Tuesday, December 11, 2007

High Tech!

I am doing some consulting work for a state government. One recommendation I had made was to switch from pagers to cell phones. Cell phones only cost a little more than pagers and the pagee can return the call immediately instead of having to find one of the always fewer payphones.

A nice extra is that even "freebie" cell phones these days have camera's built in. Many state employee would find cameras extremely useful. For example State Troopers could take photos of suspects, accidents or crime scenes immediately. Health and social workers could take photos' of living conditions or suspected abuse on the spot. No more having to wait for the photographer to show up (The photographers union was not pleased though!)

The cost benefit ratio was very favorable too, for just a little more money they would get a lot more use and functionality from the product.

So they decided to implement my recommendation. They appointed a blue ribbon committee to select the best possible camera phone at the best cost. Here is what the committee came up with...



The good news is they only cost $12,000 per user! I love government committee decisions!

12 comments:

House of Jules said...

Way to go, government! What a proud moment...
Jules
House of Jules

Tanya said...

I can't believe they are still using pagers. What is this 1992?

Cell phones are great, but their picture quality isn't as good as a real camera. Tell the photographers union that.

kay said...

that's funny!!

i love that old phone. where did you find that? or is it yours? you do know they make them without cords now, right?

OHmommy said...

Pagers? Are you serious? Funny, so funny.

I have to give our government a thumbs up shout out. We got our passports in less then 2 weeks from the day we filled. Remarkable.

Maybe with cell phones the turnabout time would grow - as the government would be on the phone. Hmmm?

AutoSysGene said...

LOL! I hear stuff like this from Joe all the time!!
My camera phone is what got me into photography. I was constantly taking pictures with the phone. Next was a cheap camera, and now I have a Canon XTi. Love it!!

NerdyRedneck Rob said...

Jules - I know it warms my heart to know my withholding is so wisely spent! ;)

Tanya - Hang on! I know people who still have to carry *multiple* pagers! It's the dark ages around here sometimes!

On that note, the other day I heard this clickty-clackity noise. It was very loud and weird! Kinda creepy! I followed the sound and I saw this lady hitting this little box with buttons all over it! That is what was making the horrible noise! Then paper came out of the top back end! She said this ancient mystical device was called a "type righter" I have no idea what type is in this context or why it needs to be righted but it shore was a noisy thing!

Kay - A friend of mine at state police was cleaning out his father's house after his father had passed. He found the 50's camera and the 30's phone both in his father's basement and set them on his desk to show off. A camera and a phone– Camera phone... and a lame post was born!

OhMommy – Two weeks?! I am still trying to get off of the no fly list! So I guess Homeland security does not have phones yet! :) (You know, there are only a few million Robert Johnson's out there. I guess one of them just had to go and screw it up for the rest of us! I know in my experience Robert Johnson's are a dangerous lot! Personally I think they are just intimidated by my rippling keyboard muscles!)

NerdyRedneck Rob said...

Melissa - I am still only up to a medium camera.

Rachel said...

Ha Ha!
I didn't even know pagers still existed except in bad movies or commercials. :-)

blog author said...

hahahah...i laughed out loud at that. thanks for the visual :)

Taj said...

What Jules said.

Typewriters...how old school!

Johnson? What an unusual and uncommon name you have! ;)

kat said...

Pagers? Typewriters? What's next vinyl records? It is crazy I tell you. Just crazy! Too much pressure. I am intimidated by hightech stuff. Gotta go and cry in my corner for a while.

NerdyRedneck Rob said...

Rachel - Welcome! You would be shocked at the pager stories I could tell!

Melek - Long time no see! Welcome back!

Taj - Type writer? Oh WRITER! I get it now! :)

Kat - Crying in corners is fine but being the highly efficient nerd that I am I find crying the shower works best. It covers the whimpering sounds and washes away the tears in one fell swoop! Perfecto!