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Soldiers Call for Engineering Tech Support

chuckfucter writes "Wired news writes that soldiers in the battlefield now have their own army of geek advisers whom they can contact whenever they need technical support. The stakes are much higher here, with troops asking about the structural integrity of bridges, roads, dams and airfields: Can this structure be safely used after sustaining damage from bombings?"

7 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. ACE. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Wired news writes that soldiers in the battlefield now have their own army of geek advisers whom they can contact whenever they need technical support. "

    Ummm, wouldn't that be the Army Corp. of Engineers?

  2. Yup this makes sense... NOT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So has anyone ever seen how long it takes to get a building checked out by a civil engineer and now your telling me people are going to do it over the phone whithout even seeing the damage to the beams?

  3. Re:Outsourcing IS actually possible by Bastian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If we're talking small government in terms of decreased spending, then Halliburton is a terrible example. I fail to see how handing a cost-plus contract to a company without any bidding process whatsoever is a good way to save money. It may sound good in theory, but in practise I imagine that it's a lot like giving some random guy a blank check to go get you some beer instead of walking to the store yourself.

  4. Re:Oh Goodie by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Over how many years?

    Who gives a damn? The guy used nerve gas on his own city, pushed little kids out of helicopters, randomly terrorized his people with the police force, turned a blind eye to his kids raping women, and a lot of other crap that the body count just doesn't do justice to!

    America killed at least 100,000 in 2 years. I'd be willing to say America has the higher rate of killing Iraqi civillians.

    Listen up, you sanctimonious son of a bitch: The US troops aren't killing people. The remnants of Saddam's forces are. Just like they've done for the last two DECADES. Only now, assholes like you blame it on people like my brother who are PROTECTING people over there. He nearly lost his life protecting Iraqis on MANY occasions. And you know what? The IRAQIS are THANKFUL he's there. In fact, civilian support is one of the few things that keeps him alive.

    So get off your GODDAMN high horse, and recognize that the US has actually DONE A GOOD THING. You can argue with the reasons for starting the war, but don't you DARE blame deaths caused by Saddam's regime on our troops.

    Ok moderators, I've said my peace. Do your worst. :-/

  5. Re:it makes sence by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Keep in mind two large northern and southern land borders, and two large coasts.

    Yeah, sure.... the Canadians and Mexicans were just waiting for you to lower your defenses in order to conquer, plunder and rape defenseless Americans... Americans who are unarmed by definition, after all they don't have right to bear arms to form militia.

    The two large coasts? You need an industrialized nation in order to attack those (airplanes/warships). China could *perhaps* do that. Europe is out of the question: we barely have enough military to defend ourself if anyone would like to invade us.
    Besides, the US under attack would immediately recall all troups in Iraq. Be damned civil war in Iraq if you've got bigger problems at home.

  6. Re:Open Source and Military abuse! by rale,+the · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this a joke? If you don't want a piece of code you wrote to be used in a certain way, then license it in a way that takes that into consideration. Of course, at that point, its no longer "free and open", its "free unless i don't like what you're doing". If you actually submit code to larger projects, where you don't have control over the licensing, well... too damn bad. Either don't give it away for free, or live with it. Nothing is being 'abused' here, but hey, thats common sense, and your post smells more like a troll then that of a real, concerned programmer who submits to open source projects.

  7. Re:it makes sence by MemoryDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The funny thing is even if Europe had the ressources to fight sever offensive wars, it in its current state would not, the people are fed up with war and have been fed up with it since WW2 (you need severe reasons to drag the average European into a war, he/she would feel would be justified, Iraq was the classical example of not how to do it).

    On the other hand, Europe is a good buffer zone for the US and always was. Europeans prolly would start to fight tough once they are attacked. Europe in its current state should not be underestimated as a defensive force but as an offencive, forget it. The mentality of the people is not like that.
    Even if there are lots of problems with the transatlantic relations (most are caused by the idiotic Bush government) Europe still is the best ally the US can have against an atlantic coastal attack, most attackers who would try it that way, would get stuck way before, with around 500-800 million people working actively or passively against them und ultimately being stuck in Europe with an unresolvable resistance situation.

    But having Europe attacking the US, there is no way, even if the US was unable to defend itself. Despite all the shoutings and problems, no western European even would get the idea, to attack the "brothers" in the US, although the younger brother currently has a big problem :-) .