Kansas is Trying to Unload $10M in Unused Computer Equipment (apnews.com) 117
An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:
Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer's administration is seeking a way to donate or sell at a steep discount as much as $10 million in unused computer equipment that has been stored in a state office building since 2016. The state still owes $2 million on the equipment, which it bought in 2016 as part of a failed plan to develop a centralized storage system, call Kansas GovCloud, for computer information. That idea was canceled by state IT officials who said it was too expensive. Instead, the state contracts with an outside company to store data on remote servers.
Attempts to sell the equipment failed to attract bidders, leading to discussions about finding someone to take the equipment before its value dropped to the level of scrap metal, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said the state allocated $17 million, including $10 million for the equipment, before dropping the storage idea. Selling it for pennies on the dollar or donating it to someone has merit, he said. "The point is, equipment after a while just becomes obsolete. If somebody can use it, great. If you can get some money out of it, fine," Holland said.
Attempts to sell the equipment failed to attract bidders, leading to discussions about finding someone to take the equipment before its value dropped to the level of scrap metal, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said the state allocated $17 million, including $10 million for the equipment, before dropping the storage idea. Selling it for pennies on the dollar or donating it to someone has merit, he said. "The point is, equipment after a while just becomes obsolete. If somebody can use it, great. If you can get some money out of it, fine," Holland said.
$17 million is cheap... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:1)
Grandpa, I already taught you about client side encryption! Please try and remember...
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
Such a good grandson you are, but most of us are too forgone. The âoecloudâ confuses and scares us! We need to have to manually setup and manage servers, things like auto scaling and high availability are terrifying.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
Such a good grandson you are, but most of us are too forgone. The âoecloudâ confuses and scares us! We need to have to manually setup and manage servers, things like auto scaling and high availability are terrifying.
yes, I'll remember to use your favorite encryption, Dual_EC_DRBG.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:5, Funny)
The âoecloudâ confuses and scares us!
Also âoeunicodeâ confuses and scares us!
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
If they will pay the shipping, Iâ(TM)ll take all the equipment they want to donate.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:3)
I have worked with state level IT many times and it is absolutely shocking how everything is done as hack and slash. Then again, anyone investing in SAN at this point is generally unsuitable to continue working. SAN is just a terrible idea no matter how you spin it.
And $17 million is peanuts compared to what contractors would rape a state government before the inevitable data breach.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:3)
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:2)
"Do you think Kansas has the available expertise within the government to secure a data center?"
A 12-person company may not have that expertise, but a state govt. should. If it lost the capacity, it's a sad state of affairs.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:2)
Re:$17 million is cheap... (Score:3)
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
Grandpa, I already taught you about Docker! Please try and remember...
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
Such a good grandson you are! Containerizing confuses and scares us old people, being able to move your application to the cloud or back extremely easy.
Re:$17 million is cheap... (Score:3)
It's funny that you think an in-house state controlled system cannot suffer from data breaches.
Re:$17 million is cheap... (Score:0)
It's not that they can't, but they'd likely have to be specifically targeted. With other cloud providers, one hole potentially leaks content from a few to hundreds of different organizations. So, by pure happenstance they may have greater odds of having a leak for that reason. It's a whole other story if the state were targeted, and for that I'd tend to believe the odds are better that a cloud provider would provide safety rather than the in-state staff. I'd tend to argue that in truth, luck and a lack of motivation is why most companies and organizations haven't been hacked, not a crack team of employees.
Re: $17 million is cheap... (Score:2)
âoeI'd tend to argue that in truth, luck and a lack of motivation is why most companies and organizations haven't been hacked, not a crack team of employees.â
I couldnâ(TM)t agree more with this statement.
Re:$17 million is cheap... (Score:2)
Kansas Derp State (Score:0, Troll)
The idea was cancelled when IT experts explained to the governor and secretary of state that this equipment could make it harder to engage in election fraud and that could inadvertently cause the votes of black and Hispanic people to be counted.
Kansas has had one of the most corrupt state governments for decades. Finally this year, the citizens of Kansas had enough and threw the Republicans out of office in the hope that they would accidentally fall into a hole somewhere 40 miles outside Topeka and never be seen again.
Re:Kansas Derp State (Score:0)
The idea was cancelled when IT experts explained to the governor and secretary of state that this equipment could make it harder to engage in election fraud and that could inadvertently cause the votes of black and Hispanic people to be counted.
Kansas has had one of the most corrupt state governments for decades. Finally this year, the citizens of Kansas had enough and threw the Republicans out of office in the hope that they would accidentally fall into a hole somewhere 40 miles outside Topeka and never be seen again.
The simplest explanation is usually correct. In this case, the government is incompetent, made bad decisions, and can't even give away computer hardware in a timely manner without dragging it out until the hardware is worthless.
Incompetent. Just like the government of whatever blue state you live in.
Re:Kansas Derp State (Score:2)
Re:Kansas Derp State (Score:2, Flamebait)
Incompetent goes without saying. If they were halfway competent, the state's economy wouldn't be in the toilet and they might not have had to commit election fraud to stay in power.
Re: Kansas Derp State (Score:0)
If government is so incompetent, why haven't you succeeded with your anarchy?
Re: Kansas Derp State (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not anarchy, but Democrats swept the Kansas statewide office elections.
To give you an idea of how bad the Kansas GOP is, the people of Kansas elected a Native American lesbian to Congress over a Republican guy that Donald Trump campaigned and did rallies for and endorsed, and in a district that has been Republican for just about ever.
Re: Kansas Derp State (Score:0)
I'm pretty sure that half the GOP believes Democrats are anarchists. The other half believes they are communists, and they all believe that Democrats worship Satan like the Muslim Atheists they are.
Re:Kansas Derp State (Score:3)
Incompetent. Just like the government of whatever blue state you live in.
Kansas is particularly bad though. The drooling fool Brownback pretty much bankrupted the joint with his "aggressive experiment in conservative economic policy".
It shows just how stupid Republicans are when it comes to running an economy.
Re: Kansas Derp State (Score:3)
Re: Kansas Derp State (Score:0)
Clearly we need to clip the wings of the Federal Government. If the power of the feds was severely reduced those dastardly red states wouldn't be able to steal your money.
Re:Kansas Derp State (Score:2)
But no money for teachers (Score:5, Insightful)
State had $17 million to waste on useless computers while their teachers were getting paid so little they had to work second and third jobs. I read about some teachers working at McDonalds after they finished teaching school. Keep in mind Kansas had a budget surplus before a trickle down economic ideologue became a governor. After what happened in Kansas should be death knell for myth of trickle down economy.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:0)
Until their is a direct link between politicans pay to teachers, police, firefighters, etc. there will never be money to the ones who deserve it
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:1, Interesting)
Average Kansas teacher gets paid $53,314 (https://www1.salary.com/KS/Public-School-Teacher-Salary.html), before benefits. There are an average 180 days in a school year, with 6.64 hours in a school day, so 180*6.64=1195.2/$53,314=$44/hour. Raise your hand if you make close to $44/hour before benefits.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:1)
They work longer than a school day, most teachers i know put in a solid 40 hours a week and if they coach, add another ten hours.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:1)
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:0)
Haha, average... I'm guessing that includes useless administrators.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:0)
/me raises his hand
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:5, Informative)
That said, I have never met a teacher who does not have to grade tests, plan, prep the classroom, etc... most teachers work a lot more than you seem to think. Why not offer teachers a trade... pay them 80% per hour of their current pay and offer them to charge per hour. If they turn it down, fire them because they are either lazy or they are idiots. Of course, you would likely end up having to pay the ones who stay 50% more.
It is obvious your teachers failed to educate you. Please learn to perform the slightest research before speaking about something. There is a new web site called Google and you can type questions into it. Use it
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:1)
Speaking of Google, you can now choose from endless online courses, universities, academies, and learn anything you want without forcing poor teachers to slave for peanuts (except maybe recording the initial lectures). They are now free, if not will soon be, to pursue their deserved high paying jobs in the private sector.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:1)
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:4, Informative)
Average Kansas teacher gets paid $53,314 (https://www1.salary.com/KS/Public-School-Teacher-Salary.html), before benefits. There are an average 180 days in a school year, with 6.64 hours in a school day, so 180*6.64=1195.2/$53,314=$44/hour. Raise your hand if you make close to $44/hour before benefits.
According to BLS, the average pay is $44,620. Kansas has 186 school days, which would not include any teacher work days but eve for an 8 hour days (most teachers are there before and after student instructional time), that works out to $30/hour. Add in time spent on teacher work days, preping for class, grading homework, etc. and it becomes even less. However, the 186 days worked doesn't mean teachers have another 6 months they can work, since that is spred out over about 9 months once vacation days are counted. Not many jobs will let you work 2 months, leave for 9 and return again. To put it into perspecive, between vacation and holidays most jobs only work 46 weeks out of the year, for a total of 1920 hours worked. If you asssume 4 teacher work days, tha means 190 days worked or 1520 hours, for an hourly rate of $29. A non teaching equivalent salary for 1920 hours is ~56K. By your standards, 56K is a great salary,
I notice you're quoting average (Score:5, Interesting)
I know that in my neck of the woods schools in wealthy neighborhoods have much, much better pay. That's because schools are funded by property taxes, so wealthy districts have wealthy schools. That would, of course, screw up the averages. I can't find any sources for the $44k and $56k figures being but I wouldn't be surprised to find University research professors mixed in there with their $100k+ salaries. Again, anything to inflate the average.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
You think most jobs get 6 weeks of vacation/holidays?
$56k is a pretty good salary, actually, considering the median household income is about $50k in Kansas. A married pair of teachers would be significantly above the median.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
>"By your standards, 56K is a great salary"
In Kansas, it probably very much is a great salary. And that doesn't include their generally great benefits. In some other areas, that is not at a great salary at all. Where one lives makes a HUGE difference due to taxes, housing costs, and local prices.
To see the difference, even ignoring huge tax differences, just look at the average price of a decent 1 bedroom apartment from place to place. It can vary from $400 up to $4000 per month. That is huge. Now double their state income taxes on top of that. Now increase their sales taxes. Now double or triple the gas tax (example- right now KS is $2/gal while CA is $3.40/gal). And double or triple the insurance costs. I think you get the idea.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
>"By your standards, 56K is a great salary"
In Kansas, it probably very much is a great salary. And that doesn't include their generally great benefits. In some other areas, that is not at a great salary at all. Where one lives makes a HUGE difference due to taxes, housing costs, and local prices.
To see the difference, even ignoring huge tax differences, just look at the average price of a decent 1 bedroom apartment from place to place. It can vary from $400 up to $4000 per month. That is huge. Now double their state income taxes on top of that. Now increase their sales taxes. Now double or triple the gas tax (example- right now KS is $2/gal while CA is $3.40/gal). And double or triple the insurance costs. I think you get the idea.
I fully agree; cost of living makes a huge difference in lifestyle. My point was that calculating a teachers salary but dividing hours worked into salary gives a false impression of what they are paid relative to someone who works a regular scheduled job.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Not many jobs will let you work 2 months, leave for 9 and return again.
Nah, there are loads of jobs like that, especially in the summer, at least in places worth visiting on vacation. That does of course mean that they are less prevalent in Kansas. However, none of them pay anything.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Not many jobs will let you work 2 months, leave for 9 and return again.
Nah, there are loads of jobs like that, especially in the summer, at least in places worth visiting on vacation. That does of course mean that they are less prevalent in Kansas. However, none of them pay anything.
That's the crux of the issue. The teachers I know joke you can tell which teachers have a spouse/partner/whatever with a real job by the car they drive; unless it's a nice brand new loaded truck and then they are a winning football coach.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:1)
...6.64 hours in a school day... =$44/hour.
When do you suppose lesson plans get written, and tests and quizzes get graded?
Not to mention all the other things teachers have to do, usually on their own time.
Then they have to fight, threaten to strike, or strike to get decent salary increases. And then after the teachers sweat blood to get a new contract then the school district just hands the administrators, janitors, etc., the same raise (or better) on a silver platter without even batting an eye.
Sounds like you don't have any friends who are teachers.
Maybe should try walking a mile in a teacher's shoes before you start criticizing what they get paid.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:0)
The average human has one tit
Tell me about the median
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:1)
I teach dual credit (high school and college credit high school classes) in Texas. It's December 22nd. I am theoretically out for Christmas Break. In reality, I was at school today working on things. I decided not to reorganize my classroom by myself; I will ask for student volunteers to help me before classes resume in January. My plan for Christmas break is to work on my classes, especially getting courses set up in our LMS.
I did the same thing over Thanksgiving Break.
I did the same thing last summer.
Good teachers work every chance they get, to help the kids learn. If we took into account the value of the kids time, we would spend a lot more on the public schools.
I can not say more without doxing myself.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:4, Informative)
You forgot that teachers have to work several hours a day after the last class grading papers, talking to parents, and filling out a never ending stream of documents and forms for the bureaucracy. Also many teachers end up having to pay out of pocket for needed supplies since the official channels will take so long the students will graduate before the request is filled (if ever).
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:3)
I notice how you failed to include the relevant part of that figure: "The average Public School Teacher salary in Kansas is $53,314 as of December 01, 2018, but the range typically falls between $46,543 and $61,547. Salary ranges can vary widely depending on the city and many other important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession."
Also I highly doubt teachers work 6.65 hours per day unless you think that the teachers roll up to school 5 minutes before classes start. Also in your wold do homework and test grade themselves and teacher never have to do any sort of prep work.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:1)
My Dad is a retired teacher, my Sis was working as a teacher for about 10 years, and I was a relief teacher.
I also know a few other teacher friends.
You probably have to increase your figures in terms of number of hours worked alot more, especially when it is test or exam season.
I know of teachers working about 10 to 12 hours a day for a couple of weeks at a time. Part of the time will be at home while they mark, prep tests, classes, etc.
No doubt this is not in the US (Singapore), but I assume it will be similar in most places.
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:0)
Teachers working 2 and 3/jobs is fake news. That article in time magazine a few weeks back was all bs. They had a teacher in LA that had expensive rent and another in new York. Jesus just pick the most expensive places to live and interview some clown
Re: But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Plenty of money for teachers (Score:2)
With 41,243 teachers [ballotpedia.org], that works out to an average (mean) salary of $46,300 plus $13,800 in benefits.
This compares to a statewide average (mean) income of $43,953 [ks.gov]. Searching through those labor stats for "education" confirms that the mean for most teaching jobs is right around the $45k mark.
If your claim that teachers have to work second or third jobs just to get by is true, that would mean more than half of Kansas citizens have to work second or third jobs just to get by.
Re:But no money for teachers (Score:2)
Generations have tried to teach people using books, computers, robot GUI, new software, enjoyed spending huge extra charity budgets.
Better teachers don't help. More pay does not help. Different types of new computer "education" has the same low results.
Demographics and IQ always show up on testing and results years and decades later.
Donate to Schools? (Score:5, Insightful)
And the geniuses at the state level have or have not considered donating this to other public entities in the state, e.g., the public school systems, state universities, etc. that probably all receive some level of state funding?
Re:Donate to Schools? (Score:0)
I don't know if a public school would have much need for cloud servers. They might be useful on the backend, but most students and teachers won't use them.
State universities might have some use for them if they aren't already using equipment.
Re: Donate to Schools? (Score:0)
Even if they were not using equipment where would they put it? And what is it even good for? Teaching super advanced calculus? I suppose you could always turn them into door stops or stools
Re: Donate to Schools? (Score:0)
Gawd, this common sense would make you a horrible politician
It's probably junk hardware (Score:3)
Re:Donate to Schools? (Score:2)
Re: Donate to Schools? (Score:1)
With ECL logic in it, it probably runs at several hundred megahertz. The floor it is installed on will probably need to be reinforced to support the massive cooling system required to keep it running.
Re: Donate to Schools? (Score:2)
Re: Donate to Schools? (Score:1)
My guess is that the equipment is highly specific. Or it is obsolete even though it was purchased 2 years ago. Or the amount of work/expertise required to install is more than any school can afford. Or a combination.
Almost certainly the correct answer is "already obsolete." It often takes governments so long to get their act together that the equipment is already past its prime by the time they get it in their hands, because of all of their ridiculous process and procedure which doesn't actually stop malfeasance anyway.
Nice pitch (Score:5, Funny)
But what kit is it? (Score:0)
I really can't find much reference as to what hardware this is all about, anyway. Anyone?
Re:Nice pitch (Score:0)
Its like the ad for PCs/laptops - "these won't last long." Well, I was kinda hoping that the laptop would last at least a few years, you know...
I'm sure for $2 Million (Score:2)
more, paid by Kansas, there are a couple of companies willing to take 2+ year old electronic scrap away.
As soon as they accepted delivery, the equipment had probably lost 1/2 it's value, so following Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, they should have depreciated the value of most of this junk already.
Kansas, Republican Stronghold - like to Spend, Spe (Score:0)
nd, Spend, but hate to tax to pay for their spending. Goofballs. Neverumind all the other shenanigans.
Cleaning it. (Score:0)
The solution was simple as to allocate many harddisks in RAID6 and to use the Hadoop/Spark systems.
Is it really spent $10M in it? Show us the cashes!
Re: Cleaning it. (Score:0)
Hey $10 million bucks will put you in your own private jet. Nothing to sneeze at
List of Crag's list and put on the street. (Score:0)
Tell me a day. and I will drive over a pick it up.
Really, though. find a local 501c3 that has a computer tech class. It may be worthless, but that group can use it. Think of it as lab equipment, to learn and earn a degree, OS load, Repair, Networking, ...
I helped a group in 2nd city imn early 2000... Racks, switches, servers, DELL 6 processor P-Pro, AX machine, Sun, HP/9000, 75 486 matched PC, CD-ROM sderver 28 drives, 6 drive baby. Yes, it was all old equipment. The AX is what I got cert with. 75 matched machines was for computer repair classes. Others in the inner city, got their certs to becuase of this. Also 2 shelters for women and families. Firewall were create, and more and more.
It is one reason to keep local Linux active and growing.. the gift of knowledge even if it old... is still knowledge. Eleectron flow does not change, even if the processor is newer and faster.
YES, it is all old
10 Million (Score:4, Funny)
It's just dust in the wind.
Re:10 Million (Score:0)
Just a drop of silicon in an endless sea
All we do
Crashes to the ground
At the touch of I.T.
Re:10 Million (Score:2)
10 mill here, and 10 mill there--after a while you're talking about some real money.. Carry on, my wayward son.
Outsourced to CGI Group for 59 mill over 10 years (Score:5, Informative)
Same contractor for healthcare.gov seems they are trying to unload the equipment to a school . https://www.seattletimes.com/n... [seattletimes.com]
Ahh, memories (Score:3)
Company ended up donating them to a charity or school, and deducted the full purchase price from their taxes. How do I know this? The president of the company, in a company wide meeting, said so.
Re:Ahh, memories (Score:0)
Cool story, gramps.
Re: Ahh, memories (Score:1)
Shouldn't you be off playing Fortnight or Farmville or something, kid?
I'll take it (Score:2)
If they pay the shipping I'll find room for it. I just upgraded the disks on my NAS but I could always use more storage space.
Inventory list, please... (Score:3)
any 10G swtiching in there? I can use some stuff (Score:2)
any 10G switching in there? I can use some stuff to build out an new ceph + VM cluster.
Re:any 10G swtiching in there? I can use some stuf (Score:2)
so... (Score:1)
So build some Beowulf machines.
Is there a list & how do you apply? (Score:2)
I work for a couple non-profits who've been hit hard by budget cuts; is there a list of what they're trying to get rid of and any way to apply for it even if the non-profit has to pay for shipping it probably would be well worth it for some items?
You can tell he's Republican (Score:0)
because he clearly is not sure how one goes about making donations to charity.
Sounds like campaign donations (Score:2)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these (Score:0)
Really, I could use a few million dollars in hardware.
This sounds like my old boss... (Score:2)
+ "Let's upgrade our stores to use hand scanners at checkout!"
+ "Let's buy the equipment used at auction!"
+ "Let's read the manual and put the inventory on the computer ourselves!"
+ "Let's forget the whole damn thing!"
10 years later...Clerks still put price stickers on items and ring things up manually.
The equipment is still in their warehouse gathering dust.
That's a buttload of TRS-80s (Score:2)
Where's the list of equipment? (Score:2)
Re: Where's the list of equipment? (Score:2)
I am not sure you could give it away. Cisco UMS and EMC Vplex, what a crock of shit.
Re: Where's the list of equipment? (Score:1)
State and Local governments should externalize there compute and storage requirements, They are obviously to slow to even play in this field. If a project never takes off the cloud bills are low for the CPU and bandwidth side.
Re:Where's the list of equipment? (Score:2)
Apparently you have to sell your soul to Microsoft to view the contract. Looks like gibberish in LibreOffice.
100 comments in and no "Hwat!" yet? (Score:2)
(Take one Geek point for seeing the Beowulf in the "Subject:" line. )
How was Kansas intending to fulfill (Score:1)