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Irish parliament counts cost of €1m printer error
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50563977
An inquiry has begun into how staff at the Irish parliament spent more than €1m (£857,000) on a printer that was too big to fit into the building.
The printer, measuring 2.1m (6ft 8in) high and 1.9m (6ft 2 in) wide, was bought last year at a cost of €808,000.
When officials realised it would not fit, they spent an additional €236,000 tearing down walls and embedding structural steel to house the machine.
The printer was placed in storage at a cost of €2,000 a month during the work.
Irish Govt Blows €1M On Mega-Printer Too Big For Parliament's Doors
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Officials failed to ensure there was at least 3.1 metres in height clearance to get the thing in, according to the Irish Times. In reality, there just wasn't enough space. The state-of-the-art printer is described in press reports as being 2.1 metres high and 1.9 metres wide, so either there's confusion over the measurements or you need more than 3 metres to negotiate it in.
By the time the government realized its mistake, it was too late to return the printer as the contract had already been signed. So instead, officials had to "tear down walls and embed structural steel" to fit the contraption, according to RTE on Tuesday.
But that’s not the only havoc the printer has caused. Some employees are refusing to be trained on how to use the machine, sticking a metaphorical middle finger to the government in a bid to negotiate a pay rise for using the new equipment.
What’s more, the IT department is hesitant to grant access to the printer, making it difficult to print documents from official government computers.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:37PM (3 children)
Heck yeah!
I certainly looks like the speck in your neighbor's eye versus the $163 billion over budget, seven years behind schedule [politico.com] $406B development, $1.5T lifetime total [wikipedia.org] F-35 in your eye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:54PM (1 child)
this is the pervasive message. You, the human, are at the mercy of your government and other aggregations of power.
Government only exists because we pay for it - and they make sure we do.
There are 4 ways to spend money.
1) You spend your money on yourself, and you strive for the best result.
2) You spend your money on someone else, so you are interested in the result, but not necessarily optimal.
3) You can have someone else spend their money on you, in which case you're delighted!
4) You can spend someone elses money on someone else, in which case you don't give a f*ck.
Government == $4.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday November 28 2019, @07:16PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Thursday November 28 2019, @07:05PM
It's started to get a tad bit uncomfortable. But I'm sure in 20-30 years they'll replace it with something more awesome in my eye.