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The Internet and The War
John Jorsett writes "Wired Magazine has an interesting article on the realities of the use of communication and navigation technology in the Iraq war. Particularly intriguing is the use of chat rooms to engage experts thousands of miles away in helping to solve problems at the troop level in the field. And if you think your admin job is tough, try running your servers in 125 degree heat in a sandstorm."
Umm...
I've used the internet, both recreationally and for research, since before people lost the ability to tell the difference between "the web" and "the 'net".
In that time, I have discovered one very persistant trend relevant to attempting to gather meaningfully-true information on-line:
Don't visit chat rooms unless you want to pick up transgendered males.
I don't mean this as a troll (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek), but seriously, asking for military advice on IRC or AOL strikes me as akin to asking the NIDA for information on the dangers of marijuana - ie, even if you manage to get any factual information, you'll never find it from the BS it comes buried under.
This idea concerns me greatly. From the comfort of my fuzzy computer chair, I have the luxury of taking the time to try to separate facts from garbage. Someone asking "what does sarin smell like" will most like die before they even get past the obligatory flood of "A/S/L" requests.
If not for the Internet most Americans would never have heard that much of the intelligence information Colin Powell presented to the U.N. was based on outdated, and plagiarized material. The U.S. press simply didn't report it. So among other things, in wartime the Internet is going to continue to be very important for getting reliable information beyond state propaganda.
Of course if the United States' press didn't have their noses stuck up the ass of the government and the corporate establishment they might learn how to ask probing and difficult questions, and we wouldn't have to go looking for truthful reporting and real analysis from outside sources.
-- thinkyhead software and media
And what happens when an Iraqi captures one of these Sipper sets? He can listen in to Rumsfeld and Bush? Encryption should be between the two endpoints, IMO, like IPSec.
I'm sure that the Pentagon, with access to expert advice from the NSA, CIA, ARPA, MIT etc etc didn't think of that.