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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 ;)
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.
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.
I was thinking more of the baked Powerbook G4, but anyway, the article implies the 'GoBook MAX' will survive an oven...
Granted, I don't expect consumer-channel equipment to be that strong.
Mail? Put "slashdot" in the subject to pass the spam filters.
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
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.
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'd have to see the hard drive compartment to believe it.
And is anyone else surprised that there have been no EMP 'terrorist' attacks yet? Cheap, simple, minimal training, incredibly effective...
Yeah, if you can get your hands on a nonexistent EMP weapon. Aside from nuclear weapons, EMP devices are all theoretical.
Yes, I know about the Popular Science/Mechanics article where they made it seem like every terrorist could build a magic EMP bomb, and that the US was going to deploy them in Iraq. As soon as the war started, I saw a clip on the news where they asked a military rep about them, and he basically said "I don't think you're going to see anything like that. We've tried that idea in the past, and it just didn't work out."
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
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
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.
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. ;-)
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
Pffff! Helicopters are inherently dangerous and malfunction-prone. ALL the armed services crash helicopters with unnerving regularity. When I was with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), we rode in helicopters a LOT, and I have personally been in THREE crashes/hard-landings. The problem with helicopters is that they're pretty much doomed if they lose power or if any of the control systems crap out. Compounding this is the fact that they vibrate like you wouldn't believe, which has a tendency to make things "come loose". In wartime, the helos are logging a LOT more hours than in garrison, so the number of failures resulting in crashes will go up. As awful as it sounds, a couple helicopters going down from mechanical failure is statistically inevitable on an operation of this scale.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
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.
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.