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Bringing Bandwidth To Iraq
jemevans sends us a link to his nonfiction tale of two California cypherpunks who went to Baghdad to seek their fortune and bring the Internet to Iraq. A much abridged version ran in Wired a while back. From the original: "Ryan Lackey wears body armor to business meetings. He flies armed helicopters to client sites. He has a cash flow problem: he is paid in hundred-dollar bills, sometimes shrink-wrapped bricks of them, and flowing this money into a bank is difficult. He even calls some of his company's transactions 'drug deals' — but what Lackey sells is Internet access. From his trailer on Logistics Staging Area Anaconda, a colossal US Army base fifty miles north of Baghdad, Lackey runs Blue Iraq, surely the most surreal ISP on the planet. He is 26 years old."
Sounds like a piece of sensational journalism (yeah, yeah, since when was journalism not sensation, whatever).
Such articles should be read with an eye of scrutiny and an ounce of salt.
So do they need a bunch of big trucks so they can start laying down the tubes?
An indiscriminate peering policy and the only place on earth where bandwidth is measured in Mega Tons per second.
Mission accomplished?
One of my questions would be. Who out there is still hiring, what are the wages like, and who here on slashdot would be willing to sign up?
We take a lot of our technology for-granted. Bringing modern technology to a war-torn, outdated country could be both a dream and a nightmare.
So these are the guys who should be credited for downloaded photos of Prince Harry from the internet
"We have printed out many photographs of him from the internet and given them to all other groups. They know the Prince is their main objective and I have every confidence he will be targeted and attacked."
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
But the Internet, as a series of tubes used to sell wood, was designed to withstand a nuclear holocaust, and last time I checked the main problems that Iraq has in terms of the internet is not the actual wiring per se, but a distinct lack of power plants and continual power sources.
... my family does sell wood.
If we had just shipped Aramco-backed (aka Saudis, the people paying for Americans to be shot) solar cells and UPS systems to Iraq, we would have created more Net usage than with this approach.
Sometimes low tech is the way to go.
My dad gets the Net from a house he built in Vermont on his tree farm, using solar power to charge car batteries and run a laptop with. Cheaper than running power lines through his 42 acre tree farm. And I was serious about my brother writing the insurance law - he's an international lawyer based in NYC. I wasn't serious about the tubes or the selling wood part
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Beating your kidnapper to death with his own AK-47. Glad I'm not in Iraq.
This guy did an excellent presentation at Notacon about running a non profit isp in iraq. Available in mp3 or video format.
mp3 aviDavid Coughanour - HajjiNets: Running an ISP in a War Zone
Hacker Media
Tell me more about how you can get wood from the Internet.
"Sometimes low tech is the way to go."
Maybe a WiFi mesh-net using consumer routers? Hey! If it's good enough for slashdotters to brag that it'll bring down big companies, then it's good enough for Iraq.
Any serious editor would have corrected "...flowing this money..." with a transitive verb to make something like "...moving this money...".
Asshole!
So why is this modded as flamebait? Is it because Bush denies(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4829786.stm) that Iraq is in civil war (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/civil%20war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=civil%20w ar)?
This is really a rather moving article, in the sense that it makes me wonder what I have doing with my life and the things that I am being complacent about. It also makes me wonder how robust--in the macro-evolutionary sense--that our technological projects and infrastructures really are. The power and communications networks have always struck me very fragile and resistant to both change and attack (you would think that we would have learned from WWII Europe). Communications networks we can probably shore up by moving into stronger forms of wireless communication, although this opens the question of wide-spread jamming. However robust power networks present no obviously good solution until localized power (such as solar and wind) becomes cost competitive with centralized power.
...En að Besta Sem Guð Hefur Skapað Er Nýr Dagur
Of course, you need the skills, and the connections.
You also need balls, since Iraq IS a war-zone you are essentially risking your life every minute you are there.
I know of one contractor who was kidnapped in Iraq and subsequently released once his company payed an undisclosed 'ransom', although that was more than a year ago. Lets just say after than incident they beefed up their security just a tad. Kidnapping is a big money maker in Iraq/Afghanistan. Of course, that entails you surviving an attack long enough to be kidnapped in the first place! Most likely death would be as quick as hitting an IED and its GAME OVER.
Then there are others who are smart. They go over there and stay in their armored compounds (as opposed to foolishy driving around in the open) and are protected by security. They do their assignments, stay for a few months, and make a nice chunk of change at the end.
Truthfully, many contractors are getting rich there but the majority of them are not accomplishing much of substance. All of it is dictated by the whims of the Americans. The Iraqis have little real input. Most of it is completely unsustainable. As the linked article states, even these Internet gurus are under no illusion that what the US is doing is only aggravating the civil war.
So essentially it's all blood money. Frankly, if there is a choice between making the 'easy' money or keeping your integrity intact by not 'selling your soul' to the man for a quick buck, I would say it's not worth it in the long run. I mean, you still have to live with yourself years from now. Right?
PS. There are good jobs in Afghanistan and its not nearly as dangerous as Iraq...though that is now changing. A few years ago suicide bombings in Kabul were a rare occurrence, but things seem to be hotting up there more every day - unfortunately.
God bless the American tax payer.
He died there in a car crash after 2.5 years.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What about a dessert in the desert?
Even though I don't agree with the "right-wing types", its certainly better than the cowardly, defeatist, losing mentality of the left-wing types. Instead of offering a better alternative, the Democrats will embrace any strategy to make Republicans look bad in the hope of gaining power in the Federal Government.
That's why liberals keep losing elections. Because they think like losers, they are losers.
Once they clean the oil pipelines and get them connected, Iraq will have the largest, clog free, bandwith on the Internets.
Note to self: get a sig.
My best friend was a cybercafe manager at LSA Anaconda during his stay. Way I hear it, they could use the pipe. The nickname his associates had for the drop they had to their quarters was "Ghetto Telecom"... the photos of how they got stuff rigged are hilarious from an IT perspective.
Winning hearts and minds of the Iraqi people through the universal medium, Asian porn.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Good start; however, it's much too late to ask for no jokes about the internet tubes.
Not releasing products & changing the world.
I hope this guy doesn't end up on an Al Jazeera video getting his head sawed off with a dull sword. No amount of money is worth that.
This might be a naive question, but how do all these problems and reports that the "insurgents" rely on cellular networks and the internet to coordinate their attacks go together? If some terrorist's Nokia works in Baghdad, why wouldn't a contractor's?
There are obvious differences between military and civilian applications, for example, you don't want your coms go down when you hit an ambush, but Iraq seems to have some semblance of a basically/occasionally working cell phone system.
I serve in the Arizona Army National Guard. I just got back last November from a one-year stint in Iraq.
We used to get our internet access from an internet trailer that we had. We also had a (barely usable) wireless network set-up from our internet tent. As far as I know, a lot of the internet providers we used were satellite providers. In fact, we got so sick of the really crappy internet, that we shelled out money to buy a satellite dish, a satellite modem, and internet access. Split between the members of one platoon, it was about $60 a month. Our contact was an Iraqi who ran his business from off-base. He had a contact on-base that would help us out if we had any issues. It worked fine most of the time (unless we had severe dust-storms). The contact that the internet guy had on-base was actually an Iraqi electrical engineer. From what I heard, most businesses (and most people on the base) got their internet from satellite internet providers. It was pretty pricey and the only way you could manage it is if you got a huge bunch of people to sign up. In fact, that's what they used at the Internet tent. It was called FUBI Internet (For Us/US By Iraqis Internet).
This is the first time I'm hearing about this guy, or the company. I was stationed on Camp Liberty, which is a huge base in its own right. We were some hours away from Anaconda (I think 12? I don't remember rightly anymore). All the stuff we used there (that I know of, and my scope is just our internet trailer, internet tent, and platoon internet; the division MWR used internet but it was some connection from USAREUR (US Army Europe)) was from gulf (or greek or italian) satellite providers.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Oh come on, man, you know that no-one can find your dick.
Links didn't work for me. Here is a video that might be the same one. And more vids and PDFs from his site.
I'm all for entepreneuership and making a buck, but there are a couple things that bother me about this. First the likely clients will be the ones who were wealthy before Sadam was ousted, so more than often than not they will be supporting the same ones who helped keep down the people we are supposed to be trying to help. Second, on the likely chance that one of them is taken hostage or killed you can bet the news will be splattered with sob stories about them as if they were heroes helping the common man while dozens of real heroes die with no mention beyond a tally of bodies. There should be a list that separates the civilian humanitarians from the opportunists just so the media will know which ones to ignore.
Would this mean "blue" as in "blue" Texas or Oklahoma? We do know that only certified Republican rightwingers were allowed to do business in Iraq (oh, go Google it yourselves), usually recruited from Young Republicans in campaigns, so is the name a kissy-kiss for Bush's people?
Internet access in your "trailer room" was about 3 grand a month. Absolutely insane. Some went in on it together in groups and shared via wifi, but it was still super expensive. I don't know how any enlisted member could possibly afford it. Priorities, I guess.
It isn't mentioned until well down in the article, but many Slashdot readers may remember Ryan Lackey as part of the team that founded Sealand/HavenCo, the offshore data haven that was featured on the cover of Wired in 2000. Sealand's launch and struggles were discussed here on /. The guy clearly has an appetite for adventure.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
A company that shall remain nameless once pinged me about a role providing linux cluster admin and field engineer/developer support for a visualization project designed for military use. I would have been stationed in central Baghdad and paid on the order of two hundred and fifty thousand base pay plus hazard pay, full relocation, etc. etc. etc. amounting to probably on the order of four hundred thousand to half a million a year after all the calculations were done.
I turned them down.
Yes, it sounded like a technically sweet gig. Yes, the pay and benefits were very, very solid. Could I handle a morning and evening commute that includes pitched gun fights and car bombs? Would the security where I sleep be as good as where I would work? Would I adapt well to wearing body armor and carrying at least one if not several weapons to do something as simple as buying toilet paper? Would I want to get beheaded for my troubles? Would I want my next of kin to profit from blood money should I bite it; would I feel comfortable accepting money for supporting something I found morally abhorrent? Would I have gone through those paranoid years of deployment without becoming irrevocably changed in ways that would make it difficult to reintegrate to mainstream society (PTSD is No Fucking Joke)? I asked myself questions like that and got too many negative answers to feel comfortable taking them up on their offer. Maybe other people would have a different situational calculus, I don't look down on them for asking themselves questions and coming up with different answers.
It was a near thing for me. I almost said yes. That money could have put my SO through grad school without loans. It could have bought my ailing mother a house. It could have done a lot of things. I still sometimes wonder if I made the right choice.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
I hope the next article I read about him is how his car ran over an IED
Boy, you're a bitter, jealous bitch, aren't you?
The opposite of progress is congress
That depends on what toots your horn, doesn't it?
Hey, then Iraq would finally have WMD's!
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
If you talk to Ryan, the conversation will be scratchy, and you'll be aware of a half-second delay, but the amazing thing is that you can talk to him at all. iDirect, the latest generation of VSAT technology, can be difficult to set up, which is why his competitors use older Hughes or Tachyon technology, but it is the first that can manage usable VOIP. When you compare the price Ryan charges - circa $1,000 per month for 1 megabit download and 384 kilobit upload, plus 1-5 cents per minute for prioritized VOIP traffic, for a dish generally shared by 20-30 people - to the dollars-per-minute price of an analog satellite telephone, it's easy to see where Blue Iraq's customers come from.
Terrorists?
In Iraq, Sites bomb you.. :)
Hmmm... as far as I can tell from the article, he's one of the most productive and useful people in Iraq these days. Might not be the nicest guy or have the purest motives... but I'd say competence is what's most lacking there. I'd vote for him. And the other guy Tyler too, why hasn't he been tapped as the US chief of Iraqi reconstruction?
I'm totally fucking serious too. You hear about some of the incompetent bungling idiots running US operations in Iraq, and these guys both sound like they'd bring a lot to the job.
My bicyles
First, the army goes in and smashes everything up.
Then, so-called 'entrepreneurs' enter the country ( only those with US security clearance, mind you ), and 'reconstruct' the place, many using US taxpayer money. Of course there are many crimes to this process, but one major one is that this prevents Iraqis from being able to pull themselves out of the hell they got bombed into, as all the development is by foreigners, and therefore all the profits are exported. All the materials come from outside the country - there is no stimulation for the local economy, and meanwhile unemployment sits at 80%.
These 'entrepreneurs' deserve to be blown to pieces by a roadside bomb. They should get out of the country and allow the Iraqis to rebuild, on their own terms, with their own labour, using their own materials, and creating their own assets.
"Then again, they could have their shit together simply because they've been influenced the least by the American government."
You forget that the Kurds had more to gain from the overthrow of Saddam, than the other two sects. Even though the American government goofed in not supporting the uprising after the gassing.
PTSD is the main concern here ( I noticed you put it in parenthesis). Sure, all those things you could have done with the money would have helped you materially, but imagine going through the rest of your life, unable to get a good night's sleep, haunted by nightmares. Or a car back-firing triggering your nervous system to high-alert. Looking at Arab men on the street, wondering if they have an IED under their shirt. Could you get through grad school like that? You might never be able to rebuild your psyche after that. It would probably permanently change the course of your life.
I've spent some time overseas. While that's nowhere near a war experience, but it was intense enough that it made me an outsider amongst my friends. Their world was so small. I had to find a new contingent of friends who had broader backgrounds. Fortunately some of my other friends have since traveled; now we can relate better. There's a reason vets hang out at the VFW. It's to be with the other guys who have lived through that experience. You would become a totally different person and you would have a new community. I'm not saying that's bad; I'm just saying that all the benefits you would imagine having as a result of becoming a contractor might have to be completely re-evaluated in light of your new path. Hopefully with your practice you would be able to find healing and mental health for yourself and other vets if/when you came back.
My grandpa was in the invasion of Normandy. He never talked about it. A decade after his death, I heard this story: He was trapped behind enemy lines. There was a guard that he had to get past to get back to the allied front. For hours, he bid his time. Finally, the guard relaxed, and sat down to read. My grandfather snuck up and strangled him with a piece of barbed wire. He look at what the guard had been reading -- a handwritten letter and a picture of a young woman. He was so distraught by the time he got back to the front, he couldn't speak. The allies were about to kill him on the spot, because they thought he was a German spy, dressed up in an American uniform as a cover.
I don't know to what extent this story is dramatized. The biggest problem is that he never talked to *anyone*, *ever* about the war. I don't know in what circumstances he told this story. My Uncle told my mom after my grandfather had died, years after, but he doesn't remember where or when he heard it. It was sort of common knowledge among the men in my family.
My mom's family would go out to picnics, and my grandfather would sometimes disappear for hours. My male relatives were hunters; even they couldn't find him. When he came back, he would have no recollection of having disappeared. Everything was normal to him, nothing odd had happened. In my dark times, I imagine him trapped behind enemy Axis lines in some Ohio field, hiding, biding his time a few yards away from a ghostly guard.
I don't think you made the wrong decision at all.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Ryan may have been 26, but I did that when I was 24 working as a contractor for CSC. Anyone in the military uses the term drug deals to describe the shake of the hand barter system that gets you going day to day. Back in 2003, I traveled around to military installation setting up VSAT sat dishes to just to provide Internet Cafe's and VOIP access to the troops. Although this wasn't my actual job, I provided my expertise on a "free basis" to aid our troops. General Conway at the time deemed it enough of a priority to at least throw some money at it to get more sites up and running.
In the end, I didn't live in a tent. I was in an actual buidling complete with amenities most would envy in Iraq. Between all of my contacts, I was rocking it with a TV, DVD Player, Sat Cable and Internet, Refrigerator/freezer, microwave, xbox and ps2 at the time, and above all else AC. The hardest part was getting the transformers but much like everyone else the engineers scratched my back as well for what services I rendered in off time.
Traveling between bases, I flew. Forget doing a convoy where it takes you 14 hours to drive 30 miles. Helo rides were what it was all about, and I spent many nights either sweating my @$$ off or freezing to death just waiting for them to touch down to grab me.
Again, like others had said it's sensational journalism. What he did isn't all that impressive and some of the security procedures handled by SSI are negligent at best. I also have a problem trumping up his bad@$$ card for being logistically irresponsible.
I'd have taken that in a heartbeat. Life is too easy here. I probably have the skills for it too.
I am the Tyler Wagner from the article. At the risk of exposing myself (further) to the flames of Slashdot, I'd be happy to answer questions.
Pictures:
http://www.tolaris.com/gallery/Iraq
The Mohammed story:
http://giantlaser.livejournal.com/56797.html
http://giantlaser.livejournal.com/56863.html
if any parent has ever deserved modding up, it's this one.
What exactly makes them "cipherpunks"?
Unless he lied about his age when he wrote this.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
We have Lackey's side of the story and the plan that someone wanted to set up a pirate internet radio station there last year but now the fort is apparently for sale and Sealand is proposing a 'change of custodianship'. Does HavenCo have any customers?
FFS - give us a warning on the image, you wanker.
then you best get lickin'!
truly a very interesting story about your Grandfather, i had to read it twice cause i was so intrigued about it. i'm happy you chose to share it with the world.
Waiting for you by the bridge
Wow! they are progressing so fast even their names are changing in the blink of a click. It's a nice idea, and a good way to allow people to educate themselves. I'd warn subscribers of the liberalism and content that is available though. That first goatse pic is going to be enough for them to blow up the noc.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Are you by any chance a member of Soros' groups/subgroups?
/. where those with better prose could respond. I am only a disabled Vet with no particular viewpoint to propose, and lack the language skills to twist the meanings of words to match my feelings about the subject.
My son (USMC) came back from his tour in Iraq to visit me in the VA hospital, I didn't see him that trip, I was in a coma and not expected to live through it. During that visit my body functions started working again, and I lived. He came back after I woke up and we visited a while, with a little comparing of Viet Nam (my USMC era) with Iraq. The only thing different today is Fox News, and Internet access for the troops.
All other things remained the same, with the left-wing media only reporting the bad news for higher ratings, and to leave the people at home, and the rest of the world, with the mindset of - America is BAD, it tortures combatants and civilians, and anything else they can make up to fuel their political views. Of course WE can't show the dead and tortured Iraqi and US troops on TV, nor the beheading of the same, so they are not mentioned. Without fox and the troops mailing home, there would be NO good news. The general media doesn't even mention the Kurds, they had to make their own commercials to thank us, and PAY for them! The "bad" guys get free "commercials".
It is no big news that many veterans have clubs like the VFW and American Legion, and visit with other veterans and family members, who ALSO paid the price of their service. That price is living with the "Holier than Thou" attitude of most non-veterans, the media, organizations backed by Soros and other left-wing groups.
It's just comforting to go somewhere that you aren't scorned! During Viet Nam and on leave, I was denounced by my pastor and spit on by other church members, and I hadn't even been to Viet Nam!
With the Internet, and with the troops having their own blogs, one would think that the truth would, or could, be seen by anyone. You have proved that that is not the case, perhaps Google is filtering the information...
The only documented cases of "torture" is the posed pictures at Abu Ghraib, the beheading that can be viewed on al Jazeera, and the remains of Iraqis and our servicemen and women. I suppose that the Red Cross could be in the pay of the government and is lying about Guantanamo, but I don't believe that. You, the media, and the politicians do play it up a lot (For possible/future political gain?).
Perhaps you should post in the politics section of
Iraq, like Viet Nam, where the politicians pulled the funding and we left while winning, the politicians are trying to do it again. Remove the funding before a clear "winner" develops, and thus leaving before we finish. This is not to "just get the troops home", it's to implement a political agenda, and insure that a Democrat, or another "Clinton" gets elected President, because they want us to "lose". They don't care about Iraq or their people, and they want us to forget about the sacrifices our military members have made to date, including the fact they want to stay and "win".
A president (Democrat!) once quoted "Speak softly and carry a big stick: You will go far." Six times after we were attacked, Clinton "Spoke LOUDLY, but only used his little dick.". If the media and you were around during WWII, we would be speaking German and Japanese today.
Education may expand your knowledge, but it cannot bestow wisdom. Like you, I am lacking in both, but I WILL admit it!
Former geek, now I can rest...
They STILL have problems keeping the power on for more than a few hours a day. I'm so tired of these cheerleading articles praising the beautiful new paint on the outside of the house, while the foundation crumbles to dust.
Blar.
I would totally go to Iraq and work at a job like this. I have already been there once, since I am in the Army, and I am about to go again, (still in the Army). But to be able to go and get way more than military pay, oh my gosh, that would be sweet. Plus have my personal broadband satellite web connection, and be able to go running, then I'd be set! I had no problem with Iraq last time, I thought it was really nice, then again I was in Southern Iraq and it was pretty chill there. A paid vacation to a very sunny place!
Seriously. Work here in the states is dull and uninteresting. Working over there setting up new frontiers, new boundries, establishing new modes of what works and what doesn't to me seems like a breath of fresh air. Something more than the dull crap that I have to putup with on a day to day Admin job. I'm tired of being a maintainer of dead and boring products, I want to be a true engineer and do stuff that was meant to be done as only engineers do.
If anyone knows how one can get a job over in that area or work with these guys post here or have them email me: bigdady at gmail dot com.
Resumes, references, and certs as well as Target shooting scores are all available.
P.S. yes I have family in the military too if that helps.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
But in the end you realized what your subconcious has always known. You're a coward.
;o)
Like me.
+1 for the best post I've seen on Slashdot for a long time. Way to put it in perspective.
Don't ever forget those words. Especially in a few years once the War Crimes trials begin.
Jesus, that story about your grandfather gave me chills. How terrible that anyone would have to live with that.
Web consulting +
I joined the Navy to become a "Data Systems Technician". This was the obvious best and highest use of me since I was a talented computer person even in my teens. Instead they decided I would make a good catapult operator on the flight deck of the Enterprise. I had three years to regret my mistake. I believe the military is often inefficient because they would rather retrain you than take advantage of skills you already possess. I started out honored to serve my country, but my counry would have been better served by using me in my chosen field of interest (passion). After my Honorable discharge, I returned to my software engineering career, and stayed there ever since. They could have used some of my help in technology, IMHO.
My wife's stepfather was a Marine in Korea. Once he shot a child running toward him with a basket. He tried to warn the boy (in Korean) but for whatever reason the kid kept running. Turned out the basket was full of fruit. That is the only thing he ever told my wife about Korea and he was crying the whole time.
My great-grandmother had some amazing Auschwitz stories. Like the time she broke out of one of the work camps then broke back in with eggs for the children. Or how she guilt tripped a guard into leaving her in the snow after he was ordered to shoot her. But she never talked about the torture or the atrocities. Only about her success in surviving and the choices which led to it.