back to article US gov spunks $200K on busted weather app

The US Department of Labor spent more than $200,000 (£129,000) creating a mobile application telling people to drink four cups of water every hour, and didn't even manage to get a BlackBerry version working. The money was spent with UK-owned Eastern Research Group, who produced the "Heat Safety Tool" for Android (at $96,000), …

COMMENTS

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  1. Kevin Fairhurst
    FAIL

    Wow

    $200k and they didn't think to mention that it should be able to handle temperatures using the Fahrenheit scale ;)

    1. Wyrdness

      Yes, for those still using archaic units, if it's 140 degrees Fahrenheit, you really ought to be drinking 0.025 firkins of water per hour.

      1. zb

        Too firkin right.

  2. dotdavid
    WTF?

    Also

    Why was the Android version so much more expensive? You don't require expensive Macs nor Apple's approval to code for the platform.

    I guess they could have been a bit silly and bought every available Android phone for testing...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Their you go, you just worked out the answer.

      1. dotdavid
        WTF?

        Re: the answer

        What? That the developers are idiots? :-P

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fair

    I slap in an extra $100,000 on work I do for Yanks to put up with their general brash attitute. just isn't worth it any other way.

  4. jonathanb Silver badge

    Confusing units?

    A quick look at the weather in Boston (I assume you mean Mass, not Lincs) suggests that 60°F is a possibility in the next few days. That's a little warmer than in the original Boston, but still not particularly warm. This seems to be quite a common problem over the other side of the pond.

  5. a_been
    WTF?

    Well my guess is

    It wasn't their money so they didn't give a rats arse about the cost.

    1. Andrew Moore

      That's about the strenght of it...

      having worked with a few government departments I was always amazed at how cavalier they were with money; They really had no concept of its value- just keep throwing more at a problem until the problem went away.

  6. James O'Brien
    Joke

    looking for funding

    Developing an app that will track the combined expulsion of gases on a daily basis, which will upload data into the "cloud" allowing for a better understanding of the effects of global warming trends due to excessive build up. I will need approx. $10 million dollars and it will be added to the other million apps on the app store currently there.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Excellent

      Please contact me immediately, my TELEX is 42420.

  7. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    A client without a clue = big money

    A government client that knows what it wants is a rare thing indeed. If I had to bet on it, most of that $200k was in contract variations, and the final app looks nothing like what the original design brief asked for.

  8. Eddy Ito

    Sure

    But when the next wacky candidate says we should eliminate the Dept. of Labor because it's a waste of money the two parties will have this app to point to as proof that OhSHit err OSHA is doing its best to keep people hydrated even if water isn't useful for preventing dehydration in parts of Europe. I wonder if it comes with a Prop 65 warning for Calif-on-ya... the app and the water, just to be safe... because the water here surely isn't.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is the AEA group

    Is this the same AEA Group that used to be part of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority ?

    Oh dear. Privatisation/spinoff hasn't worked well for them if this is typical, has it. Or maybe it has, as this sounds like money for old rope, which is what many of the privatised former monopolies get these days.

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