issues. With 3rd gen support data uploads would be much faster (no Iphone then but still the Blackberry) and much more reliable as it uses existing yet cutting edge (or as close to it as you can get with a homogenized device) hardware and software.
With technology, it only works to push into the past if you are using analogue equipment. Trucks that need to haul more could be "retrofitted" with bigger springs or supports if need be, and if your antenna fails just replace it with any old one.
In the digital age, expect older hardware to work like older hardware did. Where as the analogue way of doing things was perfected from 1900 to the year 2000, the digital age is still young. Any new generation of tech will be more reliable, faster, and have more capacity. Its not a case where you can retrofit the truck with older springs: the new springs will be better 99% of the time.
I hereby present you with the prize for the internet's longest post. Congratulations!
Was it really worth typing all that, when most people won't even read all of it?
do you talk like this in person?
ATM's are built using "old" technology, yet they seem to be functioning quite well now, don't they?