What is the greatest waste of money you've seen?

Zebra3

Deleted User wrote: »

I photographed weddings for years. Even the low-budget ones were full of stuff like that. Almost every wedding couple I met were fully in the mindset of "sure we can spend X amount, because we have Y amount of guests, and therefore will get Z in cash gifts".

Chocolate fountains, ice cream vans, multiple photo backdrops (like your flower wall example), enormous initial letters, or the word LOVE, all this kinda stuff that was costing an arm and a leg, and then invariably the couple wouldn't "make" as much money off the guests, so they'd be under pressure and in enormous debt.

More than a handful of the weddings I shot, the couples were separated within 2 years.

Best wedding I ever shot, and if i was getting married myself, the one I'd most like to replicate, was a civil ceremony. Bride, groom and four guests, in the door for the ceremony at 11am, and they had their flight booked to Spain for 3pm. Quick "I do", few photos and out the door to the airport to enjoy themselves.

Too many idiots more interested in their wedding than their marriage.

Sir montygom

The Dail printer would give The E voting machines a good run for its money !! €1.2million for a printer that they couldn’t fit in the door and after busting the jams of the door they figured out that the ceiling was too low!! Biggest mistake is not filming it as it would be the best comedy show since Fsther Ted!

castletownman

Springfield Monorail

Mad_maxx

sxt wrote: »

Those €54m e-voting machines, that were never used, and were kept in storage for another five years at a cost of 3.2 million, and subsequently scrapped for peanuts

every other country uses electronic voting

the only thing wrong with those machines was we stopped using them after one election

Mister Vain

Gold cars in Dubai.

Capt'n Midnight

Tzardine wrote: »

Hiring lifeguards to work at the olympic swimming events.

Have you ever heard of Eric the Eel Moussambani ?

Capt'n Midnight

The ISS is the most expensive object ever because of how much Shuttle launches cost because the USAF insisted it be fricken' massive.

NASA could have used the last two Saturn Vs to launch another two Skylab's and had an ISS sized station in orbit since the 1970's. But they were used for display and the Shuttle arrived too late to save Skylab.


Shuttle and it's replacements through to the SLS have soaked up insane amounts of money because pork barrels are more important than having a working launch system.

/RANT

Capt'n Midnight

Mad_maxx wrote: »

every other country uses electronic voting

the only thing wrong with those machines was we stopped using them after one election

Where do I begin ?

I'd trust tallymen every day of the week over a black box with no traceability and no security.

No physical security apart from a paper sticker and a key you can order online if you can't rake the cheapest desk drawer lock.

No circuit security. You could swap out the program chips if you had physical access.

No software security, the lads in the Netherlands got it to play chess, impressive considering the machine was was more or less a 1980's home computer dipped in glitter.



Besides for some of us the count is the best part of our election system.

EmmetSpiceland

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Where do I begin ?

I'd trust tallymen every day of the week over a black box with no traceability and no security.

No physical security apart from a paper sticker and a key you can order online if you can't rake the cheapest desk drawer lock.

No circuit security. You could swap out the program chips if you had physical access.

No software security, the lads in the Netherlands got it to play chess, impressive considering the machine was was more or less a 1980's home computer dipped in glitter.

Besides for some of us the count is the best part of our election system.

No option to spoil your vote either.

DellyBelly

Red_Wake wrote: »

Social Housing.

Burning the money would be more beneficial to society.

Have to agree with this. Giving free houses out to people who will only drag an entire place down drives me mad.. Housing is not a human right.. Go out and earn it you scroungers..

Sorry rant over

AndrewJRenko

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Where do I begin ?

I'd trust tallymen every day of the week over a black box with no traceability and no security.

No physical security apart from a paper sticker and a key you can order online if you can't rake the cheapest desk drawer lock.

No circuit security. You could swap out the program chips if you had physical access.

No software security, the lads in the Netherlands got it to play chess, impressive considering the machine was was more or less a 1980's home computer dipped in glitter.



Besides for some of us the count is the best part of our election system.

Or to summarise, no way of knowing that the vote you entered on the keyboard is the vote counted at the end of the day.

AndrewJRenko

DellyBelly wrote: »

Have to agree with this. Giving free houses out to people who will only drag an entire place down drives me mad.. Housing is not a human right.. Go out and earn it you scroungers..

Sorry rant over

As long as we have minimum wage jobs, we're going to need social housing.

Mimon

paw patrol wrote: »

NGOs

The Irish charity sector. Far too much overlap e.g. multiple homeless charities doing the same work that are well funded by government and staff generally overpaid.

Strumms

Esse85 wrote: »

Was it 4 million the spire cost about twenty years ago. Hardly a bargain.

4 million for a big, fûcking do nothing pointless pointy thing... that you cant go up, or interact with on any level.

Not easy on the eye, certainly not easy on the pocket, 4 million worth of pointless, (apart from the point at the top)...we paid for it...has anyone ever stopped and said.. “ god, that beautiful, a real bastion of design and human endeavor “ I fûckin doubt it.

Should have built a more decorative version of the Santa Justa lift in Lisbon with a platform at the top,,, a revenue generator, could have had a cafe / bar up there... or at a level before... you pay to go up plus a retailer paying the state to have the kiosk/cafe or restaurant....if decoratively done it could have worked and improved footfall in the area... might have been incorporated into the Ambassador site ?



Similar but in keeping with the street...

OConnell St. is so **** now, just people Qing for buses, passing through to get somewhere else... Cleary’s quarter should be good but that should be complimented with other nice stuff that actually ‘bring’ people to the street.

Mimon

yabadabado wrote: »

Tadhg Furlong,looked a supreme athlete when he came on today.

Guarantee that no GAA player would beat him for power. He is an animal.

dxhound2005

Mad_maxx wrote: »

every other country uses electronic voting

the only thing wrong with those machines was we stopped using them after one election

Two groups did for the system. There was nothing wrong with it. The first were politicians who could not handle the results being declared suddenly without endless hours of tallying and speculation. The second was the media people who would have lost thousands of hours of overtime indulging in the speculation. They have the real power to influence public opinion, and they went into full on propaganda mode against the machines. I remember poor Nora Owen being shocked to hear she had lost her seat, without the hours of the usual circus which would have ensued with the paper votes.

It was here in the 2002 General Election that one of the Flaws of the electronic voting system was made apparent. The result was just announced by the returning officer with little or no indication to the candidates as to their success. On live TV Nora Owen lost her seat without any prior indication that she had done so. It was deemed as cruel and the proposed system was changed to give updates after each count rather than just deliver the end result.
The Fact that Nora Owen was a Minister added to the drama.

Capt'n Midnight

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Where do I begin ?

I'd trust tallymen every day of the week over a black box with no traceability and no security.

No physical security apart from a paper sticker and a key you can order online if you can't rake the cheapest desk drawer lock.

No circuit security. You could swap out the program chips if you had physical access.

No software security, the lads in the Netherlands got it to play chess, impressive considering the machine was was more or less a 1980's home computer dipped in glitter.



Besides for some of us the count is the best part of our election system.

The Netherlands then abandoned it. The wiki article on this is fairly unclear but it looks EV machines are used in only 5-6 countries. Not “most” as the guy you responded to opined.

Also they have no benefits, as you pointed out. Except speed. Which is no benefit as there’s two weeks until the Dail votes. And same or worse in longer countries.

Strumms

Strumms wrote: »

4 million for a big, fûcking do nothing pointless pointy thing... that you cant go up, or interact with on any level.

Not easy on the eye, certainly not easy on the pocket, 4 million worth of pointless, (apart from the point at the top)...we paid for it...has anyone ever stopped and said.. “ god, that beautiful, a real bastion of design and human endeavor “ I fûckin doubt it.

Should have built a more decorative version of the Santa Justa lift in Lisbon with a platform at the top,,, a revenue generator, could have had a cafe / bar up there... or at a level before... you pay to go up plus a retailer paying the state to have the kiosk/cafe or restaurant....if decoratively done it could have worked and improved footfall in the area... might have been incorporated into the Ambassador site ?



Similar but in keeping with the street...

OConnell St. is so **** now, just people Qing for buses, passing through to get somewhere else... Cleary’s quarter should be good but that should be complimented with other nice stuff that actually ‘bring’ people to the street.

4 million was a bargain. That looks like a monstrosity.

Mad_maxx

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Where do I begin ?

I'd trust tallymen every day of the week over a black box with no traceability and no security.

No physical security apart from a paper sticker and a key you can order online if you can't rake the cheapest desk drawer lock.

No circuit security. You could swap out the program chips if you had physical access.

No software security, the lads in the Netherlands got it to play chess, impressive considering the machine was was more or less a 1980's home computer dipped in glitter.



Besides for some of us the count is the best part of our election system.

so how come most countries use electronic voting ?

are we uniquely correct in how we do it ?

dxhound2005

The biggest waste of money, is the scandal of people buying food and then throwing it away. Hundreds of Euro every year in the average household. Which amounts to vast sums over the years nationally.

Green Peter

Castlebar to Westport dual carriageway. michael "ring" road. Currently being built

Mad_maxx

Mad_maxx wrote: »

so how come most countries use electronic voting ?

are we uniquely correct in how we do it ?

Where’s your source on that?

dxhound2005

The lawyers and media outlets who made up false stories about the voting machines and software in America, are being sued for billions by the companies damaged by the lies. The companies who supplied our machines should have taken similar action against those who made up lies about them.

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The lawyers and media outlets who made up false stories about the voting machines and software in America, are being sued for billions by the companies damaged by the lies. The companies who supplied our machines should have taken similar action against those who made up lies about them.

Similar claims were made (equally spuriously) about the machines when Trump won. There were clear problems in the 2000 US election.

What’s the advantage of electronic voting?

Capt'n Midnight

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Or to summarise, no way of knowing that the vote you entered on the keyboard is the vote counted at the end of the day.

There are two types of evoting.

The first is where the people who control the boxes can decide the result, and in a close election there's no way of proving it*

The second is where a voter can verify their vote in which case they can be forced into voting the right way.


* Opinion polls are +/- 3% and there are still regular surprises.
Tallymen** are usually within 1%.

**Tallypersons


And just to mention that that the Irish evoting machines are the same as the Dutch ones where you could detect if someone had voted for a name with certain letters by remote electronic eavesdropping.

In an Irish context it means someone with an antenna , a €10 USB TV tuner and coat hanger bending skills could probably tell when you voted for a candidate with a fada in their name. Doesn't sound like much but there's plenty of cute hoors out there who'd be able to use that kind of information.

dxhound2005

Deleted User wrote: »

Similar claims were made (equally spuriously) about the machines when Trump won. There were clear problems in the 2000 US election.

What’s the advantage of electronic voting?

The same advantage of using computers to replace manual systems in all sorts of areas. And in the case of paper voting in our PR system, which returns a different result with each recount, the advantage of complete accuracy.

Strumms

Deleted User wrote: »

4 million was a bargain. That looks like a monstrosity.

4 million, to look at a glorified fading knitting needle ? Some bargain, be more of a bargain had they just not bothered...

It wouldn’t necessarily be a carbon copy of the Lisbon elevator but something designed specifically to be in keeping with Dublin’s Main Street and surroundings.

L1011

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The lawyers and media outlets who made up false stories about the voting machines and software in America, are being sued for billions by the companies damaged by the lies. The companies who supplied our machines should have taken similar action against those who made up lies about them.

The stuff that sunk the machines here weren't lies, though.

Mad_maxx wrote: »

so how come most countries use electronic voting ??

Most countries don't.

dxhound2005

L1011 wrote: »

The stuff that sunk the machines here weren't lies, though.

Like I said, it was the vested interests of the media and the politicians. In the piece I quoted, the speed of a result was described in the media as a Flaw.

L1011

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Like I said, it was the vested interests of the media and the politicians. In the piece I quoted, the speed of a result was described in the media as a Flaw.

Except that's not why they were dropped. It wast the complete lack of verifiability and security, and the use of the phenomenally unreliable Access Jet database in the counting systems.

You're assuming that some journos actually had the influence over the decision to drop them. They didn't.