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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.
The article says it's been fine so far, but sooner or later the lack of military-grade durability is going to be a factor.
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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.
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.
I'll be the one pulling the laptop out from underneath the Major's corpse trying to figure out where the heck is the second mouse button went. Faster/better/different is great until you have to take over someones job unexpectedly. More of an occupational hazard in his area... though the Valley is not much safer (job wise).
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
...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
I think you may have just proved yourself wrong ... The Baked Apple still worked after being baked, so the PowerBook should be able to easily stand up the much lower temperatures of the desert.
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
Oh yes, and we also all know that benchmarks are the be all and end all of performance evaluation. Especially those benchmarks that conform to no known standard, and aren't terribly well documented.
Please, spare me.
Benchmarks can give you a general idea of how performande might compare if you used exactly the same programs, input files, OS configuration, network load, other running processes, etc...
What are the chances that the military uses Photoshop for their image processing? I'd think not very high (unless there's a series of photoshop plugins I am unaware of that will process an image looking for convoys of trucks, bunkers, and other such things that the military cares about satellite images for). If he is not using photoshop, then the benchmarks you're getting so excited about are meaningless.
MacBibble has shown us that a Macintosh can perform quite well on image processing, if you run optimized code.
Benchmarks are just that, benchmarks. If this guy finds that for his application a Macintosh is faster, then let him use a Macintosh.
"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."
If the military is using intel equipped notebooks running windows 2000, then changing from his too slow but rugged notebook to a powerbook I would tend to think he is using some off the shefl commercial app. Why? because I really doubt the military would spend the time or effort to redevelop some custom app for processing satellite images just so one Major can run non-standard equipment. Infact it is rare that the military will let anyone use non-standard equipment in a critical position. So I tend to think this guy is probably not in a critcal position and may actually be in some PR department in the army where he may be using Photoshop or the like to touch up images for dispersal to various news organizations.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
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!
So I pose, if this is true, and the Army buys computers in bulk for general-purpose use without regard to what applications they might be used for, a.) why they chose the iBook then, and b.) why they didn't this time. Are the old iBooks somehow more durable than the new (they're definitely a lot heavier)?
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
Um... well, the fastest Toughbooks out there are like 1.8GHz P4s.
If he's utilizing Altivec optimized code (quite possible), it's quite possible that his 1GHz PowerBook can outperform a 1.8GHz P4.
Which tasks are Altivec optimized? Photoshop, for one. Certain encryption/decryption tasks are another. Certain video tasks, as well.
It's certainly within the realm of likely possibility, given the description that "Weed declined to specify what he does exactly, but said he works with giant satellite and reconnaissance images,"
Sure, a P4 is fast but when you're talking about a 800MHz difference, the other things (like cache, registers, Altivec, pipeline depth, etc) make more of a difference.
Now, if they were talking about 2.4GHz P4Ms or 3.0GHz P4 (desktops), that would be different. However, Toughbooks don't scale that fast (yet).
GPL Deconstructed
Actually it's not the *only* PowerBook G4 being used here right now. I've got an 867MHz PowerBook G4 I bought back in July 2002 that I am using while stationed in Camp Va, Kuwait. I use it for very similar reasons to Major Weed, although I had to purchase mine myself.
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."
I think what you've 'seen' is anecdotal.
Since we don't know exactly what his 'mission critical' tasks are, exactly, we have to take his word for why he chose a G4. It sounds like this guy already has reason to trust his choice. After all, it's not just the hardware nor just the software...it's the combination, and in this case, they are strictly made for each other. I know of no other examples that come close...
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...
Most of the planet is up in arms about this invasion of Iraq and the declared intent by Washington to make no part of Baghdad safe (at the inevitable expense of untold numbers of citizens). And this trained killer says lives are "on the line"?
Correction: lives are about to be wasted, made trash, disposed of, terminated. Let's at least be honest about that much.