The real issue here is not that someone had 14GB of mp3s or 40 movies; that simply makes for a better headline. The real issue is that someone in the capital was abusing the purchasing system and bilking the state for all they could. Buying barebones PCs on one purchase and then purchasing the remaining components on a separate order is a big no-no. It means that the PCs appear to be far less expensive, and exempts them from inventory control systems. The purchases basically fly under the radar, and the goods could be anywhere now; some other office, somebody's house, or sold on eBay.
Long before the Pine, Apex or any of the other units out there, I & two of my classmates concieved, designed & built a combination CD/MP3 player. It was a scary looking piece of hardware, with a 4-line LCD, a few basic buttons, and a couple of surface-mount components suspended on the wires they were soldered to. We designed & built it for our computer engineering senior design project in '98, and I believe that a group in this year's class is revamping our original. If anyone's interested, I may still be able to find my copies of our documentation, some pictures, etc.
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The real issue here is not that someone had 14GB of mp3s or 40 movies; that simply makes for a better headline. The real issue is that someone in the capital was abusing the purchasing system and bilking the state for all they could. Buying barebones PCs on one purchase and then purchasing the remaining components on a separate order is a big no-no. It means that the PCs appear to be far less expensive, and exempts them from inventory control systems. The purchases basically fly under the radar, and the goods could be anywhere now; some other office, somebody's house, or sold on eBay.
Sure, Darva Conger talking Cisco is nice & all, but what about Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics?
Long before the Pine, Apex or any of the other units out there, I & two of my classmates concieved, designed & built a combination CD/MP3 player. It was a scary looking piece of hardware, with a 4-line LCD, a few basic buttons, and a couple of surface-mount components suspended on the wires they were soldered to. We designed & built it for our computer engineering senior design project in '98, and I believe that a group in this year's class is revamping our original. If anyone's interested, I may still be able to find my copies of our documentation, some pictures, etc.