U.S. government blows $200,000 of taxpayers’ money on useless mobile app

“I found that OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the United States Department of Labor) have an Android application,” Rich Jones reports for Gun.io. “The purpose of the application is to provide information about the heat index and the corresponding safety warnings. Essentially, it is a temperature converter, it converts a temperature into a safety level. Being an Android developer myself, I wanted to give it a try to see how it handled.”

Jones reports, “It’s a steamy pile of shit.”

“Pardon my French, but I really cannot stress how bad this application is. Firstly, it isn’t actually capable of the function it is supposed to do. When I first tried the application, it told me that it was currently 140F in Boston. It is also extremely slow, it looks like butt, and it crashes all the time. It is completely horrible in every way,” Jones reports. “If I had to reproduce it, I’d say that it would take be about 6 hours at the maximum. At my hourly rate of $100, that’s $600. Now, the quality of the product didn’t surprise me a huge amount – I don’t ever expect very much from the federal government. Still, I was curious about how much we taxpayers payed for the program – and it knocked me off my feet.”

“To find out, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for the cost of the application, the names of the developers and the source code,” Jones reports. “The application cost $106,467 for the Android version, and an additional $96,000 for the iPhone and (non-existent) BlackBerry version. That’s more than $200,000 for less than $2,000 worth of non-functional temperature converters.”

Jones reports, “The shocking part about this isn’t even that it happened, but rather that it is incredibly routine. This is just one FOIA request to one tiny department for one tiny, single use application that will perhaps be used by, at most, five hundred people – and it cost as much as a house. You can imagine what the waste must be like in other government run sectors, like defense, aerospace, infrastructure and energy.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. – Ronald Reagan

When George Washington threw the dollar across the Rappahannock River, he didn’t realize he was establishing a precedent for government spending. – Harold Coffin

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

74 Comments

      1. It’s interesting, the prevailing attitude amongst anyone who gets a Gov’t contract seems to be “let’s fsck them for as much as we can”. In response the Gov’t wants to have a little more oversight and regulation but then there’s an outcry of “keep your Commie bastard hands off of my free-enterprise life”, and finally when the news trickles down to the average Joe it’s “fsckin Gov’t has no idea what it’s doing, those fsckin Commie “B” Hollywood Kenyan Texan Fox hatin’ sonsabitches. I mean, really people ….

    1. And you know that the house spends ALL money, not the president.
      Remember that there was a deal back then to cut spending. The democrats did NOT follow it and spent more and more.

      You would know this if you actually knew anything about the way government works.

    2. @KSH sez “I guess it makes perfect sence to quote him.”

      I think you meant: ‘I guess it makes perfect cents…’

      I’d take Reagan over GW Bush any day. But at the time, Reagan was the biggest spender in US history, a sad relic of the ‘Starve The Beast‘ TardPolicy from the then ascending brain dead Neo-Con-Jobs. 😛

        1. By 1980 the USSR was already decades late in technological terms, and their exaggerated expenses on military meant their economy wasn’t going anywhere. The Cold War was already over. No one had to “win” it through some direct maneuver.

          And the John Paul II was a nice. Way nicer than Uber-Conservative-“Condoms are BAD!”-Nazi-Hugging-Hypocrite-Ratzinger , but you’re in serious need of help if you think he was that instrumental.

        2. “Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II won the Cold War.
          No matter how much you can’t bear it, the fact remains.”

          Since we’re sticking to reality as you understand it, let’s not forget that the cold war could not have been won without Batman.

        3. Naiveté and delusion at it’s finest, are you perchance a recent product of the US education system?. Travel to eastern europe and talk to people who lived it before you make silly (and incredibly outrageous) statements like that.

    1. There is some inconsistency here.

      Obama gets blamed for increasing the national debt but Reagan does not because it is the Congress that spends the money. If Obama gets blamed then Reagan needs to get blamed or vise versa. Did anyone notice that Obama spent money just like Bush so they are the same. You can’t blame Bush without blaming Obama.

      As a side note, let’s be glad the face of the 2008 economic mess has decided not to run again. Go riddance to Barney Frank.

      To be fair, and as another poster pointed out, it’s the government that is at fault.

      The Cold War was a worth while expense. Those that did not live the Cold War has no clue what it was like. The money went to R&D and manufacturing and paying citizens to build things. Whereas, expenditures like welfare and other entitlements pay citizens for doing nothing. I would rather see the money spent to produce something rather than idelness. But it needs to be money that we can afford to spend.

  1. Typical. And all political parties are to blame.

    Well, fancy giving money to the Government! Might as well have put it down the drain. – Auberon Herbert

    Whoever’s for the least government, I’m for them.

    1. Some would say that is the Liberarians, but I am afraid that they may be TOO little government. I have been Republican since 1980, but I no longer have faith in their ability or desire limit the size and scope of government. It’s the Tea Party for me. 3rd Parties typically go nowhere, but the two main parties we have are more concerned with doing battle with each other than responsibly administering to the boring tasks of governance.

    2. I’m all for cutting unnecessary expenses. But the Tea Party has some pretty funny priorities.

      ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES – Not necessary
      SOCIAL CARE – Not necessary
      HEALTH CARE – Not necessary
      GIVING MONEY TO THE 1% IN FORM OF LOW TAXES – Necessary

    3. And all political parties are to blame.

      Finally you say something I can agree with.

      Republicans – stupidly criminal (Iran-Contra)
      Democrats – criminally stupid (Clinton & Lewinsky)

    1. As opposed to a delusional liberal-commie out to destroy the US, capitalism, private property, individual rights, and on and on and on. You Liberals are sick, clueless, idiots. Take your heads out of your asses and step into reality.

      1. It’s always nice that when I stop to think “They really can’t be serious, no one can simply be so ignorant to the point of being such assholes with anyone against them”, people like you show up and post these lovely comments.

        Yes, anyone who’s against making the rich richer and the poor poorer is a communist, yadda yadda, we got that already.

  2. Whatever your political leaning – this is an prime example of gov’t waste.

    I would bet there are lots of things that our gov’t is paying big bucks for that no one really wants or needs but it favors a friend of a political leader.

  3. Meanwhile, in the real world, the US government wasted 16 million times that much in two wars across three countries. Never mind the atrocious loss of life and mismanagement of the reconstruction, to say nothing of the Pollyanna expectations of how the war was supposed to go.

    But yeah, another crappy app on top of another crappy app is a reason for you rightist retards to get your Reagan face panties stuck up your ass.

    Whatever, fscktards.

    1. The wars that Mr. Hopenchange continues to this day, and has even ratcheted up while starting new ones that he calls “kinetic actions.”

      You Libs wear blinders. It’s your continual downfall.

      Can’t wait until next November!

  4. For those who desire to rewrite history – there are many of us who remember what actually happened back when Reagan was President…

    From the moment President Reagan succeeded in pushing through his historic tax cuts in 1981 — which passed by a vote of 323-107 in the House and 89-11 in the Senate, despite Democrats’ subsequent caterwauling — he came under fantastic pressure to raise taxes from the media and the Democrats.

    You will notice it is the same culprits pushing for tax hikes today.

    So in 1982, Reagan struck a deal with the Democrats to raise some business and excise taxes — though not income taxes — in exchange for $280 billion in spending cuts over the next six years. As Reagan wrote in his diary at the time: “The tax increase is the price we have to pay to get the budget cuts.”

    But, of course, the Democrats were lying. Instead of cutting $280 billion, they spent an additional $450 billion — only $140 billion of which went to the Reagan defense buildup that ended the Evil Empire.

    Meanwhile, Reagan’s tax cuts brought in an extra $375 billion in government revenue in the next six years — as that amiable, simple-minded dunce Reagan always said they would. His tax cuts funded the entire $140 billion defense buildup, with $235 billion left over.

    If Democrats had lied only a little and merely held spending at the same level, Reagan could have smashed the Russkies, produced the largest peacetime expansion in U.S. history with his tax cuts and produced a $235 billion budget surplus. (Jobs created in September 1983: 1.1 million; jobs created in September 2011: 150,000.)

    But the Democrats not only refused to implement any budget cuts, they hiked government spending. To the untrained eye, that appears to be the exact opposite of cutting the budget.

    Even the gusher of revenue brought in by Reagan’s tax cuts couldn’t pay for all the additional spending piled up by double-crossing Democrats — more than twice as much as Reagan’s spending on defense.

    Reagan’s defense spending crushed the Soviet war machine. What did Tip O’Neill’s domestic spending accomplish? (I mean, besides destroying the black family, increasing single motherhood and creating government bureaucracies that can never be eliminated.)

    1. at least someone else can read history.
      but don’t worry, there are those here that can’t grasp a single thing you said.

      all they understood from your post “Reagan spent money, raised taxes” they dismiss the rest cause they disagree with it.

    2. Thanks for the history lesson, just want to see if I’ve got it straight…

      Reagan increased debt and taxes but really, it’s all the Dems fault.

      Clinton created a surplus, but all the credit should go the the GOP.

      Obama is to blame for the current economic crisis, and in hindsight, the $3t spent on Iraq was a good investment.

  5. Wow. I’m not concerned about $200,000 being wasted – our endless wars take care of that in a few seconds.

    How about the TRILLIONS lost forever in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.!!!

  6. If we had taken all the money we’ve spent in the gulf region and used it to produce hydrogen and develop ways to efficiently store it and transport it, we wouldn’t have any interest in the Middle East at all.

      1. …And gasoline takes a far lower amount of energy to create than liquid hydrogen and

        … gasoline doesn’t evaporate away as fast as liquid hydrogen and

        …gasoline can be transported easily in low pressure pipes

        …adding infrastructure to “go hydrogen” would take many decades and trillions to implement at a loss increasing everyone’s taxes and fuel costs and

        …should I go on?

      1. Franky & Doddy are worse.

        If I remember right, they helped spearhead the CRA, Community Reinvestment Act. It basically required banks to lend to people unlikely to pay it back or lose their banking license!!!

        That led the banks to ask/lobby to let FMae & FMac buy the mortgages.

  7. While all you fascist running dogs are stirring the pot and trying to get all the Dems and lefties in a lather, you are – of course – forgetting that this is supposed (DOH!) to be a Mac News site. Interestingly, the source article waxes wrathful about an Android app from OSHA that generally fails… so I looked at the iOS version. It’s nothing special, true, and I can’t test the “get temperature” function because I’m not in the US, but there’s a fair bit of useful information, links and so on – nothing that would rate half of $200K, but WTF folks??? Get real! Find somewhere else to do your nut-job impersonations with other nut-jobs and leave us Mac head nut jobs alone.

  8. “I say, I say, Son, it’s hard to find stuff. Pay attention to me, boy. I say it’s hard to find stuff this good on Comedy Central!”

    Keep posting wing-nuts, you’re making laugh away all the snow outside.

      1. You need to stop counting your chickens before you burn them behind you. 😆

        More and more independents are seeing the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican candidates. The independents, not the ideologues, are the ones who determine the outcome, and they’re not for sale to Koch and Rove.

  9. This is a problem of governments the world over, regardless of political persuasion. There is a disconnect in the minds of the people who often run these government departments. They don’t make the connection that this is ultimately their own money they are wasting, not ‘someone else’s money’.
    I worked for a state owned railway in Australia – the people on the coal face were the ones always trying to find value in the small amounts of money at their disposal, but it was the managers and executives that came up with hair-brained ideas, projects that went no where, and solutions to problems that didn’t exist which cost millions of dollars.
    As an example, in the older long distance trains they did a trial of retrofitting entertainment systems in the sitting cars. It cost almost 5 million dollars, worked for a grand total of 1 day, and rather than fixing it, pulled the plug. Of course they didn’t bother telling the staff who sold seats on the train and touted this new entertainment system as a feature, that the system no longer worked. Management just quietly decided to push it under the carpet. Then there was the you-beaut new reservation system they had partnered with Microsoft to build that would solve all our problems. Twenty-five million dollars later, MS lost interest and walked away from the project – and needless to say there wasn’t a functioning system for us. Not even an alpha.
    Quite often the people who should be running these things don’t and aren’t allowed to, and the ones who really need to experience the coal face and a dose of reality, wouldn’t and couldn’t survive if they did.

  10. Let’s remember that it is corporations, not the people, that now pull all the strings of power in Congress. Procurement is done not for maximum effectiveness or efficiency, but as a party favor for campaign donors. Want legislation passed? Just write it up and have your “nonprofit” PAC donate to the campaign fund — you’ll be sure to have it slipped into the appendices of the next bill by puppet-boy legislator, no problem. Having puppet-boy actually introduce the bill himself, allow it to see the light of day for review and debate, and defend it before the people will cost extra.

    Isn’t $200k about the going rate for CEO lounge chairs for the office penthouse?

  11. Puppet-boy! I like it. I’m going to use it as a synonym for “double-crossing, morally bankrupt, lying-ass elected representative” from now on.

    What the heck, just “elected representative”. Same difference, right?

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