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U.S. Army To Develop "JEDI" Soldiers
Patrixmyth wrote to us with the CNN story about the U.S. Army's attempt to build Jedi Soldiers. Yes, they're going to dress up Sir Alec Guinness...er, rather Jedi is Joint Expeditionary Digital Information, which, essentially, is the Wired Soldier of Tomorrow. Palmtops, GPS, satellite up-links, oh my!
Please reboot for the changes to take effect.
Ryan
think of all the geeks who will rush to enlist only to find out they fall miserably short of the physical requirements.
Grtz, Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
why not /. readers as JEDI soldiers? simple..
an officer's diary
day 1: the new recruits came in, and got handed their hand-helds. So far so good.
day 2: It seems some of the new recruits installed some software on their hand-helds. it's probably games or something. Most of the new recruits just beat me at quake, so they can't be all bad.
day 3: The new recruits are really getting into these hand-held things. We had to let off one of the new recruits. he kept whining about our dinners not including grits, and poured his dinner down his pants.
day 4: wtf did those guys do with their hand-helds? Not a decent window inside, just this silly dos-prompt. when I asked them about it, they started yelling that this was linux, not dos
day 5: I have no idea what the recruits are on. they keep talking about beautiful-wolf or something.
day 6: our encryption has been broken. It's been safe for at least 10 years, but the new recruits used their wolf (I havent seen any canine around) to crack it, and they knew the orders before I did.
.........
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
This is my PocketPC. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My PocketPC is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my PocketPC is useless. Without my PocketPC, I am useless. I must boot my PocketPC true. I must hack faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must hack him before he hacks me. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My PocetPC and myself are defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life. So be it .. . until there is no enemy ... but peace. Amen. Good night ladies!
I'll accept the concept of outfitting troops with high tech interfaces suitable for the modern battlefield. But I'm wondering about some things. The enemy (presuming we're fighting a war against a modern army) will have radio detection capabilities. One of the things you didn't do when I was in the army was use your radio for long transmissions, or it might invite artillary fire on your coordinates (even back then! and the detectors are faster now). I hope they have a way to avoid detection of their electronics transmissions.
Gonzo
Yesterday there was an article about the WinCE base PocketPC and everyone kept pointing out how often these crashed, including C|Net
So today the US military decides that they should use these same WinCE systems for the "wired soldier." Does anyone else smell the impending doom here?
Mmmph. A GPS. A cell phone. WinCE. A JEDI needs not these things.
"This is your world. These are your people. You can live for yourself today, or help build tomorrow for everyone."
"Use the force Luke!"
So Luke switches off the damn thing and blows the Death Star out of existence! Hey! Even a JEDI knows that! Why doesn't the Army?
Lucasfilm, Ltd. vs. US Department of Defense...
See the landmark trademark dilution suit that has Washington on its heels!
See a team of Lucasfilm lawyers impersonate Wookies!
See a President beholden to Hollywood interests utter "Let the Wookie win!"
A long time ago on a West Portico far away... a B-movie actor escaped the evil clutches of Hollywood and became President of the Galactic Republic, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Ever since that time, the Department of Defense has been obsessed with stealing Lucasfilm's trademarks, from "Star Wars" to "Jedi". So, hiding in their outpost off the sixth exit of the Marin system, a team of Lucasfilm lawyers are preparing a counterattack....
This is my opinion and my opinion only. Incidentally, IANAL.
MOO;IANAL.
There used to be a picture linked here.
.... I had, as an infantryman, exactly one job: wait around until told to go somewhere and kill the enemy. I had one tool: Uncle Sam gave me an M16A2, for use the said job (sure, I had others, but that was what my main tool was).
Lets not forget, I believe it was Heinlen, who basically said "The more gadgets you load a grunt down with, the easier it is for someone to walk up and bash his head in with a rock". See above; my life as an infantryman was simple and uncomplicated. I can bet you I was much more effective than anyone trying to locate map points w/ a PDA and calling for help on a cell phone. We relied on maps, and each other. Primitive, huh.
Given, also, that my main tool - my weapon - was fragile and sensitive to even the most minor of abuses that occur in the field, do they really think something like a PDA and a CELL PHONE are going to survive a grunt's life?
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
It would be much better if they were running Linux. I think they should make their own distro and call it LiPalm (as in: "I love the smell of LiPalm in the morning")
kwsNI