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PowerBook, Because Lives Are On The Line
WCityMike writes "Major Shawn Weed, an intelligence planner with the Third Infantry Division, eschewed his Panasonic Toughbook because it wasn't fast enough in processing giant satellite and reconnaissance images. He put in a requisition for and received a PowerBook G4, the only Apple currently being used in the entire Middle East theater. 'Frankly, lives are in the balance here, so the quicker I can get stuff done accurately, the better,' Weed says."
AND you can stop bullets with the case!
If the military can pay thousands for a toilet seat, imagine what they paid for a PowerBook.
Major Shawn Weed, an intelligence planner with the Third Infantry Division
So he's in military intel? Isn't this among the most famous oxymorons in existence? The jokes are too numerous to mention, all with Apple or the Army as the brunt of the jokes.
I can see the switch ads now...My name is Shawn Weed and I find Iraqis in the desert.
btw, I'm not trolling. I'm writing this from a TiBook using an Airport, behind a Linux server.
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
Although I'm an avid mac fac I always thought the glowing apple on the back of the LCD screen would be a bad thing in the field.
big mac attack?
Would you trust an intelligence officer named 'Weed?' Heh, no wonder he wants an Apple product.
I am Law! You are Crime!
In the Navy, the only they doled out were annoying uniforms and silly hats.
...to have at least one of the computers different from the others. When a virus written by some 9th grader wipes out the Windows boxes at least the PowerBook will be up and running.
Or vice versa...
It also kinda goes with the whole "Power of One" ad campaign the Army has going on.
Used to be SSG Nichols
"In a room full of ugly, ruggedized Panasonic Toughbooks running Windows 2000," he said, "the glowing white Apple against the titanium skin of the G4's lid draws looks from everywhere, and acts as a magnet for the closet Mac addicts serving with the Third Infantry Division."
his DVD drive will be toast if he uses it too much.
New Army officers directive: Do not watch pr0n during sandstorms?
Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
I'm pretty sure if you don't already know how to use a Mac and the relevant software, the best thing you're going to be able to do with that PowerBook is brain the nearest enemy soldier with it.
In which case, yes, the Panasonic would have been a better choice, being that it's both bigger and heavier than the PowerBook. But you've gotta make some compromises, you know?
I write in my journal
Poor lonely guy in the field. I'd be more than happy to send him a Disney covered DVD with prOn. He'll work late every night too!
We've got to get our troops as many of these new uniforms as we can. Do it for little Jimmy American on the front lines, darnit!
(Nothing like a little ruthless self-promotion to get a day started right!)
-----
"Cogito Eggo Sum: I think, therefore, waffle."
A: About the same as Apple's academic discounts!
Apple Federal Home Page
How to buy for federal agencies and miltary - Includes:
Using a GSA SmartPay purchasing card
Apple Federal Store (for SmartPay) or Apple Retail stores
Federal Employee Purchase Program, via Apple Federal Employee Purchase Store or Apple Retail stores at Tyson's Corner, Clarendon, VA, or Towson, MD
Any number of various federal, GSA, and military contract resellers
Cool that he's using a Mac. If Saddam's forces defect over to our side, will that make them switchers? :)
Bob
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
If you used it to brain your enemy, it would STILL work AND would be simple enough for the debrained enemy to operate.
:)
So there.
I'm most impressed not that this guy wanted a Mac, but that he actully got one. The military is rightly known for a plodding mentality, and what's he going to do if he needs an extra battery? Steal it from CNN? Of course, had the guy simply called Apple to say, hey, I'd like to place the first Mac in the field, they would have sent over ten gratis.
Clicking away on my deweaponized iBook...