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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?"
And if it is on the field, the responses would need to be realtime, too.
It may make the difference between life and death.
This doesn't suprise me, with all the money being spend on the army, it makes an awful lof of sence to give the army all the tools they need. the better prepared the army, the better they can protect us.
Give it a few months and they'll outsource it to India like all the other tech support jobs.
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The article states clearly that the support is for engineering type problems.
Article?!? Wait a minute, this is slashdot after all...
"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?
Look at the last thumbnail in that article, hes got a panasonic toughbook in his lap
Damn i've always wanted one of those, looks like another one in the helicopter picture
I'd always thought the military had some special laptops designed specifically for them, but i guess just like the police in vancouver they use those toughbooks
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?
The world wide left? How about the world wide non-mentally handicapped? Clinton gets a BJ in office and they try to impeach him. At worst, an intern got a lifelong stigma. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of US Soldiers and innocent Iraqis and he gets re-elected?
WHAT THE FUCK?!
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
Back in March, the selective service began planning the procedures for a "Speical Skills" draft, which is a hypothetical draft of "Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages."
"Talking to the manpower folks at the Department of Defense and others, what came up was that nobody foresees a need for a large conventional draft such as we had in Vietnam," said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System. "But they thought that if we have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special skills draft."
Just to clarify: they're not talking about actually drafting such workers yet; they just want procedures in place if they do need to do a draft. (This strikes me as somewhat ominous, in spite of their claims that it's a remote possiblity, but that could be my own paranoia.)
They already have the procedures in place to draft medical workers (up to age 44!) if it ever becomes necessary. The article doesn't say, but I would anticipate that an IT worker draft would have a similar age spread.
This article was back in March; anybody have any more recent news?
such as what they're doing in the areas of signal security and preventing interceptions/jamming of transmissions on the battlefield. How do they authenticate who's talking to who? How do they keep the enemy from listening in?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
These are the same folks who designed most of the dams under the TVA. They designed the steel mesh "tires" on the MOON ROVER, for pete's sake! I'm 40 years old and even I was a kid when that was happening.
It's a way cool place to tour if you're in the area. Don't know if they still have the hangar-size scale model of the san francisco bay but if they don't there's sure to be something equally impressive occupying that space.
A lot of people have made comments about the possibility of this being outsourced. While most of the comments are meant to be funny, I think it is definitely possible that it could be outsourced. Remember that the philosophy of Bush and Rumsfeld et al. is that the US army should be *small* and practically every function of the US army that doesn't involve holding a gun and shooting should be outsourced (mainly to private US companies like Halliburton). Actually, considering that even some US government staff in Iraq are guarded by private guards, even holding a gun and shooting is outsourced to some degree. I've read articles that said that in the first Gulf War something like 1 in 100 of the people working for the US army were private contractors, but in the second Gulf War, something like 1 in 10 are from private (US) companies. As events in Iraq show, even things like interrogation of prisoners is conducted by private contractors.
Of course a major problem with this is that you can't order engineers from a private company to go out under fire to fix a bridge/power plant etc. while you can with army engineers. The other major problem is who will punish private contractors who say torture prisoners or accidentally (or even deliberately) kill or injure civilians. If they are in the army they could be investigated and court-martialed, but I think for private contractors it is much murkier. I think the general rule is that they are under the rules of the local government, but well, in a lot of these places, local government is hardly existent or very corrupt.
Over how many years?
America killed at least 100,000 in 2 years. I'd be willing to say America has the higher rate of killing Iraqi civillians.
Yeah, that's called PROGRESS!
stuff
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.
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You know I see posts like this EVERY DAY. The guy on the other side of the spectrum who is saying "US troops don't belong" are actually doing your brother a favor.
The more heroic you make the troops, the more righteous it becomes for the administration to send more people down there. It's just better to tell them all they don't belong, so they can all come home.
If you think there will be less terrorists when U.S troops leave the region, you are crazy. We all respect the troops no doubt. But let's face it, we just made 10x more enemies.
Hey dumbass he isn't jumping to conclusions, his brother is in Iraq for god's sake... And maybe you didn't read what he said, but US troops arent going in Iraq with the intention of killing civilians, nor are they bombing them. He was also saying that the VAST MAJORITY of those 100,000 deaths where from Iraqi militants and not from US troops. Even better, show me some statistics, how many were killed by US troops directly/indirectly then show me how many were killed by Insurgents directly/indirectly. Until you do that, please stop the BS.
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!
And all that was OK as long as Saddam was Washington's little puppetman. As soon as the puppet didn't follow its master, then suddenly he became the most evil man after Hitler.
Je ne parle pas francais.
Thanks for calling the USMC technical support line.
If you have been shot, press "1".
If you have been bayoneted, press "2".
If you want to shoot someone else, press "3".
If you want to talk to a human being, a real nerdy type, the type you jock military type assholes used to bully in high school then you can kiss my safe, bunkered, hairy corn-fed ass. Yeah, not so clever now are you? Right, now Ive got your attention, lets talk about that wedgy you gave me in sixth grade...
Well, your work could be used by ANYONE for nefarious purposes, and you'll never know about it. Does it matter if it's the US Army, or Osama Bin Laden, or some drug cartel in Colombia, an organized crime ring in Italy or Russia, any government entity to help oppress and control its citizens, etc.?
If it means anything to you, there is at least one Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who was a Conscientious Objector, and served the military as a field medic. At some level he decided that helping his fellow soldiers live to go home was of some merit, as long as he wasn't actually pulling the trigger.
Mind you, you're still right about the entertainment value of liberal histrionics. Every bit as funny as the antics of conservatives during the Clinton administration.
That's all that liberals and conservatives are really good for anyway.
"MOAB penetrates deep underground"
Massive Ordinance AERIAL Burst.
Most of the rest of what you've said, the AWACS thing with facial recognition, is a bunch of fake shit too.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
We have these "tools" as our bargaining chips. "I'll see your nuclear program and raise you certain death if you fail to meet our demands of disarmament. Worse, we'll capture you and parade you before the world, and then hold a trial where you are convicted and executed. You can drop out of this game now, or you can try to raise the bet, or you can call."
Carthago delenda est.
KFG
"Hi, US Army tech support, how can I help?"
"Ummm, the grenade holder on the front of my computer seems to be broken."
"..."
-----------
"Hi, US Army tech support, how can I help?"
"Hi, our computer system doesn't seem to be working."
"Can you first check that it's plugged in properly"
"Sorry, they bombed our generator and the lights are off"
"..."
-----------
"Hi, US Army tech support, how can I help?"
"Hi, some of the keys on this computer aren't working"
"Sounds like you've got sand in the keyboard. Take the keyboard, hold it at 90 degrees to the table and rap it sharply to displace the dust."
"OK" ***clong***clong***whirr***thud***WHOOSH*** "Um, I think I just bombed Baghdad..."
"...what kind of computer is this?"
"It's the control panel for our missile battery"
"..."
I predict a massive increase in the Iraq war casualty rate due to techs going postal.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
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.
Youre ignoring the main point - Saddam was behind Sept 11 ;)
Two ways to end the war: (1) Kill all terrorists. (2) Convert to Islam. Unfortunately, diplomacy is not a part of either
You, sir, are an idiot.
The KKK are to christianity what these 'muslim terrorists' are to islam.
"Hang on Bubbah, that may be a black church, but it's a _christian_ black church, better not burn it".
As for killing all the terorrists:
Terrorists hide among the civilians
Killing terrorists means 'collateral damage'
Having your brother/father/mother/neighbour killed by the 'great Satan USA' is about the best recruiting tool there is for terrorists!
You are part of the problem. Please stop.
Hands up all geeks who would like to leave their well-earning tech job, friends, family, girlfriend/wife, Quake and decent INTERNET connection to go work in a random country with no re-spawn points, a crappy salary and bullets flying at you from both sides?
"You will give your rifle a girls name, because this is the only pussy you are gonna get!"
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Desmond Doss, a medic and Conscientious Objector from Rising Fawn, Georgia, received the Medal of Honor on 12 October 1945 for actions on 5 May 1945 at the Maeda Escarpment, Okinawa with Company B of the 77th Infantry Division. He disregarded heavy enemy fire and lowered between 50 and 100 (Doss claimed it couldn't have been more than 50, while the men of his unit said it was 100) wounded men down the escarpment on a rope, using a tree stump as a pulley.
He was wounded twice on 21 May 1945. The first wound was received when he stepped on a grenade that had been thrown into the foxhole he shared with 3 other men. The second wound, a bullet to his arm, was received as he helped another wounded soldier to safety.
He also received a Bronze Star for actions at Leyte earlier in the war.
PFC Doss went on to donate his $100/month MoH stipend to the Civilian Defense Rescue Service of Walker County, Georgia.
BTW, I live in Walker County, Georgia and had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Doss a few years back. I had to shout into his hearing aid for him to hear me. You'll never meet a nicer man.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
I've been interviewed as part of background checks for friends, and they are really quite lame. No, they don't talk to everyone you've met in the last 10 years. No, they don't have s3kr3t information about you that they research. And I very much doubt (based on what I've seen) that they tap phones or read email (except perhaps your official work email).
Basically, they interview your neighbors and ask you for a list of friends. Then they interview a few of your friends.
Questions were like:
- How long have you known him?
- Does he do drugs?
And my favorite:
- Would you trust him with the fate of the Country?
To that one I said "as much as I'd trust anyone", while thinking "which is not very much".
By the way, this particular friend is a left-wing pot smoking stoner. And yep... he got his Top Secret clearance.
As a former Army Engineer officer, and former structural engineer, I'm a little skeptical of this article.
Engineer units and officers, who are already organic to Battalion (500ish troops) and above, are trained to do this sort of thing (bridge load surveys). For very complicated structures, I can see a need to contact a consultant "in garrison" somewhere who can do a more advanced structural model, but I'd think that would be quite the exception.
I think the article is misleading. The Army has had to evaluate the strength of existing bridges for years--since WWI or before--and has trained and integrated units and leaders with the capability to do so. Before 2004, tank commanders didn't just guess about whether a given friendly or enemy bridge would hold their vehicle.
Notice how as the armies of the world get more advanced and better weapons, that certain tactics that were used in the past that killed many more innocents, are no longer used. Take carpet bombing for example. How many times, during previous wars, have certain areas been bombed, with thousands of pieces of ordinance, with no regard as to where the individual bombs fell? Now, we have smart weapons that can take out one specific building, with minimal impact to the surrounding area. Yes, there are times that the intelligence is incorrect and the wrong building is targeted, and innocents die. BUT, there are far fewer innocents being killed nowadays, then in the days of past. Also, I would recon that more innocents have been killed by their own people (i.e. suicide bombers) than have been killed by the US military.
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