scantrontb9
join:2002-04-18
Federal Way, WA
| Re: isp (combining quite a few posts in reply)
the way I'm reading the article is that one unit way out in the middle of the sticks has a few computer geeks that packed in all their pc gear (or had it shipped in later... they still get snail mail you know, even if it does take a few months to get to you. ) and set up a LAN for them to play WoW or something on it, and one of those embedded reporters over there saw it and guestimated this whole thing up out of thin air, (or at least a bit of rarefied air ), with a little bit of research the reporter realized that this is the "gotta have a zinger of a headline" era and cooked the rest up. I'm more inclined to gloss over the ratio's they have and take the article for "a neat idea, that just isn't big enough on it's own" than for an accurate representation of actual pc use over there.
it's not so much the fact that there are only 12 per 1000... it's the economics/logistics of more pcs to users... think about it... if we have the (supposedly ideal) 1:1 ratio of pc to user, then the only way for the military to really move those things around is to have them issued at bootcamp (here is your uniforms, gun, field pack, ammo, oh yeah here is your mil-spec pc, don't break it/lose it/get a virus/surf p**n sites, etc...) now you've just added that much more s**t for that poor schlub to carry around. plus, think about power supplies in order to operate them in general... that's that much more to ship into the area in the first place.
OH YEAH!, guess who has to PAY for all of that?!( you know, those $500 toilet seats, and $100 hammers... all for those 7 little letters: "MILSPEC"...)
Who pays: YOU DO!... now instead of complaining about your taxes going to fix roads, or welfare (or whatever you complain about now) if that happens, you'll be sitting there nagging about how it was "in my days in the military we only had 12:1000 pc/user ratios" and also that "it ain't right i gotta slave away here to pay for some punk-a***d boot-camp to get the latest pcs for FREE... why don't he just buy his own and take it with him, like 'I' had to do?!"
as for phone bill, granted my experiences are a bit skewed to using only built-up ports, not the boonies, but while i was over there in the navy, any port we pulled into had a phone center that was already free for use. some of the bases even had a pc center with about 30-40 pcs, free for use, but you had a time limit of 30 minutes, so the next guy gets to use it as well. if you were lucky there was no line. there were lines at most of the ones i saw, even if they they were open 24/7. you would also need to provide personnel to make sure the time limits were enforced as well... or suprisingly moral goes DOWN, as people hog the pc claiming "just a minute more!", and that's one more job that somebody to fill in for, in addition their other duties, like guard post, or machine gun operator at the main gate access point , you know those silly things we can do away with so they have more time off to play online games over there just to keep morale higher?!
as for the internet connection and access prices... what do YOU pay right now? yeah it ain't cheap over there, but they aren't in a big city either... AND if i remember right, the article didn't say if it was a per-minute or a per-month charge or whatever, did it? as for the net being wireless, well.. look at what a wired lan needs, do you think the military is going to provide that for free.. or use it "for official use only" type of stuff, so yeah they'd end up have to outsource the isp stuff and pay for thru the nose if the users wanted to do anything on their own (P2P, p**n, etc...)
someone else already mentioned the OPSEC (sure you CAN do it, but not right NOW) angle of tracking a pc/laptop via the wireless cards, and before you say that they *can't* do that, look at how many of the pilots that hit the WTC were trained BY US in the first place... where there is a will there is a way... also, think about this; some types of explosives are set off just by the simple fact of a radio signal hits them... no detonator, no electronic signature, no nothin'... now granted, I'm not sure that the freq used by wireless cards and those types of explosives are the same, but even if it weren't, all "they" would have to do is put one of those cheaper-by-the-dozen wireless access finders into the detonator ciruit and if just ONE person was using his/her laptop during that "long boring convoy from point 'A' to point 'B'...." BANG! there goes the I.E.D., and we get a new report here that 4 more Marines were killed... all because you wanted better video-phone capability...
I'll bet that after this article came out, that a few units that were running these things were told to shut them down, or else... the ultimate reason being nothing better than they are NOT under the military's control.
don't get me wrong, i am a firm believer that morale, and such is better WITH PC's, but there are times when we have to be realistic about when and where access should be en/discouraged for the viability of the mission to succeed (the 'stated' mission, anyway) i think this is one of them, these 'Hajinets' should be more closely monitored/regulated by the military for OPSEC reasons alone, let alone the logistics of providing power for them out in the boonies where we'd have to ship in more generators/fuel, than we already do. and if you try to say that it is a miniscule amount, you're wrong, those generators suck fuel very quickly... as an experiment to prove me wrong, put your whole house onto a generator and tell me the fuel use you go thru during a week of "normal use" lights, heat, fridge, stove, pc's etc... (yes, i acknowledge gas heat and stoves, but there are no gas pipes out in the sticks, are there? hmm!, and it DOES get cold t night!) and remember there will be a LOT MORE odd-ball stuff not found in the typical home like huge security floodlights, and alarm systems, radio transmitters and recievers, motor-pool equip, welding gear, etc... as well as it all has to be kept operational 24 hrs a day. (or at least able to *be operated* at any time 24/7) add in your man-hours spent refueling, and making sure that it stays running 24/7... now multiply that by however many units you want this to apply to...
oops, sorry i went on for so long like that, i kinda got carried away, |
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