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California + Oracle = $95 Million Fiasco
bahtama writes: "The Sacramento Bee is reporting that California apparently signed an agreement to purchase 95 million dollars worth of Oracle software that they really didn't need and that will not save them as much money as promised. They apparently purchased 270,000 licenses, which is more than all the state workers, including prison guards and others who would never need it." How do you think Oracle would treat the whole country?
No way. When did this start?
California did sign the agreement. Oracle expects them to abide by the contract. California should have thought a bit more before signing, perhaps, but there is no wrongdoing here. If they signed a contract to purchase 270,000 useless copies of Red Hat, no one would be complaining.
Maybe everybody issued a national ID card, or scanned by facial recognition technology, will require a license from Oracle before they can be tracked?
... to make up for all those millions and millions the BSA claims are lost to piracy. He was just buying licenses for them.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
...if you get pulled over in california:
"May I see your driver's license, proof of insurance, and your Oracle seat license please"
--- sig moved for great justice.
..Where Amy went car shopping at that "Malfunctioning Eddies" or wherever; and upon being sold a car (after haggling for it at a HIGHER price), the owner-robot exploded?
Why do I get the impression that there's quite a few Oracle employees who just exploded; and that California is going to be mightily pissed when they find that their new Oracle Software isn't going to come with quite as much Eagle as the salesmen promised...
If the poster would actually read the article, they'd see that the company Logicon sold the Oracle software to the state, not Oracle themselves.
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" P. J. O'Rourke
If you read the article, it wasn't Oracle who should be blamed for this. It was the sales people from Logicon Inc who scammed them.
mp3's are only for those with bad memories
We're in a recession and companies are STILL laying people off, yet California has the gall to blow $95M on too many licenses and software they don't need?
Sadly, fiscal responsibility in the government still seems to be generations away. If I still lived in Cali I'd try and get a proposition on the ballot that new expenditures over $(n)M have to be approved by the voter. Ditto for raises for elected officials, we should be able to fire these idiots as easily as we elect them.
Hammer of Truth
What I'd really like to see happen is California take some initiative and put this software to good use! Yes, they've got WAY more licenses than they need. But, that's based on their CURRENT need. California has the chance now to do some really big things with information management.
My dad works for the State of Maryland. I can't even imagine how many millions (billions?) of dollars MD could save if they just restructured the way they maintain information. Welfare records are still being maintained using PAPER spreadsheets. Auditing this information takes months. The savings in this area alone could justify such a purchase. Auditing time could be cut drastically. Code could be written to locate discrepancies in the data. This doesn't even take into account things like payroll systems which could be automated. Doing that would allow the state to eliminate the positions of the hundreds of people with little-to-no education they have working in their payroll department.
Bill Gates (love him or hate him) really hit the nail on the head in his book Business @ The Speed of Thought. It really outlines how technology can be used to increase the flow of information, while at the same time reducing the cost associated with acting on that information.
Maybe someone in the California government will take charge and turn this bad situation into a golden opportunity!
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mp3's are only for those with bad memories
All of this is meaningless, since within a years time California won't have any electricity!
is that the CA Dept. of Information Technology (DoIT) that committed this colossal blunder was established just a few years ago precisedly to eliminate IT mismanagement and waste in State Agencies. I'm surprised Cortez (DoIT Director) still has a job, but that might not be true much longer. The legislature is considering abolishing the DoIT.
No, there is no difference.
Oracle and California signed a contract, California was really REALLY stupid. I seriously doubt that Larry Ellison made California "an offer they couldn't refuse". Oracle is sure as hell not going to refuse the deal. They are a for profit company that sells software...
It is not the companies responsibility to police its customers. If someone comes to my company and offers us 3x what we normally charge for our services we will happily take the extra cash, so will every other company on the planet.
Caveat emptor...
dewke
Oderint dum metuant
I think it's funny the mindset the gov't has gotten us into. If we get a refund, we think we're getting money from the gov't. If we have to pay, we think it's so unfair we're having to pay the gov't.
;-)
Fact of the matter is, you pay both ways. Just in the former case you overpaid (free loan to the gov't), and in the latter case you didn't pay enough (not a free loan though, you may get penalized).
Automatic payroll deduction is one of the nastiest tricks the over-sized government has pulled on us! If we actually had to write out checks each year for the full amount we're *actually* paying, the government realizes there would be a tax revolt that very year. But take out a little each check, and no problem.
What's that example with the frog?
--- witty signature
I realize that you were joking, but what is sad is that most businessmen actually do put a high value on such unethical behaviour.
... City of Largo, FL obtains more Linux licenses than it needs!!!! Mistake costs them.... um, nothing.
Miko O'Sullivan
He added, "This is a mess. And it's not one we need to sweep under the rug."
And what kinds of messes DO we sweep under the rug?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
I'd be pretty pisssed off if I lived in the state...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
My wife works for an arm of the .gov. She told me M$ has been auditing the .gov for license compliance on every level as a form of retaliation against the recent trials.
.gov is wanting to say buh bye M$, but the problem is a logistical one, how do you move and train all those employee's who were brought up on M$ over to *nix.
It's sort of a funny paradox, now the
Just a side note to the story I wanted to add, allmost ontopic.
Bullshit.
1Q01: $903M income before tax, $320M income tax expense.
2Q01: $1.32B income before tax, $470M income tax expense.
3Q01: $785M income before tax, $275M income tax expense.
4Q01: $845M income before tax, $295M income tax expense.
Your political bias is showing. (OK, so's mine. Guilty as charged. ;-) But corporations pay assloads of tax too.
If we actually had to write out checks each year for the full amount we're *actually* paying, the government realizes there would be a tax revolt that very year. But take out a little each check, and no problem.
When you fill out your 1040, it's BLATANTLY OBVIOUS how much you've paid.
For example, an MD friend of mine paid over 100,000 US Dollars in federal income taxes this year. Plus about $30,000 in property taxes, state and local income taxes.
I don't know much about his spending habits, but let's say he put $20,000 in the bank, and spent his remaining $150,000 on taxable goods and services. That means he also paid $10,500 in sales tax in his county. (In this case, he has no car or mortgage payments.)
So at the end of the year, he's paid almost a full half of his income to "the government." That is not American, my friends, that sounds like something the damn socialist frenchies and poppycockers overseas would do. (I love you guys, but your taxes suck even worse than ours. But not much.)
So when my wife's co-workers quit their jobs to raise babies (five of them in the past 18 months) and get public assistance in medical benefits, food, income, subsidized housing, etc... they tell us "The Government is taking care of me! It is great!" (My sister has also done this, twice.)
Bullshit. My father and I are paying for you to sit on your ass and watch Oprah and smoke Menthol Lights next to your newborn. And to get medical care. And to buy orange juice with food stamps so you can save your baby shower money for important stuff... like another carton of Menthols. These idiots think the government just "makes" the money... the clue train never bothers making a stop between their ears.
Sorry to be such a 20-something curmudgeon. Obviously not all people on public assistance are like this; just most of them. Get knocked up by your cousin's boyfriend and skate it out from there. No marriage, no commitment, no work, no worries. And they are OK with it, because the government is taking care of them. And you and I are paying for it. Yes we need social services, but we have bred an entire generation or subculture of people who can now live by the hard work of others who make btter decisions and handle the consequences to their actions without whining.
If you're in the US, and haven't had the pleasure of dealing with people like this yet, take a couple trips to WalMart at 2:00pm and see if you can apply this tale to the runny-nosed crotch-fruit being dragged around by some "poor, bedraggled" mommy. She has a vacant look on her face, you know why? She doesn't have to care anymore. About anything.
Except how to afford that next box of Menthols.
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
I'd have been happy to set them up with PostgreSQL for $45 million.
Oh, what the heck. I'm bigger than that.
Guys --- if you manage to get yourself out of that Oracle boondoggle, I'll still be glad to get you PostgreSQL for $45 million.
I am such an old softie.
It's time for some Q&A.Let's start with familiar /. lore.
Q. Who invented the Internet?
A. The US federal gummint (DARPA)
Q. On whose dime?
A. The US taxpayers'
Q. What industry occupies the largest portion of the US federal government's trillions of dollars in expenditures?
A. Defense. 35% in 2001. Welfare and other means-tested entitlments were 6%.
Q. What has the US Dept. of Defense been focusing on since the end of the Cold War? A. Technology - computerized planes, satellites, drones, tanks, etc. Read any Afghanistan story in the Washington Post or New York Times, or any other major newspaper, and you will hear nothing but raves about our high-tech military.
Q. And who does that money employ?
A. Engineers, technologists, programmers.
Q. What do they make on average?
A. A starting salary of $60K, if not more
Q. Wow, Eric, sounds like the geeks get the most welfare of all! Why do you think they complain so much?
A. (stumped)
And don't even dare to complain how hard it is to figure out what the government spends - it took me 6 seconds to find the US budget. Whew!
Well, it certainly looked informative. I found the numbers a bit interesting and followed your link. On page 379 (Table S-3, Budge Summary) of the FY 2001 Budget document from your gpo.gov link I found the following:
(2001 Estimates)
Discretionary: $634
DoD $279
non-DoD $355
Mandatory: $993
Social Security: $355
Medicare and medicaid: $342
Means-tested entitlements: $111
Other: $123
Total: $1,835
(All number in Billions)
So we've got 15% for DoD (355/1835)
and 6% for means-tested (111/1835). So you got half of it right but distorted the other half. Non-DoD and Social Security were more than DoD and Medicare/Medicaid was almost as much.
So, it's an interesting chain you've strung but it doesn't hold together.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Um, Bullshit on you. Look at gross proceeds:
4Q01: 2.357 BILLION
3Q01: 2.242 BILLION
2Q01: 3.263 BILLION
1Q01: 2.674 BILLION
That's an average tax rate of 12.9% on gross income.
When's the last time anyone who isn't on WIC paid only 12.9% federal tax on their gross income after deductions?
Putting the sig back into +1, Insightful since 1995!