http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/ Engadget Comments for Census Bureau goes forward with plans to ditch PDAs http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 4:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/]]>Apr 3rd 2008 4:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
As for the contractor: Why exactly are they NOT paying the three billion dollars and the Government is?

There's generally only one thing worse than the government for getting things done and that's government contractors who are awarded a massive contract with almost no peneltites for not ever getting the work done. I can't say I'd blame them though. If someone handed me a billion dollars and said "This is the money for doing (insert big complicated task). but we don't actually care if you do it or not. Feel free to drag your feet for a few years and then just never get it done. Actually, if you do that you get some more money." That would be hard to pass up for anyone]]>Apr 3rd 2008 4:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 4:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 4:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
Even more math: $14B/$117 (number of taxpayers in U.S.)= $119, which is the average price every taxpayer pays for the census. I could understand if this was to get us to Mars, introduce renewable energy, or even buy tanks, but to count people?!?

This makes the Big Dig look like a minor mistake. ]]>Apr 3rd 2008 5:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 5:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
]]>Apr 3rd 2008 5:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 5:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
What was the miscommunication? And whose fault was it?

Considering the problems arose just last week and the government has already canceled on the contract, something tells me the census bureau people just couldn't figure out how to use the things.]]>Apr 3rd 2008 5:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 6:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Oct 6th 2009 11:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 6:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 7:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
Why do we need to do a "Census" if every year everyone has to file a tax return, or have a social security number to essentially perform some sort of transaction?

Can't we add up all of the social security numbers and call it good?

If someone is "off the net" and doesn't have an SSD, they aren't using gov't services and probably aren't voting, so, don't count them ok?

Illegal Aliens...yeah, they are going to answer those census takers real truthfully.

Read the report on the 2000 Census and see the evaluation of the magnitude of the errors, that is some real comedy. The error was significantly bigger than the oft-reported, unverified claim of XX millions of illegals. And how did they find out they botched it so bad? They compared to previous tax records....]]>Apr 3rd 2008 7:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 26th 2009 5:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 8:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 9:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 9:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 9:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 3rd 2008 11:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 4th 2008 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/And the fact that our gov has just dropped this much $ is unacceptable. Any lawyer-readers out there think there is a suit worth pursueing here??? ]]>Apr 4th 2008 1:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 4th 2008 7:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
The technology is no different than what was done in Brazil where they use Window Mobile powered devices to conduct Census activity. http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/icas/papers/P020071114297534694346.pdf
]]>Apr 4th 2008 12:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 7th 2008 12:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/


]]>Apr 7th 2008 5:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 4th 2008 9:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 7th 2008 9:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
The reason you take a census is to determine the basics about statistical areas such as race, sex, age, etc. This is how the tax dollars are divided out, needs are identified for depressed areas, etc.

I understand the public's disgust at this huge waste of money. Government employees are taxpayers, too. While you always hear about the screwups, there are a lot more outstanding government employees at the Census Bureau than you would expect based on sterotypes.]]>Apr 4th 2008 10:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/Apr 7th 2008 8:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/
I understand how the Census is being used; I contend that it is misuse.]]>Apr 9th 2008 10:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/03/census-bureau-goes-forward-with-plans-to-ditch-pdas/needs to get a "hard" reboot 10 times a day.

This is another Bush fiasco...this contract should have been given to Garmin as this Harris has GPS
in it that sometimes works other times cannot see the sat. even in with blue sky]]>Apr 7th 2009 1:07PM