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Should handheld computers for 2010 census counting cost $2600 a piece?
- xirium 19y agoI find it astounding that data input devices cost US$2600 each. I find it astounding that manual processes would add US$3 billion to the US$11 billion cost. That's about US$46 per person. I bet you could do it cheaper with punch cards ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith ).
- maximilian 19y agoThey should just buy a bunch of iPhones (or iPod Touches) and a team of programmers to build a program using the new SDK. Its reasonably location aware, has mapping, has everywhere internet, is reasonably robust, and is super intuitive. Plus, the census folks could listen to music while walking around. The numbers they use always baffle me. How can anything cost $11 billion dollars let alone just counting people?
- noonespecial 19y agoIts the 10 x 10 x 10 rule. An individual is 10 times more effective working alone than working as an employee. An employee is 10 times more effective than a government bureaucrat. So: An individual could produce a surprisingly accurate count for $100,000. A private company could produce a surprisingly accurate count for $1,000,000. A government agency could produce a surprisingly accurate count for $10,000,000. (The rest of the billions are earmarks that have nothing to do with the census.) I won't mention the UN.
- daniel-cussen 19y agoNo.