Census Bureau To Scrap Handhelds — Cost $3 Billion

GovTechGuy writes "The Census Bureau will tell a House panel today that it will drop plans to use handheld computers to help count Americans for the 2010 census, increasing the cost for the decennial census by as much as $3 billion, according to testimony the Commerce Department secretary plans to give this afternoon."

Surplus

[Jhon]

Will they sell the hand-helds? Or give them away like Cheese in the 80's?

Re:Surplus

[SQLGuru]

Look for them on Woot during the next Woot-off.

Layne

Re:$10/person ?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you do that, you'd probably find we were more populous than China.

Re:Census? Just count me out.

[ORBAT]

Ron Paul, is that you?

That's Craaaaaaaazy

[mcmonkey]

In 2006, the Census Bureau awarded a $595 million contract to Harris Corp. to develop more than 525,000 handheld computers that enumerators would use to collect data from Americans who did not send in their census forms.

No wonder the project failed. Why not have them develop 1 handheld computer, and produce 525,000 units for enumerators to use?

So this is hell...the government and society from Idiocracy, without the handjobs. Sartre was right.