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Military Grade Laptops
bllb writes "Slate has an article about the "waterproof, vaporproof, shockproof" laptops the military is using. It's not at the cutting edge of performance, but it's nice to see some bombproof hardware." Most of the laptops I've owned over the years died through dropping or drowning, so maybe I should look into something a little more sturdy ;)
Will they survive 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven?
Seriously though, I've owned laptops for about ten years now and I've never dropped one.Stop coating your hands with butter before you pick the laptop up!
Putting moderation advice in your
"We drop each one 54 times from one meter, bake it in an oven, chill it in a freezer, vibrate it, and submit it to a shower of hurricane proportions,"
Who the fuck would buy a beaten up piece of shit like that??
the fact that you can buy 4 new laptops equivalent in speed, ram, hdd space, etc almost makes it not worth while. i think i'd take 4 new notebooks than one that's heavy clunky and extremely well designed.
but hey, what do i know, my laptop weighs 9 lbs and never leaves my house.
I write code.
But does it survive a BSOD?
I remember a Washington Post Article where some Marine Private was evaluating his 733t new computer. "I could beat someone to death with this battery pack..."
My laptop just took a lil fall and the screen went cracky cracky. I can still read what the screen says, but its too bad that this laptop wasn't the one I dropped.
;)
I wonder how they have the hard drive set up, or if they use flash. Normally, any hard drive experiencing even a small shock can be easily destroyed if the head is reading.
700 MhZ isn't too great but you could always take it in the shower for some good 'ol pr0n.
wired ran an article a few weeks ago about how the army was using rugged panasonic laptops for operations. one of their gis guys was having trouble manipulating huge images with them and had the government ship over a titanium powerbook which is apparently holding up fine.
Or do they come equipped with heat pads for our boys' laps? ;)
My "military style" computer is a Dell Pentium 400.
OK, what about aweproof?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Having said that, it's also clear that some operating systems, owing to their monlithic architecture, will never improve. At least with Unix, you can discard what you don't need, reducing the volume of code that has to be checked. That's a major reason why Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative is such a joke -- you can't get rid of the crapola, heck you can't even see the crapola!
...-.-
Ss you want to sell laptops to the US Army?
Yes, would you like to test it out?
Yes, Put it over there.
[Officer aims a rifle at the laptop and puts a hole the size of a small tangerine through the case]
I'm sorry. Your product has failed our quality inspection. Have a nice day.
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
My friend also sent his for a trip down the stairs (Screen open, iBook on), and it still works A.O.K.
So, you could also buy an iBook, and it will survive the same falls.
So these things aren't susceptible to running Duke Nukem Forever, eh? ;)
My wife used to work for Itronix and these will run indefinetly at 140 degrees (the official numbers.) While I was in the infantry I once spent the month of August in Death Valley and I can tell you we NEVER hit 140, 127 with MOPP4 and kevlar is no picnic, but it wouldn't of phased this laptop. They don't have the high end horse power of the p4 laptop I am on right now, but knowing what these things can go through, they are amazing.
You obviously don't understand the NEED for rugadized computers. What good is 4 crappy comercial laptops when your on a ship that is torpedoed or a plane that crashes? Those four laptops will be toast, but a properly rugadized computer has a good choice of still running. This is important when your LIFE may depend on that laptop.
I mod down any one who says "I'm sure I will get modded down for this"
Granted, I don't expect consumer-channel equipment to be that strong.
Mail? Put "slashdot" in the subject to pass the spam filters.
Are these things shock-and-awe-proof? Or just shock-proof?
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
...a real computer for my Humvee!
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
The laptop isn't the problem. Most people are smart
enough to keep it out of the rain and dust. Most of the components are sealed. The real problem was copiers and printers. If someone made a copier or printer that could be bounced around working in heat, cold and dust, they'd make a killing with the US Army.
I don't need a sig - I gave up smoking
http://www.gobookmax.com/gobookmax/images/gobookma x.pdf
Mobile Pentium III/700, 256 MB of PC100 SDRAM, 20 GB IBM DJSA-200 hard disk, external 10x TEAC USB CD-ROM, external USB floppy, 4MB Silicon Motion LynxEM+ graphics, 10.4in SVGA touchscreen TFT, ESS Allegro PCI audio, integrated mono speaker, V.90 modem, integrated CISCO Wirelsss LAN PC Card, one Type II PC Card slot, plus support for VGA, serial and two USB, Windows 2000 Professional. Dimensions: 284 x 233 x 62mm (W x D x H) excludion handle. Weight 3.3 kg. [7.28 pounds]
Note: The PDF wouldn't let me copy and paste the text, but I think I got it all right.
Dolch has been making these sorts of things for years now. Mostly aimed at scientific, construction, and engeneering field work (the military only started widely deploying laptops fairly recently). Their laptops can handle 15G's while running and 50 when turned off.
Won't stop them being stolen or left in a taxi.
Stockwise that is? I know out in the workplace construction workers could really start to network operations and be more efficient with a little WiFi in there.
Anyone see Tears of the Sun? What were they using in that movie? Toughbooks? Or were they just generic props? They looked like Toughbooks, but there were no labels or markings on the laptops.
I'm surprised the movie didn't take advantage of a golden product placement opportunity.
Since the US military never are the ones being bombed, but rather always the ones bombing.. what do they need this for?
Part of their image I guess.. "Oh yes, we're getting bombed all the time".
bomberclaad...
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Computer Surplus Outlet occasionally has old used Itronix units available. I just ordered a P133 color unit with 32 MB and a 1.6 GB drive. I'm hoping I can get the thing to run Linux. It has no floppy, no CD - so I'll either have to find a cheap PCMCIA CDROM, or (hopefully) I can load it via a parallel port Zip drive.
[Insert pithy quote here]
We drop each one 54 times from one meter
This seems rather time consuming. Why don't they just drop them once from a height of 54 meters? That would be the same, right?
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Can they perform "military grade" encryption?
Heisenberg might have been here.
When I use my powerbook in daylight I hardly see anything, ofcourse they must have found something on it, since their notebook is made to last outside, but I wonder how they managed that.
With the amount of money office workers spend on their cars alone, a couple thousand dollars more for a droppable, dishwasher-safe laptop is a no- brainer bargain in total cost of ownership. The GoBook MAX gives new meaning to the phrase "homeland security."
I don't think the TCO is an issue here; I'm sure that most insurance companies (who nowadays pay for broken laptops) will be seeing these robust laptops as a positive development.
Additionally, I really wonder if these laptops are protected against those EMP bombs..
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Need to get out of the house? The handle flips back to mount the MAX open across the wheel of an SUV for mobile use.
Does anyone else find this prospect absolutely frightening? I thought that Cell Phones were a distraction, just imagine someone with Kids, a phone, *AND* one of these to manage in one 5000# vehicle.
EveryDNS. Use it. It works.
AC's need not reply
From the article:
The handle flips back to mount the MAX open across the wheel of an SUV for mobile use. There's even an add-on DVD drive for movies.
Driving to work in the morning is dangerous enough with people on talking on cell phones, putting on make up, shaving, reading the f*ing newspaper, or eating breakfast (cold cereal with milk...) all while driving. I don't need some soccer mom trying to watch a movie or write an e-mail to Johnny while driving her Ford Behemoth to work in the morning. For real people, the auto industry needs to work on some kind of heads up displaying, voice recognising, hands-free information system for vehicles if people are going to insist on doing things like this while driving their vehicles!
You are a fool to say that, just because normally maybe "1/3" of all errors should be contributed to hardware doesn't mean when you're out in 100 deg. weather or in a hazardous area that it will be. Hardening a PC against physical damages obviously has its uses otherwise there wouldn't be any suppliers. I see this just as an attempt to justify bashing M$... Typical /. reader base I suppose
I wonder if it's even possible to put a P4 in one of these things. If they're sealed ("waterproof, vaporproof") then I don't think they could cool a fast CPU. Even the new Pentium M laptops need fans and air vents.
i'm a pre-production engineer from technology advancement group, a company in dulles, va. we build systems very similar, though we've moved away from the laptops and build mostly rack mounted systems. our systems are build to be ruggedized from the component level in order to survive more shock than any other system around. all the chassis are custom designed and all components are tested thoroughly. our most impressive test is the barge test. we take our machine, put it inside it's fiberglass case, turn it on and link up to it with a wireless connection. we put it on a small barge in a lake and detonate depth charges beneath the barge. most of the time the barge will fall apart, the machine will go flying in the air and land floating in the water. while all this is happening it is linked to a system on land which is monitoring its work. we don't sell a system unless it can go through this test without missing a step. this is the beauty of ruggedized computers. there's a video of a barge test on our website
-"Hey, Baby. It's not a rash, it's textured love."
I'm not sure what you meant by the term, but if you are talking about operating systems and kernels, Unix systems are generally monolithic whereas windows (nt and on) are microkernel(ish) architectures.
You say that on Unix you can throw away what you don't need but that on Windows you "can't even see the crapola". You certainly can't open up Solaris, cut out what you don't need, and recompile for a leaner version so I assume you meant Linux or BSD. But obviously you can only do that with those OSes because they are open source, it really has nothing to do with their architecture.
dan.
And is anyone else surprised that there have been no EMP 'terrorist' attacks yet? Cheap, simple, minimal training, incredibly effective...
It's called BSOD.
Infuriate left and right
Sir... You're getting a dell!
But I've always dropped my laptops while carrying or transporting them, never while actually using them... so I went a different route.
Try getting a regular laptop, and putting it in one of the cases made by these guys (No, I don't work for them)
I've taken my laptop to all kinds of places, including some inhospitable places in the very area of the world where lots of bombs are currently being dropped; no problems. Those cases come with a lifetime warranty... they're waterproof, shock-resistant, dustproof (VERY important in the desert), and have automatic pressure relief valves for that unpressurized tactical airlift you're sometimes required to use.
They cost about 150$, but that's chump change compared to the price of a Mil-Spec computer; the money difference is much better spent upgrading the actual laptop.
YMMV, but that's the way I solved the problem.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Most of the laptops I've owned over the years died through dropping or drowning
Ewww Taco... That's a little more information than we needed thank you very much
*goes to take long shower*
the riaa probably can't wait to confiscate them, either.
"Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
I've been in the Marines for about 8 years and I've never seen these. I've seen some Panasonic Toughbooks but nowadays all we use are Dell latitudes. Of course, the Air Force has infinitely more $$$ than the Corps.
This guy is way out there
Dropping, I can see...but drowning? Do you take baths with it or what?
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
Supposedly before the M1 Garand rifle was accepted as the primary service rifle, immediately before World War II, the Army finished it's "scientific" testing and thought they would let the Marines check it out. The Marines soaked a couple of rifles in seawater, attached ropes and dragged them back and forth across sand, and then tried to fire the rifles. Gotta love pracical folk.
I somehow envision the Marine laptop evaluation to replace the 1 meter drop onto concrete test with bash-an-enemy-on-the-head test.
54 is such a strange number. :)
I guess after the 55th drop it was dead
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
The old Bell Labs standard called for 1/3 of system faults to be ascribed to hardware, 1/3 to software, and 1/3 to operator error. Most available operating systems clearly aren't there yet
That doesn't sound quite right. At least, if the users at Bell are anything like the users where I work, hardware and software really have to fail a lot more frequently if they're going to keep up with the operator errors.Nope, it isn't. Statisticly you will drop your notebook once a week, but if you drink to much (Labor Day, ID) you 'll drop it twice a week. So the number is fully satisfactional for 1 Year Warranties.
Infantry proof?
Best Slashdot Co
Anyway, Apple's "wonderful" repair centers are refusing to fix it under warranty because it is "accidental damage or mistreatment." Since iBooks do not have PCMCIA ports, and usb ethernet devices only work with Macs, she has two choices. She can either pay the outrageous $775 that Apple is charging to repair an ethernet jack with a few broken pins, or else buy an AirPort card and 802.11b base station.
It should also be mentioned that the power connector is very fragile. Being stepped on can bend it completely out of shape, and it is very difficult to get back in the right shape, because it has to be basically a perfect circle.
The test of laptop sturdiness, IMHO, is not whether it can survive the dramatic falls, but whether it can survive the minor, day to day damage over a prolonged period. Can it survive being tripped over, carried around in a backpack, etc? I have a 4 year old Dell laptop that I have treated far more roughly than my girlfriend has treated her 6 month old iBook. The Dell looks a little worse for the wear, but works perfectly. The iBook still looks shiny and new, but has been completely crippled.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
You can pick up a nice magnesium shell ToughBook for cheap, if you are willing to put up with some sloth. They would make an excellent war driving box! Here is one source: (I am not affiliated, and I have never ordered from them)
TelePro PC Store
"Life is life." --Laibach
700 MHz is more than enough for the average computer user's needs. I do most of my internet surfing, word processing, and even some gaming (Quake3, Starcraft) on a PIII 450!
Its good to see computers advancing in usability instead of just getting faster.
-Derick
Will this prevent me from burning my penis again?
Read Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins, a touching story about a man, a parrot and a CIA-issued laptop.
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
Oh no, imperfect usage on the internet? The horror!
In Antarctica, 1997. I had two rugged military laptops (Kontron) for data acquisition and an HP Vectra desktop for use indoors. One of the laptops video fried when a snow machine started a few feet from it and the other didn't have the right connectors. I had to program an eprom on some equipment outside and just put the Vectra+Monitor on a box. For 4 hours at -45C and it worked fine. I even have a picture. So it's not because there's a thicker case around a motherboard that it makes it more reliable...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I spent two years stationed at Quantico as a Tech and the printers that would come into our shop from TBS (The Basic School) were the worst. I swear those motherfuckers were using their HP Laserjet 4's as wheel chocks for their Humvee's. They were always filled with sand & one time I found a huge-ass spider nest above the fuser! "Shit, Devildog, I don't know what's wrong with it." :-D
Sorry.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Is a time honored practice for devices that need to stand up to a lot of abuse. A guitar player friend of mine swore by his Mesa Boggie amp, claiming that part of their manufacturing was dropping the amps and then fixing anything that broke and repeating until nothing breaks anymore. Sure, you might put a few dents or scratches on it (probably before putting the final finish coverring on), but it is much less likely to need servicing for any reason. Any marginal parts are broken and replaced before you get the unit.
Yeah, if you can get your hands on a nonexistent EMP weapon .
No wonder they canceled Dark Angel!
Damn Military Reps....
-- R
Let the war hot-tubbing begin.
I owned an older Itronix military grade model at one time. It was pretty cool, I threw it in the oven a few times and into a lake once, and it kept on working. But, we I finally threw it across the room and it landed on its corner... the hard drive ceased to function. ;-)
Being that the shell is magnesium, I guess they aren't fire proof!!!!
That's what I say. There's always room for washable computers.
A friend who worked in the radio repair shop reported less success with several radio sets that had been run over by tanks in the motor pool during vehicle maintenance.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
These guys have invented a perpetual motion machine and they're only bragging about how hot it can get? Man, we need to have a chat with Marketing....
I managed to break three laptops in two years, so a hardened laptop was something that I had serious intrest in. I purchased several used itronix X-C 6000 at the dayton hamvetion, and they worked well. Less than a year ago, I upgraided to the 6350, which has fancy features like color and speed, and I have dropped it, spilled stuff on it, hit it and done just about everything else to it, and it still works. I was bored, so I threw one of the older models off of my dorm room's balcony, just to see what happend. The first fall, it stayed on. It died after the second toss, but nothing cracked untill about twenty throws. That's what I call durabilty
That's a major reason why Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative is such a joke -- you can't get rid of the crapola, heck you can't even see the crapola!
I can see the crapola.
It starts "Welcome to Windows. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to begin"
Sure, no one's walking around with portable EMP cannons, wreaking havoc on people with pacemakers and such.
:p
Unless people were truly talking out of their ass, however, the military does have weapons that can do nasty things to computers.
Hell, they even showed it on America's Most Wanted (IIRC) the one night. Point gun at computer, press trigger, wait a few seconds, computer BSoDs.
Of course, I'm not sure if the technologically advanced weapon John Walsh (again, IIRC) was going nuts over had anything to do with that blue screen
Anyway, on the vein that we have weapons that can make computers crash/become inoperable while targetted with such things, I'm sure the military's hard at work coming up with ways to shield our stuff from it.
Just would like to point out how they say "Windows Laptop"...like it couldn't run anything else. gg MSN
Even that site has errors.
It decides to apply english to computer terms. That's a big mistake.
A list of his errors:
CD-ROM. A CD-ROM is a DRIVE, not a DISC. A CD is a disc, or, if one wants to use the long form, a CD-ROM disc is a disc that fits in a CD-ROM. This is extremely common usage by those in the know, therefore the author is de-facto wrong.
UFO. While I'm not a Raelian, I'm very sure the common usage of the word UFO by such people is to mean anything that is unidentifiable as human.
OK. Flat out stupid griping by a person who has nothing to gripe about. OK is a valid acronym, spelt without periods. Don't like it? TS. Yeah, that's an acronym too. Look it up and be amazed! Oh, and on the internet we rarely put periods in acronyms. Common usage and all that again...
Drive. Please gripe more! Not! What the hell is this all about? Common usage by Billions and Billions (served) is Hard Disk. Don't like it? TS again!
Lite. Hey asshole, I'm a humanist and I spell it analog. Nice job putting words in people's mouths and ignoring how 300 million people spell things. Also good job ignoring entire dictionaries worth of information telling you you're wrong. I'll say it again: Asshole.
How can I trust a site that doesn't accept the common usage of words in their respective fields? Stop treading on people's toes, lest you be trodden on, pretentious grammarian.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Maybe the laptop should look into someone a little less clumsy:).
Walkabout (who make a lot of 'hardened' laptops') have a few slower, but very versatile books that have IR ports that can be rigged to be used over packet radio for network connectivity. They have a stylus that you have to use as a pointer device, but they're small, not terribly heavy for a milspec laptop.
.. and you can get them with a gigahertz proc, which is nice. They can come with a DVD drive, and the media bays are swappable. They might have a CDRW or something like that. They're -hardy- little machines, too, and fast. You hardly notice that 'slightly slower' processor.
Now, Panasonic Toughbooks are NICE. They're completely touchscreen, you can use fingers, pencils, pens, the provided stylus.. just about anything. They have onboard peripherals that are in air-tight / waterproof compartments
WRONG, According to your link:
"CD-ROM" stands for "compact disc, read-only memory," so adding another "disc" or "disk" is redundant. The same goes for "DVD" -originally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc." Don't say "give me that DVD disk," just "give me that DVD."
Try again, and next time read your links.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I've seen some video on CNN of a "secret" miltary facility in the Iraq area and just about everyone there had something from the Dell Inspiron 8x00 series. Certainly not battlefield ready but certainly useful for mobility and power when crunching a lot of data and a fast GPU for displaying graphical information.
WRONG, According to your link:
"CD-ROM" stands for "compact disc, read-only memory," so adding another "disc" or "disk" is redundant. The same goes for "DVD" -originally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc." Don't say "give me that DVD disk," just "give me that DVD."
That is what the author of that site thinks. But he's wrong not by definition, but by de facto usage of the term. In common usage CD-ROM means "The computer drive that plays CDs". I've met very few in the computer industry who don't use the term CD-ROM to mean the hardware rather than the disc. That's because the term CDD didn't catch on as well as HDD and FDD. I don't know why that is, but it is a fact. In all possibility, it could be a localized thing, but I doubt it. Either way, the author needs to mention this, but fails to.
Yes, it could be regarded as redundant, but that isn't all that unusual in this industry. I do agree with him that saying "CD disc" or "DVD disc" is redundant, but "CD-ROM disc", while by acronym is redundant, by common usage it is not.
He's also wrong about DVD. It is Digital Versatile Disc. The people who designed and named the format figured out after calling it Digital Video Disc that it could be used for data. They hastily thought up a new term that would fit the original acronym, and re-dubbed it Digital Versatile Disc. They also gave it a new logo to show that they meant business on this fact. It certainly isn't just "some manufacturers" making up a term. The author's full of bullshit for this definition and would do well to check his facts before spouting off.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
If they're developing notebooks for the army, why not make this thing stop bullets, or shrapnel? What would be really cool would be if it could take a bullet without giving out. It would be even cooler if the bullet could go through the laptop and still run. Of course, then the thing would have to hook up to Skynet, too.
I was unaware..
"Itronix started telling me everything they can do with it: kick it off an airplane, dunk it in a bucket of water and stand on it. That was basically what I was looking for in a computer."
Uhm, okay. I use my computer for browsing Slashdot, but each to his own I guess.
Lalala
With that much money, I can buy 2 decent, super fast laptop. For normal use of laptop, who would drop laptop 50 times, bake in the oven. Only some nuts would clean the laptop in dishwasher. That is crazy. Do not know how you survive the business beside cheat money from the goverment.
What you say is nonsense. A definition is a generally agreed upon meaning of a word. You are free to create any new meanings for an existing word, but most will find your use of it improper until consensus adds it to the language.
You argue that most people use the phrase "CD-ROM disc" rather than just "CD-ROM". Never have I heard anyone use that phrase. But even so, by definition, it redundant and improper. You are free to continue using the word improperly until it catches on as standard, but I doubt that will ever happen. Why? Because all technical manuals, instruction manuals, and lexicons adhere to the agreed upon defintion. This is where most people learn usage and so this will ensure that, in the future, the word continues to be used properly.
If a word is agreed to have a certain meaning by consensus, then that is the word's meaning. Both the site you referred to and dictionary.com agree that the term CD-ROM refers only to the disc.
I will agree with you that CDD never caught on. However, the phrase "CD-ROM drive" did. The dictionary and the author both agree on this matter. You can look up "CD-ROM", "CD-ROM drive", and "drive". You will notice consistant definitions which are in agreement with the author. Your assertion that most people use the phrase "CD-ROM disc" is anecdotal and unverifiable. Additionally, my experiences have been just the opposite of yours.
In summary: You are wrong.
Additionally, you go on to make some rather rude remearks that the author is wrong about the history of acronym for DVD. You then state that the author should check his facts because he is wrong. Perhaps you should follow your own advice. Even a small amount of research would have led you to this (as it did me):
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.1
Quoted from the FAQ:
The original acronym came from "digital video disc." Some members of the DVD Forum (see 6.1) tried to express that DVD goes far beyond video by retrofitting the painfully contorted phrase "digital versatile disc," but this has never been officially accepted by the DVD Forum as a whole. The consensus is now that DVD, as an international standard, is simply three letters. After all, who cares what VHS stands for? (Guess what, no one agrees on that one either.
In essence, there is no consensus as for what the letters stand. Originally it meant "digital video disc"; some tried to shoe-horn "digital versatile disc", but there was never an agreement reached. However, the author of the site never makes a claim as to the current meaning. He states merely:
[O]riginally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc."
What he says is true. It did at one point stand for "digital video disc" and some manufacturers currently do claim that it stand for "digital versatile disc." The dictionary offers both as a possibility and, in the end, both may end up as satisfactory answers.
Again, you are wrong.
You assert that the acronym UFO means anything that is unidentifiable as human. By your definition, this keyboard upon which I am typing is a UFO. I cannot identify it as human. The defintion given in the dictionary and the explanation given by the author agree. By their defintions, if this keyboard is not a UFO for two reasons: 1) It does not fly. 2) I can identify it as a keyboard. My keyboard does fit the description of being an object; however, both sources are quite clear that this is not enough.
If what you meant, however, was that "UFO" is the phrase to be applied to a creature not from Earth, then you are mistaken. Both "extraterrestrial" and "alien" already serve this purpose.
Again, you are wrong.
Also, you claim that the author is "gripe[s]" about punctuation for the acronym OK. You then assert that it is proper for the acronym to be spelled without periods. However, the author agrees with you! If you reread what the author says, you will notice that he ment
Think about it...this isnt just for the military.
A student in one of my classes works as a foreman at a local construction company. They just happen to be testing these things out for use in place of blueprints. i.e. He and the onsite Engineer look at the actual CAD designs of the architect, and are able to hook up a live "point by point" discussion with the Architect moving the CAD design around and highlighting things in real time.
Mariners and Campers should find this useful. Mechanics maybe.
All kinds of places.
McDoobie
run for the hills!
Maybe after this war is over we can find some of these babies in surplus, and put some high performance hardware in em.
Ug, I'm still stuck on what the meaning of "is" is.
Extension? Existence? Persistence? Insistence?
-pyrrho
I believe it is milspec. and it has a handle.
I shall refute this point by point:
>You will notice consistant definitions which are in agreement with the author. Your assertion that most people use the phrase "CD-ROM disc" is anecdotal and unverifiable.
You are incorrect. It is verifiable. And it only takes seconds.
In summary -- use the tools available to you.
>Additionally, you go on to make some rather rude remearks that the author is wrong about the history of acronym for DVD.
If you think bullshit is rude, I would suggest you dislike Penn and Teller, known scpetics who, I'm willing to bet, despise grammarians (Although I haven't asked them this. Perhaps a reading of some old PC Computing rags might shed some light on this matter.)
In essence, there is no consensus as for what the letters stand. Originally it meant "digital video disc"; some tried to shoe-horn "digital versatile disc", but there was never an agreement reached. However, the author of the site never makes a claim as to the current meaning. He states merely:
[O]riginally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc."
What he says is true. It did at one point stand for "digital video disc" and some manufacturers currently do claim that it stand for "digital versatile disc." The dictionary offers both as a possibility and, in the end, both may end up as satisfactory answers.
Half-true. All manufacturers call it Digital Versatile Disc. I can find none that, today, would call it otherwise, except when they want to point out how a DVD player plays only Videos. Therefore the author was incorrect. It isn't some. It is all. The fact that there is a new logo that has been used by all manufacturers since, and that the DVD group now call it Digital Versatile Disc is just icing on the cake, as it were.
>If what you meant, however, was that "UFO" is the phrase to be applied to a creature not from Earth, then you are mistaken. Both "extraterrestrial" and "alien" already serve this purpose.
Yes, that is what I meant. The fact that there are already 2 words with this meaning does not preclude another word being used as such.
Princeton university supports my definition, and provides no specific definition that supports the argument of the author:
ufo
n : an (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins [syn: unidentified flying object, UFO, flying saucer]
The author is incorrect in his assumption that the term UFO cannot be applied to alien spacecraft. The military would also agree with Princeton University.
>On the matter of usage [of ok], you are correct. However, no one ever disagreed with you.
Bullshit. Read the site with a text browser next time. It clearly states "WRONG: OK". If this is a mistake on the part of the author, so be it. He is an english professor, and not a CS professor.
>He also claims that humanists (believers in the principles of Humanism) are more likely to use the "analogue" spelling.
Being pretentious, are we? I think if I were to lump myself with a group of people I'd know what the definition of Humanism are.
How's about an apology from you, since we apoligize for so much, it would appear.
>The author who wrote the page holds a degree Ph.D in English and is a professor of English at Washington State University. Not only does this qualify him as an expert of the English language, but it also exposes him to more samples of writings than most people. As such, if he claims that one spelling is preferred over another depending
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
If you think the Mortar Ballistic Computer is too big, just compare it to this
earlier model.
bill? is that you?
CD-ROM drive vs CD-ROM disc
1,030,000 hits vs 19,100 hits
Waterproof? Check Vaporproof? Check Shockproof? Check Idiotproof? ...
Guess the jury is still out on that one. After all this is the military were talking about here.
Big mistake. You're now going to lose THREE of them (including two that you don't even own) in the next month.
Is it fascism yet?
throw a vibrator on it and they'll sell like hotcakes!
Copiers are extrememly fragile. I know because I am a former copier technician. I am amazed that anyone would bring such a device out into the field. They are extremely flaky.
I had one customer who worked in a construction site and he had to shut off power at night. In Las Vegas it does not get as cold as other cities at night but a few nights in the 30's would always screw up his machine. The toner is so sensitive that it would clump up from the condensation into little rocks. They in turn would flow into the developing unit and freeze it up. It was always a problem. They are simply not designed for anything out of a 70 degree office.
I would think the paperless office fantasy would be most prevailant in the military world. It would get rid of alot of problems. Do military men need papers everywhere?
They are delicate machines and even if a single screw is too lose, you can seriously do damage to them. I left a single screw lose(agaisnt my boss's advise) because the drum seemed too tight and I ended up ruining a $400 drum. I do not know how they survive in a moving tank or a tent with sand and huge temperature variations.
http://saveie6.com/
whew! that was the best. was it as good for you?
seriously: that has to be the least interesting flamewar not involving television or sci-fi I've ever seen.
hey: maybe you should argue about whether PBJs need to have butter on the bread.
or better yet: proper use of the colon. ha! boners.
Are these standard laptops with standard components? Is it reasonably easy to install Linux on them?
Look morons. The artical, in Salon for crying out loud, is just pro MS propaganda. This thing is basicaly a toy for the military. Its running Windows. The Army and the Air force do not trust any version of windows in mission critacal apps. Any real Mil grade laptop would NOT be using windows. I am not sure what hardware the Army is using in the field, but it definatly is not this. MS is just trying to do a preemptive strike before too many people find out what the Army really is using. After all, MS does not what the public to know that one can have a critical mission capable laptop without Windows.
Come on people, were is your critical reasonong skills. Everyone knows that Salon is just a MS soapbox. Everyone knows that neither the Air Force nor the Army trust Windows in the field. And everyone knows that the Military tempurature range is -55 to +125 degrees c, though some special systems only need to meet a lower spec of +75 c ( 167 f).
The Panasonic CF-25 was the first ruggedized laptop that was made specifically for military use. It was "designed using Military Grade MIL-SPD-810E test for drop, shock, moisture, dust, and vibration resistance. The casing-including the handle-is composed of a magnesium alloy that is tougher than ABS plastic. The hard drive is mounted in a shock-absorbing gel. The LCD and keyboard are sealed to offer protection against dust, moisture and spills. In addition, the ports are guarded with either water-resistant covers or rubber plugs." This bad boy had some really cool features for it's time, like a touchpad you can actually use, a special keystroke combination to power down the harddrive and screen backlight to conserve power, and even a nice sturdy magnesium handle, which you curiously dont see on laptops any more. I actually own one of these golden oldies, and I love it. I had read somewhere that it could be run over by a car without any damage to it, so the first thing I did when I got the thing was....yes, you guessed it...ran it over with my '82 Corolla Hatchback. It survived the incident without a hitch...but I am not suggesting that you do this. Most of them are pretty old and beat up by now, and mine was free.
Am I the only person who noticed the word "Advertisement" (in an easy-to-overlook grey font) at the bottom of this "article"?
I've got a 286 Military surplus metal encased, amber screen "GridBook" I'll sell you. :-)
Dan
Ok, time for me to 'fess up.
As a backbone router geek, I have had the liberty of working from my home for the last couple of years, usually keeping whatever hours please me, and often doing my work from my bed, while watching "Law and Order" reruns captured on Tivo. (Belated kudos to the couple of co-workers who heard the Tivo 'ding' and managed not to bust out laughing during those weekly staff calls)
I've attended conference calls while slouched in the hot tub, completely submerged except for my head, while occasionally muttering an approving comment into my headset, usually to cover up the noise of the filtering system kicking in.
I've done major configurations on well-known business portals while smoking a cigar and hoping the 802.11 link won't crap out before I 'wr mem'.
But I've always wanted to do late-night maintenance work FROM my hot tub. And it's within range of my 802.11 equipment. But I just don't have the guts to bring my beloved Dell laptop that close to water.
But now this piece of equipment may allow me to achieve my goal: Getting paid for being as close to a chronic vegetative state as possible.
Just buy a Dell and pay an extra $350 for Complete Care warranty. You can do anything you want to it and get a new/refurbished one in it's place. That's way better then, say, dropping it and then having to hope it works right. It's good as long as the damage wasn't intentional (fibber) and you can recover all of the pieces.
According to the article the laptop will survive dropping 54 times from one meter, bake it in an oven, chill it in a freezer, vibrate it, and submit it to a shower of hurricane proportions but I am wondering if it will survive if a wrench fell on it.
9/19/80, Damascus, Arkansas
A maintenance man working inside a Titan II missile silo drops a wrench, puncturing the fuel tank of the missile. Several hours later the escaping fuel vapors ignite into a fireball that destroys the missile, blows off the 740-ton top of the silo, and sends the nine megaton warhead flying 200 yards through the air. There was no contamination. (DOD) http://www.efn.org/~bsharvy/nukes.html
The missle silo is supposed to survive a direct hit with conventional weapons, survive near misses by nuclear missles, survive hurricanes, survive freezing, etc just like todays laptops. But it could not survive a wrench that was dropped on it.
Seriously, I have seen those military laptops. They are pretty sharp - especially the ones with the touch screens.
It's not that impressive! I've dropped my Powerbook G3 many times without any damage. It, in fact, has also been hit by a water bomb directly on the keyboard while I was doing work in a class room during my last few days at high school. The water didn't do anything to the computer. I was able to finish the essay I was writing (about 5 minutes), save the work and shut down properly before tipping the computer over and watching the water pour out of the speakers, quite a sight actually.
Some Toughbooks have touchscreen, but most of the ones I've used do not. They all do have a touchpad which can be used while wearing gloves, something standard touchpads can't do.
I'm typing this on a Toughbook CF-17, which is a petite little subnotebook. It's got no external drives and just a single PCMCIA slot. This model does have a touchscreen, and it's addictive. The keyboard takes a lot of getting used to. It feels great but the 85% scaling is awkward for an adult. Definitely a small machine, people always look at it funny.
They look at ME funny when I drop it onto the counter or throw it across the room, running. (for the walls' sake, I usually aim for the couch.)
My previous Toughbook was a CF-25, gigantic in comparison. It had a full size keyboard though, and a beautiful 1024x768 screen behind polycarbonate. Not touchscreen though, and the sunlight visibility was terrible. The CF-25 has a Pentium-150 in it, which is why it's not my everyday machine anymore. It presently sits in my garage, processing packets from a radio modem out there.
I swear by these machines. I can't imagine using a flimsy laptop ever again! I've owned several non-rugged portables over the years and I've never broken the screen on one, but I resent the absurd amount of care it's taken to maintain such a clean record. With the Toughbooks, I don't worry about it. Generally I just make sure the wireless card is out of the machine if I'm going to leave it sitting around, since the antennae break off easily when stepped on.
I also can't imagine paying retail for this sucker. Good lord, you thought regular laptops were expensive? eBay is my friend. Educate yourseld before purchasing, though. There are many many different machines, from 100 MHz up through the Gigahertz range. Chances are, the battery won't hold a charge, so plan on getting it rebuilt. This goes for any used laptop.
A cheap used Toughbook would be a PERFECT kid's laptop. Considering that the CF-25 can be had for about $100 these days, and the kid's likely to smash all her other toys by setting the toughbook on them, why not? If nothing else, a laptop that goes "clank" just sounds impressive.
Itronix is in my home town, Spokane, WA....finally something to get us on the map other the meth heads and serial killers. http://www.itronix.com
I have a buddy who bought one of these, its got a p4 512 ram, forget which video but he plays quake3 and UT2003 on it. and even though its a laptop its faster than my athalon 1800 with a gig of ram. its a panasonic latop, gel encased HD and all that good stuff. i can say i want one.
The French are still waiting for the surrender-proof laptop. It must be able to withstand repeated impacts from rifles dropped from shoulder height.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
The job of any military is to kill people and break things. You don't send the military somewhere because you plan on handing out teddy bears and lollypops.
I suppose you are one of those people who believe that "civilized" nations don't need to be armed with anything more lethal than police with tasers.
Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
Wierd numbers like this fit statistical formulas--testing for X# of 9's involves like 3, 7, 17, 39... Mil-Specs require lots of statistics for everyting. I'd bet 1/3 of the cost is just the paperwork to prove they really did 54 drops, who did them, how they landed, what was for lunch that day, etc... having worked at a defence place, the numbers are spookily right most of the time. 99.999% of the time , the systems catch faulty parts [think of the millions of parts in a shuttle 50% or better can cause catistrophic failure--only 2 accidents in 20 years isn't really bad] If your OS was tested like this it would almost never crash--ask why it's not!
Will they make a make a decent Beowulf cluster?
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
Check out these computers also for "extreme environments" as the website says. They can be bought with linux pre-installed.
JLT Mobile Computers ...
I remember a Washington Post Article where some Marine Private was evaluating his 733t new computer. "I could beat someone to death with this battery pack..."
Did the very same private write that sentence?
Try this...
http://chs2.gdc4s.com/Products/LCIP_PIB.pdf
It will even survive the EMP pulse of a nuclear warhead. I don't want to think about how much is costs.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Only in our current computer age will people question if their laptops will still be ok, in situations where in all likelyhood, they themselvs will be dead. Love it! Hilarious! The user is dead, but how's the computer doing? lol
You don't send the military somewhere because you plan on handing out teddy bears and lollypops.
:-P
You forget the USMC "toys for tots" program
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
~Epictetus
Geeze, I go away for the weekend, and all hell breaks loose on Slashdot! Sorry, but I'm still not dead.
Karma: Undead.
Until OEMs start putting flash RAM that's fast and has rewrite cycles longer than 100,000 cycles, instead of hard drives in laptops and replace those fragile-as-hell LCD screens with something a bit more durable, laptops will still be fragile, no matter how much padding you put around the drive.
-- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@pobox.com PGP KeyID: 0x0BD32C9B What I'm up to: http://intuitives.mine.nu
You forget the USMC "toys for tots" program.
Ok, you got me there. But I wouldn't say "toys for tots" is the primary job of the USMC nor the reason they are sent into hostile territory.
Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being
true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the
mark of a fake messiah. The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What
are you doing? Think about these once in awhile and watch your answers
change.
-- Messiah's Handbook : Reminders for the Advanced Soul
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